Norwich bulletin., 1914-01-24
SEES SMALL HOPE IN
 PRESIDENTS REFORMS. Senator Mclean Says They Are Same Old Remedies for Same Old Dis eases.


 Senator Mclean of Connecticut has issued the following statement regard ing President Wilson's last message:
 IT the democratic party can do any thing to restore confidence in the busi- ness world, I want to see 1t done The presidents latest is an improvement upon it's predecessors, and if he will let his party in congress deliberate and vote It's convictions. some benencial legislation may be had sincerely hope the president will realize the doubtful expediency of permanently combining the executive and legisla- tive branches of the government in hlS own proper person. have no fault to find with his methods or his eau cuses up to date. The republican party got the tariffs and some other things little too high and they had to be let down a bit. The people looked to the president to hasten the proceed ings. But in statecraft as in all other things, extremes are bound to follow each other. and business is constantly plnched and frightened in the process. ] hope the president will bear in mind that the G. o. P. is now punished, purged and penitent minority in Wash ington and the democratic majority would, 1 am sure, be glad to have the president restore to congress it's con stitutional functions for brief period.
 The presidents roseate and optimis- tic views of the future, as expressed in his message. read well, and we will all hope that he will prove to have a stronger than normal vision. but up to date the goal of promise has been flying goal. and my opinion is that the adult wicked will need more or less legislative attention after MT. Wilson has been gathered to private life i'll 1917.
 His first demand for the abolition of interlocking directorates is one of Sem ator La Follette's pet specifics. It Is line in principle, but it is easy to see that nice, respectable dummies will be at once substituted for the big and bad directors, and the game will proceed as before.
 President Wilson's second remedy is to consist of an industrial commission to act as an arm of the department of justice, with full visitorial and advisory powers in the regulation of big busi- ness. This idea is very old. It was the central plank in MT Roosevelts platform in 1912 and in my address to the republican state convention of that year 1 singled it out as the one plank 1 could heartily approve.
 The president next insists that bad men are responsible for bad business, and not the article produced, and that these men and not the business should be punished. This was President Tafts favorite sermon, and no fault can be found with it.
 The presidents final recommenda- ton that congress forge master key for the Sherman act-that is, add a chapter of definitions defining all the acts that will constitute a violation of the law, so that the supreme court will not need to use it's brains in the future. but can lay the pending record upon the bench, push or pull out a sentence to fit the crime. and pass on
 As the law now stands, it prohibits everything that ought to be prohibited
 fl,iv hot iv, nd conscience is monopoIistic the man who tries to limit or extend indefinitely will never finish his job, and congress, once it begins to add to or limit an all inclusive definition. will never finish it's work.
 Certainly we find nothing new in President Wilson's message. On the contrary, we find the same old disease and the same old remedies, but we do find unusual confidence in the mind of the doctor, and let us hope that the patients recovery will be more rapid in the future than it has been in the past. The president should remember that the country was very prosperous when he took it in hand. and it is very far from prosperous now Business men are determined to survive a very unjust and spotty tarif if they can. The press is squirting all the optimism into the situation that it can beg or borrow. Those who call attention to the real situation are put down as treasonous calamity howlers.
 In April last the president told us with great assurances and with many fine sentences that lower tariffs would destroy monopolies and restore real competition. It now develops that the middleman has been able to buy things a little cheaper and sell at the same old prices. If the low tariffs help any one in the long run, it will be the monopolist and big producer. pr. Will son realizes now that his tariff and currency bills have failed to bring him to the end of his journey. Indeed, the country seems to be much farther from the millennial conditions promised in April last than it was at the time the promise was made. But this is a great country It has survived one demo- cratic administration since 1860, and have no doubt it will survive the pres-