Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1916-10-28

ana chliu In TINS country. IL pass
ed the last Congress by an over
whelming majority, and was Veto
ed by the President. 1t came into
this Congress and passed the
House with an overwhelming ma
jority. IL came into the Senate,
and there IL lay unmolested for
months. Some of us came to the
conclusion that the bill should
have a hearing. We realized that
when this war IL over that the
Iaboring men of this country will
be brought I'm direct competition
with the millions of men who re-
turn from the armies and enter
into the fields of industry, either
In Europe or immigrate to this
country. When the millions OF
men return from these armies
they will find their homes destroy
ed, their old friendships broken,
and they will naturally seek for
new fields and they will turn their
attention to the great Republic of
the West.
When the war broke out In Eu-
rope 500 thousand working men
left this country and went back
to Europe. IL will be nothing
exceptional at all for million,
or two million, or even tire mil
lion of the dissatisfied Europeans
TO return to this country at the
close of the war to bid for the
places held by American working
men. There Is not anything OF
more importance to laboring men
of this country than that u strict
immigration bill be put upon the
statute books of the United States.
(Applause.)
There is another thing; The debt In
Europe in the belligerent nations has
run up to about fifty or sixty billions
of dollars. 1t will likely, before this
war concludes, run up to seventy-five
billions or one hundred billions an
almost incomprehensible and super
human burden resting upon the great
struggling millions. The working men
will understand this. They may not be
sufficiently able as financiers to see or
understand how much II Is, or work
out schemes by which II can be salts
fed and liquidated, but they will see
there this great incomprehensible bur-
den resting upon them and their child
rem and their children's children for
generations to come. They will un-
derstand II, and take my word for It,
you will find upon the American shore
within six months after this war closes
not only hundreds of thousands OF
these men, but you will find In time
millions of them crowding into this
country to take the place of the Am
erican labor, or bid him down In his
wage.
Voice from the audience: You are
right.)
(Applause)
And therefore some of us came to
the conclusion that there was no rea-
son why that bill should not be passed
by the Senate.
CHILDREN AND PARENTS.
You remember that we passed what
is known as the child labor bill, and
our good friends upon the opposite
side have taken great deal of credit
for the passage of that child labor
bill. | was in favor of 1t. but suppose
my friends, that you take the child
out of the work shop suppose tha'
you take the child out of the factory
and send 1t home to mother and IA
Their whose job has been taken away
by a foreigner or foreign competitor
have you served that child's interests
Have you been protecting the labo
and the job of the father and mothe
so that they could educate the child
If not, you haven't served II by takini
1t out of the factory. You have rathe
/ turned It loose upon the street to be
come vagrant, and enter into crime
and while | sympathiZe with the chile
who may be working In the factor!
under environments which may arres
its development and destroys its wo
manhood or manhood, as between thu
child working in the factory and thu
child turned loose upon the streets ant
forced into vagrancy, my more pro
found sympathy Is with the latter, anC
therefore | said that | will offer thii
bill as an amendment to the chile
labor bill. What happened? They put
Into operation their secret caucus. Thai
immigration bill never could have been
killed in the open. Out of SO Senators
in that body, SS of them were in favor
of this immigration bill. Had 1t been
permitted to come to a vote, 1t would
either be q law today, and the laboring
Americans would be protected, or II
would have been vetoed, and In my
judgment passed over the veto. CAP
plause.)
But they took II into caucus, upon
whose record the sun never shines
whose vote no man knows concerning
any particular individual, where re-
sponsibility disappears like the mist
before the sun, and while they would
not have voted against 1t in the open,
they took It into caucus, and killed 1t,
and by resolution resolved 1t should
not be considered at this session. Here,
my friends, is the unfairness of your
caucus system, and though touching
the welfare of every man who earns
his bread by the sweat of his brow,
this bill was killed in the secret re-
cesses of the caucus. | take the liberty
of saying, regardless Of who 1t hits or
hurts, whether Republican or Demo
crat. a representative who has not the
| courage and conviction to take his po-
sition in the open upon any question
is too cowardly to represent a people
| in the Senate of the United States
! (Applause.)
WASTE OF PUBLIC FUNDS.
Now, my friends, one more plank;
one more plank which has been full
filled--kept, and then ] will pass on to
other subjects. I'VE denounce the
profiigate waste of the money wrunR
from the people by oppressive taxa
| ton through the lavish appropriations
! of recent Republican Congresses
which have kept taxes high and re-
duced the purchasing power Of the
peoples toll" It reads like the ten
| commandments I'VE demand re-
turn to that simplicity and economy
which BELTS a democratic government,
and reduction in the number of use
less offices, the salaries Of which drain
the substance of the people"
Now will you permit me to read
again from the Presidents speech at
Shadow Lawn. He says: THE Re-