OCR Text |
Show GET TOGETHER. Tl it bo truo tliat facta have been biddeD from tho jircsi'.leut, as Senator hainberlain charges, it is also true that the senator is not wholly blameless in this respect. Granting that the facts brought forth by the senate investigation prove tho inefficiency of Secretary Baker and a number of his subordinates, why was it that Senator Chamberlain did not take the president into his confidence Why did bo not inform the president fully of what had been discovered instead in-stead of beginning a propaganda before be-fore the National Security league? Tho senator blames thoso who withheld with-held from tho president the conditions of unprcpareduess, but the senator him self, aware of those conditions, also ' withheld them from the chief executive who is commander in chief of tho army and navy. But he even withheld from i the president all information regarding a super-cabinet which a certain clique . was planning. Senator Chamberlain informed the president about tho bill for a "munitions "muni-tions ministry," but said nothing about the war cabinet of three. In his speech the senator tried to convey the impression impres-sion that tho president had been told of the proposed war cabinet, but Senator Sena-tor James, armed with a letter from tho president, demonstrated that the president had been told only of the proposal for a munitions ministry. When Chamberlain thus faced an un expected defense he shitted responsibility responsi-bility to Senator Hitchcock of Nebraska. Ne-braska. He said that the Nebraska senator had been delegated to call the president s attention to the proposal for a super-cabinet to conduct tho war. We trust that Senator Chamberlain's emotional appeal will not conceal these facts from tho public. There is danger dan-ger that the pathos which tho senator injected into his speech will so influence in-fluence the public that they will Jiot heed the underhanded way in which the president was kept in the dark about the super-cabinet, back of which stand not simply the chairman of the military affairs committee but probably prob-ably Theodore Roosevelt and the. National Na-tional Security league, which heroized Chamberlain and drew him into a series of indefensible maneuvers. ' Chamberlain should have familiarized familiar-ized the president with all available data concerning unpreparodiiess and inefficiency, in-efficiency, and should have laid before be-fore him without delay tho plan for a super-cabinet. But Chamberlain threw himself into the arms of the president's enemies. He did their bidding and accepted ac-cepted their adulation. And then Senator Sen-ator Smoot invited Colonel Kooseve'.t to Washington so that the great disturber dis-turber might be present to foster and foment the war on the commauder in chief. On the other hand, the president is not as white as he is pictured in the purity of his writings. A duty rested upon him to find out all the licts before be-fore saying that Chamberlain's statements state-ments were .an ''Unjustifiable .distor-I tiou of tho truth." As a matter of! fact, some of the senator's statements j conform absolutely to the facts, and if tliey do not show the inefficiency of Secretary Baker, they come so near doing it that the- president cannot escape es-cape a reconsideration of the unqualified unquali-fied support which he hastily gave his war sccrectary. If we are not to have a super-cabinet, the president should !o his part. He should be ready to sacrifice sac-rifice any and all of his friends if it he essential to the winning of the war. It was unwise for the president to give the war secretary such a strong indorsement until all the cards were on the table. He should have suppressed sup-pressed the generous impulses of friendship friend-ship until he could be sure that they were not interfering with the proper conduct of the war. lie should have left the way opeil for the ruthless dis-mi-.-nl of the war secretary if stu-h nr. .cc.o! l,c die! ,-, : ci l.y Hi- .VJt interests of the country in the heart of a war cri-is. The situation has not gone too far for a restoration of good will and harmony. har-mony. If the trouble-makers who seem to be back of the super-cabinet move can only be suppressed or unmasked and the president will display a conciliatory con-ciliatory spirit, the crisis can he ended in a way satisfactory to the contenders land to the country. |