Evening Star Newspaper, February 27, 1921, Page 33

= = i SPECIA EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS | li I L ARTICLES Part 2—20 Pages EDITORIAL SECTION he Sunday Stat. PRECEDENT BROKEN BY WILSON CABINET No Similar Association Has Been So Bitterly Criticised—Three Members Served Eight Years. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. HE Wilson cabinet passes into ‘history March 4. Perhaps no tabinet of any President has been so bitterly criticised in| the past—as a whole—as the Wilson cabinet. Individuals in other cabinets have been assailed vigorously—as in the case of William W. Belknap, Secre- tary of War under Grant. But the Wilson cabinet has been one of the points of attack upon the Wil- son administration. In fact, this was a talking point of the supporters of Mr. Harding during the last presiden- tial campaign. It was insisted that Mr. Harding would select men of the highest caliber for his political fam- ily—in contrast to his predecessor. ‘Without attempting a defense of the outgoing cabinet, it may be said in justification of its members that it has had a tremendous task on its hands, both in war and in peace, and the problems that confronted it have been met with courage and wisdom in not a few instances. The smashing of precedents has been & favorite pastime of the Wilson ad- ministration. Here is another gone by the boards and a mew record es- tablished. Three members of the Wil- son cabinét served continuously for the eight years President Wilson was in office. three members of a cabnet should serve #0 long a time. The three cabinet offi- cers in question are Postmaster General Albert Sidney Burleson, Secretary Jo- sephus Daniels of the Navy and Secre- tary William Bauchop Wilson of the Department of Labor. This is unprecedented—that | ] 4. 1919; A. Mitchell Palmer, March 5, |1919-March 4, 1921 | Postmaster General, Albert Sidney Burleson, March 5, 1913-March 4, 1921. Secretary of 'the Navy, Josephus Daniels, March 5, 1913-March 4, 1921. Secretary of the Interior, Franklin Knight Lane, March 5, 1913-March 1, 1920; John Barton Payne, March 15, 1920-March 4, 1921. Secretary of Franklin Houston, February 2, 1920; Edwin Thomas Meredith, February 2, 1920-March 4, 1921. . Secretary of Commerce, William C. March cember 16, 1919-March 4, 1921. Secretary of Labor, William Bau- chop Wilson, March 5, 1913-March 4, 1921 * X ¥ % Clashes have arisen between the President and some of the cabinet officers, bringing strained - relations and resignations—as in the case of other administrations. The most re- cent case was that of Robert Lansing, Secretary of State. The President, in his letter requesting the resignation of Mr. Lansing, coined the now famous phrase to the effect that his “mind does not run along with mine” Lansing's predecessor, Mr. Bryan, the Warwick who made pos- sible Mr. Wilson's nomination for President at Baltimore in 1912, fell out with President Wilson also, be- Secretary Wil- | €ause his mind did not run along son is the first Secretary of Labor— With the President's in r‘egard to the the Department of Labor having been foreign policy of this Country. Mr. established as separate and distinct Lansing, appeared, could not from the Department of Commerce| Stomach the Versailles treaty en- under an act of Congress in the close of the Taft administration. In connection with their long serv- ice in the cabinet, it may be men- tioned that Postmaster General Bur- leson and Secretary Daniels have been more often under fire during the last eight years than probably any other members of the President's official family. But President Wilson has stood faithfully by them, and they by bim. P . An examination of the records es- tablishes the fact that few, very few, men have served for eight years in the cabinet of any President or Pres- idents. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture under Presidents McKin- ley, Roosevelt and Taft, h the ralm for length of servicés He was for sixteen years in office, Next to him is Albert Gallatin of New York, ‘who put in nearly thirteen years as Sec- retary of the Treasury under Presidents Jefferson and Madison. In the earlier days of the republic it was not considered so essential as today that the entire cabinet be re- tired upon the incoming of a new President. In fact, it was not until about 1825 that the practice of retir- ing the entire cabinet upon the ac- cession of a new Presideat became the vogue. But to get back to the length of service of cabinet officers. There have been only the following in- stances where a man has served for tirely, nor the Mexican policy of the President. Mr. Bryan's trouble was over the administration’s attitude to- ward some of the belligerents before the United States entered the war. : Other members of the President's polifical family have retired fot vari- ous reasons. Mr. @arrison became dissatisfied because his recommenda- tions for a national army were dis- carded by Congress and President Wilson failed to back him,up. Wil- liam Gibbs MecAdoo gave up his job as Secretary of the Treasury to seek the ellusive dollar, declaring that the meager salary of $12,000 paid cab- inet officers did not permit him to put by anything for his family, nor for his old age. He, the President’s sofi4n-law, and the President parted Wwith expressions of utmost esteem end affection. 