The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-05-29

sentation of a great program of con-
called for specific recommendations
for the enactment of laws which
would set the country firmly upon it's
feet and readjust the domestic struc-
ture to the changed conditions which
have resulted from the war. Except
for the generalized and vague recon-
mendations concerning labor, the
president outlines no such program.
There are instances in which he speci-
fed the course he thinks should be
pursued. but they are only parts of
the reconstruction needs of the nation.
The recommendations concerning
labor legislation end in no tangible
program. He believes, as do all hon.
est men, that labor and capital should
work in harmony and that friction be-
tween them results in disaster to both.
But after citing the achievements of
congress in labor legislation, the pres
ident has no positive plan of legisla.
ton which will add TO the means al
go 1A AoA ~ ASoAiLdl1olt
of the ends which he discusses. He
says congress car now help in the
difficult task of giving a new form and
spirit to industrial organization by CO.
ordinating the several agencies of con.
Citation and adjustment which have
been brought into existence by the diff
hculties and mistaken policies of the
present management of industry, and
by setting up and developing new fed
eral agencies of advice and informa-
ton which may serve as a clearing
house for the best experiments and
the best thought on this matter" But
there is no constructive recommended
ton of what these agencies shall be
nor of how the ones already in exist
ence shall be co-ordinated. There is
nothing to guide the lawmakers in
their course. Shall there be a special
court established to which all disputes
between labor and capital mus be sub
mitted and whose decisions shall be
final and enforceable? Or shall the
agencies Of Cancellation remain as
now almost entirely that of the good
neighbor who endeavors to adjust the
differences of his fellow neighbors by
between capital and labor
between employer and employe-be-
sufficiently important that a
special court is needed to preserve
their am~icability? If so, is there not
need of laws which will clothe the
court with authority to summon the
parties to a hearing, to determine the
right of their differences, and to en-
it's DEGREES? That is the field of
constructive industrial legislation at
this time. 1t is specific rather than
general. 1t should be clothed with
authority rather than with policy.
The announced intention to return
the railroads and telegraph and tele-
phone lines to their owners is not un-
expected. The date for the return of
the railroads is fixed, so that congress
is confronted with the obligation of
enacting legislation before the end Of
~ ldiClluul yOui w L " tLtS
transfer. Woman suffrage, the repeal
of the war prohibition measure, and
the recommendations concerning free
land for soldiers are matters of rou-
tine which are not unusual.
The presidents views concerning
the nations dependence upon foreign
manufactured goods deserves a more
critical analysis and extended consid-
Grafton than is possible in a paragraph.
While he does not amplify the princi-
pie, it lies at the foundation of indus
trial and economic independence i n
this country and conflicts somewhat
with other views expressed in the mes
sage that there is no danger to Amer
lean industries from foreign compe-
tition while the old world is rebuild
ing its wreckage.