New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-08
The Work of the Session

In anDraiSinC the work Of the session vi
CONGRESS lust ended the customary stand
ard, of measurement fails us. comparisons
with other sessions are futile Take the
matter Of expenditure. Under Speaker
Reed. in 1SS9-1S91, we had the first bllloh
dollar Congress. In 19OS-1909 we had the
first Billion Dollar Session. For 1917-lS
Congress has already appropriated 3d.
SO 600 600 and made additional contract
authorizations amounting to S2'2ll'oVV'-
coo.
The public imagination no longer re
snonds to such figures. We read them
without any real appreciation Of what they
,aeau. They forecast for US an eNpendi-
ture in this war IF it lasts couple OF
wears longer without parallel in the ms
tory Of the nations.
Yet it is not for this vast outpouring or
the country's wealth that the session JUST
ended will be chiefly memorable. 1t Will
be remembered for other things much more
unnrecedented in American experience IN
tho Civil War Congress floated loans enor-
rous for that period and conscrpted
wealth 10 a moderate degree. 1t also made
o half hearted experiment in conscriplng
uan-power. Congress has now made me
craft universal and based our whole mill
,arv system ON it. It has conscrpted
wealth on a scale hitherto undreamed Of.
But in its legislation creating a Federal
food control. regulating prices and assum-
ING general control of the production ana
distribution of war material and the nee
essarjes of life, it has revoluuonzed the
relations hitherto existing between the
government and the citizen. In putting on
Inc government the duty Of regulating IN
dustrv and Of suspeuding protiteerng and
competition in free market 1t has email
lenqed the principle of indivduallsm on
which our economic structure has been
built and which our government OF dis
tributed and uncoordinated powers was
et;lfuuv devised TO foster. The legislation
&C this session has been in its vital parts
an indictment Of the feebleness and lneih-
cheney Of the general American scheme Of
government.
II would be more than hattering to Con-
GROSS 70 assume that what it did along
these lines il did with a genuine apprecla-
ton Of what IL was doing-wlth a deHo-
crate destructive or constructive intent
Put il is evident that Congress has acted
throughout under the pressure Of q VIII
other than its own. This Congress differs
little in character from the Congress which
nreceded il. II met in April last IN a
dazed condition Of mind-in much the same
condition in which the SiXty-fourth Con
gress had muddled through the first two
wears Of the European war 1t had offered
no leadership when the country faced the
] creat task Of preparing for war. It was
not competent to offer leadership when war
caught US unprepared.
War is a great enlightener. Ii turns to
>foolishness the wisdom Of statesmen. From
August. 1914. to April, 1917, Congress and
the Administration had refused TO learn
any of the lessons which the war was
driving home i'm Europe. They opposed
conscription; they opposed adequate prep
GRAFTON of any sort They hoped to isolate
the United States from contact with the
war or with any of its political and eco
ionic Refreshments They aimed at pre-
serving intact the old American order
when similar orders .G Europe were being
sent TO the melting pot.
l. was q vain imagining. Confronted by
war and Its inexorable logic, our govern
ment had TO reverse itself. Necessity and
the popular conviction that the experience
of the nations which had been in the fur
mace Of war must guide us under similar
conditions drove both the Administration
and Congress to face about. I'm ITS war
looisla.ap Cout7cSs has submitted rather
than originated. 1t could hardly be expect
"a TO realize the fun implications Of the
revolutionary legislation forced ON 1t by
cur entrance into war.
In the food regulation act Congress
.,ruc, 2 crushing blow at protitecring IN
war material and i'm the necesSaries OF life
Rut proftcering under free competition on
the surface appearance OF free compctI
ion. has been the cornerstone OF our "ho''
ccoromic system. We have accepted IRON
JeFerson's time the doctrine OF govern
mental non-interference with individual
ism in all branches Of industry and social
activity. We have reinforced Jefferson
teachings with the teachings OF Johh
Stuart Mil. We have never sought eN-
cent through unavoidable antitrust laws
T., restrain profteering.. Yet under the
pressure Of war conditions which re-
onrc the development of national efficiency