Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-20
Burden of Duty
Yields Republicans


coming impacts. Progressivism as it
is usually understood does not appear
promising from the Senate viewpoint.
There is no Roosevelt in the Senate.
There is none in the party. If there
were. the men who have to direct the
Republican side of the Senate would
welcome him with brass bands. 1t is
freely predicted that one or another of
the two big parties will die because of
what happens at this session. And the
effort of the Republicans is to mobilize
their resources.
They want Penrose in place of
authority merely to have the advantage
of the unQuestoncd ability that Penrose
manages SO often to conceal behind a
woeful assortment of political idiosyn
crasies.
The Senate is full of men who have
/, been accustomed to meeting all the de-
mands Of their Office with speeches
alone. In any time of stress seven
senator's out of ten rise to what they
assume to be triumph with phrases from
Washington, Jefferson or Roosevelt. 1t
has never seemed TO occur to the garden
variety of statesmen here that when
phrases were to be needed Washington.
( Jefferson. Roosevelt and all the others
who mace American history. rolled so
to speak, their own.
4 The ma jorities on both sides of the
Senate have one virtue. They will fol
low leader. And it is competent lead
ership that Lodge is seeking to estab-
y lish in the various committees. 1t is
idle to suppose that the conservative
Senators are unaware of the new state
& Of world opinion that demands a wider
human sympathy interpreted through
national policies. If there is deter
6 mined refusal either to convert Borah or
fight him the element which he leads
is not credited with an entire dsinter-
estedness. The session will run up to
4 the eve of the national campaign. and
Senator Borah is presumed to be well
aware of the possibilities which the oc-
casion holds for dark horses.
The World Much Changed Now
The Scnate-Rcpublican Democrats.
free thinkers. pro- Wilson and anti
Wilson--would be blind indeed if it
wasn't aware today that the world
isn't what it used to be. There was
LA Toilette and the implications of la
Toilette as he listened to the Presidents
message to inspire the members TO
solemn ruminations. La Toilette used
to be radical. He can claim that dis
I. tinction no longer. The times are more
Z radical than he. Only few years ago
la Toilette was one of the sights of
Washington. like the monument and the
Treasury Building He has a scat well
up to the front where he may easily
be regarded by the trotters who step
off to stare and wonder. La Follette's s
gesture, the skyward cascades of his
bair. his Wisconsin manner of delivery
were things that awed beholders.
''There,' everybody used to say.
lis wild one. He is full of dan
gerous theories, but no one takes him
seriously"
u Had LaFollette few years ago sug
Vgested that corporations must work for
Nhe country as well as for themselves,
I Mad he intimated that the fundamental
resources of nation lie not in its
money, but in the energy of its workers ::
& had he demanded that the government
needed to assume watchful care over
all the children who work and that
bankers and corporation heads, rail
road and wire owners, must conceive
themselves bound to serve the people
before they serve themselves. and had
he demanded that the Senate pass laws
to make all such obligations compulsory.
a page would have gone running for
doctor.
La Toilette would be greeted by the
crazed laughter of conservative press
bereft temporarily of reason by disgust
and rage, The Presidents message sug-
gests all this and more and it is not
inspired by one man. 1t reflects the
opinion Of the whole modern world and
especially the opinion of Europe, where
big and little statesmen have been
shocked out of the complacency that is
still apparent in the manner. voice. ut
terances and gestures of many senators
I'M the rows behind Lodge, Penrose,
4 Sherman and behind Hitchcock and his
associates on the opposite side Of the
Senate aisls. n