Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-06-22
ANOTHER PRESIDENT READS
THE RIOT ACT TO CONGRESS
A Habit to Which Executives Are Being
Driven by intellectual inepti.
tude In Both Houses

| l)RESlDENI HAKDlNT - cutting lettcr
l. TO Mr.. Mondell. Republican floor leader
in the Ilouse, outwardly deals with the mat.
ter of ship subsidies and the necessity of
! their immediate establishment. Its inward
! significance strikes deeper
The President has done the inevitable by
attempting TO force n rational and patriotic
sense of its responsibilities upon Congress
! that Is without recognizable mind or pur-
pose Of its own. lie has followed in a path
originally indicated by Mr.. Cleveland. when
| the intellectual decline Of the House and the
Senate first became marked, and travelled
later by Mr.. Roosevelt and Mr.. Wilson. The
country has not been so quick as its Presi-
dents TO perceive the dismal fact that a
| Congress elected to manage the country has
! in turn to he managed.
Tho faults Of weakness, cowardice and
! ignorance disccrniblc in successive Con-
crosses have actually grown more conspicu-
Gus since the establishment of the direct
! primary.
Secretary of War Weeks may have been
wrong in questioning the utility Of the direct
primary. But II he was wrong. the de-
iciencies Of legislative conduct and character
at Washington must be blamed at last upon
the recklessness of the electors themselves.
The fact remains that the Congress of the
United States seems unable to 60 along
alone upon any enlightened course. 4 pow
erfll and certain hand is required to drag It
around TO the consistent and intelligent view
| Of its duties that it seems unable to achieve
unatded That is why Presidents have come
! TO talk 70 Congress as they might he ex-
! pected to talk to crowd of unruly children
The captain of ship may not yearn to
assume the responsibilities and labors Of his
crew. But in an emergency he is responsible
| for the safety of his vessel and the lives OF
his passengers And the fact that the crew
may be unframed. unfit, lazy and generally
! useless will not serve to relieve him in the
end Of blame for a catastrophe.
AS the President broadly implied. Con.
gress has been cowardly in the presence Of
the general question of ship subsidies. 1t
can be charged fairly with hypocrisy in its
handling of the soldier bonus issue. The
majority of Representatives and Senators
alike. confronted with unfamiliar questions
turned up by the war. seem almost in
variably 10 lack either courage or enlghten.
! ment.
The average politician in Washington be.
| haves as II every new issue in the business
| OF government were thing accursed and
packed with danger--a thing TO be reli.
giously avoided and ignored. Pioneering
legislation of the sort that the builders of
! the country had TO direct in other periods
OF reformation IS consistently neglected in a
| congress which at present is almost wholly
| without imagination and eager 10 apply only
! old rules TO new problems
| Thus II the House seems bungling and
the Senate hesitant and sh!fty 1t Is largely
! because the members shrink from attemptinp
anything that hasn't been done before with.
| out damage TO any constituency or any DO.
| ltiral reputation.
1t happens. however. that difficulties and
oven per!ls of which Mr. Harding was con.
scous when he wrote his request for ouick
and intelligent action in the matter of shin
subsidies are present and unescapab!c They
vii! have 10 be met and conquered.
But Congress meanwhile has a manner of
saying After us the deluge." II puts its
faith in luck rather than in reason or the
common virtues Of sense and courage. So
It has avoided every opportunity 10 do con.
structlve work. 1t has made no sincere or
intelligent inquiry into the conditions precc.
dent 70 economic confusion. 1t has done
| much to leave our foreign affairs in n con.
d!tion Of chaos. II built merchant marine
and. because Of the shadow of an old inland
| prejudice against ship subsidies, II seems
willing 70 shift and bubble while the ships
rot at the docks.
The trouble IS not with tho institution Of
Congress. II is with the men who without
th" necessary qualities of mind and heart
manage 70 get themselves elected 10 the two
houses. II isn't cheering to see the pcr.
sistent tendency TO one man government In
Washington. But that Is the dangerous
alternative 10 which tho country is drifting,
ship subsidies, therefore, represent an
incidental side Of tho general problem at
Washington. Congressman hate and fear
the very terms. But II is true that we shnll
have 70 have ship subsidies or trust our
Who'll" future to foreign ships and be content
to rely upon foreign vessels and their owners
in peace and war
No modern nation achieved maritime
power or a sure place in foreign markets
without subsidized ships. Germany was
poor in natural resources. But Germany
became powerful and rich after she estab.
I!sh"d ship subsidies and justified them first
by sound economic philosophy and aftcrward
by experience. In England all commercial
ships are subsidized directly or indirectly.
The average Congressman is well aware of
all this But the average voter In inland
States Is not.
Mr.. Harding read the riot act to Mr..
Mondell only after it became apparent that
the members of the House and the Senate
were seemingly ready to see our fleets driven
off the seas in order that they themselves
might have better chances at the next elec.
tions.
MOINE IN TILE MlI nEpMEcc