Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-22
UNPREPAREDNESS FOR PEACE
THE ROOT OF OUR TROUBLES

UNIT NET fAFNLIlNCSS SN GNSI
THE ROOT OF OUR TROUBLES
Yesterdays Fuel and Sugar Restrictions
Reveal in Washington a sudden Star
tied Consciousness of America
L'XPERIENCE, some of it pretty harsh
IL and disagreeable, is teaching the
people and the government of the United
States what they might have known at
the beginnng-that the responsibilities
of the war period did not end for them
when the guns ceased firing, and that
it may be years before we achieve that
state Of peace which was expected to
arrive suddenly, beautifully and easily as
change of scene in d theatre.
A revival of some of the governments
emergency powers suggested in Mr. Will
sons sugar proclamation of yesterday
had to come The Presidents order is
more than move to avert a sugar
famine 1t is rather late acknowledge
ment of the fact that the country has
been running itself since the armistice
was signed. Initiative in Washington,
brilliant as it was during the period of
fighting, seems to have died with the
sounds of battle. The nation has been
foundering amid colossal difficulties that
had to follow the war as naturally as
night follows day.
To say that we are but technically in
state of war is to misstate the case. We
have now and will have for long time
to meet stresses and complications that
actually are part of the wars confusion.
We are living under war conditions.
The miners and the steel men forgot
this. The coal operators forgot it. Mr.
Gary and Mr.. Lewis forgot it. Con-
gress was blissfully unconscious of the
unavoidable fact. And Mr.. Wilson him
self forgot it when he permitted and
encouraged the abolition of all means
devised in the period of greatest emer-
gency to maintain order and efficiency
in the life of the country.
The government regulated the soft
coal industry and actually reorganized
it with impartial justice and an eye to
peace and efficiency at the mines and in
the processes of distribution. 1t with
drew its influence when the armistice
was signed. Disorder and reckless com
petition followed. Strikes and the i'm
pending menace of coal famine resulted
almost automatically.
Business men who impatiently de-
manded the instant removal of all gov
ernment regulation in industry were
properly seeking opportunities to deal
efficiently with the troublesome problems
of reconstruction. Now, largely because
the soft coal fields were left unregulated
in time of uncertainty, they are threat
ened with very serious interruptions in
their own work and the losses and dis
comforts that would attend curtailed rail
service.
There has been little effort to regulate
food exports, and the high cost of living
made to feel that wars end with the
fighting. That is an illusion. And because
of it there was no pacific mobilization
for the eXacting emergencies of peace
| Trades unions and industrial leaders were
relieved suddenly Of their sense of re-
sponsibility. They struck out danger
ously in all directions to make the best
! Of the occasion. The war labor board
was abolished and almost instantly the
country was rent with strikes.
The war labor board, the food ad-
ministration, the fuel administration
and similar agencies, when they are
viewed in the light Of tradition, represent
more or less unpleasant departures from
| principles esteemed in America, where
freedom of action and the rights of
initiative should belong to every one.
In the course Of time we may get safely
back to the idylic state of limitess free
dom. For the moment, it appears that
a too-sWift return involves dangers Of
| government by trades unions or Mr.. Gary
! or the food spectators or the mine own
rs-independent units acting solely for
| themselves and not in the national in
terest. In times of national and social
equilibrium such powerful men and
groups may be harmless. Lately they
have been rocking the boat and no one
seems able to make them desist
There was total unpreparedness for
| peace!
Mr.. Wilson, himself, when he was about
to sail on his first trip to Paris, said in
his parting address at joint session that
the business life of the country had no
need of leading strings. That was one
of the unhappiest phrases of the Presi-
dents life. 1t implied that there was
no necessity for any program Of recon-
struction. The country was expected to
recover, after all its life and all its
industries had been profoundly jolted
and dislocated, and slip back naturally
TO accustomed balances without help
inc hand or guiding word from any
| one.
Congress itself was only too glad to
accept that easy view. 1t was relieved
at once of the necessity for trying work.
| II was made free from any need to estab-