Republican farmer., 1920-05-28
WALSH FLAYS CONGRESS-
 FOR INACTIVITY
Claims No Measures Were Passed to Check Practice
 of Profteering.

Washington, D. C., May 27-The inactivity of Congress while an orgy of profiteering continued and the failure of the legislative branch to consider six separate recommenda- tions made by the President to check profiteering were brought to public attention by a speech by Senator Da- vid I. Walsh, of Massachusetts.
 Senator Walsh recited the enor- nous profits made by various profi- teering interests and warned that discontent and national unrest was in creasing while Congress remained passive.
 'The inactivity of Congress- he exclaimed, presents a spectacle of indifference that has seldom been l surpassed since the courtiers of Louis the Fourteenth revealed while the French peasants were eating grass. While the story of profiteering is be- ing recited from pulpit and soap box, prices continue to rise unhindered and unchecked
 Since last October, Senator Walsh said, Congress has done nothing to re- duce the cost of living and check l profiteering except to amend the Lev CT act to bring few articles within I it's provisions. Congress did pass a l law that authorized the sale of five 1 million barrels of surplus flour held l by the army, but this flour was dis | tributed among suffering European peoples and not among American con- l sumers. This might have checked profiteering somewhat across the wa l ter, said Senator Walsh, but it re- | lieved the American profiteer of the 1 fear of just that much competition. Again scoring Congress for inactiv- | ity and recalling that the President l had asked action many months ago. Senator Walsh said:
 l tIt is not amiss to pause here and point to the positively wanton indif- ference and Responsiveness of Con gress to the proposals made thus far l to alleviate the suffering of our peo- 1 pie. Why have we not taken action l on the various blue sky laws that | have come up before us; on the Ken
 yon-Kendrick and Gronna bills. which l followed out the suggestions of MT
 Hoover and of the Federal Trade Commission in regard to indepen-
 dent abattoirs and a separation o1
 packing houses and stockyards as s
 means of lowering meat prices? Why
 must we still answer, Nothing done,
 on the punitive measures against pro.
 fiteers urged by the public and press
 on the McNary bill, intended to make
 compulsory the stamping of costs O. l manufacture and distribution of ar
 tic1es en route from maker to con i sumner; and on the several other suc1 bills and resolutions coming up be l fore us? It remains the 1amentab truth, that we have limited our ef forts in behalf of our imposed-upoI classes to a pitifu1 and totally cum brous and unavoidable extension O the Lever Act and the organization O a Sugar board, which, so far as i ] appears, by the very action of tn profiteers themselves has been rend , l cred incapable of functioning.
 t'On the sth day of August, 1918
 President Wilson, in his address t
 Congress on the high cost of living
 made six separate recommend dation
 for legislation to check profiteerins Two of these mmendations-th first for extending the life of tn
 Food Control Commission and includ
 ing fuel and clothing under it's au , thority, and the second for providin ! a penalty for profiteering, have sine been carried into effect. With tn s exception of the cold-storage bi which passed the Senate recently
 having previously passed the House , no final action on the other four-a = to regulating cold storage, markin
 | stored articles with the date of thei 4 | receipt, and stamp ping all articles i I | interstate commerce with the pric i, | realized by the producer, licensin I l corporations engaged in interstat F commerce on conditions preventin | | exorbitant profits, and Federal con n trol of security issues to prevent stoc
 l watering, and so forth, has been tax
 ed since the recommendations wer
 I made"