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Show LET US KEEP OUR TEMPER TIME will show whether the outburst out-burst in Washington last month was a useful clearing of the air or the beginning . of disastrous wrangling. What the country now needs more than anything else is unity of purpose translated trans-lated into unity of endeavor and achievement. The discord among President, Pres-ident, secretary; senators and political; leaders may continue, but if it does the; task before us becomes greatly more difficult and may end in failure. What are the facts. Let's state them1, baldly and face them squarely. The; President has set forth our war- aims, in words that every loyal man accepts.. He is as earnest and zealous in promoting promot-ing those aims, in the only way in which they can be promoted by vigorous, vig-orous, victorious war as any one of the critics. He is far more interested' than any of them that his conduct of the war shall be successful, for it is he who will be held responsible for results.. Congress has given him ample power,H but he can exercise it only through-, agents whom he is privileged to select.. It is the general belief that he has not; chosen the. best men available for some; of the most important work to be done;. It is not merely that he has followed' the policy of seeking helpers almost exclusively ex-clusively in his own party. That might ; not be of even questionable wisdom if.' he had made use of the ablest men in that party ; but too many of those upon whom he has conferred his authority; had not proved their administrative1 ability before they we're appointed, and I have not proved it since. It is easy to be unfair about the. matter. mat-ter. There have been blunders, failures,-, delays, and the extraordinary exigencies exigen-cies of the time have not been met. That; is not denied. There is a set purpose om. the one side to exaggerate the. mistakes, mis-takes, on the other side to brush them-aside them-aside as trifling. The truth lies midway. mid-way. Half-hearted officers, or earnest; but less, efficient officers, than those t chosen, might have accomplished less;: experienced and markedly able men i might have accomplished more; but no-) men, however gifted, could have done; all that the American public thought it., had a right to expect, or could have avoided all errors. The failures'- and! shortages that occasioned the- recent'; outbreak are greater than they need' have been, simply because the tasks to be performed, too great for: any men;, were far too great for those to whymi they were actually intrusted.' The situation inevitably gave rise to criticism and defense. Critics and defenders de-fenders are strongly; and equally-bent, upon the sa,r&e purpose. . Ther- are not hostile to 'each other but unless-. ttesF carpul'r'guard their, temper and: measure meas-ure lheir words they may findj themselves them-selves "unwillingly hostile,. There has; b.ee) danger of such & result, if it has; not already occurred,. If we wish to wire the war, we must; work with the President and with the? agents whom lie may designate to aid! him. We may hope that if he discovers; shortcomings in those agents he will displace them. Criticism may assist him . to make such discoveries; but tTwe only criticism that can accomplish- good is criticism that is friendly, and! free from harsh language and undue severity. sever-ity. Any other kind is more likely to injure ihan to help the causes. Youth's Companion. |
