Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-10
POLICEMAN HooVER'S CHASE
AFTER STACKING STATESMEN N
Demand for Frankness and Sin
cerity in National Affairs


found mid Greenand's icy mountains or
on 1ndia's coral strand or in any other
far, far place, some one will have to
rustic up Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Great Politicians.
Hoover is pressing them hard He is
giving them no peace. Anguish is upon
party leaders who find that they are be-
ing slowly and certainly whipped out
into the light of day by this newcomer in
politics. And Hoover's letter of yestcr-
day, which was merely demand that
they state explicitly their beliefs and
policies in relation TO national affairs.
will be viewed as a eliminating act of
frightfulness.
To. ask Il routine political leader to
have definite opinions is bad enough. To
ask him to publish them before they are
trimmed, denatured, diluted, rougcd and
powdered in campaign party caucuses is
to show yourself utterly devoid Of any
thing like human compassion.
These things Hoover has been doing.
And the tragic part of it is that Poland,
Austria, Germany, Czecho-S -Slovakia, Ar
menia and points south are getting all
the food that is available and more, in
deed, than some of them deserve. All is
quiet at Guam, Tahiti and the Faralones
Islands.
The Malay Peninsula eats three times
daily. Mr.. Hoover has nothing to do but
stick around home and we have an i'm
preston of him now standing like po-
liceman at the door of the political sane
tuary in Washington swinging his club
and itching for heavy work to engage his
terrible energies.
This is not pleasant for the successful
men in the political trade. Hoover is a
mighty portent. Men who have been
making a good living peddling platitudes
naturally are not happy when some one
with a voice of authority asks them to
open their luggage and submit, for gen.
eral scrutiny, the verbal tinsel that
always has brought big prices as truth
substitute in the everyday market. They
are likely to feel as a commercial spir-
itualst might feel who was asked to per-
form out of doors in the bright light of a
sunny noon.
1t was an easy life that Hoover inter-
rupted when he called for showdown by
party leaders. A man can achieve emf
nence by making nine-hour speech in
the Senate against the League of Ma
tions. He can achieve eminence by
making nine-hour speech in the Senate
in favor of the League of Nations. No
body will know what he is talking about.
He himself may not even know.
IT seems never to occur to these highly
aloof representatives of ours that if we
/ Il. i+,, al f,-;a Il L.,
relationships among the nations of the
earth it ought to be a simple task to es-
tablish amty and friendly relationships
among our own people at home. This is
clearly what men like Hoover believe.
For we are living and talking and think
ing as if the United States were hud-
die of small and belligerent nations
rather than country destined to have
a common aim and a common purpose.
Mr.. Gompers, for example, declaims in
the manner of duke of a warlike duchy
with enemies on his borders. Judge
Gary and his disciples behave in the
manner of proud feudal kings embattled
in a citadel. Capital is almost as sus-
pcious of labor as Italy is of the Slavs.
Labor is acquiring the delusions of en-
pirc. Farmers as class stand afar off
and eye the rest of US as if we were peo-
pie of a separate nationality. And
everybody is ready to trespass on every
body else's frontiers.
Business, labor, Democrats, Republi-
cans, farmers, the "wets" and the "drys"
and the Socialists and the Palmers are
all clamoring for class legislation.
Neither group seems able to realize that
all groups are interdependent and that
none can be quite happy or prosperous or
at peace until all the rest are similarly
we'll off.
Into this bedlam steps Mr.. Hoover
with an implied demand for an account
ing from the politicians whose defective
leadership has made the general confu-
sion not only possible, but inevitable.
The Hoover letter was statement of
principles only in form. 1t was in reality
a challenge. 1t asked the men in high
office to justify the pay they draw and
the room that they take up in Washing
ton. 1t is an embarrassment in party
councils.
The old cry "Who's Hoover?" is being
raised again. But leaders in American
politics might as well ask " W no laDor
or "Who's capital?" who's the
farmer" or "Who's business?" since all
sections of the population are weary of
words and are thinking in terms very
much like the terms in which Hoover ex-
presses himself and his aims.
Very definite questions are flung out to
the party leaders by this man whom they
are calling an amateur. The definite
ness of Hoover and the consequent need
! for defniteness on the side of those who
may oppose him will be welcomed by
| the whole country.
If the party leaders do not want q
League of Nations what alternative have
they to offer in its stead? If the giddy
! Mr.. Palmer is to throw overheard the
essential principles of our governments
theory what has he to offer that is as