The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1917-02-16
WHAT THE LAW MAKERS ARE
DOING IN WASHINGTON CITY
Senator POindexter on the Job Canada
Profits By Democratic Free
Trade Policy.


during November. That made the
total of our imports from our northern
neighbor for the first II months OF that
year $213, 100000 an increase of $53,
900, 900 over the 1915 period, S62,
100000 over the 1914 period, and
$88,000,000 over the 1913 period.
nine months of which was under the
Republican protective tariff law. 1t
looks as if the Wilson Underwood law
has been good pickings for the Canucks,
but their gratitude will never reach the
point where they will permit our
products to enter their market at any
thing lower than protective rates. 1t
is one-sided affair, particularly hurtful
to our farmers. who, in their excitement
over war profits. are apparently un-
conscious of the shin skinning which
Canada is giving them. The war can
not last indefinitely, but Canada's sales
to US after the war will, under the
present tariff policy, be limited only by
her own desires and ability to produce.
Are we going to prepare for competition
with Canada and other countries be-
fore this war Jag is over, or postpone
tariff revision until postwar depression
has put our industrial liver out OF
whack7
The first real step to test the opinion
OF the country in the latest German
crisis came, appropriately enough, from
a Republican Senator, representing a
Pacific Coast State and thoroughly
imbued with the spirit Of progresslveism
which the Republican party stands for.
Senator Poindexter's proposal for the
immediate construction Of hundred
additional submarines went directly to
the heart of the situation and met the
issue of the German plan in terms OF
adequate preparedness. The fate OF
the proposal rests, Of course, with a
Democratic majority; but there is no
question that Senator Poindexter voiced
the active opinion OF the nation in
advocating a speedy increase OF our
submarine force in the faces of a
situation which brooks no delay.
The anti-alien land bills in the
legislatures of Idaho and Oregon will
not be passed. The determination of
this country, in every State OF the
Union, is to do nothing which will add
to the gravity Of our International
relations. That these bills are within
our rights and that they are not more
drastic than the existing statutes OF
Japan, against whose subjects they are
chiefly aimed, is not to be questioned.
But there are times when to do all the
things which are a nations of right
leads to consequences which are un-
thinkable. This is one Of those times
Whatever OF irritation and Of aggression
may come now should come from the
other side.
Congressman Augustus P. Gardner
of Massachusetts, deprecates the raising
of the cry of sectionalism by certain
Democrats who insist that the North
should pay most OF the taxes because
of the larger share Of appropriations
which, they claim, is given that section
of the country. Mr.. Gardner, however,
is not a man who avoids fight on the
plea that he is not prepared for the
conflict. He calls the attention Of the
southern democrats to the fact that if
Congress performed its duty under the
fourteenth amendment to the
constitution it would reduce the
representation OF the south in congress
and the electoral college. If you
want to force this talk about
sectionslism", he emphatically de-
clared, that is what is going to
happen. In the opinion OF Mr..
Gardner the democrats in the north
will not support their party associates
in the south when that time comes,
but will join with other northerners in
forcing obedience to the terms Of the
constitution.
The motion to pass the immigration