The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1916-10-05

pOftatlOnS from coming .1nt0 the
United States? What the country
needs is more business, not more cur
rency, nor more banks. William Nc
Kinley we'll told the story when, in
1896, he said: "Open the mills in
stead of the mints."
Business Legislation Also A Blunder.
Then President Wilson announced
that a trio of laws to regulate bust
ness would cure the trouble. Appar-
emily he forgot the important fact
that legislation alone is not a panacea
for lack of success and that no act of
Congress, no policy of the admins
tration, can create character. Thrift
cannot be secured by law. Property
rights cannot be disregared and per-
sonal rights remain secure. The
persecution of the one at the present
time means the ultimate violation of
| the other. Production and transpor-
tation cannot be arrayed against each
other if either is to prosper The di-
vidend of the employer cannot be TAX
en- away and the pay envelope of the
wage Garner remain. Profits and
payrolls are inseparable companions
In enacting business legislation the
Democratic party was dealing with
matters beyond their mental limita-
tions and their experience. In their
anxiety to produce more wealth and
different distribution, and in their
ignorance, they took the risk of kill
+, ing the goose which lays the golden
eggs of prosperity. They were cry
stalking into law their Limitations
and their prejudices. Instead Of
furnishing safeguards to industry a
gainst unfair business methods, they
would place shackles upon legitimate
business and enterprise.
1t is not the capitalist that is mot
coeried in this legislation There is the
stockholder, the man or woman who
owns comparatively small number
of shares of stock of American cor
porations. In the United States
there are four million individual
holders of corporation securities. The
average holding of these securities is
about ninety shares. This is the ar
my of men and women whose proper
ty is at stake in the new laws, those
who have invested their savings,
whose small holdings represent the
only fruit of hard toll and rigid eco
nomy. The new business legislation is
filled with radical defects. Its en-
forcement will mean the punish
ment of the innocent with the guilty;
that is, it has the characteristic De-
mocratic quality of lack of construc-
tive wisdom.
Don't Blame it On the War.
1t is the present hope of Democracy
that the European war will so take
up and fill the American mind as to
distract it entirely from thoughts as
to what the party in power has done
in its forty months of rule.
Such a hope is not flattering to
the American people. 1t is not a peo-
pie which is in the habit of permit
ing the accident of today to offset the
premediated offence of yesterday.
The voter of the United States has a
habit or rememering, not of forgett-
ing, especially when he has real rea-
son to keep certain facts indelibly in
mind. A depleted purse is a great
aid to memory. Unfortunately for
the Democratic party, their record
was made up before the war began.
Their economic policies had proven
wrong, their leadership has blunder-
ed and failed, and ignorance and pre-
judice had already stained their le-
gislation.
Partisanship and Spoils.
The business of the country was in
jured by Democratic acts. The
smooth-fowing current of commerce
was checked and the Industrial pros
perity of the nation was diminished.
Their tariff law was benefit to none
but the foreign producer. Their at
tempt to regulate trade resulted only
in hampering it. The record of ad
ministration was the rule of parti-
sanship and spoils. There was pro-
crastination instead of action, and
violent haste where mature consid
Grafton was demanded. No foreign
war cloud is dark enough to hide the
business depression that Democratic