Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-08-20


operative upon the formal proclamation
| of peace. But I should judge that it was
| clearly within the constitutional power of
| the congress to make similar permanent
| provisions and regulations with regard to
| all goods destined for Interstate COM
merce and to exclude them from inter
| state shipment if the requirements of the
| law are not complied with.
/ Some such regulation is imperatively
| necessary.
1t would materially add to the serv-
| iceability Of the law, for the purpose we
now have in view, If it were also pre-
scribed that all goods released from stor-
age for interstate shipment should have
plainly marked upon each package the
selling or market price at which they
Went into storage. By this means the
purchaser would always be able to learn
what profits stood between him and the
producer or the wholesale dealer.
The world must pay for the appalling
destruction wrought by the great war,
and we are part of the world. We must
pay our share. For five years now the In
dustry of all Europe has been slack and
dlsordered. The normal crops have not
been produced; the normal quantity of
manufactured goods has not been turned
out
Not until there are the usual crops
and the usual production of manufactured
goods on the other side of the Atlantic
can Europe return to the former condi-
tons; and 1T was upon the former condi-
tons, not the present, that our economic
relations with Europe were built up.
We must face the fact that unless we
help Europe to get back to her normal
life and production a chaos will ensue
there which will inevitably be commune
Gated to this country. For the present, 1t
Is manifest we must quicken not slacken,
our own production.
U. S. Must Hold World Steady.
We, and we almost alone now hold the
world steady. Upon our steadfastness and
self-possession depend the affairs of ma
tons everywhere. 1t is in this supreme
crisis-thts crisis for all mankind-that
American must prove her mettle.
In the presence of world confused dis
tracted, she must show herself self-pos-
sessed, self-contained, capable of sober
and effective action. She saved Europe
by her action in arms; she must now save
1t by her action in peace.
In saving Europe she will save herself,
as she did upon the battlef1elds of the
war. The calmness and capacity with
which she deals with and masters the
problems of peace will be the final test
and proof of her place among the peoples
OF the world
And, if only in our own interest, we
must help the people overseas Europe is
our biggest customer. We must keep her
going or thousands of our shops and
scores of our mines must close. There is
no such thing as letting her go to ruin
without ourselves sharing in the disaster
In such circumstances, face to face
with such tests, passion must be discard
ed. Passion and a disregard for the
rights of others have no place in the
counsels, of a free people. We need light,
not heat, in these solemn times of self
examination and saving action
Everyone who is in real touch with the
silent masses of our great people knows
that the old strong fiber and steady self
control are still there, firm against vio-
lence or any distempered action that
would throw their affairs into confusion.
1 am serenely confident that they will
readily find themselves, no matter what
the circumstances, and that they will ad-
dress themselves to the tasks of peace
with the same devotion and the same
stalwart preference for what is right that
they displayed to the admiration of the
whole world in the midst of war.
Sinister influences at Work.
And 1 enter another confident hope. I
have spoken today chiefly of measures
of imperative regulation and legal COM
pulsion, of prosecutions and the sharp
correction of selfish processes; and these
no doubt are necessary.
But there are other forces that we may
count on besides those resident in the
department of justice We have just
fully awakened to what has been going
on and to the influences, many of them
very selfish and sinister, that have been
producing high prices and imposing an
intolerable burden on the mass of our
people.
To have brought it all into the open
will accomplish the greater part of the
result we seek.
1 appeal with entire confidence to
our producers, our middlemen and our
merchants to deal fairly with the peo-
pie. 1t is their opportunity to show
that they comprehend, that they in
tend to act justly, and that they have
the public interest sincerely at heart.
Labor Must Consider.
believe, too, that the more ex-
IRENE leaders of organized labor will
presently yield to a sober second
thought and like the great mass of
their associates, think and act like
true Americans. They will see that
strikes undertaken at this critical time
are certain to make matters worse,
not better-worse for them and for
everybody else.
The worst thing, the most fatal
thing-that can be done now is to stop
or interrupt production, or to interfere
with the distribution of goods by the
railways ana the shipping VI IAo
country.
There are many things that ought
to be corrected in the relations be-
tween capital and labor, in respect
of wages and conditions of labor and
other things even more far-reaching,
and /, for one, am ready to go into
conference about these matter with
any group of my fellow countrymen
who know what they are talking about
and are willing to remedy existing
conditions by frank counsel rather
than by violent contest.
General Interest First.
No remedy is possible while men are
in a temper, and there can be no set
Element which does not have as its
motive and standard the general in
terest.
Must All Work Together.
Threats and undue insistence upon
the interest of single class. make set
Element impossible. 1 believe, as 1
have hitherto had occasion to say to
the congress, that the industry and life
of our people and of the world will
suffer irreparable damage If employers
and workmen are to go on in a perpet-
ual contest, saS antagonists. They
must, on one plan or another, be effec-