The Republican journal., 1922-01-26
A BIG JOB.


The labors of HeEcules were small
chores compared with the task confront
ing the Republican party when 1T came
into control of the government ten
months since. The Republican national
platform of 1920 had wisely warned the
people not to expect the quick compile
ion of the work of national reconstruc-
+iop. The success of the administration
in the work of restoration and rehabil-
Il +ation can be measured only by the mag
4 nitude of the obstacles it was necessary
Il ~ surmount before a return to national
a Anormality could be achieved No admin
#istration in all our national history has
8come to power confronted with problems
a of such complexity and difficulty as those
$# which were inherited by President hard
M ing and a Republican Congress. Those
who declare that little has been accomp-
#Iished speak with SIN all knowledge of the
n facts and little comprehension of the size
u of the lob inherited by the Republican
marty at the end of the Wilson era.
We had passed through an era of public
Expenditures on scale that staggers the
imapjnation. In it's train was left ma
tional debt establishing an interest
charge greater in itself than the total of
our annual national outlay before the
World war. The public service had be-
! 5come habituated during the war era to
/ an extravagance more easily established
fthan uprooted. Not only had there been
Nan enormous increase in the cost of ordl-
Xnarv civil administration through swollen
bubble payrolls, but the public service
had become thoroughly saturated with
Xthe spirit of reckless spending. we had
#become accustomed to speak of million
Xdolars as we were once wont, in the dis
cussion of public expenditure, to talk OF
Ia thousand This tendency to public eX-
travagance, which wasted billions OF dol
lars under a national administration
eected on pledge to enforce simplicity
#and economy in the public service, could
mot be completely corrected by mere
Ghange in the chief administrative ofh-
scials of the nation 1t will be many
year before the spirit of reckless extrava-
nance with which the public service was
D thoroughly impregnated during the
Wilson era, and which spread through
btate, city and country governments to
7Sthe smallest political divisions, has been
&curbed. 1t will be many a year before
#the people of this country cease to feel
1.-THE excessive taxation made necessary
s7in part by wars emergency, but to no
Small extent by the reckless, riotous,
wicked waste which characterized the
incompc4ent and irresponsible conduct of
the national business during the war and
POSTWAR era by the subordinates of the
Wilson administration.
AFTERMATH OF wRECKAGE
All about US at the beginning of this
administration was the wreckage that
was the aftermath not only of national
but of international war conditions. In
our own land five million men had been
&taken from the field OF production and
BET at the work of destruction of all
Values which is the business of war.
The World War had been over, it is
true, for two years and four months,
but at the instance of our own chief ex-
ecutive, the completion of peace had
been DELAYED for many, many months,
while world constitution was being con-
btructed, and when the treaty itself was
Ratified by nations other than ours, 1t
proved to be a compact productive OF
chaos rather than of order in Europe. If
rational treaty of peace had been COM
pleted, as it might easily have been, with
in three months of the singing of the ar
mlstice, and the nations of the old world
had been permitted to turn promptly to
the task of industrial reconstruction, we
might today be dealing with stabilized
Europe, well on the highway toward re-
habilltation, rather than with cohti-
nent still ravaged by war and rumors OF
war and threatened with economic COL
lapse. From the National Republican.