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Show WHO "LEAKED" INFORMATION IN PEACE MATTER? I bi Washington, Dec. 27. President d Wilson's noto to tho European belli-gorents belli-gorents wus sent to tho newspapers d at eight o'clock In the ovenlng of ,. Wednesday, Dec. 20. It wns not to b bo released for publication until af- A t) ter midnight. Yet nt nbout two o'- clock on that day n newB ticker In Wall street carrlod n report that the President was about to dispatch a noto urging tho warring nations to work out tho terms of peace. These statements woro printed In the Now York Times' of Thursday, Dec. 21, I tho cours" f an article dealing with tho crisis In the stock market; and thero Is a natural Inquiry In-quiry here ns to who "leaked" tho Information. Tho President's note was dated Hn Monday, Dec. 18 two days before Be It was given to the press; It wns pro- Hi pared, nil reports ngreo, Beveral l days boforo that. Consequently, Us I; contents musjt havo been known to ( 1 1 a fairly numerous group. Washing- I ton gossip has been busy trying to I Identify tho men who could havo It boon busy trying to- Idontify tho men who could have had knowledge, of t tho President's purpose and thero I nro sinister rumors to tho effect that somo pcoplo who wero "In tho know" I I did not let tho opportunity pass to . pick up some easy -profits In tho AW stock market when securities went L M tumbling, as thoy wero bound to, as N soon ns tho rrosldont's noto became Vifl public property. J Tho Incident serves to emphnslze I tho power which an administration I holds upon values In this country. I What the President's noto did upon I a largo scale which nffected overy 1 Industry whoso securities aro dealt 1 on tho market, can bo dono to a I losser degree with Individual se- I curltlcB by any ono of n group of I oMlcinls whoso duties bring thorn in- I to contact with tho Industrial llfo of tho nation. This power, it is to tho crodlt of Amerlcnn public llfo to rocord, has rarely, If ever, boon abusod and It Is significant that It Is only within tho past, few years that anyone hns ovor sorlously surmised sur-mised that personal gain or any other oth-er prlvato motlvo lay behind nny courso of nctlon on tho government's part. That such surmises are now rlfo Is duo In part to tho system which clothes officials with such enormous en-ormous power nnd In part to tho nskanco with which conservhtlvo-mlndcd conservhtlvo-mlndcd peoplo havo como to regard much of tho activity In some circles of tho present administration. Tho remedy Is partly legislative by limiting tho power of udminlstrn-tivo udminlstrn-tivo officers nnd pnrtly political, by seeing to It that tho government Is lodgod In tho hands of men and of parties Immunu to nJnlstor Infiuonco. Tho country, howovnr, has Just voted; vot-ed; nnd It Is a trlto observation Hint n nation recolvos that sort of government govern-ment which it doservos. |