The Washington times., 1921-03-21
FIGHT 0NESCH
FACES FAILURE
Ex-Congressman Seems Certain
of Confirmation as !. c. c.
Commissioner.
BY NORMAN HAPGOOD.

The fight OF Senator La Toilette
to prevent Ex-COneressman ]. j.
Esch from becoming. q member of
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion will be unavailing.
Esch is satisfactory to the con-
servatives in Congress and on the
Commission, but also, which is
much to his credit, he is equally
satisfactory to the more patient lib
erals.
NO CHANCE FOR RADICALS.
1t would be absurd to expect rad
appointed to office by the present ad-
ministration. 1t would be unfair to
ask IL.
What ought to be hoped is that on
the whole the men appointed to i'm
portant POSITIONS shall be able and
honest. with the Kind Of conservatism
that is not incapable OF dealing with
questions which are in constant
state Of fiux.
Our job, as far as the national Gov
ernment Is concerned, Is to make the
best results come out of conservatism.
not to mourn because we are not at
the moment governed by liberalism.
RAILROAD ACT A FAILURE.
Mr.. Esch has naturally been at
tackled a lot because his name Is on
the Esch-Cummins act. That law is
one grand fiasco. 1t was passed to
suit the railroads and the roads are
now wailing bitterly and wanting
something much more powerful in the
way of crutch.
1t was passed against the energetic
protests of labor, and labor naturally
is aggrieved at everybody who helped
to pass 1t. AS far as can be discovered
by reasonable search. 1T has not a
friend in this broad land.
But 1t must be remembered that
President Wilson much as he detested
the bill, signed it. The railroads had
built up a nationwide psychological
complex to the effect that II they
could get this law through, and thus
get back all the joys spd efficiencies
and miracles of private ownership,
they would actually wallow in af-
fiuence and a general boom would in
wade the natio
RESULT of COMPROMISES.
AS the thing was settled, as we
were obviously going back to private
ownership, and obviously going to do
it in a delirium OF propaganda about
how badly McAdoo and Hines had
run the roads. and how grandly they
would be run by private owners, II
was necessary to get some kind Of
legislation through. and the Esch-
Cummins bill was the result of the
compromises between the different
Republican schools Of opinion.
do not expect to startle any
body when / say that in their hearts
both Mr.. Esch and Senator Cummins
low know the act Is q bad law.
The reasons that made the outgoing
administration acquiesce in II may
be surmised when II Is know that
Mr.. McAdoo, the person most con-
cerned, has called 1t q crime.
In some of the forms 1t took be-
fore 1t was passed 1t was much
worse, though more satisfactory 10
the roads as a bludgeon with which
to break down labor.
HE IS WILLING TO LEARN.
The bill that Mr. Esch introduced
| in the House was a better bill than
the Cummins bill and better than
the compromise that finally emerged
Moreover. Mr.. Esch is a hard work.
er. a man who Is willing to learn.
and one of the few men concerned
who know anything about railroads.
In the days to. come we need a
few men at least who will not mere
ly throw laws together. overlook or
introduce jokers, and spend all their
time on gossip and patronage.
Senator Cummins' health is none
too good. If We lost Mr.. Esch frop,
public life the loss would be serious.
Mr.. Esch realizes that Senator La.
Follette's opposition to his confirna =
| tion is logical. The Senator opposed
HIM in their home State of WIS
consin and was responsible for mis-
not coming back to the House. Poi
itics in Wisconsin are complex, BIZ
| ter and personal, and the good men
are not all on one side.
Senator lie Toilette is an indefatig.
able fighter for his leading progress
sive measures, high among which Is
| Government control of the essential
| and limited necessities of life, sucn a.:
| transportation, and his is. not a ma
ture that will compromise or ~
with the opposition.
As the two men come from the
same State, the. Senator has a power.
full antediluvian club that he car
swing If he chooses to venture 1t, bu;
I scarcely expect to see it come out
of its resting place. The club Is known
| as Senatorial courtesy.
| Oceans of earnest breath havl
flowed in the Senate to get the out
lines of his right distinctly fixed. and
| II remains as vague as the legal doc
trine Of due process of law. Johr
Sharp Williams Is the greatest livin~
historian Of the subject. and a large
part Of the Senate disagrees with his
| definition.
SENATE COURTESY DEFINED.
For the ordinary man 1t may suffice
to say that Senatorial courtesy is the
right of any Senator to be discourteouI
to his President by forbidding the ap-
pointment to Federal office of any
man from his own State, provided he
bears personal ill-will toward that
man. General political bile Is not
enough.
Senator Lodge fought bitterly the
| confirmation of Justice Brandeis, but
although both are from Massachu-
setts, Lodge did not call in Sena-
torial courtesy because he could not
I pretend that there had been anything
personal to him in the destructive on
! slaughts of Mr.. Brandeis on misman- =