The daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Leflore Co., Miss.) 1916-1919, 1916-12-05
WILSON'S ADDRESS
BEFORE CONGRESS
Concluded from Page One.)
ters or any unnecessary postponemer

tiers or any unnecessary postponement
of the action upon them.
Not only does the Interstate Com
merce Commission now find it prac-
tically impossible, with its present
membership and organization, to per-
form its great functions promptly and
thoroughly but it is notunlikely that
It may presently be found advisable
to add to its duties still others equal
ly heavy and exacting. It must first
be perfected as an administration in
strument.
The country cannot and should not
consent to remain any longer exposed
to profund industrial disturbances for
lack Of additional means of arbitration
and Cancellation which means the Con-
gress can easily and promptly supply.
And all will agree that there must
be no doubt as to the power Of the
Executive to make immediate and un-
interrupted use of the railroads for
the concentration of the military for
ces of the nation whenever they are
needed and whenever they are needed.
This is a program Of regulation,
prevention, and administrativeeficien-
cy which argues it's own case in the
mere statement of it. With regard to
one of it's items, the increase in the
efficiency Of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, the House of Representa-
tives has already acted; it's action
needs only the concurrence of the Sen
ate.
l would hesitate to recommend, and
I dare say the Congress would hesti-
tate to act upon the suggestion should
l make it, that any man in any accu-
patton should be obliged by law to con
tue in an employment which he de-
sired to leave. To pass a law which
forbade or prevented the individual
workman to leave his work before re-
ceiving the approval of society in do
ing so would be to adopt a new prin-
ciple into our jurisprudence which l
take it for granted we are not pre-
pared to introduce. But the proposal
that the operation of the railroads Of
the country shall not be stopped or
interrupted by the concerted action Of
organized bodies Of men until a public
investigation shall have been institu-
ed which shall make the whole ques-
ton at issue plain for the judgment
Of the opinion of the nation is not to
propose any such principle. 1t is
based upon the very different princi-
pie that the concerted action of pow
erful bodies of men shall not be per-
mitted to stop the industrial processes
of the nation, at any rate before the
nation shall have had an opportunity
to acquaint itself with the merits of
the case as between employee and
employer, time to form it's opinion up
on an impartial statement Of the met
its, and opportunity to consider all
practical means of Cancellation or abb
bitration. I can see nothing in that
proposition but the justi6able safe
guarding by society of the necessary
processes Of it's very life. There is
nothing arbitrary or unjust in it I'M
less it be arbitrary and unjustly done.
1t can and should be done with a full
scrupulous regard for the interests
and liberties of all concerned as we'll
for the permanent interests of So
ciety itself.
Three matters of capital Importance
await the action of the Senate which
have already been acted upon by the
House of Representatives: the bill
seeks to extend greater freedom
If combination to those engaged in
promoting the foreign commerce of
The country than is now thought by
some to be legal under the terms Of
The laws against monopoly; the bill
proposing a more thorough and sys-
regulation Of the expenditure
If money in elections, commonly call
I'd the Corrupt Practices Act. need
lot offer my advice that these meas
Tres be enacted into law. Their ur-
sently lies in the manifest circum- v
tances which render their adoption at v
his time not only opportune but nee v
'ssary. Even delay would seriously n
eopard the interests of the country +
nd of the government. =.
Immediate passage of the bill to
egulate the expenditure of money in
l~ections may deem to be less neces-
airy than the immediate enactment
f the other measures to which I re-
er; because at least two years will b.
lapse before another election in is
Which federal Offices are to be filled; ia
ut it would greatly relieve the public
hind if this important matter were a,
with while the circumstances P,
nd the dangers to the public morals TT
t the present method Of obtaining la
nd spending campaign funds stand pr
lear under recent observation and the W
Of expenditure can be frank to
I studied in the light of present ex- sa
erience; and a delay would have the tn
lrther very serious disadvantage of su