Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1919 — HEAR AMERICA! [ARTICLE]

HEAR AMERICA!

Every day that passes brings new proofs that President Wilson was right when he told the senate that there can be no escape from the effects of the war until the United States filed its acceptance of the terms of peace with Germany; that is. until the treaty ceases to be a mere memorandum of an agreement and becomes a binding contract. Abundant corroboration of the president’s statement is supplied by the senate Itself. While the problems of the present press for solution, while industry and commerce and government itself linger between peace and war, with none •of the certainty of either to steady them, the Republican majority in the senate debates hypothetical crises of the future. Practical consideration of the country’s immediate needs in legislation is aban-

doned for acadamic discussions of the affairs of other times and other peoples. The American people who are supposed to be the senate’s masters and who' certainly are its paymasters, have been waiting with more or less patience for some action that would formally and finally end the war and produce the status of permanent peace. But the senate has ignored the wishes and demands of its own constituents to hear the complaints of outsiders. Of course, this show of interest in the representatives of small nations, old and new, is prompted by partisanship; but whatever its motive its result is unmistakable —delay of peace, postponement of reconstruction, disturbance of business, hampering of every activity, public and private. Disposition of the railroads is alone a subject to which the senate should have been devoting a large portion of its time and best thought. „ Production and distribution depend in large measure on the railroads, and whatever affects them for good or ill has a corresponding reaction on every industry and activity in the land. But the senate .not only has failed to move but even to give a sign that it regards the question with serious concern. Meantime the senate, under thx pressure of its Republican leaders, lends <ear to the representatives of small minorities who speak not for the United States but for other nations. It is time that the American people are heard by the senate.