Evening star., 1944-05-12
Writer Sees Country
In Unfortunate Mood
Believes Ward Case Il Symbolic
Of Need for National Unitv
By David Laurence


By David Laurence
Somehow the press conference which
President Roosevelt held the other dav
at which he'expressed his views on the
Montgomery Ward case seemed SYM
bolic of rather unfortunate mood in
the country today.
There was in the air, as the news
papermen assembled and heard the
comments OF the President, q sort of
tension, even q hostility on both sides.
The press represents the people in a
broad sense-at least, 1t presents their
various points Of view, palatable or un-
palatable as they MAY be to the admin
istration in power 1t was evident at
this conference that the President was
on the defensive-that he felt the sting
of the criticism they had been writing.
Thereupon, as so often happens where
criticism comes ones way, there is q
tendency to be resentful, to begin to
blame the other fellow and to divert
attention from ones own mistakes.
When the President criticized the press
for allegedly not printing all the facts
about the Montgomery Ward case, he
was in effect accusing the persons who
publish the news reports. He was not
drawing distinction between the edi-
torial commentators who were almost
unanimously critical and those whose
duty it is just to report the facts-a duty
honestly and painstakingly fulfilled.
Lesson Seen in Incident.
Apart from the merits of the Ward
case, the incident has lesson in it.
The President had just been away on
long vacation. He has not been well.
The burdens of his office have been al
most beyond any human beings ca
pacity to handle. The President came
back into an atmosphere of friction
back into q fight. And yet had he
sensed the mistakes of his own subordi-
mates, had he been willing 10 acknowl-
edge them frankly, how much stronger
would his position have been with re-
spect to those phases of the Ward case
which are plainly open to honest diff
ferences of opinion?
of the War Labor Board, and If court
says they are not specific and there is
no authority to seize plant like Wards,
then is it not logical to put the problem
up to Congress and ask for O piece of
specific legislation?
Anyway, there are all sorts of ways
by which legitimate differences of opin-
ion as to war powers or peace powers
can be resolved-without the use of
troops-but usually court process is best.
Supposing the President had said that
the approach was wrong but that he
still believes his basic principle of main
tenance of membership or compulsory
arbitration Is right in wartime? His
position certainly would have been
stronger.
The training, however, in the political
world is not to admit errors. Also 1t
seems to be customary to draw a red
herring across one issue and try an
other-all on the supposition that the
public is naive and doesn't see through
these stratagems. Most of the times
these tactics are resorted to in the
mistaken notion that that's the way to
retain political apower. Many persons
feel that they must retain public office
at almost any cost-even at the cost of
candor and frankness.
Maybe some day public men will dis
cover that the very opposite is true,
namely, that when men stick by con-
victions and are ready to yield their
ofices rather than to play politics or
use the tricks Of propaganda in pol
itics, the support of public opinion
comes Overwhelmingly to their side.
Lesson Of Centuries
What is basically needed is q new
approach that is really an old approach.
It's the approach whereby the indi-
vidual is ready to acknowledge his
wrongs and mistakes and is prepared
to risk the consequences of such ad-
mission. Because this is fundamentally
the very thing that Jesus counseled
nearly 1000 years ago, one hears it
often spoken of as the spiritual ap-
proach. Actually the mood of the
country today is one in which friction
and antagonisms play no small part,
because the spiritual approach is too
often disregarded. Men participate in
the rituals Of the various churches and
even pay lip service to the distractions
Of ethical conduct, but the willingness
to examine individual behavior in terms
Of individual responsibility Is lacking.
Whether it be in the press or the
Government, the President or the Con-
gress, these are months in which it
might seem that national unity could
be forged on basis of reason and that
the animosities which perpetuate fric-
tion and factionalism could yield to the
spiritual touch But leadership in high
places must set the example. If the
President and the Congress and the
press could reason together and not
against each other, mood of unity
would emerge, and 1t would be an espe-
cially helpful mood as the Nation pre-
pares for the tragedies that the sll-out
invasion of Europe soon must inevitably
thrust upon us all.
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