Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-21
THE PRESIDENT CHALLENGES
ABILITY OF REPUBLICANS
His Message to Congress by lndireeton
Puts the Controlling Majority to the
Test Of Capacity In Solving
Reconstruction Problems

will have provided the Democratic party
with a fine assortment of issues warrant
| ing success. =
These are inescapable conclusions from
a pcrusal of the address in its varied
nation.
By indirection Mr.. Wilson has chal-
lcnged the ability of the Republicans. 1t
is possible to avow this without in the
slightest degree implying that he is delib-
erately paying partisan and without
questioning his sincerity.
Shorter than usual, less oratorical and
more mildly persuasive than most of his
state papers since the war began for us,
this utterance of the President from
across the seas says as much by what it
leaves unsaid as what it directly says in
its Enthusiastically graceful phrases
and periods. Lacking in forthrightness
where there might have been reason to
expect detiniteness on several difficult
topics-notably labor readjustments, the
merchant marine and the tariff there is
nevertheless a distinct flavor of aggres-
sive Interrogation which should put the
Republican leaders on their mette, spur
their efforts as patriots as well as palti
sans, stimulate their creative faculties
and energize their legislative functions
Vulgarly, it passes the buck. Yet it
ought to be wholesome.
But this is what was to be expected.
We have repeatedly called attention to
the duties and responsibilities which fell
upon the Republican leadership with the
winning of Congress. This is not thing
to be dreaded if the Republican leader
ship is virle and undecayed after six
years of desuetude. two of which were
spent perforce because of the war in
| almost docie acquiescence to the eXecu-
tive viii. Perhaps the change in the
executive tone from the dictatorial to the
deferential is all the more noticeable
because we-Congress and people alike
have not altogether freed ourselves of the
thinking habits of those two years. SO
the challenge, however indirect, is salu-
tary.
What is likely to be the result? We
will have to ask not Mr.. Lodge, nor Mr..
Penrose. nor Mr.. Gillett, nor Mr.. Manu..
nor any other floor leader, but the
myriadvoiced public which gave them
warranty to guide this legislature in the
crises at hand and thickly looming in the
near future. Where Mr.. Wilson has
deemed it prudent to tread so deicately,
is it probable that these other gentlemen
will rush rashly in? No; if they are wise
they will spend much time in that ancient
! IL
ear to the ground, and that is also well.
They are astute in the ritual of Wash
ngton, are these same aforementioned
statesmen, and we may depend upon it
they are by now fully awake to the oppor-
tunities as we'll as to the menaces of the
road they are travelling. Already all
signs point to the consolidation of forces.
the rectificaton of feDntiers and the uni
fcation of commands.
The note of apology discernible in parts
of the message takes some of the sting
out of the disappointment which most
admirers of the Presidents larger states
manship must feel at first reading
because of the obvious generalization
! where any time in the last two years Mr.
Wilson's desires would have been ex-
pressed in sharp, cracking sentences.
He frankly says he is so far from home
| he may not be more explicit
What does his longish dissertation
upon the labor situation portend save
that, in common with the great body of
the people, Mr.. Wilson sympathizes with
the problems of industrialism Plati-
tudes surely and not to be disputed, but
| they have been said hundreds of times.
even though not so beautifully, and repe-
tition does not bring them nearer solu-
ton.
Does the President favor an actual
partnership between labor and capital
when he descants upon the community of
interest? How far should it go? Would
he give labor share in the direction of
the business or merely larger participa-
ton in the profits? There is that Old
trouble about the percentage of wages
to the percentage of net income always in
the way. How can the fixing of profit
sharing be adjusted without partcipa-
ton in the direction of the enterprise ?
He does not say. Neither does any
statesman or politician whose weather
eye is open to catch first signs of squalls
in the offng. He merely INDUCES in an
amiable disquisition without precise com.
mitment, stringing upon the thread OF
his discourse such pleasant sentences as,
A genuine 90 operation. and partnership
based upon real community of interest
and participation in control.
The genius of our business men and the
sound practical sense of our workers can
certainly work such partnership out
when once they realize exactly what il is