The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-01-31
POLITICAL HISTORY

SAS~O SSA@AN w
a man in Des Moines:
81 am a naturalized American.
am vitality interested in the
political questions of the day,
the question of the Constitution
and what everyone seems to be
calling, without explaining very
clearly, the fundamentals of the
political philosophy of the Dem.
Ocratic and Republican parties.
you see, my knowledge Of
United States history, like that
of my native.bOrn associates,
has been gathered only from
primary school textbooks. Won't
you go into it for our benefit,
since presume to say that
there is nothing in the current
news more human or interest
ing than the present debate?"
The order from Iowa is quite a
large one. 1t will require more
than one column to fill it. But we
can make a beginning and con.
tinue from time to time the pop
ular interest in political funda-
mentals" is going to be present
for some considerable period, at
least up until the first Tuesday
after the first Monday of the COM
ing November.
1t must be admitted that we
are, as people, in the class of
the man of Des MoineS-poorly
informed on our own history and
on political and economic sub.
jects. In the little red school
house we get a Sketchy outline
from Fiske, Bancroft and others
Of the thousand and one events
which began when a Genoese con-
vinced himself that the world
was round and which ended with
the year that the particular text
book was published.
FERTILE FIELD
Our young and imaginative
brains crave color and action
and we glut them with stories of
wars and the names and feats
of military heroes.
By this standard it is a poor
President who does not command
an army in war or who does
not have war during his ad-
miniStration.
1t is safe to say that there
is not one in thousand of our
public school graduates who can
not give satisfactory account of
what happened at Saratoga in
TIT and at Gettysburg in 1863.
On the other hand, it is more
han likely that not one in that
thousand can describe adequately
the contest between Jackson and
the Bank of the United States.
Getting closer to our own
times, how many of us, born
since 1890, are able to draw the
parallel between the silver situa-
ton today and as it was 40 years
ago? I'd hazard the guess that
90 per cent are still of the opin-
ion that the present remonetiza-
ton program and its workings
is something brand-new in eco
nomicS, an untried experiment
which must run its course be-
fore it is proved a failure or a
success.
Again, how many of the few
who know more than vaguely
the history of Organism, know
as we'll that Mckinley was no
enemy of silver, and largely in a
spirit of opportunism took up the
standard for sound money"
EVENTFUL PERIOD
So long as this ignorance ex-
lists, so long will the United
States be a fertile field for the
agitator and his "isms." AS
Grover Cleveland said, the masses
do not know and won't take the
trouble to learn. Instead they
will give ear to the one who
talks the loudeSt and the longest
and who holds out the rosiest
promises.
1t is from such sources we hear
today that the American system
is Anticipated, that it needs over
hauling or junking. The United
States should modernize it's gov<
eminent, turn it in for a new
model, just like an automobile.
And when one asks, what or
where is the new model, he is
told in Russia, Germany, Italy or
Turkey, going by the name of
Communism, Fascism or Nazism.
You would think, and, sad to
say, too many Americans do
think, that $50 years is a long
time, whereas these theories and
practiSes of collectiviSm are the
last word in Streamline govern
ment vintage of 1886.
How long is lat years, or how
old is the American Constitu-
tional system? Just about the
life-Span of the third Chief Justice
of the United States Supreme
Court and that of the present
Chief Justice.
Roger B. fancy, of Maryland,
successor to John Marshall, was
born in 1777, IL years before the
Constitution was adopted, and he
died as Chief Justice in 1864.
Charles Evans Hughes was born
in 1862, matter Of two years be-
fore the death of the man in
whose place he now sits.
So, when we begin to look
closely into the American Govern
ment let lis dismiss any prejudice