The daily Alaska citizen., 1919-12-04
CONGRESS- TASK

ton to apply remedial acton to the pres ent causes for American unrest and his placing the internal situation ahead of the international one, including the peace treaty, will probably be generally ap- proved. The first concern to the people to- day is the welfare of their own country and under existing conditions the physical well being of millions of Americans is threaten ed.
 The task set for congress by Alr, Will son Is to devise legislation to correct, as far as possible, existing evils. 1t is one of no mean size and will require the efforts of the brainieSt of the nations lawmakers be- fore it is satisfactorily accomplished. The laws asked for by the President are to combat the cost of living, labor unrest and radicaiSm" and also measures to aid in the readjustment of the country to a peace time basis. This Is not the fisrt time that he has requested such legislation. Last August, before he started on his speaking tour he appeared before joint session of congress and urged the prompt enactment of certain laws that would give the govern ment power to curb profiteering and to deal generally with rising costs of living. Since that time he or his ministers have asked for laws under which radicalism could be dealt with Congress has hcaro the requests but not one single item of legislation has been passed under which corrective action may be taken.
 It must be remembered that the Presi- dent is appealing to a congress that is un- der the domination of the opposite political party to the one of which he is leader. The policies of the present administration, of which he is the head, may essentially diff fer from those pursued by the republican party. In fact the republicans may and in fact do assign different reasons for the present national unrest than Mir. Wilson, but that is not sufficient reason for failure to pass the laws which he declares are need ed to cope with the situation. It is up to the administration to administer the laws; it is charged with the duty of conducting the affairs of the people to the best inter- ests of the whole population and if 1t be-
 
 needed in order to promote those inter- ests, it should be given the fullest OppOr- tunity of doing its work. After the laws are passed and if they fail then the repubIi- cans can consistently charge the admins tration with failure and ask for a change, but to refuse to enact the legislation IS not only shifting the burden to themselves but is responsible for continuation of the evils which the majority of Americans find al- most unbearable.
 Congresses prior to and during the war legislated for the nation under far differ ent conditions than now prevail. Since the change in pre-war and wartime con ditions there has been no important legls- lation passed dealing with any phase of af- ter war conditions of national life. De spite the fact that the nations business has changed correspondingly with private bus inesses the former is still conducted under rules and regulations long antedated; ii the latter tried to do the same thing most of them would already be bankrupt.
 The President has set forth a progress sive program of legislation for the republi- can congress- If it fails to carry it out, the administration cannot be charged with the results. but failure must be assessed against the party in control of the legislative ma chinery.