The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1917-06-14
THE DUTY OF CONGRESS

III vi
The American people taken collec
lively are behind the government il
this war and are willing to pay thu
price of winning it in men and money
Intensive loyalty, however, should moi
cause US to forget that the burden viii
fall much more heavily on the people
than upon property.
Eighty per cent of the adult popula.
ton of the United States find it neces.
sary to work with hand or brain, OF
both, for their subsistence. 1t is true
that many of these possess more OF
less property but work is the majo,
part Of their existence-supply power
and property the minor.
Twenty per cent of our adult popu-
lation are fortunate enough to inherit
shrewd enough to accumulate or GRIM
inal enough to steal sufficient of this
worlds goods to enable them to live
from the proceeds of their holdings
without the necessity of either menta-
or physical exertion, or are too old to
work or too lazy to work; so the pop
ulation of the United States can be
divided into two classes workers ant
non-workers.
The workers are the ones that bear
the burdens of government and they
are the ones that must bear the bur-
dens of the war. By their toll they
must not only supply the needs O.
their own subsistence, feed the ma
TONS armies in the field, but also pro-
vide a surplus to feed the non-work-
ers and pay for their costly enter
tainment so they may not become
wearied with the ennui of idieness, and
this with million of their most capa-
BILE producing units withdrawn from
their ranks and transformed from pro-
ducers into consumers and destroyers
Workers must also furnish the man.
power to carry on the war to a TIL
plant conclusion.
The soft-fngered sons of non-work-
ers are skillful to shuttle paste-boards
on poker tables, great at knocking
ivory balls together on smooth sur
face, diligent on the golf links, scien-
tific at twanging the strings of gui-
tar and indefatigable in the con-
sumption of cigarettes, but they show
up slim on long marches; they fall
down on digging trenches and they
lack the physicality, if not the nerve
to charge headlong over crimson bat
tie fields made slippery by the blooo
of the slain.
1t is the men whose sinews are
toughened, whose strength has been
built up by the subsistence-earning
avocation, whose stomachs are accus-
toned to plain provender and whC
have shook hands with hardship, who
must do the fighting. Pampered perS
of fortune are a liability instead of a
asset in any army.
1t is the plain duty of the law-mak-
ers-the Congress-to see that no ex-
cessive "war-profits" are imposed up
on the country's workers.
1t costs no more to raise a ton OF
coal to the mouth of the mine than i.
did before the war, yet the coal baron
have enormously enhanced the pric.
and are talking of still further ac:.
YanceS.
The cost of producing gasoline hai
not been greatly enhanced by the
struggle in Europe but the price has
been nearly doubled since it began.
The monopolistic corporation tina,
controls the supply can get more fo'
it so they demand more. In fact the
producing and distribution of the
commodities most used by the workers
has not been greatly increased nor tn.
supply greatly lessened in the last 4
years, but the average price to the
worker-consumers has been nearl.
doubled. Prices of monopoly controls
ed commodities are not based on cost
of production, and distribution, or on
what they are worth, but on what
amount the people will stand for with
out revolt.
Every cent of difference between
natural and inflated profits goes into
the Golfers of the non-workers. The
government receives none of it; none
of it comes back to the workers; it IS
absorbed by the non-workers.
1t is the plain duty of congress to
take such steps as will eliminate UNI
natural profits, at least during the
war. They have the power vested IN
them to take such action and the time
to do it is now. 1t is the most lilas
portant of all war measures and
they fail to measure up to their duty
or are too cowardly to shoulder tn
responsibility they should be uncer-
enormously retired.