Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-08
LANSING SEEKING
ADDED PRESTIGE
Secretary of State viii Ask Con-
gress for Funds to Rebuild
Department
MADE POOR SHOW IN PARIS
BY CLINTON w. GILBERT
stan Correspondent Of the. Evening Public
Ledger

star Correspondent of the Evening Public
Ledger
Washington, Sept. 8. - Secretary
Lansing is going to ask Congress soon
for considerable sum to enlarge the
State Department.
He says that his main object in re-
turning from Paris before the Austrian,
Turkish and Bulgarian treaties We're
completed was to reorganize his depart
ment, and fit it for the heavier duties
it will have to perform with America
larger participation in world affairs.
For some time "A committee in the
department has been developing plan
of reorganization. This plan was given
to Mr.. Lansing a few days ago, and
he has taken it with him into the conn
try to study it. Whether he approves
Z It in detail or devises one of his own,
he intends soon to go to Congress with
request for funds and an explanation
of his needs.
State Department Inadequate
The inadequacy of the State Depart
ment is obvious. 1t has been during
the present administration the most
maltreated department in Washington.
The spectacle Mr.. Lansing made on
the stand before the Senate foreign re-
lations committee was typical. lie
knew nothing of what happened in
Paris. The country has plunged into
world affairs, necessarily, as a result OF
the war, and its technical experts on
world affairs have not been initiated.
The United States has neither a
force adequate in size, nor adequate in
experience, to meet the new situation.
America, whatever happens to the
league of nations, no longer occupies a
position of splendid isolation. But its
State Department continues to occupy
!, q position of splendid isolation. In
size, to all intents and purposes, and
in experience, it is where it was when
the war began, or even before. when
the Wilson administration began and
Colonel House. was discovered. In
power we are the greatest country in
the world. In experience, as the Paris
conference showed, and as future dlplo-
matte exchanges are going to show, we
are not.
Lansing Never Had a Chance
The fault is not Mr.. Lansing's. He
might have been the greatest secretary
of state in history he might have beer
the worst. No one knows. No one
can know. He has never had n chance
He has never been secretary OF state
except in name. Some executives built
mn great subordinates by trusting anC
encouraging them, strengthening theii
self confidence. Some executives reduce
their subordinates to mere clerks by do
ing all the;rea work themselves. Pres
ident Wilson in diplomacy is OF this
type. Mr.. Lansing as seen on the wit
ness stand is the product Of the Wilson
method.
y. The case of the secretary of state il
tragedy. He has gone through grca
events in a great position and conn
out a rather smaller person than ht
was in the beginning. The events
through which the secretary of STATE
psssed, the war and the Peace Confer
ence, ought to have made him grea
man. They could hardly have dom
otherwise if permitted to play upol
him directly. They have not. The!
have left him an ordinary man, alway
on the defensive against such an ex
posure as took place before the foreigI
relations committee. 1t IS not hi
fault, necessarily. He never had
chance. People sympathize with him
Even the enemies of the President o
the foreign relations committee did no
enjoy the revelation of the secretary 9
state, They were sorry. What the
did had to be done.
May Get His Chance Now
They will possibly be all the readie
to atone for what they did by givin
him the money to build a real depart
ment, in spite of the fact that he ha
developed, from the false position |
which he has been placed, the protec
tive coloration of words to the poiI
where he retreats behind such distinc
tons as between Austrian" an
kustro- Hungarian empire. Not yer
big man could hide behind that dis
tinction. And what is left of the Ian
sing under Mr.. Wilson's handling
not very big man.
But Mr.. Lansing's personality is nj
important. 1t is only worth somethir
as illustrating what has happened
the State Department. What NJ
Lansing is, that the State Departmel
Is, You cannot crush the head of
department without crushing the depart
ment. The one takes after the othe
If the spirit of one is gone, the spir
of the other is gone.
The American State Department HI
passed through, or, more truly, stoC
on the side lines and watched gre,