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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1921)
' fp-1 The Commoner , ffiok 21, NO. 10 i h h i4 i f t. I i I w ofllcors. Whon thoy got charge a swarm of prof iteers gathered in Washington hunting contracts, fastening unfair bargains on the government, md robbing the people -while our boys were uy ing on the fields of Prance. It is idle to charge that those men wore Democrats. The army of ficers have never wanted to surrender the pow er placed in their hands during the war, and the Republicans in this House have beon their staunchost defenders in their efforts to main tain that power. Every time there has beon a reduction in the army or navy appropriations, or in- tho sjse of the army or navy, Democrats in this House havo forced it. Aftor all that could bo done by those of us who were trying to break the hold of the oiriiiy ofilcprs and relieve the people from the burdens and" oxtrnvagance brought on by the war and navy departments, tho present Socretary of the Treasury says that wo are to spend for the pres ent fiscal year more than $1,000,000,000' on the military establishment of the country, and in the face of these statements you have tho face to talk about economy and reduction of taxation! The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Fordney) indulges in unkindly criticism of President Wil son and the peace conference at Paris. I did not think President Wilson should have gone to Paris, ar(d I'said so then. But at that time tho eyes of evory nation on earth wore fixed upon him. 4 He was tho outstanding, dominating fig ure of the World. Not a man on your side of the aisle dared to open his mouth in criticism. I do not know of a more serious indictment ever brought againat your party than youradmisslon that you failed to function even as an opposi- tion party. "Heaven alone knows what will be come of tlie Country if you have complete con trol of it Very long. When we entered the war we committed our selves to the policy of conscription to raise an army, and we. determined' to tax tho wealth of tho country irt financing the war. The gentle man says tho war is over.' ' J deny it. The fight ing is over. ' Our boys have done their part, and thoy did it, nobly. They , have finished the job wo gave them. They wrote a glorious page in the records of this Republic which will bo read through succeeding centuries.' If one of those boys had complained against those to whom he owed obedioiice, ho would have been court martialed. Ifrho had runaway from tho duties Imposed upon him. ho Would have '.been tried fbr desertion-and shot, The financial burdens, of the war havo not been d'scharged. Pay day is at hand. I Will not say that all the millionaires nnd multimillionaires may bo so classed, but every profiteer who is now seeking to1 shirk hfs duty 'to tlio government should be' branded as' a selfish, Cowardly deserter. ' It would be an everlasting' shame,' a stigma upon every man responsible f6r it in any posi tion; high oi Ibw, to allow' Jthesb men to! take ad vantage of watf to accumulate billions while our boys were facing Gorman shells and passes and thousands of them dying to Vindicate tho sover ' eignty of? out government, "and then be allowed 'to "pocket their billions, leaving the boys who fought the war to stagger- under a bonded debt tho rest of their lives. ' ' The "American people are, not going to stand toiit, gent omen. What are you saying to.;the , boys Who f.ouglit the war in answer to tho ap peal for assistance to tido them over the dis tressed period following the conflict? Your an swer is. that the government must economize. But you are spending a billion a year on the! army and navy half of it unwisely and unnec essarily. .And ydu are granting relief of over half a bJUlon a year to those who made their billions during the war apd much of ,it by rea son of tho war, , tJ reS V10 gentleman from Michigan $rT't$!FdnfV tot one of. the great mistakes of the Wilson administration was taking over tho railroads. But. It was not a party matter- it was done because it was, thought necessary to the successful conduct of the war. The Wilson administration took over he roads and operated them during the stress and excitement of war and, of course, it proved expensive. A Renub- ""S88 ?mZ of peacQ iberately re stored the roads to the control of the owners but continued government liability. Under the guaranty in the bill which a Republican con! gross- passed the government lpst in a ierlod of six months nearly $1,000,000,000, to say noting of the incroas.ed charges imposed by S roads during that time under the provision lr me same bil,l, amounting to nearly $10?0 000,- ' .' TInj government took over the rallrnnrf t assists theconduct of the wa? and upSn the - insistence of the owners. When they were re turned to private control the owners asked con gress to guarantee prosperous earnings until the period of readjustment should be past. The Republican congress unhesitatingly wrote the law just as the owners of the roads demanded, and the government has been paying the bill. Now we are confronted with a proposit on to hand the railroads a half billion more and take chances on getting back the money. How can you look a brave boy in the face with your an swer in the light of these facts? Nothing for tho bravo boys who risked their lives on the fields of France all for reducing the taxes of the rich and paying the railroads their loss! As I listened to gentlemen on the Democratic side in the debate, it occurred to me they were unfair in. one respect. In going over the items of tho bill and setting forth the figures they omitted one item which the rich have been pay ing. The gentlemen have not given credit for the enormous campaign funds contributed to Republicans last year, both in the primaries and in t4ie general election; and, of course, they are going to be called on to make larger contribu tion next year! Thoy say this legislation was indorsed in the Democratic platform. I deny it. It was not in the Democratic platform. It was not in the Republican platform. It was not in any plat form, and it will never be in any platform adopted by any great party in this country. You would no more have made known to the Ameri can people in your platform that you intended to do what this bill does than a burglar upon entering a house would wake up its occupants before he tried to get away with his loot. You know I have really been sorry for some of you gentlemen yesterday and today. I looked over at you when the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Garner) was hurling his shells over on you in his masterly speech yesterday after noon, and I was really anxious about 'you. This morning you came in looking as if there was a little more hope of life. ABut when "Billy" Old field got after you with his unanswerable array of figures you sank down again as if you had stood all you could, and when the gentleman from New York (Mr. Cockran) was speaking it looking as though some of you would not survive! The gentlemen from Ohio (Mr. Longworth) seems to, rejoice at the absence of the gentle man from Scotland Neck, and well lie may. If Claude Kitchiri had been here you could never ,have survived the operation without an anaesthetic. In this connection I desire "to read a telegram; ."Scotland Neck, N. C, 3:40 p. m. Aug. 14, 1921. "C. H. England, Washington, D. C. , u , "Wif;e ju,st got your telegram.