Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1920-12-30

leaders concerning the conduct of
his campaign; and after his installa-
ton as president, equally as a mat
ter of course, is in almost constant
conference with those whom we
have come to call his constitutional
advisors. \ Assuredly there is no less
reason for his similarly improving
the intermin, his lime of prepara-
ton between election and inaugur-
alton, by consulting the men who
are most representative Of the ma
ton, so that he may enter upon his
duties ready 20 be the leader of the
people, not in way of his own arbi-
trary selection but rather according
to their own most enlightened judg-
ment and deliberate will.
We cannot concede that any man,
however good and wise, could be SUI
perior TO the need OF counsel, partic-
ularly in a democracy. An absolute
monarch, reigning and ruling under
pretence of Divine Right, might af-
feet infallibility, though in fact such
rulers have almOst invariably had
their counsellers. The president Of
a republic is the chief executive of a
government which derives its pow
ers from the consent of the govern
ed, and it is supremacy incumbent
upon him to ascertain and to act ac-
cording to the will of those from
whom he has received his commits
sion. 1t is often and with truth said
that men rise to the dignity and re-
quirements of the places to which
they are called. But we have no no.
ton that election to the presidency
automatically endOws a man with IL
limitable and infallible knowledge,
exempts him from all need of taking
counsel, or dooms him to be, as the
Chinese used to say of their emper-
ors, las solitary as a God"
Even the most loyal supporters OF
President Wilson will admit, as in
deed many of them have confessed,
that the aloofness from counsel
which he has from the first main
tanned, has been unfortunate in its
effects upon his administration. The
almost pathetic complaint which his
secretary has reported him as utter
ing, that he has ever craved the love
OF his fellow men but has been de-
MED it, is irresistibly suggestive of
that circumstance Proud in the
|
tellect, he has too greatly relied up
on himself, and has too little sought
or accepted the counsel OF others.
Perhaps it is to a degree through re-
sentiment, conscious or unconscious,
at the adoption of the contrary
course, that some of Mr.. Wilson's
followers are moved to attempt crit
icism of Senator Harding for what
the nation as a whole most cordially
applauds and for what will not i'm
probably rank as one of the most
suspicious features of his admins
tration.
Nothing" said a cynical French
philosopher, lis so ridiculous as viz
tue" Acting upon that amiable
principle and feeling secure in what
Paley described as the impossibility
of refuting a sneer, a few criticast-
ers have takensit upon themselves to
try 70 disparage the president-elect
for the admirable course which he
has pursued, and have admonished
him with mock austerity that after
all his comforting, in the last analy-
sis 1t will have to be himself, War
rem G.. Harding, who must make ev-
cry decision and bear every respon-
sibility of the1 presidency. Thou
sayest an undisputed thing in a SOL
emn way, 1t, is the veriest matter
Of course that he, must thus make
the final determination. But that
fact is also one of the most conclu-
sive of arguments in favor of the
very thing which it is vainly meant
to discredit. The fact that the man
L, Ia 10 a
more reason why he should have in
advance all possible counsel to guide
and to strengthen him in the right
doing of it, and in the doing of 1t
according to the wish and will OF
those for whom it is done.
Il is most heartening and inspir-
ing to see the presideat-elect pursue
this course. He has not waited I'M
til the actual burden of administra-
ton is laid upon him, but has begun
his preparation for his duties three
months in advance, by taking coun-
sci with the most authoritattvely
representative men, not only OF all
important shades of opinion in his
own party, but also in the opposing
party. It is a fine demonstration OF
that sincerity and thoroughness OF
purpose with which friends and foes
alike have been constrained to credit
him, and of a resolution TO be not a
self-sufficient autocrat, trying to i'm
pose his own arbitrary will upon the
nation, but a true chief executive,
serving the people by doing those
things which they, in their enlight-
ened judgment, deem most fitting
and most profitable to be done. 1t
is the fulfilment of a promise once
made. and It is itself promise Of
immeasurable good for the coming
administration and the nation which
4 L. L.