Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-02-01
THE WASHINGTON MYSTERY
GROWS GREATER EACH DAY
One Corner of the World Where Every One
stcrnly Refuses to Agree With
Any One Else

Secretary Daniels talked at Annapolis q
dominant navy Before any one can tcI
whether we are drifting into times of on
during quletude or 10 years of ovSrwhelm
ing armamcnts and new and mighty en-
mites the House Committee on Militar,
Affairs is placidly approving plans for 1
standing army of 500 900
Postmaster Gen, ral Bureson, at pla,
amid the telegraph wires. is getting deeper
into his muddlc lie seems happier for 1t
There H. hardly "A day when Senator
Borah and Senator Lodge do not arise tc
let It be known that after the world
has made up its mind and arranged its
peace they will have something terrible
to say. Indeed, II is impossible to look
toward Washington in these .ues without
| experiencing n sense of loose and flying
ends of thought, of fogs and uncertainty,
Of an absence OF ideas and convictions and
working knowledge
| Congress IL about the only remaining
| corner of civilization in which it is diff
cult TO find a general and whole hearted
| sympathy for Mr.. Wilson and his pur.
| poses. There are too many Senators and
| Representatives who know what they
would not do. But they do not know what
! they would do at Paris II would be pos
| sible moro greatly to admire Mr. Lodge
and Mr. Borah. for example, if when they
| arose TO talk they would suggest a better
| method than that which Mr. Wilson and
| the other Americans are applying at the
| Peace Conference.
There is one serious fault to be found
| with most OF the criticism aimed at the
| old times. And everybody knows that old
times never return.
1t is commonly said in Washington that
the President is to blame because he
didn't take the country-or its Senators
and Representatives-into his confidence
before he went abroad Does the skipper
of a ship tell his owners just how he is
to make his course daily and hourly upon
strange seas?
Mr.. Wilson appears TO have known
before he started for Europe what every
one who reads has since been able to per.
ceive-that he was to be opposed by forces
as formless and as dangerous as a tempest
and as difficult to grapple with. It is ap-
parent that he has had to steer, as any
good navigator steers, not in accordance
with previously determined forms and for
mulas but according 10 the drift of tides
and wind and weather
or course, Washington is distressed and
mystifed. The whole world is distressed
and mystified. To listen to Mr.. Lodge
and Mr.. Borah, TO study the reactions Of
Mr.. Daniels and Mr.. Bureson and the
other Cabinet members who grope in cir.
= iu m ho % ha
vacuum that now affiicts most OF official
Washington.
Washington is making a noise to show
that it is busy, whstling to keep its
courage up and waiting for some real
news by which 1t may form solid judg-
ments and be its old self again. Foreign
parliaments and kings and chancelors
and prime ministers are doing precisely
the same thing. The whole world is whis.
Ting to hide its weariness and its con.
cern. Every one is trying TO feel mas
terful to ease the stress of waiting
Those who are actually interested in
America will do well to remember in these
days that talk Is easy and achievement
difficult. The critic has no responsibilities
Those whom he criticizes have great and
heavy ones. Washington is killing time.
A part of it is getting into mischief for
the want of better things to do Mr.. Bur.
Lesson, with his wires, and Secretary VIII
son, OF the Department of Labor, when
he talks of the Bolshevists in America,
are running rather wild. They show the
absence of a guiding hand. They. too,
are symptoms of a general affiiction. |
WASHING ton is like a man in an empty |
house, who feels suddenly anxious and |
forlorn and wishes the family were home, |
without knowing what to do meanwhile.
Definite criticism, definite plans, schemes |
for the future will be impossible until the |
President, returns and makes his report to |
the nation. We shall have TO know the |
nature of the future world before we can |
know the terms upon which we can deal |
with it,
For the present the world is In dux |
There is no precedent TO guide America,
nothing in history which might guide a
man in dealing with the situation which
confronts the American delegates at Paris
We shall have TO trust for the present in
the astutepess and devotion Of the President.
But there are men in Washington with
for sagacity to maintain and
others WIZ haven't outllved the pleasure
which they derive from seeing their names
IL. print. IL only in the Record. When we
know how far the nations of Europe are
willing to go 20 avoid the sickening
menace Of future wars and the almost
equally ruinous burden Of ornaments we
shall be able to make plans and talk in.
telligently of the future.
A. han |
has succeeded or failed.
Meanwhile IT is a bit wearying to hear
the reiterated appeal for the old American
the old American isolation. The
may have taken a moment 10
'eaIifs before he began to work for Euro
T.