The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-12-11
BY JAMES MORGAN

After Woodrow Wilson had been
teaching in the classroom for a quar-.
ter OF century that the president
ought to be more like prime minis
ter. trying to cooperate with other
human beings" than "a mere depart
ment hailing congress from
some isolated island of authority" the
opportunity came to him to put his
theory in practice. When congress
met in extra session, month after
his inauguration, he walked in and
delivered his message in person, re-
Viving a custom which Jefferson had
stopped only because he happened to
have a poor voice and was an awk-
ward speaker.
For century presidents had been
keeping away from the capitol, except
when they went there for an hour to
sign the bills of an expiring congress.
The rest of the time they carried on
a more or less secret diplomacy with
the other half of the government, a
mile away. as if it were some rival
power in Europe.
President Wilson adopted the att
tude of a sort of member at large of
both houses, sauntering unhcralded
into the seldom used presidents room,
which aqjoins the senate chamber,
whenever he had any special business
and talking things over in the open.
This common sense democratic plan
of leadership resulted-while it lasted
in the best exhibition Of quiet,
smooth team work between the ex-
ecutive and legislative departments
that we have ever had. There was
neither quarrel nor a deadlock
throughout that pre-war period
The president succeeded, not by
arousing a personal loyalty to himself,
but by the force of his ideas. Il have
had a majority on the floor, but" he
admitted never a majority in the
cloak ROOM"
The quality of the product of his
leadership is open to question, but the
quantity represents bigger grist than
the legislative mill has ever ground
out in a like space of time. Here are
the outstanding items in the peace
record of the Wilson administration:
Tariff revision, the first income tax,
the Federal Reserve act, the Federal
Trade commission, the Clayton Trust
law, thirty arbitration treaties, the
Seaman's act, the Farm Loan, the re-
peal of Panama tolls, the Shipping act
the Child Labor law, the purchase of
the Danish West Indies and federal
aid for good roads.
The Federal Reserve law is poten-
TALLY as great a piece of constructive
legislation as any that has been enact
cd in this country. We were absolute
ly without a financial system, and the
money of the nation was in the ire
sponsible control of a few big banks
in New York.
single private citizen exercised far
more power over the national cur
rency than the national government
itself. President Cleveland hired j. P.
Morgan to be the protector of the help
less treasury in 1895, and President
Roosevelt turned to him to save the
financial life of the country in 1907.
All the while an absurd system left
the great business of the country with
out currency whenever it was needed,
and with too much of it when the need
was least.
Every attempt to remedy this situa-
ton had failed because private finan'
cial interests naturally wished to keep
their control of the money. The AL
drich bill in the Taft administration
proposed to give the sanction of law
to this private domination, but con-
gress refused to pass it.
The Federal Reserve act simply re-
versed the Aldrich plan and gave the
nation, through the government, the
control of it's own money. 1t is agreed
now that without the new system our
finances could not have withstood the
gale of war. 1t yet remains to be
tested as method of contracting and
debating the wartime expansion.
@J<r, loco
driving force that pushed through the
E,odoral RaSor1a hill and the rest of