The Washington herald., 1918-01-22

| There Is strong possibility that
| members OF Congress will shortly
| be asked to come to the White
| House for occasional conferences
| with the President.
The thought is not una meriCan,
either. strange as it may seem to
| Col. House and to others who ap-
| pear to have urged against such q
thing for years past.
In fact, the belief is gaining head
| way quite rapidly that if the Presi-
dent would call the leaders of
Congress occasionally to the execu-
tive mansion for common counsel
in this our extreme hour of stress.
| it would not be at all to our det-
| riment.
The members of Congress are the
buf1ers between the executive side
of the government and the people.
In fact, as President Wilson has
pointed out time and again in the
books which he has written, the
members of Congress are the rep
resentatives of the people. His
counsel with them might be gem
| orally looked upon by the people
| s indicating that he knows of the
| existence. at the other end of the
avenue. of the lawmaking body.
While the appearances are that
| conferences may soon be arran ged
| the confident assertion of some of
the leaders-some of the men who
have followed the President most
| implicitly since he took charge of
| affairs-is that they will not know
how to act when being called into
the White House to counsel over
| the war.
This is a remarkable statement.
| but as one Of them said: I'VE have
been called in at rare times, now
| and then, and told that certain
| things should be done. But we
have not been called in to give our
opinions. or to give suggestions
/ which the President might compli-
ment us by making us think he
was considering. / will be glad to
! go down any time and talk matters
over to the end that everything
America has can be put behind
the war"
Another leader. a man who has
ben to the front in putting
| through some of the big steps of
the Wilson program, said: This
is war time-a crisis in our coun-
try's affairs. And yet the members
or Congress. who are expected to
make all the appropriations and
enact all the laws necessary to
carry on this mammoth conflict,
are not called into the White
House for counsel. I really think
IT wouldn't be a bad plan if the
President would talk to a bi-par-
tisan delegation now and then and
counsel with them in heart-to-
heart fashion. 1t wouldn't hurt a.
bit. In fact it would do a tre-
mendous amount of good"
No one, of course, wants to limit
the consultations to the Demo-
| cratic party. Everybody wants to
see these affairs-if they come
made bipartisan in nature. Every
one wants to see the President and
Congress-especially at this time
when signs of a disagreement be-
tween them is in the air-sit down
and talk the matter over in a friend
ly way. and with the interests of
our land uppermost.
Certainly, even If Col. House-the
man with an unofficial and unre-
preventative standing-is opposed
to the plan of seeing this intimacy
grow up between Congress and the
PresideHt. the very fact that Amer
lca's welfare is at stake should per-
NIT him to relinquish his opposition
Tor time and allow the step to
be taken.
1t really is time that Congress
and the President became acouaint-
ed. Patriotism demands it. The
exlgencies of the occasion demand
it.
Let the start be made, soon-for
the good of our cause, for the good
of our cause.
There is this, however, to dis
tinquish the present need from the
past
In the early part of President Will
sons administration, when he was
driving Congress on to enactment
Of certain political lakislativs
q