New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1919-09-24
LIBERAL VOTERS TO
MEET At ST. LOUIS
CONFERENCE OF COMMITTEE OF
FoRTY-EIGHT SET FOR
DECEMBER 9.
FRANK DISCUSSION OF VITAL
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
ISSUES.

Independent liberal voters from all
of the forty-eight states will come to-
gether in conference in St. Louis called
by the Committee Of Forty Eight for
December 9.
The Committee which has it's head
quarters at Is East Fortieth Street,
New York City, has just issued state
ment calling attention to the necessity
for frank discussion Of vital political,
social and economic issues. Neither
the Republican nor the Democratic
party is willing to bring up such issues,
the statement continues, and it is neces-
sary for those of liberal opinion to draw
up a platform restating fundamental
principles Of Americanism as applied
to present-day problems The Confer
ence will discuss the advisability of
either forming new political party or
affiliating with the farmer and labor
organizations now in existence.
The Committee Of Forty Eight was
formed last March and now has nation
wide membership. It has issued a
question blank to all of its members,
asking for views on current industrial
and political questions From the ans
Wers to this, a tentative program will be
to submit to the coming Con-
ference.
Special Interests Ruling.
The dominating groups Of the two
political organizations do not
desire, and do not even understand,
that free citizens should determine their
own political and economic life. They
have so long weighed the word above
the fact that facts for them have no
They have turned over this
actual government of the land to reac-
tlonary and predatory interests and con-
tended themselves with the honors and
emoluments of office as the servants
OF. these interests.
They have made public confession
that between them lies no question Of
political debate save the one Of deciding
which group shall enjoy the possession
of public office
They have lost contact with the needs
and desires of the people that they might
maintain contact with the needs and
desire, Of the rapacious interests.
T ey have levied huge loans and raised
g. at sums by heavy taxation, necessi-
tating careful economy on the part of
citizens, while government itself dis
burses the money thus obtained with
callous extravaganza.
They have, by the inevitable initiation
which resulted from these methods and
by their failure even to attempt the
wise stimulation and regulation of pro-
duction and distribution in this critical
period, permitted the cost of living to
reach point where the mass of the
people are reduced to silent desperation
and the interests are glutted with exor-
bitant profits.
Cobdition Menacing.
They have connived at the wrecking
and looting of the transportation systems
of the country and now jointly determine
to return the railroads, rebuilt at the
public charges, to those very interests
who so demoralized them that their
condition menaced the safety Of the
in time Of national peril.
They have challenged our right to
free speech and free assembly, and
ignored Our right to a decent living for
a day work. They have met the nation
wide demand for constructive thought
and deed with vague rhetoric and the
aimless repetition of dusty political
phrases that-have no meaning in world
of facts.
They have for nearly one year faced
a world in which industry, the basis
Of modern civilization, disorganized by
war and unable to readjust itself unaided
to the forces released by war, is threat
tened with complete dissolution.
In the face Of these grave problems
they have shown that they are without
the vision Of craftsmanship, the courage
Of leadership, or the conviction Of pa
triotisrn.
These are the facts.
Plumber Their Aim.
This is the situation. The present and
the future are in the hands Of two POI
litical parties who have no differences
excepting in name and no aim except
ing plumber. They are revealed to
themselves and to the people as single
gros r moved only by their common