The evening world., 1920-06-22
LESSONS OF HISTORY.

LLOOSlNO vi 1 llO Yin i.
CPEAKING at the centennial of the Harvard Law
- School yesterday, Charles E. Hughes declared
that, as a Nation "our material progress seems 10
have created complexities beyond our political COM
potency and disregarding the lessons of history,
there has been disposition to revert to the methods
Of tyranny in order to meet the problems of democ-
racy."
I'VE went to war for liberty and democracy,
with the result that we fed the autocratic appe-
lite. and through fiction permissible only
because the courts cannot know what every
one else knows we have seen the war powers
which are essential to the preservation Of the
Nation in time Of war exercised broadly after
the military exgency had passed and in con.
ditlons for which they were never intended"
Mr. Hughes would hardly deny that the lessons
of history, If they teach anything, teach us not
only that the United States cannot 60 to war with
out seriously disturbing the balance that normally
exists between the constitutionally established
branches of its Government, but that it is NOT be-
yond the capacity of The people of the United States
to restore that balance even though it remains un-
even for some time after the war that has disturbed
it is ended.
When the United States goes to war the Federal
authority in general and the authority of the Presi-
dent in particular are startllngly, momentouSly ex-
tended.
Yet, during the Civil War; Abraham Lincoln
stretched his executive authority to the point of
suspending the wit of habeas corpus and issuing
the Emancipation Proclamation and, following the
Civil War, Federal authority continued to be
exerted to an unwonted degree over an unsettled
county-without impe1lling the Constitution by
setting up permanent Federal tyranny or autocracy
In that case it was a Republican Administration
that had 10 take the responsibility and bear the onus
of resolving itself into what many would call a
war dictatorship
Aferward when habits of Federal dctation
formed during the war had to be laid aside it was
the Democratic Party that emerged as the strongest
reminder and corrective, with its traditional prin-
dples upholding State rights and opposing extern
sion of the Federal authority
When Mr.. Hughes spoke at the Harvard Law
School yesterday he was not making political
address. But there will be many Republicans in
Mr.. HugheSs party who will gladly interpret what
he said as an arraignment of the present Democratic
Administration for an alleged tyrannical prolonga-
ton of its war powers.
Mr.. Hughes referred to such powers as having
been exercised broadly after the military exgency
had passed and in conditions for which they were
never intended"
How would the country have Jared without the
exercise OF certain of these powers-hoSe conferred
by the Lever act for example-in the face of Re
publican Congress which steadily refused recon-
strucye legislation to alleviate any postwar suf-
ering which could be prolonged and laid at the door
Of Democratic Administration for the purposes of
a Presidential campagn3
Morever, when II comes to "feedng the auto
cratic appetite" how do the two parties stand in
that history the lessons of which Mr. Hughes says
are now dsregarded'
As the legitimate heir of FederaliSt principles
the Republican Party has always been the closer to
the Hamilton idea of strong Federal authority and
a sweeping exercise of Presidential powers
On the other hand if the Democratic Party in.
herited anything from Thomas Jefferson II in.
hented the Jeffersonian idea of individual freedom
and local Self-government as opposed to over
centralized authority.
That asSuredly is history.