2 Mr. McAdoo's move’ was hailed by Some as politically astute. He had served with distinction as Secretary of the Treasury during thé war, and as director general of the railroads and several other governmental in- stitutions, including the Federal Re- serve Board. When he retired the period of readjustment was to come. It Mr. McAdoo desired possibly to become President later, his mova was wise. But his political fore- sight did not desert him last July, when the democratic cohorts were gathered in convention at San Fran- cisco. He persistently and insistent- 1y declined to allow himself to be eight years or more, besides the cases | considered a candidate for the presi- already mentioned: Ethan Allen Hitcheock, as Secretary of the Interior under McKinley and Roosevelt, eight years. { publicans. dential nomination. It was appar- ent, even them, that no democratic nominee could win against the re- Now he occupies a stra- Gideon Welles, Secretary of the |tegic position in the democratic party. Navy under Lincoin and Johnson, eight years. Gideon Granger, Postmaster General under Jefferson and Madison, twelve and & half years. Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War wunder Jefferson, eight years. ‘William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury under Madison and Mon- roe, eight and one-half years, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State under Grant, eight years. James Madison, Secretary of State inder Jefferson, eight years. William H. Seward, Secretary of édtate -under Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, eight years. Elihu Root was Secretary of War under McKinley and Roosevelt from August 1, 1899, until February 1, 1904, and Secretary of State under Roose- velt from July 1, 1905, until Januar; 27, 1909. But this was not continuous service, nor in one department. John Hay, who preceded Root in the State Department under McKinley and Roosevelt, served altogether in that office @ matter of less than seven Yyears. His death closed what prom- ised to be a much longer career at the head of the Department of State. While three members of the Wil- son cabinet have remained in office from first to last, it does not follow that the personnel of the cabinet oth- erwise has been less unchanging than in other administrations. * x k% The Wilson cabinet, two terms, has been made up as fol- lows: Secretary of State, William Jennings 1915; 1915-Feb- ruary, 1920; Bainbridge Colby, March 1913 June Bryan, March June 9, Robert lansing, 1920-March 4, 1921. Secretary of the Treasury, William Gibbs McAdoo, March 6, 1913-Decem- December David Franklin Houston, February 2, 1920- ber 16, 1918; Carter Glass, 16, 1918-February 1920; 2, March 4, 1921. Secretary of War, Lindley 4, 1921 Attorney General, James Clark Me- teynolds, March 5, 1913-1914; James , 1914-March, Watt Gregory, August covering the Garrison, March 5, 1913-February 10, 1916; New- ton Diehl Baker, March 9, 1916-March It is intimated that sooner or later he may assumé the leadership of the organization, with the nomination in 1924 a possibility. * % K % ‘When the Wilson cabinet disperses March 4 its members go back to pri- vate life. They will resume in most instances the pursuits they followed before taking office under President Wilson. Secretary Colby of the State De- partment is returning to New York to resume the practice of law. Secretary Houston of the Treasury, plans not decided. Redfield, March 5, 1913-November 1, 1919; Joshua Willis Alexander, De- | Secretary Baker of the War De- partment expects to be in his law office, in Cleveland, March 5, ready to take up again his legal work. Attorney General Palmer will re- (Continyed on Third Page.) May Be Promoted to Post Of Director of Railroads to the di At present general couns rector general of raliroads, who is regarded as likely to be advanced by the new adminfetration to succeed .l::;: Barton Payne aw director gem- el | " l JAMES H. DAV N \ WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 27, 1921 Peril of Famine May Hang Over the American People Secretary of Agriculture Meredith, as He Retires From ‘Office, Warns of Dangers Which Lurk Ahead. BY SHELDON S. CLINE. S the great industrial structure which America is erecting in danger of toppling over because there is not beneath it the foun- dation, of an adequate and assured food supply? Must the cost of living mount higher and ever higher because farm production is diminishing while the population of cities and industrial centers constantly in- creases? Is the time approaching When the United States must depend upon overseas imports of staple foodstuffs, and, therefore, be at ghe possible mercy of an enemy in war? 1s it possible, in short, that this country may know that fear of famine which always has Eurepe in its grip, and which was one of the chief underlying causes of the greatest of all wars? These questions today are press- ing for an answer. That answer must be an affirmative one