A DEMOCRATIC LEADER, AS VISITOR AT THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION (Hon. William G. McAdoo, with Mrs. McAdoo, were interested onlookers at the great spectacle in Chicago on two successive days. Mrs. McAdoo, who is a daughter of President Wilson, had never before seen a political convention. Mr. McAdoo's personal popularity at Chicago, like that of Mr. Bryan, attests the fact that the spirit of good-will engendered in the united efforts of the war period still exists among our public men, regardless of party ties. Mr. McAdoo's energy and success in marketing unprecedented war loans and in managing the railroad system for war-time efficiency have given him a prominence among presidential candidates that has not been stimulated by any effort on his own part. In the picture, taken by a photographer of the Chicago Tribune, Mrs. McAdoo is in the center, and the third member of the group is Mrs. Kellogg Fairbank of Chicago) VOL. LXII THE AMERICAN NEW YORK, JULY, 1920 THE PROGRESS OF THE WORLD Vacation Time on With the adjournment of Congress on Saturday, June 5, and Capitol Hill the opening of the Republican National Convention at the beginning of the following week, there was an almost complete shifting of interest in public affairs from Washington to Chicago. For the first. time in several years, Senators and Representatives saw ahead of them several months of freedom from official work. Many matters of importance remained to be considered by Congress, but all attempts on the part of certain members to secure a brief recess of a month or more, over the convention period, instead of full adjournment, were emphatically voted down. Senator Underwood, speaking informally, but with evident authority in his capacity as Democratic leader, informed his fellow Senators that the President would not call Congress back to Washington in extra session unless some unforeseen necessity should arise. Thus members of both Houses left Washington for the Conventions or for their homes in the mood of a lot of schoolboys who had passed their examinations and had the long vacation just ahead. of them. Congress Off No. 1 what may happen on November 2. But in many districts the Congressmen will be kept very busy with their own campaigns and their incidental share in the State and national contests for all of four months. Thirty-two of the ninety-six Senate seats are also involved in this year's elections. Sixty-four of the Senators will be comparatively free to give attention to private affairs and obtain rest or recreation, although all of them will be drawn to some extent into the general party contest. The Caliber of Our Law-Makers There is such a confirmed habit on the part of many newspapers and many good citizens to carp at Senators and to belittle Congressmen that it is hard to secure open-mindedness for a just estimate of the personal quality and the statesmanship of our national law-making body. We know little about the rank and file of membership in legislative bodies abroad, because under the British, French, Italian, and other representative systems, it is almost invariably true that a small group holding ministerial rank comes to the front for personal approval or criticism, and the ordinary member of a legislative body does nothing except to give his vote along with those of the party group to which he belongs. Our committee system at Washington throws into prominence a much larger number of members of Senate and House than are brought forward in the British House of Commons, for example. There seems to be an impression that our representatives at the two ends of the Capitol building at Washington are men of smaller caliber than their predecessors twenty or forty or sixty years ago. Taking them on the average, however, the men now in public life will gain rather than lose in repute if subjected to strict comparison with those of earlier periods, in points both of intelligence and of character. Copyright, 1920, by THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS COMPANY Unless some emergency should arise, Congress will not be in session until the first Monday in December, and its term will end with that of President Wilson on the fourth of March. Thus the Senators and Representatives could fairly count upon six months of freedom from the legislative grind. Most Representatives, however, are candidates for reëlection, and, quite apart from their commitments in the presidential campaign, they have their own political situations to meet in their respective districts. For some of them-especially those from Southern districts their party nomination is as good as an election, and they are not worried about 3 Courage There have been times when a Required in few political leaders have seemed Public Life to stand out in larger proportions than in these days. But it so happens that the principal professions and lines of business occupation have all of them become "affected with a public interest"; and so many opportunities are afforded for usefulness in general ways that political office has less attraction than in former days for capable and ambitious men. Educators, lawyers, bankers, labor leaders, clergymen, editors, engineers-men of these and many other callings-find large opportunities of public service (and of personal distinction) without seeking to be elected to Congress or to be called into other official places. It takes a special kind of courage for a man to enter the political arena and make a contest at the polls for public office. Instead of disparaging men of ability and character who have this kind of courage, it is well to give them at least as much