Norwich bulletin., 1914-09-14

urged that when this programme is divided into three parts-part one pro- vided for a federal trade commission with inquisitorial powers to examine l into the private business of all cor porations and individuals engaged in | interstate commerce and to decide, | without any rule prescribed for their 1 guidance. according to their own mo- | tion from day to day, what is fair and what is unfair competition in com merce. There is nothing in this bill which will help business. There is | nothing in it which will afford any advice, guidance or consolation to any
 puzzled business man as to whether
 what he is about to do is lawful or un- | lawful It's sole object is to examine | into the private affairs of all persons conducting an interstate business, and | to prohibit whatever the commission
 may consider to be unfair.
 Act a Burden Rather Than a Relief. | Part two of the programme is enti- | tied "An act to supplement existing | laws against unlawful restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes"
 The title of this bill was no doubt de- | signed to convey the impression that l congress was passing some legislation against the trusts, but an examination | of the bill will reveal that it's provis- | ions are directed against nersons and l corporations engaged in commerce ir- | i or not.
 1 The most casual inspection of the | bill by any lawyer or any person com potent to form a judgment will satisfy him that the bill dealing with the most | intricate mechanism of commercial transactions fairly bristles with com | plicated legal questions, and that in- l stead of removing any interrogation | point will obtrude before the puzzled | gaze of the business men of this coun try interrogation points at the end of I every paragraph.
 | Part three of the legislative pro- | gramme is a. bill conferring upon the | interstate commerce commission the authority to regulate the issuance of | securities by railroads. Possibly some l legislation in relation to this subject will be necessary and proper in the | near future, but the bill as drawn and l reported is most vicious in several
 particulars and, if passed in it's pres
 ent shape, would do more damage than i good.
 | I appeal to the mate common sense of the thinking people of the state of lConnecticut, is this the time, in view | of the fundamental changes already l made in the last IS months in this country. considering the strain under 1 which the entire range of the busi- | ness, financial and commercial inter | estS of the country have labored with i the institutions of the old world | crdSnlnS-ln the name or common | sense, is this the time to further tinker | with the laws governing the transac- l ton of business in this country? Has not the democratic party ex- perimented enough with the vitals of | business for one session of congress? :? | Is it so that this mass of ill-digested, | intricate and alf-understood legisla- | tion cannot be postponed until next | December, at the meeting of the regu-
 lar session of congress. without dam | age to the country? What is the goad l that is spurring the president on in his | insistence upon inflicting these addi- tional troubles upon the business of the country? Is it that he fears that after | the people have spoken at the polls on the 3d of next November his party majority in congress will be less sub- servient? It is that he sees the hand writing on the wall and knows that, | unless he forces his legislative pro-
 gramme through before the members of the present congress have taken the verdict of the people upon their rec ords, he could not get it through at all?
 Time to Gall a Halt.
 While members of congress have su- pinely done the presidents bidding un- der protest and against their own judg-
 ment, and against the remonstrances of their own constituents, they never | theless will be held responsible by their constituents. Ever since the democratic party came into power it has promised the country that it was on the eve of the greatest era of prosperity that the country had ever seen. Every measure which 1t has passed was to be the welcome harbinger which should ush- CT in the long deferred but much de- sired boom. Sadly and reluctantly the democracy itself is becoming con- 1 vinced that something not hitherto
 understood by it ails the country What is this mysterious trouble? It has been variously diagnosed as due l to conspiracies of the interests and
 malefactors of various kinds. The president says that it is purely "psy- | chological." What is the true reason | Why is the country living from hand | to mouth? Why is no mill extending it's plant? Why is there no rush of new capital into the productive indus | tries of this great and powerful ma
 ton? Why were projects curtailed | and plans for new ventures returned l to the pigeonholes? Why have our | most optimistic and courageous Amer
 ican business men hesitated to enter | into new ventures while capital laid idle in its repositories? Why did all l these conditions of arrested develop ment and delayed activity exist long before the breaking out of the Euro Il pean war last month? Why is it that nobody has made any money?
 The Cause is Lack of Confidence. II I will tell you in few words. New
 enterprises halt and industrial &C.,
 tivity hesitates because the business
 men of the country universally dis
 trust and fear the democratic party
 and it's policies. It has become firmly
 imbedded in their minds that the gov
 ernment at Washington is hostile to
 them and their enterprises. When the president says that this condition of
 dry-rot and distemper is purely "psy- chologicar' he uses but another form
 of words to state that confidence has gone.
 Lack of confidence cannot be cured by few frigid, skillfully arranged words, nor by the beautifully balanced and classical phrases of the academi- clan or the scholastic.
 The business men of this country intuitively feel that the policies of the HI administration at NaShingtnn are m