River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-05-02
Our Weekly Letter
From Washington
(By James A. Frear, NJ. CD

The President has put a quietus
on a bill to take from the civil court,
cases of alleged disloyal utterances in
order to turn them over to drumhead
courts martial composed Of army Of
fcers. In strong letter to Senator
Overman he opposed the bill on the
grounds of unconstitutionality and
said it would place this country on a
level with the autocracies of Eu-
rope we are now fighting against.
The bill was prepared by an assist
ant to the Attorney General, who has
since been dismissed from public ser
vice. but the bill was supposed at the
first to have official sanction. The
same proposition was decided by the
Supreme Court during the Civil war
in the "Milligan case" and then held
unconstitutional. Apart from the in
vasion Of legal rights it was shown
that INSCRIPTIONS men whether in
spired by political, personal or other
prejudice, might htus remove OBJ
stcles through a trumped up charge
and without right to trial by jury,
would inaugurate a mdoern Spanish
inquisition.
Senator Knut Nelson advised the
writer that the Judiciary committee
of the Senate was practically unan-
imous against the bill, although men
from Minneapolis and Milwaukee
were there advocating it's passage.
The Presidents letter headed it off
without further incident. We are
in war and freedom of speech and
sabotage will not be permitted to en-
barrass the government in it's con-
duct of the war. Our criminal laws
have been strengthened wherever
suggested and severe guilt will be
imposed wherever guilt is established
but the President is supported by
Congress in opposition to substi-
uting courts martial for jury trial in
charges against civilians. Replying
to press articles published, practi-
cally daily, the Attorney General has
stated that after careful investiga-
ton of thousands of complaints aid
ed by a force of 100000 aides, not one
case of broken glass, poisoned court
plaster, poisoned water, or fires had
been traced to spies or alien enemies.
Independent Investigations by the
American Medical association along
the same line corroborated the Attor-
ney Generals statement. Enemies
at home should be severely punished,
but as one member expressed it, we
now must unite in fighting the COM
mon enemy abroad.
In last weeks letter it was stated
the River and Harbor bill had been
cut over one-half with saving of
between twenty and thirty million
dollars, as it passed the House. A
further reform is noted that whereas
the Senate formerly loaded annual
bills with amendments carrying up
wards of ten millions each, not one
amendment is likely to be added to
the pending bill and possibly some
further waste pointed out in thewrit-
er's minority committee report may
be carved down before the bill be-
comes a law. The House passed a
Senate resolution last week, requir-
ing all male persons in this country
who have since June 5, 1917, attained
the age of t wenty-one years to re-
gister under the CONSUMPTION law
but it placed the new registrants at
the foot of the class in which they
are finally entered by the boards.
The Department of Agriculture
states that Austro- Hungary consumes
four times as many potatoes per cap
tia and Germany eight times as ma
ny per capita as the United States,
When we are seeking to reduce con-
sumption of wheat at home in order
to help our Allies and our soldiers in
France, it is high time that we urged
Wisconsin's great potato crop upon
the attention of the country Once
a great wheat state, Wisconsin is
now the leading dairy state and a.
mong the first in the cultivation OF
potatoes. A congestion in cars due
to the war, affected the marketing
of the crop this year. But the De-
partment says that we must educate
the people to eat more potatoes, and
that will help to win the war and in
cidentally help Wisconsin.
Champ Clark was offered the SEN
atorshiu made vacant by the death