Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-14
LANSING AND THE PRESIDENT


=. spondence between President Wilson
and Secretary Lansing eliminating in
the resignation of the head of the De.
partment of State comes as a distinct
shock to the people of the country and
forms a disturbing influence which may
have far-reaching results and reactions
of greatest Importance.
The five letters are bound to become
historic. They tell as much between the
lines as by what they actually state
amazing as the text of the correspond
ence is. They show bitter irascible, un-
reasonable and almost malevolent tone
and feeling on the part of the President
which will raise grave doubts of the
power of judgment he is now able to eX-
ercise. They bespeak the wormwood and
gall of the isolated, hermited but impe-
rious mind fettered and cramped by phys
ical limitations. On the other hand they
show a patience and loyalty on the part
of the now reviled secretary which ought
to have appealed to any but the most
tyrannical egotist.
This loyalty has been rewarded by the
charge of seeking to usurp the presi-
Dental functions during the illness and
incapacity of the President!
Mr.. Lansing very properly denies that
there was any usurpation, either intended
or accomplished. He and the other men,
bers of the cabinet merely met together
and consulted in order to keep the ma
chinery of the executive departments
moving.
He has not seen the President since
he was taken ill in October. There is
every reason to believe that the President
was absolutely incapacitated for many
weeks. But the government had to go
on.
Reports from Washington at the time
indicated that Secretary Tumulty, during
the first weeks of the illness, was really
acting as President. If these reports are
correct, Mr.. Tumulty is a worse offender
than Mr. Lansing and his associates in
the cabinet, who arranged to consult to-
gether about the performance of their
routine functions.
The real otfense of Mr.. Lansing plainly
is that he dared to disagree with the
President and had the audacity to per-
sist in his opinions after the President
had declined to accept them. 1t is an
offense of which Mr.. Lansing may be
proud, for it grows out of the theory
that the business of an adviser is to
advise, and that peace commission,
consisting of four dummies, who would
act only when the fifth pulled the
strings, was not fulfilling its proper
functions.
He goes out of Office humiliated as far
as it is in the power of the President to
humiliate him. But in the process there
has been a revelation of the mind and
temper of Mr.. Wilson which will not sur
prise those who have followed his career
from the time he became the head of
Princeton University till the present.
The time for Mr.. Lansing to have
resigned from the State Department was
in the autumn of 1918, when Colonel
House was sent to Europe by the Presi-
dent to represent him in the preliminary
armistice negotiations.
1t was evident then that Mr. Lansing
did not have the confidence of the Presi-
dent, and that, instead of using the instru-
ments established by law for conducting
foreign negotiations Mr.. Wilson preferred
private confidential agent with no legal.
status whatsoever.
If the secretary of state had resigned
then he would have commanded the
respect that is due to man who declines
to consent to be used as a doormat.
But Mr.. Lansing suppressed his per-
sonal feelings and pocketed his pride and
remained to be kicked out of office on the
most frivolous preteXt ever set forth by
an executive officer for dismissing a
subordinate.
He was loyal to the cause of peace and
preferred to submit to the humiliations
which began with the original dispatch of
Colonel House to Europe and continued
throughout the months when he was in
h, co1f rf h.
missioners rather than exhibit to the
world that there was serious discord be-
tween the President and his chief official
adviser in foreign affairs.
Public sympathy undoubtedly belongs
to Mr.. Lansing, and he will get it, while
the President, by his unjustifable spleen
and petty temper, will shrink accordingly
in the estimation of all just men and