Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1920 — CONGRESS HAS SORRY RECORD [ARTICLE]

CONGRESS HAS SORRY RECORD

Bent upon adjournment or recess eajjy in June, the present Republican congress will have written a sorry record. To date, of general legislation promised the people in the 1918 campaign, it has passed a railroad bill. Granting that it will pass a budget law and soldier bonus bill prior to june, neither of which is yet certain, its record will consist of three general pieces of legislation, added to the usual annual supply bills. It will have done nothing to adjust the tariff and revenue law inequalities; it will not have solved the problem of what to do with the merchant marine and will have done nothing to encourage foreign trade; it will have neglected its opportunity to create land settlements * for discharged soldiers, and will have done nothing for the encouragement of better relations between capital and labor. In a sentence, it will have done little but criticize the administration for what it has done and for what it has tried to do, but has been unable to do because congress blocked the way, and it has been in session approximately one year. The people will hardly be fooled again by such promises as were made by the Republican leaders in the campaign of 1918. < Fair-minded Republicans admit, as all of them know, that the cost-plus contract basis employed by the war department during the war was the only way in which army camps could be constructed in time to meet the needs of the fast-growing army in the fall of 1917. As declared by Senator Sterling, Republican, in the

senate recently, it was the only way in which results could be produced quickly. Under the stress of war, the American people wanted quick results, and cared nothing about cost, so long as it meant the saving of the lives of American youths. After spending nine motnhs investigating the building of army camps, the house Republican subcommittee asked the department of Justice to make another investigation. Not finding any specific instances oi wrongdoing, it now asks the department of justice to do what it could as easily have been asked to do nine months ago, and without the expenditure of thousands of dollars incurred by the committee. Several hundred rooms in Atlantic City hotels, costing $lO or more each per day, were engaged for a big pow-wow of Republican writers, mo-tion-picture men, artists, etc. There is curiosity to know whether the national committee is paying the bill, or whether it will come out of some of the huge slush funds Senator Borah has been talking about. Johnson, Borah, Kenyon and the other insurgents against “old guard” bossism are beginning to lodge protests against the reported selection of Senator Lodge for official “keynoter” at the Chicago convention. General Wood was colonel of the Rough Riders in Spanish war days, but Hi Johnson and Bill Borah are, of the opinion that he is now tractable enough to “stand hitched.” The Republican keepers have done nothing to remove the Newberry “white elephant” from their menagerie.