if the present trend of American agri- culture is unchecked. ~ How to make the answer negative calls for the wisest statesmanship and the best thought and co-operative effort of economists and scientisis and practical men of affairs. It is about the biggest and most vital problem in America today. And it is not the problem of the farmer, as the unthinking are wont lightly to assume. It is the problem of the cities, of the cap- tains of industry and of industrial. workers. They are the ones who have the most at stake. * kK x There lately have been heard expressions of fear that even the present year might see a shortage of foodstuffs, but an analysis of conditions discloses that this fear is not well founded. American farmers will not grow as large crops this year as they grew in 1920, but their plantings will be sufficient to avert any dan- ger of a serious food shortage. This is the February opinion of Edwin T. Meredith, Secretary of Agriculture, and is concurred in by Dr. E. D. Ball, the assistant secretary; by Leon M. Estabrook, chief of the bureau of crop esti- mates; by Dr. H. C. Taylor, chief of the office of farm management, and by other experts who keep their fingers on the pulse of agri- cultural conditions. Circumstances, from which he cannot escape, will cause the farm- er to grow these necessary crops this year, they hold, despite his present discouragement and dis- content; but they do not believe he will continue to grow them un- less great fundamental changes are brought about in the basic condi- tions of agricultural production and distribution. “The United States must- adopt an intelligent and consistent agri- cultural policy,” Secretary Mere- dith said to the writer. “If it does not, the day is not distant when we may have to depend on oversease imports of staple foodstuffs to sus- tain our industrial population. And that day, it it is permitted to ar- rive, will be an evil one in our history.” * k ok k Confidence that adequate, though diminished, crops will be grown this year is dug to a number of circumstances. Chief of these is the fact that a farm is a going concern, which has but a single turnoveér in a year. It cannot be stopped and started from day to day or week to week, to meet varying mbrket conditions. The farmer can- not wait until assured of a profit, or even of a market, before he plows and plants. He is compelled to adopt a program for the year and then to carry it through its seasonable stages, gambling both against the weather in the grow- ing of his crops and against mar- keting conditions after harvest. His oply alternative to an annual program is to suspend all opera- tions and permit his fields to lie fallow, and that would spell ruin to the average farmer. Therefore, he will plow and plant this year as in other years; but he will reduce his acreage, will employ as little labor as possible, will keep his investment in fertilizers down to the minimum and purchase only such new machinery as he finds necessary for the most economical handling of his plant. * % % X The greatest reduction in pro- duction, probably, will result from the disinclination of the temant farmer to “carry on” He has less at stake than the man who owns his acres, and is freer to chuck the game. The number of tenants who quit the farms this year will be influenced by the ex- tent of industrial revival between now and planting time. If the re- vival is sufficlent to absofb in- dustrial workers now unemployed and makes its bid for additional workers, there will be a flocking to the cities which will lea thousands of farms without ten- ants to cultivate them. It also would take from farm owners the supply of labor now available to them, and which is reasonably ade- quate, and would probably result in an increased wage scale for those who remained. * k x ok Only when the spring plowing has been done will it be possible to estimate the outlook for wheat and other bread grains. Last fall 40,605,000 acres were spwn to win- ter wheat, which is less than a 3 per cent reduction ,from the acreage for the last ten years. But this fact gives no indica- tion at all as to what the farmer is likely to do as to other crops. Practically all this acreage was planted before the break in Wheat and at a time when the farmer had every reason to expect a con- tinuance of relatively high price: Contrary to widespread belief, there will be no great carryover from last year's wheat crop. It will be little, if any, larger than the average of previous years. Since the break in price Europe has been buying liberally and ex- ports are rapidly draining the sur- plus out of elevators and from farms. This is a circumstance, calculated to encourage spring planting, but unless there is an early and substantial upward price trend spring wheat acreage will, in all probability, be considerably reduced. The best opinion of men competent to judge is that with a winter wheat acreage above the average, the spring planting will be sufficfent to assure adequate breadstuff for the American people, but that ‘unless the season is very favorgble, there is likely to be lit- tle, i any, exportable surplus of wheat. They are uawilling to