The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1941-07-17
WRITER WARNS HISTORY
MAY CALL ROOSEVELT
BAD ADMINISTRATOR
Confusion of Hopes and Results
Held To Be Presidents
Glaring Defect

(Reprinted here is a particularly
significant commentary on the Wash
ington scene by Erwin D. Canham in
the Christian Science Monitor. Now
managing editor of that newspaper,
Mr.. Canham had an enviable reputa-
ton for fairness and objectivity dur
ing the seven years he served as a
WASHINGTON correspondent
AS an old Washington correspond
ent, perhaps this writer may be per-
mitted to give readers a word of eau
ton. 1t is important, in reading news
of the Roosevelt Administration, not
to confuse the hope or the plan with
the deed or result. This was a mis-
take we tended to make during all
the early years of the New Deal 1t
is a mistake that is being made dur
ing the defense effort. " g &:
And perhaps one who reported
Roosevelt news in the White House
for seven years may also record his
impression that President Roosevelt
himself tends to confuse his hope or
plan with an ultimate achievement.
That is the great flaw in his state
craft. 1t is tthe glazing error in his
administrative ability Mr.. Roosevelt
is great planner and improviser. He
is not a great follower-th through.
For year now, just as in early
New Deal days, we have been hearing
of great plans and projects. 1t has
been an exciting time, just as it was
back in 1933-34. And we have all
tended to confuse the blueprint with
the Westinghouse. The very latest
dispatches from Washington must be
scrutinized with this vital distinction
in mind.
Now we are beginning to wake up.
The report this week of the House
Military Affairs Committee is a dash
of cold water to our hope-bleared
eyes. The time has come when we can
ask: "How are the plans working
out ?" The committee report answers:
Every badly indeed" And now that
we have awakened, real and speedy
action must follow.
But once again we must beware
that just another set of glittering
plans isn't substituted for those which
have gone awry. That used to be the
way of it with New Deal plans that
didn't work. Failures were speedily
blanketed beneath plans of such
grandiose scope that nobody had
breath left to criticize. Little plans
that didn't work out became, often,
big plans that didn't work out either
| < 4a.t.
Today almost precisely the same
thing is happening. The defense effort
began with faulty organization. In
stead of the faults being rectified as
the House Committee points out, new
and more complicated boards and
agencies and liaison officers were
brought into being until confusion was
a good deal worse.
There is at this moment a vigorous
national demand for reorganization of
the defense set-up. The Washington
dispatches, just as they did in the old
days, are beginning to record that
changes are sin the making" But it
will require a positive mobilization of
public opinion to force President
Roosevelt to go to the root Of the evil
with his changes. As of old, the
tendency will be to patch things up
and to assume that just because
everybody means well, and the objec-
tives are right, that they are thereby
automatically attained.
| In short, we need-if democracy is
to be saved-more delegation of au-
thority by President Roosevelt, who
for eight years has palpably held al
together too many reins in his own
hands for sound administration
Friends of the President have quoted
him as saying that history's hardest
verdict on him will be that he was an
exceedingly bad administrator If he
isn't careful, the verdict will be a
great deal harsher than that. 1t will
not be pleasant to be the man who
saw what should be done and then
deliberately refused to do it. Wishes
are not horses, not in war times they
aren't, and good intentions pave the
very worst of roads.