Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1919 — ECONOMY THAT COUNTS [ARTICLE]

ECONOMY THAT COUNTS

Up to the last of June, the war department had liquadated war contracts amounting to approximately a billion and a quarter dollars. By this process, g 1,279,158,000, or 86.2% of the amount of the contracts, was saved. There remained more than two billion dollars of unfulfilled contracts to be cancelled or liquidated. On these, it was estimated, approximately two billions of dollars would be saved. A total saving of more than three billions of dollars will accordingly have been effected. Republicans in congress are attempting to take the credit for these savings. New appropriations are much smaller, and the departments of the government are sending to congress estimates greatly below what would have been necessary and what wore requested before the armistice was signed. In their claims of "economy” and their boasts about "retrenchment,” Republicans in congress are attempting to deceive the public into believing that if it had not been for their precautions, the appropriations would have been vastly larger. As a matter of fact, it is the departments, and particularly the war and navy departments, that are showing the way to lessen appropriations.

Chainman Graham, Republican, of the special house committee to find out why a Democratic administration won the world war, and how, attacks the council of national defense for ante-bellum preparation. As a large majority of the Republican members of congress voted against all American legislation prior to our entrance into the war, then assailed the administration for not preparing, and next noisily voted for all war measures, it would seem that a charge of inconsistency is in order. Also, Mr. Graham overlooks the fact that the majority of* the council were Republicans. Perhaps he has not found that out yet.

Thomas Jefferson through the Declaration of Independence helped set the new world free, says Chairman Homer S. Cummings of the Democratic national committee, “while today Woodrow Wilson is the primal force in preparing a document of liberty that is destined to set the whole world free.” But there are certain “non-partisan’’ Republicans who strenuously decry a universal freedom because a Democratic president has made it possible. Chairman Hays favors a league of nations, favors the Knox resolution and the other obstructive tactics of the Republican senators, favors the Republican plan of short-dealing with soldiers as well as the departments that are taking the leadership in the country’s industrial and social —in fact, favors most anything you happen to ask Willie about. He is all things to all men.

If Senator Borah really wants a referendum on the league of nations, and does “represent a very intelligent and patriotic constituency,” he can obtain a quick answer by resigning his toga and returning to Idaho for vindication. Perhaps i.ls reluctance is due to a recollection of what happened to Senators Roscoe Conkling and Thomas Collier Platt in New York in 188 J. Had it not been for the veto of a Democratic president and the insistence of Democratic senators and representatives, the disabled American soldiers of the world war would have gone a-begging as regards adequate vocational training. But the Republican party could have pointed to another example of party efficiency in saving the nation’s money.

Senator Sherman agree* that war is what General Sherman said It was, especially when it was fought under a Democratic administration and when a Democratic president negotiates the greatest paet of peace ever written, and is instrumental in fotmilng a society of nations that will give the world its first promise that there will be no more wars. “The abundant capacity of Republican leadership to make mistakes.** "No, the quotation is not from a Democrat. It is from Senator Kenyon of lowa. Surely, senator, you didn’t have Senator Lodge or ChaJnman Hays In mind? Senator Borah’s threat to quit the Republican party if the league of nations covenant is ratified is another reason why many Republicans favor ratification.