The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-12-04
DOMESTIC
PROBLEMS
THE BIG QUESTION-THE HABIT
OF FOLLOWING THE PRESIDENT
RuDELY SHATTERED
OLD PROBLEM Of THE COST Of LIVING
The Habit of Letting Uncle Sam Do
1t All Has Not Been Fruitful
Of Results.
BY j. Il. Jones.

BY j. E. Jones.
That there are other worlds to con-
quer, besides Europe, and Carranza-
land is apparent from the most casu-
al survey of the 'jumpey" machinery
of domestic problems" If congress.
men were garage men, they would
find the gears and spark plugs all
glued up, and that the legislative ma
chine had been running on too rich
a mixture of foreign gas. 1t has been
said that before it adjourned congress
"got a running start" with some of the
big problems of domestic legislation,
but aside from having practically fail
ed in carrying out any "reconstruc-
ton" program, the running start
must have been along sticky path
way, since the permanent military es-
tablishment, the national guard, and
compulsory universal military training
have not made any more progress
than other classes of legislation. Even
the regular army" with its dazzle
and splash of splendor, seems to have
been unable to get it's bill through the
log-jam of congress. This is not like
the days b. t. W., before the war.
The senate has been pursuing the
policy of do one thing at a time, -
with the taiLend of the proverb, "and
that one thing WELL" omitted. In the
meantime the house has been grinding
its grist, and sending it along to the
senate, where the legislative bins have
been running over. For there is the
unsolved railroad measure to return
the lines to their owners. The mer-
chant marine, started on it's way dur
ing war time, is foundering in the
choppy seas of law-making. The bud
get BILL" which offers a new way for
making government appropriations,
has passed the house and is in the SEN
ate. When Mr.. Taft was president
he opined that the country would we'll
nigh be saved if this scheme was en-
acted, and now that he is back college
professoring again, some of the con-
gressmen are following the lights he
left burning on the affairs of good gov
ernment. The oil leasing bill is in
conference, the water power bill went
through the house once again, to be-
come stalled, as usual, in the senate.
Other legislation hanging fire, largely
because the senate spent from June
to November in ceaseless talking, in
cludes bills to repeal the taxes on soft
drinks, the regulation of the manufac-
ture and importation of dyes; the bill
to furnish aid to and cooperation with
the states in vocational training and
rehabilitation of those injured in in
dustry, including agriculture and trans
strengthen the war risk; the bill for
a comprehensive plan for the regula-
tion of cold-storage; the bill for de-
porting undesirable aliens. Among the
other high-spots of legislation, resem-
bling ships that passed in the night,
except that the legislation wasn't
passed" is a poor little bill for the
regulation of the packers. These are
a few of the things that were left
over" by congress. And still, Speaker
Gillett predicts that they will all be
gotten out Of the way, and that after
passing the appropriation bills, the
sessions of congress will finish next
June. Evidently Mr.. Gillett is likely
to pan out as poor guesser on "fu-
lures"
There can be no wiser investment
that nation can make than to add to
its territory by taking from desert
and waters and desolation, land that
is now useless" was the comment of
Secretary of the Interior Lane, upon
a recent occasion. We have had irri-
cation projects without number in our
country, and when the mortgages got
so big that they plastered the farm
all over, the government came to the
rescue by passing the farm loan act,
in order that the farmers might get
still more money on their lands. Good
roads, daily mails, telephones and guar.
anteed prices for wheat have been
dIIlOUS tuc SndhCh lioIu IuC pIuUi
tree that have dropped into the farm
ers' laps. Naturally everyone is inter
ested in the success of farming, since
it represents the pinnacle Of produc-
ton. But strangely enough the COM
ments on the fact that in the United
States we are literally mining" our
farms, are rare indeed. Contrasted to
the lands Of Holland and other parts
OF Europe that have produced every
season for a thousand years. and are
still richer than they were In the be-
ginning, we have worn out" and
abandoned farms" on which the build
ings show very little signs OF age. And
at the same time the hue and cry 90
up from all over the country demand
- a.