VOULOIR C'EST POUVOIR

No one questions Secretary Hoover when he declares that the Federal government is legally powerless to settle the coal strike; but the very hopelessness of any settlement save through government interference, emphasizes and great gulf between the strict constructionists of 1789 and the Constitution as interpreted today. Jefferson would turn in his grave if he could see the complex machinery of the national government he strove to hold in check. More and more is it becoming natural for every sort of interest when in difficulty to turn to the government for a solution. The finger of paternalism extended far more readily at present than even fifty years ago is being clutched eagerly, almost feverishly, by the very private interests whose cry was loudest for personal freedom a century ago. The difference is in the changed conditions of life; the demand for big things done on a big scale, and the eye-opening effect of the war upon methods of government cooperation in industry. Public opinion is as powerfully behind government intervention now as it was opposed in the days of Jeffersonian democracy.

Under the existing law there is no authority which gives the Administration the power to enforce its advice. But neither was there in 1902, when President Roosevelt settled the anthracite strike. There are times when the power of public opinion more than balances the unwieldy, cumbersome weight of legal instruments. Roosevelt had this public opinion mobilized behind him in 1902 and there is no question that it is there today, to be unutilized. Definite, forceful action by President Harding, even if in the Rooseveltian manner of doing a thing first and hunting up a precedent afterwards,--would find the ready support of a public opinion which sees no reason for another delay.