Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-06-05

operated as business propositions, they |
have not figured in Wall st. They |
were equipped to perform their duty to |
the public and to their government |
in the hour Of need. If they had all |
been like Them 1t would not have been |
necessary for the president to appoint |
director of railroads.
MAKING PRIVATE FORTUNES.
But there were scores and scores,
aye, hundreds of railroads in the United
States that had simply been manip-
ulated to make private fortunes, to
buy princes for daughters private
yachts-to speculate in Wall ST., and
they were in a condition Of helpless
ness; and in order to get the work
done, the president had to take them
over. The president knew that it
meant millions of money to rehabili
tate these roads; he knew it meant
time to fit them into condition for
service; and SO the bill that he sent
to the senate provided that the roads
| should be taken. that adequate COM
pensation should be given for their
use. He took the average Of their
earnings for a period of three years,
one lean year, one medium year, and
earnings be based on that average be
guaranteed, that the government
should keep the roads until congress
should decreee their return. Why did
he wish it left that way? So that,
after the war was over-during the
war there would be only expenditure,
outlay, investment and burdens, but
after the war was over, after the
| 11-
tributed, after the men returning from
France had been placed-in due time,
| when congress felt that it was an OPP
perfume time to return the roads, that
congress would return them.
LOBBYISTS BUSY.
1.-The president felt that the roads
should be kept until such time as the
high public purpose had been SUBJ
served. But that did not suit the rail-
| road interests 1t did not appeal to
Wall ST.. not bit; there was conster-
nation among the lobbyists in WASH
| ington. They rushed up to the senate:
| We have got to have a time limit, we
| have got to fix the limit beyond which
| the government cannot hold the roads
a minute, whether it has gotten it's
money back or not
And one of the men who voted not
to support the president. but against
the presidents policies, and against
the interests of the nation-because
surely it was for the best interests of
the nation that that question should be
kept open-who voted to fix the time
limit-that was the Hon. Knute Mel
son. His biography would read better
without that vote than it will read with
| it,
| And still they say that it it essen-
tial to the welfare of the country that
he should be returned to support the
president.
AFTER WAR PROBLEMS.
After the war this nation will have
greater problems than she aver had
to face before. We will be getting
back millions of men who have been
in the employ of the government They
will be suddenly thrust upon the ma
ton, to house, to feed and to en-
ploy. Do you not think it is proper
for us to provide for that situation, to
have little vision. I think the presi-
dent had this in mind in taking the
railroads. Wouldn't it be a good thing
|
work? Many of these roads need dou-
BILE tracking, all need repairs, they
need cars. engines. These men who
will come back, thousands Of them
equipped as mechanics-all their skill
can be utilized. Roads will need
depots, Improvements. Wouldn't it be
an admirable thing to have this work
done to keep all these men in the serv-
OF h,,<
wages-say to them, Here, you have
a steady job which you can work at
and continue in until you are relocated
in your old home, on the farm, in the
shop, or in the factory, until you are
absorbed Don't you think it would be
pretty nice to have an outlet of that
kind?
NEED FOR DEMOCRATS.
But it can't be done-unless we get
enough Democrats in congress to pro-
vide it. And here they say, vote for
Republicans in this state forget your
Democracy, go and hibernate and suck
your thumb. Do the Republicans of
this state present such wonderful
inviting spectacle to attract the voters
of Democratic affiliations? Here is
one faction Of. them who are traitors
traitors-every one of them, according
to the other faction, and if some Of the
other faction had their way, there
would be courts-martial and tray
cling gibbets set UP in the different
counties around the state to hang .he
opposition. That is glorious pros
pect for our Republican friends to in
vite us to.
THE q. o. p. FACTIONS.
Zone faction stirs up strife and class
feeling and the other has nigh for
gotten that there is such a thing as a
| bill of rights. Some of them-to hear
them talk. are perfectly willing and
anxious to suspend all civil rights, to
do away with juries and judges and
substitute courts-martial; and I hear
| they are organizing negro company
| of home guards over in st. Paul.
Nov, I repeat, is that such a Won
derful display of patriotism, of states
mansh1p, to invite us to-we, who sre
accustomed to better fare and to clear |
er thinking? We, the Democrats of |
the United States and the Democrats |
of this state, have always proceeded |
on the principle that the great body of |
our people are right, that the great |