The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1922-03-10


ture of money that was unhesitating
| ly provided by business interests tina
bitterly resented the Wilson Admin
istration, and it also required an or
ganization that could sailfully attend
to propaganda as well as to the ma
nipulation of political machinery.
If the ultimate end of government
is merely to smash your opponent il
an election, regardless of further con
sequences, then the Republican cam
paign against Mr.. Wilson was unique
in its ,adroitness and its efficiency
There was no susceptible source Of
public opinion that was not cunning
ly poisoned. There was no human
suspicion that might have been
aroused which was not aroused
There was no public passion that
might have been infiamed which was
not inflamed. There was no appeal
to any sentiment so base and so de-
graded that it was not made. And
all of it was finally consolidated I'M
der expert political manipulation in
to a patriotic movement to
save the Constitution and maintain
American independence.
Nothing could have surpassed in
shrewdness the Republican calcula-
lions up to the day the election was
won. And nothing could have sur
passed in stupidity the practical uses
that the party has made of it's UNI
precedented victory at the polls. The
moment the Republican leaders had
to assume the responsibilities of gov
eminent they revealed themselves as
men incapable of agreeing on either
a policy or programme that in any
way met the hopes and the expecta-
lions that they had so recklessly
aroused in their campaign against
Mr.. Wilson.
Mr.. Harding was scarcely inaug-
urated before he lost control of Con-
gress, and for a year the legislative
branch of the Government has been
a ship without rudder. The pros
perity that was so glibly promised
turned out to be national adversely.
There has been no adequate reduc-
ton in extortionate taxation. There
has been no revision of the tariff.
There has been no reorganization of
the administrative departments. The
separate peace with Germany is so
incomplete that it has left everything
much as it was, except for the for
malities of diplomatic relations. The
only outstanding success of the Ad-
has been in Disarma-
ment Conference which it was COM
PEELED TO call against its wishes and
in which it has been forced to carry
out Wilson policies from which it
protested in 1920 to be saving the
Republic.
The end of their first year finds
both Congress and the Administra-
ton in a state of turmoil over sol
diers' bonus that the country is
against and that has no support at
either end of Pennsylvania avenue
except as means of buying votes in
The fall election. The stanchly Re-
publican Boston Transcript merely
echoes the common opinion when it
describes the present House of Rep
as "the worst in twenty
years."
What has happened to the Repub
leans is what will happen to any
party that wins an election on men
lacity and false pretenses. A party
hat promises everything must re-
leem something, but the more it has
promised the slighter are its chances
If fulfilling anything. The Repub-
lean leaders staked their future on
he destruction of Mr.. Wilson, but
hey have been doing more to vindi-
cate him than his own party could
have done, and as their own
rapidly wanes his popu
arity grows again by leaps and
pounds.
To-day the only obstacle to the
leadlong plunge of the Republicans
% political disaster is the inability
If the Democrats in Congress to per-
,orm intelligently any of the func-
ions of an opposition. Yet even the
record of this failure is likely to be
Of small avail to the Republican lead
ers in November when the dominat-
ng thought of the voters is not to
reward the Democratic Party but to
punish the Republicans for their per-
tidy, their duplicity and their broken
faith. For, after all, the seriousness
If the Republican situation lies not
so much in the political bankruptcy
If the Harding administration as in
The moral bankruptcy of the party it.
;elf-New York World.
What the British folks think of
Col. Harvey, they, of course, are too
or diplomatic to say for