The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1915-03-11
THE sIxTy-THIRD CONGRESS

ued in session almost continuously
throughout the two-year period
What else it has done to give it dis
tinction will depend upon the YER
dict of time.
There is but N measure that was
made into law by the sixty-third con-
gress that is sure to rank in the
first class of national legislation, and
that is the new currency law. The
sure by years of agitation and by
long investigation by a special com
mission headed by Senator Aldrich.
had already been worked out in a
general way. President Wilson is
entitled to great credit for furnish
ing the driving power to put the law
through.
Much was said by President Will
son in his presidential campaign and
in the early months of his term
about the great changes he proposed
to work in the business world. He
talked a great deal about the new
freedom which-swas to be given to
those engaged in business. This
propaganda has never been taken as
seriously by any one else as it was
by its author. Congress passed his
antitrust bill and his trade commits
sion bill because something in the
way of business legislation seemed
politically necessary and the Wilson
plan appeared harmless. But
there are no business men who have
caught sight of a new era Of the par
ticular sort of liberty to which the
4 HIGSluGAt IClCIGs HG CllltI uSCIul-
ness OF the trade commission prom
Uses to be as an advisory board in
tariff legislation. BY comforting this
task upon this board, the president
and his party convicted themselves
Iof insincerity, for they promptly
abolished the tariff commission
created under the Taft administra-
ton. This reversal of position by
the president and the Democratic
majority in congress is more signi-
Democrats have always argued that
they were opposed to any kind of a
tariff board because they would not
admit that the tariff should do any
thing but provide Its pro-
tective features they have always
affected to scorn. Therefore, when
we find the Dmocrats endowing a
commission with the power and duty
of advising in the determination OF
n protective tariff. it means that af-
ter all these decades of opposition
they have come to recognize the pro
priety of a protective tariff. The
same change of party attitude was to
be found in the presidents recon-
mendations for the new tariff law
and also in the law itself. for 1t did
continue in operation the protective
principle.
Probably the chief fault of the
sixty-third congress was its refusal
to practice economy. The tariff law
made certain a large reduction in fed
eral ven and yet the same SEES
sion that passed it created a new
high record for appropriations. Since
ltnen the WIZ Cdlue On, lhahiAS uiS-
turbance for business the world
over. The president refers to this
lin his statement of yesterday, when
he says:
"The circumstances created by the
war have put the nation to a special
test, a test of it's true character and
its se~lf-control."
Business concerns all over the
country have been obliged to curtajl
expenditures and forego profits be-
cause of the effects of the war. But
congress went blithely on its way of
extravaganza. The president himself
in his message of last December vir-