prophesy what will happen an- other year if the price stays so low. that the growers of winter whept are led to curtail their acreage next fall. * ok k% Potato grogers were-hard hit and there is certain to be curtailment of the potato acreage and lcss fertilizer will be used, which will operate to reduce the yield per acre. But farmers in the great potato areas are not so equipped_that-they can switch their programs easily. They will grow potatoes for the cities, but prices are likely to be higher. That there will be a big reduction in tho corn crop goes almost with- out saylng. Last year the American farmer planted 104,601,000 acres to corn and unusually favorable weather $av® him the high yield of more than thirty bushels to the acre, resulting in % a harvest of 3,232,367,000 bushels. He bad averaged $1.35 a bushel for his cr8p of the year before and the corn farmer saw visions of unpre-. cedented wealth. Then came the break in prices. Corn went down and down until, in December, it touched 67 cents a bushel. February finds tho price lees than 65 cents. This represents a loss from expected re- turns of about two and a half billion dollars, and though he grew half a billion bushels more than he did the year before his actual cash return was more than a billion and a half doilars less. Nor is this the whole of the corn farmer’s trouble. Ordinarily when there is a bumper crop of corn the grower feels the surplus on his own farm and markets it to advantage in the form of live stock or live stock products. But this year there are ten million fewer animals on farms than there were a year ago, reducing to that extent the farmer’s chances of saving something from the wreck of his hopes in torn. Incidentally, it is a situation which means less meat this year and next, at least, and un- doubtedly higher prices. * Xk X * Five billion dollars in round numbers is the estimate of what the American farmer has lost as a result of the slump in prices of farm products. He has not lost tht whole of that sum'in cash or tan- gible property, of course, but he is five billion dollars pdorer than he would have been if the slump hadn't oceurred. Even the Joss of prospective gain disgruntles a man almost as much as does loss of ac- tual cash. While part of the slump may have been absorbed in what might be termed “paper profits,” it is a fact that thousands of farmers ®who paid the prevailing prices for labor, fertilizer, equipment, etc., find themselves unable to market " the product of their year's labor at anything like what it cost them, with the result that a large por- tion, in many cases all, of their capital accumulated 4n previous years has been lost. > But the farmer's grievance, pos- sibly, is not so much because he had to take 80 large a loss as it is that corresponding losses were not ¥ required of other industries. It is the disparity between what he gets for what he has o sell and what he pays for what he has to buy that makes the farmer blue and grouchy and in 2 mood to tell the city dwellers go hang. * X ¥ X And you can’t blame him a lot, after examination of the figures. . Official statistics show that at the beginning of January, being the latest figures available, the prices of all commodities were about 85 per cent higher than they were in January, 1913, whereas the price of farm products was only 44 per cent higher. “This disparity is bad enough, but it hits the farmer a good deal harder than that. Farm products being included in the to- tal of commodities which stood at 85 per cent above the 1913 level, and farm products being only 44 per cent above, naturally the level of other commodities—the things the farmer bas to buy as against those he has for sale—is much higher yet. In fact, it is 126 per cent. So the situation the farmer faces today is this: While he is getting less than 50 per cent more for his crops than he got before the war, it is costing him over a hundred per cent more to grow them. In 1913 and years prior thereto the farmer did not make large profits. In fact, he made a lower wage for himself than the average city workman and got a much smaller return on his investment than would have satisfled a city mer- chant. Now, with a 50 per &ent differential between cost of pro- duction and selling price, he doesn’t for the life of him see how even his modest pre-war profits are to be wrung from the soil. % K %k ok ‘Which brings us back to the question of a comprehensive and permanent agricultural policy, ad- vocated by Secretary Meredith and others who have made an in- telligent study of the problem. Primarily, the purpose of such a policy would be to reduce the hazards of agriculture—not nec- essarily to increase the farmer's profits, but to make it less a matter of chance whether he have any profits at all. Nor would ben- efits to the farmer be the chief aim of such a policy. It is the city dweller, much more than the farmer, who has reason to be con- cerned at the prospect of dimin- ished food production. There isn’t any danger that those who remain -on the farms will go hungry. They always will grow an abundance for their own tables: The ques- tion is, will they continue to grow enough to féed the constantly in- creasing number of industrial workers and other urban dwell- ers? - * ok ok w , The big, vital fact in the whole situation is that America sees to- day for the first time a condition approaching that which has kept Europe in agony for a century— thespressure of population on food supplies. It is true that as yet we are hardly conscious of the pain and still less do we realize what causes it, but it has started gnawing at our vitals and, in the absence of a remedy, it will spread rapidly. 