Evening star., 1921-08-07
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Climate and Government.

This has been warm season-ln-
deed, hot season-hot all over the
world. 1t has been hot in Washing
ton, as elsewhere. Those who have
been here throughout the summer
have sweltered and suffered. but, If
they have read the papers, and most
of them have, they have seen that the
residents of other places were suffer-
ing and sweltering just the same. and
that indeed Washington's average Of
temperature has been if anything a
shade more endurable than in certain
other cities, even northern ones. But
somehow the heat has got under the
the word of the publishers Of 1.-The
Freeman" New York weekly, is to
be credited, for in that periodical OF
current issue appears an article en-
titled "A Comedy of Climate" in
which one who signs himself "Silex"
wittily and warmly sets forth the
theory that an appalling blunder was
committed in the beginning when the
capital of the country was established
here on the banks Of the Potomac.
For "Silex" is said to be resident Of
this city.
1t would be an injustice to an ex-
tremely interesting and skillful paper
to paraphrase or abstract it. But per-
haps it's thesis can be cleaned from
the following extract:
MANY a man of his kind has come to
Washington planning great plans and
committing the blunder of trumpeting
them abroad in the papers. The ex-
pectation he has thus aroused lives on
to mock him. whilst he himself has
sunk to rest amid clerkly inertia, to be
Knocked at again by the demon of cli-
mate. The wonder is that any gov
erning is done at ALL How much of the
wind in the Senate is really Potomac
airs?'
This is not the first time that the
climate of Washington has been at.
tributed as cause of slowness of gov
mistakes of statemanship. Indeed. 1t
Is the favorite alibi. But it leaves
much to be desired as a proof. In the
first place most Of the governmental
work-that is to say. legislattve-is
conducted in the winter and the spring.
when Washington is not sweltering.
Is there some peculiar quality in the
winter airs from the Potomac that
causes nirvanic lassitude, that halts
ambition, that stays performance, that
discourages progress?
Any criticism or commentary upon
the influence of climate upon govern.
ment should be really accompanied by
tables. What have been the tempera-
cisions? What have been the averages
of heat or cold during periods Of SEEM
ing inertia while bills have been in
process of committee consideration?
What has been the meteorological
mean during the long debates in House
and Senate, particularly the Senate?
We here in Slick" II a
genuine Washingtonian, should know
have always had an idea that hot
weather has tended to speed up legis-
lation rather than retard it; that the
lawmakers were more prone to action
while the temperatures were high in
order to get rid of them.
.Silex" says that Washington pro-
'duces dullness of spirit, due, he init
mates, to the climate. But would the
government service be any more JOY
ous if performed anywhere else? 1t
is q grind, a routine. and it would be
Just as drab and colorless in Maine or
in Texas as inexorable circumstances
have made it here. 1t Is to be feared
that this entertaining commentary
upon the effect Of climate at Wash.
ington upon the character and the
quality of government is by-product
of a hot summer.