New Britain herald., 1916-09-20


 that liberated the financial credit of the country from bondage and made Uncle Sam the president of the bank
 of the United States; the rural credits and land bank legislation, that eman- cipated the farmers and the agricul- tural interests of the country; the child labor bill, that conserves the future fathers and mothers of the land; the labor laws that give to the tOllng masses a standing and dignity never before known or at least ap
 preciated, all these and many other just and far reaching laws calculated for the. benefit of all the people are fresh in the minds of all.
 Since that time however, the demo-
 cratic party has accomplished other notable things that will make the last congress one of the greatest in the history of our government. A tariff commission rion-partisan tariff com
 missiOn consisting of three democrats and three republicans, has been creat- ed by law. This commission will con- sider the needs of the manufacturing and farming interests off the country according to the needs Of each partic- v}ar industry or group of industries So far as duties or tariffs are con- f scerned. It will act toward those great activities as the Interstate Commerce commission acts toward transporta- i ton matters and, after}full investiga- ton and hearing will recommend to the congress the rates of tariff or duty
 that are fair, in view of what the, diff ference in the cost of production at
 home and abroad may be found to be. The nonpartisan feature takes the: 9rif nJJt of
 of the tariff and that is what the bus
 mess interests of the country need. It is no longer the party football and yet
 the republicans are trying to make it an issue. The man who in view of ! this commission tries to naalH& tlss tar if a party issue can be, justly called a business disturber and kgitator and i should have no standing in the bus-
 ness world or among, Inen who%have
 interest in seeing the country forge ahead along the most enlightened
 lines. He can only be looking Safter selfish interests that care. little for the common good. ..' Legislation has been Ass4kssed and signed by the president that places
 the army and the navy on the road to ! preparedness for all emergencies i that can possibly arise Y That pre-
 paredness program would not .be&hear- ly so great or so costly if the repub- lican party, which had beensin unin- terrupted control of the affairs of the nation for sixteen years h1d done a; small part of it's duty in that regard.
 After that period of neglect it.now has
 the consummate nerve to scriticise the democrats for not completAg in three
 years what the republican..sparty failed to initiate in sixteen, . :. . Tn the closing hours of congress
 when the country was threfened with l the greatest strike in the f1istory, of
 the country or the world, a strike that
 would have resulted iY untold. loss,
 unparalleled misery and proloSStdyz&a ap= l palling loss of life; when ~faiHdre to
 act promptly and decisiyely meant.the l taking of the step that. would .tie1up ! the railroads of the country, the nresi-, 1 dent acted and acted promptly when i all other ss cans to prevent the strike : had been exhausted. The order to strike at 7 o'clock on Labor day, Sept.
 f. had been issued. The railroads had notified the factUties that an embargo
 had been put on all shipments that were not in the freight houseSzat IffidA i night on Thursday, August 3t. The nation was in a panic almost because l
 was a principle that all believed tfn
 there was no way ofagstting it. urilsss 1 both sides would agree. 5Semethfmg
 must be done. and dpie quickly. Leg-
 islation was enacted and the bill AwaS
 signed by the president a. few .hourss i before the strike time and the calanle i ity was averted. @.EEst ,at"
 No one claims the legislation is
 T. aro1 have to be changed. But it. was no time for niceties and technicalities. It was time for action sinply%and the
 congress and the president acted. And now the republican candidate for the presidency and all of. his satellites in their barrenness of all other issues have seized upon this strike prevent ing legislation as the hope of their salvation and, the 1oo~per gent. candi- date proposes to fight it offt on that line. We welcome the issue. sg
 Would MT. Hughes if he were presi- dent have vetoed thd .Adamson bill that prevented the strike? Will he answer? ? Probably notes.-the will simply continue to criticise. ts~
 If that Legislation was Ynconstitu- l tional and woefully bad inf principle | will Candidate Hughes go into the seventy-f1ve districts of the, seventy five republican members of congress who voted for the. bill and urge theHc republicans to defeat those congress-' mem who are up for re-eleetion? Of | course he will not, He would if ~ he were the paragon of political virtue that his friends claim him to be-, More than half of the republican | members of the houA voted for the Adamson bill. Again what is MT. 1 Hughes going to do about them?
 If the strike had taken place as it surely would if that legislation had not been enacted just as it was, MT.