1t probably will startle a good many Americans to learn that al- ready our imports of foodstuffs exqeed in value the ,foodstuffs we export. The line was crossed about the time the war began, but the stimulation of agriculture re- sulting from the necessity of feed- ing Burope Kept the disparity from growing to a size to attract popular attention. But, now that Amberican agriculture is withou: the stimulant of war, the excess of imports over exports is grow- ing again. As yet the bulk of imports is_ largely of things we do/ not pro- duce at all or not in’sufficient quantities, such as coffee, tea and spices, tropical fruits and sugar. But we are importing a constantly increasing volume of staple prod- ucts; our population is growing and our production of staples is not keeping pace with increase in population. Nor is it to be in- creased materially by the bringing of new lands under cultivation. There are no more great stretches of rich prairie land awaiting the plow. Usable lagnd not now in use is in small tracts and calls for irrigation or drainage or other ex- pensive preparation for the grow- ing of crops. Much of this land cannot profitably be brought -under cultivation unless agriculture, as a whole, is made much more profitable than it is today. * k Xk ¥ Fifteen years is the period of grace given us, unless conditions change materially, before we will “become dependent upon overseas imports of bread and meat and other staple foodstuffs. Fifteen Farmers Discouraged and Resentful. years before the peril of famine may hang ever like a Dblack shadow over the land! Fifteen years before keep. the ocean ‘ways open to-.our food ships may be vital to our national life, call- ing for armaments which would be an ever-increasing burden: And it is fifteen years we have in whith to evolve and put in operation an agricultufal poliey which will save us from the fate of Europe. For the possibilities of *food production in America have only been scratched. The acres now under cultivation are capable of feeding 200,000,000 or 300,000,000 persons. There are those in au- thority who say that American farms can. grow foodstuffs for a population of a half a billion. But it never will be done so long as farming remains a gamble, in which the farmer loses more often than he wins. g * ok k% Agricultural progress in America has been mainly toward increasing production per man, and today the individual American farmer pro- duces more than any other farmer in the world. Only secondary at- tention has been paid to increas- ing production per acre. There were so many acres that it didn’t pay to work them overhard. Eu- ropean agriculture, though it pro- duces much less per man, grows two and three times as much pér acre as is grown in this country. A national agricultural policy, therefore, must look to increasing the yleld of land now under culti- vation rather than the extension of agriculture to new lands. Four per cent of the land in Utah is un- der cultivation today. Irrigation projects would make, possibly, an- other 4 per cent avdilable. And that s about Utah's limit. In Towa 96 per cent of the land is under cultivation. An increase of 10 per cent in the yield of Iowa acres would be worth a great many times more than all Utah ever will be able to contribute to the nation’s food supply. The Missis- sippi valley is the world's greatest food-producing area today, and there lics the hope of foodstuffs to feed a multiplied population. As to this part of an agricultural policy there is but one answer. It is scientific research. This coun- try must give'the same encourage- ment to its scientific talent that Germany gave to hers. German scientists ranked next to the rulers of the empire and had material re- wards. Our policy has been to be- little their efforts and to stint their compensation. A government scientist doing research work which will add untold millions to the national wealth is paid less than a bricklayer or a plumber. Private enterprise always is bid- ding for the services of the best of them. Many go, and the others are kept at their tasks only by loyalty and devotion. £3 53050 A comprehensive agricuitural pol- icy necessarily would call for a simplified and less costly system of distribution, giving to the pro- ducer a larger proportion of what the consumer pays. 1t would involve also some meth- od of stabilizing the price of farm products, at least to the extent of devising methods through which disastrous depression of prices due to the dumping of the year's pro- duction on the market for sale during a few weeks immediately after harvest can be prevented. ‘What is needed is orderly market= ing in distinction from seasonal dumping. This is essential to the welfare of the farmer and neces- sary to insure adequate production of food for the consumer. While the need of stabilization is widely recognized, its advocates are not agreed as to methods. There is some support for the theory that the government itself should do the stabilizing by guar- anteeing the prices of staple crops, but this smacks of paternalism and class favoritism,sand meets with opposition. The proposal that the milling and packing interests and other agencies of manufacture and distribution should make advance contracts for future delivery meets with less objection, but Still in- voives many complications wiich only with difficulty could be worked out on an equitable basis. 