The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-11-28

excessively light hearted in dealing
with those who do not inStinctively
and Immediately agree with it.
OK months ago it may not have
~ seemed necessary to pay any
attention either to the Republicans
or to those Democrats who opposed
Mr.. Roosevelt at Chicago. The
Presidents prestige was over
Whelming and no one dared to con-
tradict him. But even then it
should have been evident that he
could maintain such prestige only if
he produced an uninterrupted re-
covery.
If his policy worked perfectly,
nothing else mattered. But obviously
no set of policies could work per-
fectly For that reason it was a
grievous mistake in political leader
ship not to prepare for the lean
times. AS soon as the policies were
seen not to be working perfectly it
would begin to matter greatly
whether or not the President had
taken the trouble to disarm the
opposition by making its potential
leaders share his responsibilities.
In about six weeks congress re-
assemblies. Then the period of I'M
disputed executive power comes in
evitably to its end After January
the President no longer will be free
to experiment; each experiment he
undertakes will have to be explained
to congress. He will be able to go
forward only in so far as he COM
mandS continuing congressional
support.
Therefore, it is of the first i'm
portance that the lesson of the gold
policy should be graSped in Wash
ington. 1t is simply that you can
not make a free people accept a
new experiment confidently unless
you first make them understand
the experiment, or at least give
them confidence that experienced
men are conducting it.
In the launching of the gold
policy all these conditions have thus
far been disregarded. No effort has
been made to inform or to reassure
opinion. Hence Al Smith and his
'baloney' dollar. That cutlery does
not come from a monetary expert
who has studied the experiment and
has decided against it. 1t comes
from a plain man who distrusts
what he does not understand.
1T should convince the President
l. that he no longer can rely
wholly upon his personal prestige to
obtain popular support. Either he
must move no faster than he can
educate opinion, or, if he finds it
necessary to move faster than opin-
ion can be educated, he must draw
into his councils men who will make
them more widely representative.
1t is not too late to do this The
opposition which has manifested it.
self in the last fortnight is a warn
ing of trouble to come rather than
a complete breakdown of the polit-
ical truce.
The sober judgment of the coun-
try has been, I believe, that while
it has been necessary and healthy
to serve notice that great expert
mentS can not be conducted myS-
teriously, nothing has yet been done
which would justify resorting to
the desperate eXpedient Of a great
organized agitation. For it would
be a desperate eXpedient.
An organized agitation inevitably
would degenerate into a cry that
all believers in sound money must
oppose the President. The fact is
that if we are to have sound money
it is the President who must estab-
fish it; he will be in office another
three years. This is generally real
lied and therefore the disposition
to stand by the President still pre-
walls.
The more one considers all the
consequences Of an organized battle
over the currency, the more reason
there is for making every effort at
this stage to find ways to work out
the Presidents objective, using the
machinery the President has set
up. 1t would not be at all impos-
Sible to do this once the atmos-
phere was cleared of epithets, rhe-
toric, factionalism and partisanship.
Copyright 1889