Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-20
is THE HABIT OF FREEDOM"
DISAPPEARING IN AMERICA?
Elihu Root Joins MIR. Hoover in Revival
of the Art Of Sound Political
Criticism

CrltlciSn
OF COURSE, there arc men in Wash
~ ington who, like Mr.. Kenyon and Mr..
hitchin, cannot understand Mr.. Hoover
and aren't ashamed to reveal their limi-
taticns III newspaper interviews. They
will not understand Mr.. Root, who, in his
address to the New York state Republi-
can convention last night, was no less
frank than Hoover and no less courageous
in his approach to political realities.
The test Of a mans fitness for any
high Office ought really to lie in his ability
to understand men like Hoover and Root.
But party war horses who have thrived
on 4 political doctrine of one-half of one
per cent logic mixed with red, white and
blue bunk will naturally be mystied by
any rational discussion Of living issues
Your old campaigner had an easy time.
Deficient taste and deficient intelligence
were his. He invented "bcnevocut as
similation,' Sound CURRENCY tariff
reform and lot of ether phrases that
meant nothing even to him.
Because OF the sort Of men who cannot
under stand Hoover, Bryan was "the sill
vcr-torTucd orator or the Platte and
Blaine vSs Il "plumcl knight" On the
wings of such phrases men got into inn
portant Cfficc. 1t was not until Roosc-
welt appeared that realistic political crit
cism Was revived in The United States. 1t
was lost art for generation
Root, like Hoover, talks constructjvciy
OF actualities. There was in his address
l.. -t irbt oroi, pl
more significant than anything that may
be found in the recent speeches Of the
matterof-fact food administrator.
Restore" said Root, "tho habit of
freedom. 1t is dangerous for a people to
acquire the habit of bowing to power
without limits. They soon become sub
scryient and then character essential TO
freedom degenerates.'
The habit of freedom, That is fine
definition. of u quality that threatens to
vanish in American life If Mr. Palmer
will call at this office he will receive an
cngroSsed transcript Of that paragraph
from the Root address.
He will have only to promise to paste it
in his hat.
Mr. Wilson and his advisers ought to
read it. So should labor leaders Judge
Gary should have it framed over his desk.
For laws and social conditions that have
grown up silently in the country and
conditions in labor and in industry that
seem somehow to be regarded as sacred
and beyond criticism tend steadily to
eliminate the habit of freedom. Power
full influences operating in various ways
are responsible for general disposition
to servility that is like dry rot in any
national consciousness.
The important thing, however, ss this
new evidence of an improvement in po-
litcal method. After Root and Hoover
no politician will have the courage to
cheat his way into Office with patitudes.
4 labor tribunal of national scope is
suggested by Mr.. Root. 1t is only little
while since labor organizations were
thinking in terms of force, while some
few leaders of big business insisted that
there was nothing to adjudicate between
them and their employees. Mr.. Gary said
as much
Hoover is quite as daring as Root. He
is the first public man of Importance to
say fatty that the fundamental cause of
the bituminous strike was not greed and
lawlessness among the miners but bad
organization in the coal industry. Like
Mr.. Root, he implies that behind labor
troubles there are conditions requiring
rational study and orderly remedies.
This sounds strange in a speech sup
posed to be political.
The Senate sent a solemn committee
10 study the causes of the steel strike.
The committee was on tour for weeks.
Its members seemed to know less when
they returned to Washington than
Hoover knew through his own casual OBJ
servation and experience.
II is interesting to observe that both
Root and Hoover, whose addresses are
certain to have a profound effect on the
political thought of the country, are
acutely aware of the need for a de-
Capitalization of governmental authority.
What is more, they are not afraid to say
so in specific terms. The country will
understand them even if Washington
does not. 1t has been learning through
bitter and costly experience.
Infinite travail has not yet taught Mr.
Wilson that most of his troubles come
from too much power. No gifts of mind
or heart, no matter how great they may
be, can take the place of the collective
opinion which normally sustains a gov
ernment like ours. One mans mind can
never be as dependable as a collection of
minds. Inspiration, Imagination and
great hopes are factors of immeasurablc
value in government. But mass opinion.
expressed through the selected groups