3 * %k %k % There are difficulties in the pro- gram, of course, but difficulties will have to be overcome. If America is to go forward along the road to which destiny beckons, some means must be devised by which her people may continue to be fed from their gwn acres. Her decline from greatness will be- gin the day she becomes depend- ent upon other lands for staple foodstuffa. (Copyriglt, 1921, by The Washingtop Star.) L] BY N. 0. MESSEN wo courtly-appearing, silk- each other next Friday, short- Iy after noon, shake hands wit smile, bid each otheb good speed and go their wayvs—Woodrow Wilson into the retirement of private citizenship and Warren Harding into the presidency of the United States. This will mark the culmina- tion of the peaceful revolution of No- of vember 2 las 7,000,000 out publican It wil the k . in which a major votes swept the democra of power and installed the re- ty. 1 be the si hd witnessed Dlest ceremony of this country of the pr ent generation. Not the roll of a drum, fanfare of a bugle or the jingle of military accouterment accompanies the passing of the 0ld and the incom- ing of the new. % % ok X life in within the recollection Men in publf | aware, at the same time, that more is expected of it than human probability warrants fulfillment. Disappointment is bound to come and the administra- tion recognizes the inevitability. Al that can be done will be to buckle down to the harassing problems, solve as many of them as possible and let the country judge. * * x The most marked which public men in Washington have thus far, and from which they augur happily for the future, is his disposi- tion to consult the judgment of others and not to rely alone upon his pre- conceived opinions or even his flat judgment. changed his own judgment, strongly held, after consultation with others. His training in the Senate induced him to such a course. He by experi- ence realized that all legislation is the result of compromise; that no person- ality nor even one faction in Congress can have 1ts own way all the time. He &aw the benefit of the application of morc minds than one to bills pending in committee and on the floor, and he frequently witnessed the spectacle of stubborn men riding to a disastrous fall until they yielded their own will to the combined judgment of other minds. * % ok % Bjt this does not mean that he is vacillating, or lacking a proper re- gard for his office, its responsibilities as, well 2 In his swan song to the st December, he serv- J ed notice that while he would render | unto Caesar the things *hat are C |sar's in dealing with the co-ordinate branches of the government, he would | be alive and sensible to the rights and | duties of the executive, and as jealous | of infringement upon one as upon the | other. | - At the outset of the new adminis- | tration there does not seem to be any « | portent of factionalism in the repub- lican ranks—that deadly bane of the party in the previous ten years. To obviate factionalism at the start was one of Mr. Harding's dearest ambi- tions. He catered to its accomplish- ment assiduously in recognizing all factions in discussing public affairs, | especially in the selection of his cabi- | net. 1t was inevitable that the elimi- nation of candidates desiring or rec- ommended for selection would leave | personal stings and appointments, | but his closest friends here say that it | has not left party breaches. That | fact is a big asset to the party, it is ! recognized, and invaluable to the ad- | ministration. * ok % In the seclection of his cabinet President-elect is recognized z ing effected a happy irecogniliun of personal the hav- blending of and party Urges Need of National policy for Agriculture EDWIN T. MEREDITH, Retiring Sccretary of Agriculture, who bolds that farming must be made a wafer business if the American people are 10 be fed from thelr own acres. b hatted gentlemen will bow to | S | memby recognize the fitness of the simplest | kind of ceremony and the absence of lostentation and display as being in keeping Wwith the gravity of the times. Not since Lincoln admitted, has an incoming a < ltration faced such momentous prob- lems, domestic and international; | such profound disturbances and dislo- | cations, world wide in area and allj |rr-nc\ing upon this cofintry. The new administration is con- fronting appalling perplexities, and is aracteristic | | discovered in