Evening star., 1922-11-07

| faSt purpose. IT is. as you SAID long
ago. their fault that this war has
come. for they did not realize the
kind Of an enemy they had, either in
spirit. purpose or strength. Eut we
will increasingly strengthen that
western gate SO that the Huns will
not break through.
We do things fast here. but l never
realized before how slow we are in
getting started. 1t takes a long time
for us to get a new stride. / did not
think that this was true industrially.
have known that it was true politi
cally for a long time. because this
was the most backward and most
conservative of all the democracies.
We take up new machinery of gov
ernment so slowly. But industrially
it is also true. When told to change
step we shift and stumble and halt
and hesitate and go through all kinds
OF awkward misses. This has been
true as to ships and areoplanes and
guns, big and little. and uniforms.
| Whatever the government has done
itself has been tied by endless red
tape. 1t is hard for an Army officer
to get out of the desk habit. and eau
ton. conservatism. sureness. seem
even in time of crisis to bc more i'm
rortant than a bit Of daring In my
department ! figure that ii takes
| about seven years for the nerve of
initiative and the nerve of imasina-
ton to atrOphy. and so. perhaps, il is
in other departments. 1t took five
months for one of our war bureaus
to get out contract for Il building
that we were to build for them. Fiji
teen men had to sign the contract.
And. Of course. we have been i'm
patient. But things are lettering
every day. The men in the camps are
very impatient TO get away. But
where are the ships to do all the
work? The republicans cannot chide
us with all of the unpreparedness.
for they stood in the way of our get
ting ships three years ago. The gods
have been against US in the way Of
weather. SO We have not brought
down our supplies to the seaboard
but we have not had the ships to take
away that which was there. or coal.
From now. however. you will see
a steadier. surcr movement of men.
munitions. food and ships. The whole
country is solidly, strongly with the
President. There are men in Con-
gress bitterly against him. but they
do rot dare to raise their voices, he
cause he has the people so resolutely
| with him. The Russian overthrow
has been good thing for us in one
way. 1t will cos, US perhaps a mil
lion lives. but Il will prove to us
the value of law and order. We are
to have our troubles and must change
our system OF life in the next few
years.
A great oil man was in the Office
the other day and told ME in a plain
matter-of-fact way what must be done
to win-the sacrifices that must he made
and he ended by saying. After all.
what is property?" This is very
pregnant question. 1t is not being
asked in Russia alone. Who has the
right to anything? My answer is:
Not the man. necessarily. who has
it. but the man who can use it TO
good purpose. The way to find the
latter man is the difficulty.
We will have national woman suf-
frage. national prohibition. contin-
uing inheritance tax. continuing in
come tax, national life insurance. an
increasong grip upon the railroads
their finances and their operation. as
well as their rates. Each primary re-
,,,I
iron and copper and oil. we will
more carefully conserve. There will
be no longer the opportunity for the
individual along these lines that
there has been. Industry must find
some way of profit-sharing or il will
be nationalized. These things, how
ever. must be regarded as incidents
;now: and the labor people. those with
| vision and in authority. are very
willing TO postpone the day of ac-
counting until we know what the new
order is to be like.
7 Well. / have rambled on. giving you
! 4 general look-in on my mind. Dou't
let any of those people doubt the
President or doubt the American
people. This is the very darkest day
that we have seen. But We believe
in ourselves and we believe in our
own kind. and believe in a something.
not ourselves, that makes for right
eousness--slowly. stumblingly, but,
as the centuries so. surely.
I have not yet seen the Arch bishop
of York. He has not been here. But
he has made a most favorable i'm
preston where he has been. and SO
have the English labor people
Poor Spring Rice did good work
here. Washington felt very sad over
his death and Is expecting that Eng
! land will evidence her appreciation
| of the fact that he did nothing to
eS'ranae US by the way in which his
! widow is treated.
! Reading has been received and fits
| in perfectly. With warm regards, as
always. Cordially yours.
FRANKLIN n LANE.