He is a poor patriot who can wish a new administration anything but
success--at least in policies unrelated to party differences--and it
is creditable to the American people that the new President enters
upon his difficult task amid general good-will. His lack of previous
acquaintance with “the way the thing is done” in Washington, though
it excited the apprehension of some of his warmest friends, proves
to be a positive advantage. If precedents are broken they are not
his, and sometimes the breaking is done with a naïveté just this side
of innocence, as in the discountenancing of the time-honored but
expensive and meaningless inaugural ball. The President evidently
realizes his responsibilities and the conventional obstacles that must
be cleared out of his path if he is to accomplish much for the good of
the country. The idealism of his inaugural address, with its appeal for
the coöperation of “honest, patriotic, and forward-looking men,” is
already being supplemented by practical action so fraught with “saving
common sense” as to seem revolutionary.
Seen in the retrospect, what could be done more wise or simple than
the shunting of the office-seekers to the heads of departments?
What more useful or self-respecting than the announced policy of
disapproval of legislation carrying “riders”--of which, by the way,
a flagrant example is found in the Panama tolls exemption, to which
both the President and the Vice-President have announced their
opposition? What more direct or reassuring than the kindly words of
warning to Central American revolutionists? What more prompt than the
announcement through the Secretary of State that the United States
cannot ignore its responsibilities toward Cuba? or, again, through
the Postmaster-General, that there is to be no wholesale looting of
the offices, with the object-lesson of the retention or promotion of
several public servants of marked efficiency? or, still again, the
immediate action through the Secretary of War and the Attorney-General
toward the safeguarding of the public interests in Niagara Falls? What
more prudent than the disentanglement of our relations in the Far East
from financial loans to China? These events, occurring in the first
fortnight of the administration, display a point of view of government
as an instrument of public service which, though it may do violence to
traditions, makes thoughtful citizens exclaim, “Why not?”
It is not to be expected that we are to have another Era of Good
Feeling, or that, when questions of party policy arise, Mr. Wilson’s
opponents will yield their convictions. He cannot fail to meet with
many a storm, within and without party lines; but he will do much
to advance his ideas if he shall preserve the poise of direct and
unsophisticated common sense which he has shown at the beginning.