praise as they deserve. Most of the members of both houses of Congress, including those of both parties, possess much more than average ability, and meet the test of endurance under the strains and annoyances of public life as comparatively few men could. Members of the Senate are to a considerable extent men who have been promoted after a period of good service in the other House; while a number of Senators have attained their seats as a result of proved service in their States as Governors. Government "Business" It should be borne in mind that Is Not Merely the ability and character of individual Senators and Congressmen is a matter quite apart from the efficient functioning of Congress as a body. Engineers do not build great bridges through the agency of a debating society. Bishops and clergymen, who command unqualified respect and esteem when at work in their parishes and dioceses, are likely to make a less favorable impression upon the community at large when they get together in some great conclave or convention and try to legislate for a denomination. Bankers would probably agree that the members of their profession cut a better figure when at work in their own communities than when gathered in conventions to discuss quasi-political problems affecting the economic life of the nation. The plain truth is that government by discussion is a tedious affair, and that Congress cannot possibly do business with the quiet efficiency of the United States. Steel Corporation or the swift decisions of the American Federation of Labor. But this is not the fault of individual members of Congress. Nor is it a fault of anybody. There are those who think of Government solely in the terms of business. They have been imagining that someone who in the exercise of war powers has shown personal vigor, and ability to direct an organization, could transform the American Government and make it run on schedule time and in model fashion, just as the Pennsylvania Railroad system used to operate in the palmy days of railroading. But, while the American Government has a vast deal of business to perform, it is wholly different in its structure and in its nature and objects from a commercial corporation. There are certain ways in which it can be considerably improved, but we shall not dispense with Congress; nor shall we wisely restrict the functions, or further minimize the importance, of the two great halls of legislation. Personal Rule in Peace Time had In the preliminary groping of the country for presidential candidates there has been evident two distinct trends of thought and feeling. On the one hand have been those who have sought to embody the authority of the nation in a personage. Those who think and feel in this way do not like delay and discussion and the tiresome balancing of considerations. They like bold leadership, and they long to follow a hero. The other trend of feeling is that of distrust of the arbitrary ruler, exercising almost unlimited power, and the earnest desire to return to the former plan of a government of checks and balances, with all the parts working at their best. Just before adjourning, Congress with one fell swoop voted to abolish most of the exceptional war-time. powers which been conferred upon the executive in 1917 and 1918. About sixty different wartime acts were thus grouped for purposes of repeal in a single resolution that on June 3 was adopted in the House of Representatives by vote of 343 to 3. On June 4 the Senate adopted the resolution unanimously. At least there was no record of any opposing vote. It was understood that the repeal of this great mass of war legislation with virtual unanimity would not be opposed by President Wilson. In any case the majorities were so great that a veto could have been overridden. But Congress, meanwhile, adjourned and the President kept all his war-time powers by failing to sign the repeal. Such will be the status until December. Repeal of War Powers Failed pean war ended with the armistice; and, in a legal sense for which a very good argument can be made, the United States was at peace when everybody else was; that is to say, when ratifications of the Versailles Treaty in Europe caused the war status to disappear. However that may be, the repeal of temporary war-time laws was already long past due; and Congress could not properly have adjourned for its six months' holiday without sweeping away many of the statutes that had been enacted to serve a transient emer gency. The Lever Food and Fuel Control Act was not included in those repealed, nor was the so-called "Trading with the Enemy Act." There were perhaps reasons of practical weight for keeping these laws on the statute books for a somewhat longer period. Thus the critical conditions as regards the supply of such necessary commodities as coal and breadstuffs created by the terrible economic displacements of the war have not yet been overcome. It may be necessary to use the powers granted to the President under the Lever Act to make it fairly certain that coal will be mined and distributed next winter and that famine may be averted by some public control of supplies, markets, and prices. In general, war measures are obsolete. HON. ALBERT B. CUMMINS, SENATOR FROM IOWA (Mr. Cummins, as president pro tem., is the foremost member of the present Republican Senate and ranks first as a leader in recent legislation of a constructive kind. He was renominated in June by the Republicans of Iowa, and will undoubtedly be reelected in November) In legal theory the state of war exists until peace treaties are signed; but in obvious fact the United States was at peace when the Euro . |