- I am a little tired; ;jusf have finished my minority report Have never felt better in my life, ,and,am now ready to take a good rest. I wrote on statistics t too .hard. Ought to have Price to help. But it is-over now. Tell those who read the reports of my relapse to, read my report on the reven ue b'll and see if it sounds like that of a re lapsed invalid. Will send report to Oldfield to night. . t CLAUDE KITCHIN." The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Longworth) ' refers sarcastically to the telegram from Scot land Neck to the Democratic caucus. You had a lot of trouble as it was when your caucus was held, but if you will call a caucus and read tho unaswerable argument in the message from the great Democrat of Scotland Neck and reneal your rule and Unshackle the members of this House so. thoy may vote under their oaths of of fice and their responsibility to their constituents the members of .your own party will strip the bill of more of its outrages and- amend it until its authors would not recognize it. I congratulate you upon the changes already made in the original draft of the bill. Every hour the .discussion lasts in this House wit nesses demand from various quarters for other changes. Every one that has been made h improved it In fact, there is no danger of ?he suggestion of any amendment Uat Would not bo helpful. But yoU gentlemen who are supporting this bill are a long way removed now from thoaS who will be most desirous of changing it when they find out all that is in it. You will iTever know the complaint that exists until you get back home among the plain people of this nnnV try. Tlio truth is you gentlemen who are vnHr for this bill ought to call off all plans for a cess. The work and worry that awaits" you when you get home to explain this bill will mak? the strain of the summer's labors here seem ifiro vacation. If this bill ever becomes a Yaw von who vote for it are going to b kept bulyx plaining from now until next election t3I of you will be relieved after ttlt in tte nSrt campaign you are going to have to tniir C hings that the peoplero familffr w h n tho last campaign you talked about the thing you thought tho Amerimn people know about. That is always the RenuhHonn of campaigning. " You never dare go before uuvu. vr ..,, iwoyuuncan mfi,ft, of campaigning, xou never dare go before IE people a second time on tho same definite Li Why, we all remember how your nartv " ..e; when the Democrats, back in the nineties T gan the fight to enact an income tax law to u the idle wealth of this country. During to Civil war an income tax was levied to rak! funds with which to support tho union armiv but soon after tho war the Republican party 5 pealed the law. In its stead they adopted 1 lhi method of levying taxes, not according to ill amount of property owned by the taxpayer nor the ability of tho taxpayer to meet the burden but according to what the taxpayer consumed' You levied the taxes upon the head of the family, not in proportion to his wealth but ac cording to how many children he had to be bud plied with the necessaries of life. When the Democratic party began the fight to restore 'the income tax you opposed taxing incomes of rny sort or size. You denounced us as anarchists You said wo were . trying to destroy property rights and strike down the constitution. So if you had had your way during the recent war we should have witnessed the spectacle of th's nation entering the home and taking the eon from his mother's arms and sending him across the sea to fight the battles ot a government that dared not levy a dollar of taxes on the incomes of our millionaires and multimillionaires with which to support our armies on the firing line. You appealed then, as you did last year, to the fears of the people. But since that fight was won and injustice and absurdity of your position established you searched always for a new issue on which to attempt to mislead the people. You have never dared fight any battle on an issue upon which the people were edu cated or upon which contests had ever been waged before. Last year you seized upon a question of international law to find a new is sue an issue that even the most intensive advo cate of popular sovereignty among those who framed our government never dreamed should be settled by popular vote. I warn you now that the next contest is going to be fought out in normal times and along normal lines. The league of. nations will not be the issue. You -are going to have to face the plain people of America and give account of tho deeds done in this congress and the outraged perpetrated against them. Their vengeance will be as overwhelming as it is deserved. You will not be permitted to make the appeals made in the last campaign. U. S. WON'T BACK VISIONARY AIMS ON ARMS JLIMIT. Arthur Sears Henning, in his special corre spondence to the Chicago Tribune, says: Presi dent Harding has taken a- firm stand against tho pacifists who would have the United Stales re duce armament even though other nations re fuse, and his views are shared by the American delegates. The other nations at the council board will learn that reduction of armament js acceptable, but not imperative from the Ameri can viewpoint. If other nations are unwilling to enter into a fair agreement the United States will continue naval building with resources that Will enable her to outstrip Great Britain and leave Japan far in the rear. An indication of the advantage' of the United Stater if the naval buildings contest should con tinue unabated is afforded by the statistics which place the annual earning power of the American nation at $68,000,000,000, of Great Britain at $36,000,000,000 and of Japan at P. 000,000,000. FORD PLANS DRIVE TO CLEAN POLITICS An Iron Mountain, Mich., dispatch, dated Sept. 28, says: Henry Ford today declared no would go into the state of every senator who voted for a "whitewash" of men accused of po litical corruption in using money io obtain their seats in the Senate and "carry the issue to tno people." . Mr. Ford plans a nation-wide campaign necessary to clean up politics. This announce ment, ho said, was to emphasize the telegram he sent to the Senate Monday night demanding that body "clean its own skirts" in handling tno Newberry case. t "The Jssue, not the parties involved, is Mi Js prompting me to make this fight," sa'cl Mr. Ford. "I care not who occupies the Michigan seat so long as it is not one of those direcw connected with the late debauchery. I have no; the slightest ill-will toward Mr. Newberry, ui this issue rises above all personal consideration. Free government cannot survive the wholesa corruption of the electorate." ) r si S"3m;! X-siKtL&riuk ?,.. .. O