The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-08-09
TRANSPARENT STRATEGY.

TRANSPARENT lRAlEGY
Washington, Aug. S.-The Republi-
a Publicity Association, through its
president, Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr.,
today gave out the following statement
from its Washington Headquarters:
Panic stricken at the national IN
rest looming greater day by day, Pres
ment Wilson has thrown up his hands
and appealed to a Republican Con-
gress to save the situation. The full
effects of his maladministration are
now being interpreted to every citizen
in terms of dollars and cents. We call
il the High Cost of Living. A more
exact Characterization would be the
High Cost of Wilsonian Democracy.
Many things have contributed to
the economic state in which the
try finds itself. Chief among them
are the extremes of extravaganza and
Wanton waste that have marked the
commissions of the Wilson appointees
in conducting us through the greatest
war in history. ~Inef1ciency has been
predominant among the individuals
appointed, and political exigencies the
prime consideration in their selection.
By its 'cost-plus' scheme of making
contracts, the administration forced
prices TO abnormal heights. By favor
itism to city -wage-earners, it drew la
Dor away from food production. By
imitation of the currency, the buying
power Of the dollar was reduced. The
food situations in Europe have taken
precedence in the Presidents mind
over the needs of our own people, with
the result that millions of tons of food
Euffs have been taken from the
mouths of Americans and given to in
habitants of the Old World, much of it
to the people of the very nations re-
sponsible for the war. The railroads
of the country have been continued
under Federal control in spite of the
fact that the deficit is monthly mount
ing into the hundreds of millions of
dollars. As a consequence, freight
rates have been raised and will be
raised again, to be added in turn to
the ultimate costs of food and other
products. All efforts of the Republi-
cans to have the Democratic Congress
adopt a sane system Of reconstruction
were rejected by the President, and as
a result rehabilitation of our armies
and wal industries has proceeded IN
der no ~preeonceived plan to return to
a peace basis with least economic dis
~turbance. Intermittent unemployment
and shutting down of factories has
followed, all of which has contributed
10 the high cost of living.
Those and other causes are re-
sponsible for the present state of af-
fairs. Mr.. Wilson has been the Ma
TONS %autocrat, selecting his own
heads Of Departments and other minor
officials. During the war Congress
never grudged him a single power that
he asked, and practically every FEEDER
al activity was governed by his discre-
ton alone. His aversion to advice
has been notorious, and he has sought
and been granted powers never before
possessed but by the most absolute
monarcbs. His seven months absence
in a foreign capital indicates how
lightly he regarded the responsibility
for American welfare that rested upon
his shoulders. During that time the
executive branch was left solely in
charge of political incompetents whom
he had clothed with authority.
Like a tidal wave the conditions
that Mr.. Wilson inaugurated and fos-
tered have rolled up and now threaten
to engulf the United States in econom-
ic chaos. Like the Kaiser who desert
ed his armies and fed the country
when he saw that all was lost, Mr..