Omaha daily bee., 1919-11-21
What is Coolidges Would Do
From the New York World.

1T is an amazing thing" says the president
OF Columbia university, that after rs years
Amercanism" Why is it an amazing thing1
Every generation has defined Americanism for
itself and the country still belongs to the living
not to the dead. u
Even Nicholas Murray Butler would not ac-
cept the Americanism of 12s years ago. with its
frage, with its property and religious qualifica-
tons for voting, with its indentured servants
and with all the class privileges that it sought
to maintain. Americanism has been revolution
lied in the last Us years, and it will undoubtedly
be revolutioniZed again in the next Us years.
The country is now passing through period
of great economic and industrial unrest which
in turn is causing more or less political unrest
Much OF it is the direct product OF the war and
must be dealt with accordingly. Neither the
though they are busily engaged in trying to
capitalize it, in the attempt, by violence and
otherwise, to fasten upon the United States a
new system of class government
1t is futile to try TO deal with this situation
merely by policy of repression. After all the
]. w. w. chased from one town to another, as
the practice is in the west, we shall be right
where we started unless an intelligent attempt
is made to arrive at an understanding of the
causes of the discomfort
1t is not the discomfort of people who are
starving or who are even hungry 1t is not the
discomfort of people who are oppressed by gov
eminent except in so far as prohibition contrib
utes to it, 1t is rather the discomfort of people
who in spite of the most widely distributed ma
terial prosperity are profoundly dissatisfied with
an economic system that they regard as unfair,
and who are blindly cropping toward something
different which they cannot clearly define.
What is going on in the United States is
going on everywhere else. 1t is one of the in
evitable consequences of war that has unset
tied ali the old foundations of society. When we
stop to consider that a year after the arnlistice
was signed there is still no peace and that not
single measure of reconstruction has been
adopted by congress, the wonder is that condi
tons are no worse
So far as the accompanying manifestations OF
lawlessness and violence are concerned, some
thing can possibly be done by the federal gov
eminent, but every state in the union has ade-
quate powers to deal with every otfense against
its peace and dignity. There was one kind OF
Amercanism prevalent IFS years ago which may
stll be commended to every governor. every
sheriff. every mayor and every police official. In
those days the states did not run to the national
capital shrieking for assistance every time there
was riot or shooting or defiance of their
constituted authority. They enforced their own
laws and they preserved their own peace and
they dealt with their own criminals. They were
self-governng states in every sense Of the term
and if the 48 states today had enough gumption
to govern themselves the country would have
nothing to fear from bolshevk or I. w. w: or
communists or syndicalists or any other advo-
Gates of revolution by direct action"
Forty-eight Coolidges properly distributed
among the state capitals would settle every
question of law and order, and the economic
fermentation of the country could be safely lett
to clarity itself.