Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-27

Washington, d. c., June Ex-senator
Knox. of Pennsylvania, to-day replied
to the critics of the administration $
food control bill by declaring 1t is
constitutional and necessity and ad-
vocating its immediate passage. The
speech was a full answer to those
senators who doubted the advisability
OF comforting such tremendous pow
ers upon the President and to those
who doubt Congress right to delegate
those powers.
For myself entertaining no doubt
as TO the necessity of such legisla-
tion, l shall not demand that it fully
satisfy a hypercritical examination"
said Senator Knox. II believe the
executors of the law will mollify its
enforcement to avoid unnecessary
hardships and by liberal construction
of its spirit see that IL accomplishes
the purposes of its creation"
To those objectors who are dis
turbed about the constitutionality of
the bill Senator Knox gives the as
sulance: Upon constitutional grounds
there need be no qualms. The Con-
stitution imposes no limitations upon
the power of preservation"
Advisory Council
a feature of Mr.. Knox's speech was
his suggestion that the President, in
addition to his Council of National
Defense, establish an advisory coun-
ell from among the members of the
Senate and House. Not as a separate
body, but as participants in council
with the Executive, should Congress
be represented in the conduct OF the
war" he said. only in this way will
unity of direction be preserved"
The suggestion had been brought
forward previously and a joint reso-
luton is now pending in Congress
for the establishment of a war coun-
ell to advise with the President. 1t is
possible that Senator KnoX's advocacy
of the idea may cause the President
to accept it. Congress no doubt will
readily enact the necessary legisla-
tion if the President will consent TO
it. Mr.. Knox proposes the matter TO
the President in these words:
AT this critical time. when common
council and universal cooperation are
declared by the President to be abso-
lutely indispensable. the Executive
should be glad to have at his constant
disposal the mature governmental eX-
perience, the close touch with the
people and the trained judgment of
the Congress if only this could be
done in a practical way"
Closer Cooperation
Closer cooperation between the
President and Congress in the con-
duct of the war was advocated in his
speech. He urged that Congress-or
leaders in it-form part of the war
council so that the executive and Con-
gress would be in intimate touch in
all the grave affairs of the war. He
continued:
Among the war powers already
invoked the first in Importance and
potentiality is found in the embargo
provisions of the espionage bill, now
become law. Through this act the
American people are to be protected
against the dissipation of their food
and other of the sinews of war in any
manner determined by any considera-
tion whatever other than that or the
vital national aim-speedy and COM
plete victory in this war. This power
of embargo, wisely and boldly exer-
cised. should also serve to hasten the
day when many more peoples, still
neutral through fear or Indifference
and not through conviction, shall join
the powers arrayed for freedom and
civilization in a death struggle with
ruthless militarism and the lust for
world dominion.
Can Know Our Friends
THE Presidents new power to con-
troll exports will at last end the alb
surdity of our supplying the necessi-
ties of life to countries which find it
possible to export to Germany SINH
lar or corresponding necessities. Ac-
tually and potentially, America and
her allies are and will be able,
through tariff arrangements and in
many other ways, to show that they
remember their friends, and that they
remember also who it was that gave
comfort to their enemies. or who sat
by mute and cold when liberty and
civilization were at stake.
In such a struggle, economic and
political and moral pressure upon neu-
trails is not to be overlooked as a
weapon. BY such means and by the
righteousness of our just cause we
with our allies may so consolidate the
opinion and the moral sense of man.
kind that Prussianlsm must inevita bly,
bow before the true springs of civil
iZation.
I'VE have provided for government
tai control of the priority of ship
ments within our own borders by the
Newlands bill, which passed the Sem
ate on the fifteenth instant. In this
protected against the paralysis of
their sinews of war by any cIoggtng
of the arteries of circulation by mat
ter obstructive of the vigor OF the
body polite. In this way the Amer
lean people will be protected against
any waste of their labor or of pre-
cious time in the transportation of
nonessentials at the expense of those
thing the prompt distribution of
which is a life-and- death matter to
the national aim, speedy and COM
plete victory.
To Protect People
I'VE are now asked to pass a food
control bill. To fail to do so, after
what we have already done, would be
to adopt a conclusion while denying
it's major premise. BY a food control
law the American people are to be
protected against the dissipation, in
inadequacy of production, in wasteful
methods of dealing and marketing,
in thoughtless, eXtravagant consump-
tion, of those things which are the
BASIC necessity in all we may do for
the winning of the war, as we'll as for
our very national life itself, namely.
food.
What avails it to prevent the waste