Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1919 — “YOU CAN’T FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE” [ARTICLE]

“YOU CAN’T FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE”

Senator Penrose, Republican “boss” of the present congress, has announced that “it is not likely” there will be any revision of the tariff or lowering of the present tax schedules until after the next presidential election, or, in other words, until a new congress convenes in March, 1921. This surprisingly frank statement from the recognized Republican leader can only be accepted as a confession of the inability of the Republican majority in both houses of congress to deal with the intricate economic problems growing out of the war. This confession is in

striking contrast with the premises of the Republicans just priof to the last congressional election that if restored to power in the legislatives halls in Washington they would prove their flitness as reconstructionists. Senator Penrose offers the existing political and Industrial ohaos as an excuse fur his announced ‘‘do nothing” policy. In his statement he refers only to the taritt and revenue questions. He might just as well have admitted the whole truth —known to all men in touch with the situation on Capital hill —that the controlling majority in congress has no solution for any of the economic difficulties now confronting the country. President Wilson proposed a program of reconstruction for the Republicans at the opening of the present special session, which session the Republicans clamored for so they “might go to work.” The preesident, whose visiion had foreseen the unrest that would be engendered if relief measures were not forthcoming, pointed out specifically what should be done. Not so foolish as to suggest that the entire tariff structure be made over, as Senator Penrose virtually proposed in May, the president confined his impost! recommendations to essentials, such as the dyestuffs and chemical industries built up during the war. He urged a weapon of retaliation in our tariff laws, “in case other governments should enact legislation unequal in its bearing on our products as compared with the products of other countries.” He asked that early consideration be given to tax revision, (pointing out that many of the minor taxes made necessary by the pressing necessities of war time, particularly the excises upon various manufacturers and the taxes upon retail sales, could now be repealed. The latter include the so-called luxury taxes upon wearing apparel, etc. Although experience'has shown that in the main these taxes on retail sales have proved more annoying than profitable, the Republicans have done nothing to eliminate them, notwithstanding that the Democrats were only prevented from erasing these bothersome taxes from the statute books by a Republican senate filibuster in the closing days of the last congress. Even the most sanguine Republicans have little hope that the present session will witness any solution of the railroad question. The president four months ago called on the controlling Republican! majority in congress to draft the necessary legislation, that would permit the transfer of the railroads from government control. Nothing has been done that promises concrete action before the special session ends and the regular session begins in December. And so it Is I with the president’s proposals re-

garding labor and the other questions that the Republicans in the campaign of a year ago promised to quickly dispose of. Truly, Senator Penrose’s statement is a confession both of avoidance and Incapacity. The Pennsylvania “statesman,” with peculiar effrontery, now seeks to hold out the hope the country that if a Republican president and another Republican congress are elected next year, all the existing vexing problems will be solved. We commend to Senator Penrose and his associates the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln: “You may fool seme of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.”