President-elect Harding | More than once he has| Ipuzzle the western mind.” MARCH 4 GREAT DAY, EVEN IF POMPLESS. Harding's Sim_nle Induction Into Office to' BE Impressive LCSSOI’I on Workings ; of American Democracy. services, with due regard to the good of the public service. He has mnot forgotten his friends, neith® has he disregarded the good of the country. There is not a man in the cabinet who does not measure up to a high stand- ard of character and efliciency. The heads of the great departments will select their own subordinates and the same efliciency is counted upon to run through the lesser offices. * % Taking the P'res dent-clect and the s of his cabinet as the “ad- { mini ion” and considering their ! per ties, it is evident tha: no \arge can be truthfully brought that - the new administration is dominated by an “interest,” that much-abused and very elastic word. The President himself certainly is not typical of an {interest, whether finamcial, agricul- tural, reform, labor or what not. He s a very plain American citizen, and of a type widely prevalent. 3 He is big enough and brave enough to consult with interests, however, realizing that they have a stake in the great’game and are entitled to be {heard. He confers with labor inter- | ests, with agricultural, with banking, | with manufacturing and with the run | of the mill of merchants and business | i ra na men generally. He is also keen on politics, a be- liever in government by party in this | country, and will never be found in | the role of a “mugwump.” Which en- dears him to most democrats, as well as republicans, on that point. * %k %k % Your new President bids fair to be a likable man and accessible to people ihaving real business with him. Don't gather from this that every Tom, Dick and Harry can breeze into the White | House, slap him on the back and call him “Wat.” He is very much like other | men in his hours of relaxation, likes & £ood game of golf or of whist, smokes his cigar, enjoys 2 good dinner and & igood story—but he has a mountain of dignity behind which he can retire when the time comes. He is a hard worker and will be {at his desk many a night in the next | few months when the rest of us are sound asleep. * ¥ % % The new President, however, fol lowing one bent in his nature, is not likely to aspire to attention to every minor detail of executive business. | He is like the-centurion of Holy Writ, who could tell a man go, and he goeth, and come and he cometh. He will | not start out by trying to carry the whole country upon his shoulders. He is a sociable man and will be found secking to lighten the duties of ! his arduous position by commingling | with his fellow men and getting their | viewpoint, as well as relaxation from | the harrow. * % % K If the extraordinary session of Con- gress is called for April 4, as now re- ported probable, the President will have thirty days in which to formu= late his address to the Congress upon the work for which it will be sum- moned. That address will of necessity be the key and guide to the new Con- gress in taking up either tariff re- vision or taxation revision first. The President will be besieged by advo- cates of both projects in the mean- time, but his announced choice of precedence of the subjects will prob- ably rule. * k k¥ Harassed business, the country over, will look anxiously toward the Ne= tional Capital constantly from March 4. Business expects relief by legise lation, and the combined intellect of Congress and the *“administration™ will be bent upon measures affording relief. «~ (CopsTight, 1921, by The Washington Star.) SAYS CHINA WILL TAKE GREAT STRIDES-FORWARD Minister Sze Predicts Social and Economic Uplift for Oriental Republic. Prophecy of immediate great strides in economic, governmental and so- cial progress in China, “unless that development is deflected by foreign agency into channels of militarism,” are contained in the last public state- ment made in London shortly before his departure for the United States by Alfred Sze, new Chinese minister to this country, which has been received at China famine fund headquarters, Bible House, New York. Mr. Sze, un- til his transfer to Washington, was ambassador to the court of St. James, where he is succeeded by V. K. Wel- lington Koo. Mr. Sze, who reached Washington Thurday night, bases his predictions upon the ability of the Chinese peo- ple to adapt themselves to new condi- tions, a characteristic which, he ad- mits, is contrary to the popular west- ern notion of his race. This adapta- bility is “the key to all those facts and phenomena of Chinese life, in the past as well as today, which seem to “The whole of Chinese culture rests upon the power and appeal of moral force,” Mr. Sze explains. “The entire body of Confucian teaching centers around that conception. We hold ma- terial forces so meanly that the sol- dier is the lowest member of our so- cial hierarchy. This Chinese valud- tion of the fighting man will remain unchanged as long.as the Chinese people are allowed to progress and develop along the lines of their own national character, but there is a dan= ger that foreign interference may pré- L vent this.,” .