Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 193, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1919 — WILSON'S VETO STIRS FARMERS [ARTICLE]

WILSON'S VETO STIRS FARMERS

SAY THEY WILL MAKE IT AN ISSUE OF NEXT POLITICAL CAMPAIGN. Washington, Aug. 15.—Farmers, disappointed by .the president’s second veto today of the measure to repeal the daylight saving law, declared this afernoton .that they will carry a fight against the daylight act into the next political campaign until the act has been abolished. Among farmers who spoke with feeling on the subject were John R. Brown, president of the Indiana Federation of Farmers’ associations, and J. R. Howard, president of the ! lowa Farm Bureau federation, who, | together with farmers of Illinois, ; Ohio and Nebraska, called on President Wilson only yesterday to urge ! that he sign the repeal measure passed by congress. In that interview the president said that he was undecided on the subject, but they came away feeling that he would see the farmers’ point of view and act . accordingly. “We will make that obnoxious daylight act an issue of the next campaign. That law is such a big handicap- to the farmer in its bearing on farm labor that we must keep up a fight until the law is ! abolished,” said Mr. Howard em- ' phiatically, “I predict that public i sentiment on this question will be Iso strong that political parties will mention daylight saving in their •platforms.” Mr. Brown, of Indiana, also expressed disappointment in the president’s action. He predicted that the Wilson veto of this repeal measure will cost* the Democratic party the support of democratic farmers. Mr. Brown, who is an independent republican, voted in the last election for the democratic national ticket and the republican state ticket. “There is nothing we can do now but fight all (the 'harder for the repeal of this daylight law. We will make it an issue in the next campaign, and in my opinion farmers wjll Ibe united on this proposition without regard to their usual party affiliation.

“I am sorry that President Wilson does not have a good understanding of the farmers’ problems. We endeavored to give him our point of view, and while he was apparently a sympathetic listener he has acted against us. His veto will be disappointing to farmers every-: where. 1 'have talked to many city men about this daylight law and I find that they really have little interest in it. But it affects farm labpr ■so adversely that we will not be satisfied until the law is dead.” The president in his veto measure said that he returned the bill without approval with “the utmost reluctate” because he realized “the very considerable and in some respects very serious inconveniences to which the daylight saving law subjects the farmers of the country.” He expressed the belief that there is a pressing need for increased production in industries and .that daylight saving means industrial economies. The republicans will again attempt to pass the repeal measure over the president’s veto, (but they probably will fail to muster a twothirds vote because the democratic members of congress feel obliged to stand iby the president. The Indiana members with the exception of Representative Moores have been voting against the daylight act. The president’s message vetoing the bill

is as follows: “I return this 'bill, H. R. 3854, ‘An adt for the repeal of the daylight saving law,’ without my signature, but do so with the utmost reluctance. I realize the very considerable and in some , respects very serious inconveniences to which the daylight saving laiw subjects the farmers of the country, to whom we owe the' greatest consideration and who have distinguished themselves during these recent years of war and want by patriotic endeavors worthy of all praise. But I have been obliged to balance one set of disadvantages against another and toi venture a judgment as to which were the more serious for the country. The immediate and pressing need of the country is production, increased and increasing , production,

in all lines of industry. “The disorganization and dislocation caused by the war have told nowhere so heavily as at the industrial centers —in manufacture «and in the many industries to which the country and the whole world must look, to supply needs which can not be ignored or postponed. It is to these that the daylight saving law is of most service. It ministers to economy and to efficiency. And the interest of the farmer is not in, ail re-! ' spects separated from these inter-. 1 eats. He needs what the factories j j produce along with the rest of the ■ j world. He as profited by the pros- j • perity which their success brings .'about. His own life and method*. I are more easily adjusted, 1 venture to think, than those of the manufac--1 turer and the merchant. “These are the considerations {which have led me to withhold my signature from- this repeal. I hope that they are considerations which will appeal to the thoughtful judg-

ment of the house and in the long run to the thoughtful judgment of the farmers of the country, who have always shown an admirable pulbHc spirit.”