The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1918-09-20
Washington Letter.

Oeudtc OOIlfnlCCet Iiidt hao oSSh AL
vestigating the subject, Senator Reed
Smoot of Utah has succeeded in hav'
ing 10000 additional copies of the
report of the committee printed fol-
general distribution. They will be
Immediately available to the Senators
in answering the numerous requests
for the document that are being re.
ceived from constituents.
That the Republicans of Congress
always are ready to go the President
one better in taking steps for the ear.
" and successful termination of the
war is evidenced by the amendment to
the draft bill offered by Senator AL.
bert B. Fall of New Mexico. Mr.
Fall would put every able-bodied man
In the country under the control OF
the President of the United States
with power to put every man to work
in industries that he may deem es-
eential, or to call them into the active
military service. Sixty years was
fixed as the maximum age limit for
the application of the amendment.
Senator Fall did not seriously believe
that his proposition would be adopted.
He offered it merely to carry out his
theory, expressed on many occasions,
that the Commander-in-C Chief of our
military forces should be clothed with
absolute power over the resources OF
the Nation. No Democratic voice was
raised in support of the amendment,
but on the record vote by which it was
defeated nine Republicans recorded
themselves as favoring the drastic ac-
ton proposed by Senator Fall.
Republican Congressman ]. Hamp-
ton Moore of Pennsylvania has made
another attempt to get some sort Of
Congressional supervision over TIE ex-
penditure by the Executive Depart
ments of the enormous appropriations
that Congress has granted. In the
Ways and Means Committee, of which
he is a leading member, Mr.. Moore
tried to attach to the new revenue bill
an amendment creating joint Con-
gressional Committee to cooperate
with the President in an effort to eli
inmate some of the waste and extrav-
agance that have distinguished the
conduit of the war up to the present
time. of course Mr.. Moore's sugges-
ton did not receive the approval Of
his Democratic colleagues on the COM
mittee, who have consistently voted
in the House against all similar prop
ositions in the past. 1t did, however,
serve to notify the country that the
Republicans in Congress are alive to
the situation, and are doing what they
can to insure a fair return for the
money taken from the people by tax
alton.
BY the enterprise of Chicago DEM
ocrat the Mothers Mission" of his
district has been allotted page of
the Congressional Record upon which
to spread their reasons why England
should grant independence to Ireland.
1t is estimated that it costs about $50
to print and distribute every page of
the Record, but that is seldom consid-
cred by members of the party in pow
err when they are seeking political adj
vantage at home. In the present in
stance it is at least questionable
whether such sentiments should be
publicly printed in any form, certain
ly not as a part of the proceedings of
Congress.
The theories of government opera
ton and ownership of public utilities,
criticised by the opponents of the Ad-
ministration as socialistic, and de-
Tended as war necessities, are being
seized upon by the avowed Socialists
Of municipalities, and their adoption
urged. Now we have the head of the
Socialist group in the New York City
Board Of Aldermen coming forward
with the proposition that the transit
system of the city be municipality op-
Grated. His argument is the familiar
one that when profits do not have to
be earned for private owners then the
employees can be paid higher wages
without an increase in fares or other
income. The fallacy of that conten-
ton does not occur to the average
citizen. If he stopped to think he
would know that the public must fur
nish in taxes the sums necessary to
purchase and operate public utilities,
money that is now provided by the pri-
vate owners who are paid interest for
its use. Precisely the same reasoning
should be applied to the larger trans
actions of the Government, when the
railroads and telephones as a whole
are taken over.
Few Thoughtful people will seriously
question the statement made by the
manager of the Handley-Page Aero
plane Works, of London, that "the war
could be won in 80 days if the Allies
could suddenly throw 10000 bombing
airplanes into the vital sectors Of the
Western front" There might be some
difference of opinion as to the length
of time it would take to end the war,
but the 30-day estimate may be ac-
cepted as an approximations method
of indicating the quickness with which
a victory would be won if we had the
airplanes.
The airplanes are the eyes of the
armies. Ten thousand allied airplanes
would drive the Huns to earth and the