The Washington herald., 1920-04-26
GOMPERS HITS
OUT FOR LAWS
T0AIDLABOR
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.
Passages from Gompers article
follow:
Calls for AYesr csaEress.
america must get rid Of Its veto
Congress and elect an action Con-
gress.
"The mo- Congress must give place
to ~yes' Congress.
.'The present Congress has done
little except to apply the brakes and
/, say mo- to one constructive proposal
after another.
lit has failed us on the peace
treaty.
1T has failed us in reconstruction.
1T has failed us in the high cost
Of living.
1T has failed US in Intelligent
comprehension Of every great ques-
tion affecting the lives and the well
fare OF our people.
TT has failed to bring the nation
back TO a peace basis in respect to
the repeal of legislation calculated
only for the period Of actual war
and unbearably oppressive a. any
other time.
THE present Congress has failed.
1t has failed with completeness and
abandon.
mot only have the sins Of the
present Congress been sins of omis-
sion, but they have likewise been
sins of commission. There has been
failure to do right things and
almost an eagerness to do wrong
things. The war seems to have bred
in the mind Of Congress a deep
rooted philosophy of coercion. 1t
has clung with desperation TO the
restrictive and coercive measures
which were necessary during the
war. and has sought to add to them,
though the necessities. OF war no
longer obtain. The most shining
example of this is in the adoption
of the railroad bill.
Wants Positive Action
There must be a Congress which
will turn its face to the task con-
fronting the American citizenship
in the true spirit. OF American in
stitutions. A constant genius for
accomplishment must replace an I'LL
considered mania for restriction
and coercion.
America has things to do. II is
confronted by enormous obligations
requiring positive action. This ac-
ton has been delayed too long.
1T seems difficult for Congress to
understand. but the things which
most intimately concern the multi
tudes are such commonplace things
as prices Of commodities, rental OF
homes, wages received. conditions
OF employment, the right to speak
freely, to write freely. to assemble
freely and to move freely from
place to place.
Repression Means DestructIOn.
Lay upon any Of these subjects
violent hands that repress and re-
strict and you enter into the inner
happiness and well-being OF the
masses. You enter against protest
and without welcome and you
crush out some portion OF the full
ness of life, some portion Of the
spontaneous enthusiasm for life,
some bit of the spark Of life. There
can be no repression without de-
struction. And yet a great portion
of the time and effort OF legislators
in America since the signing Of the
armistice has been occupied with
efforts to conceive and to execute
some mechanism or device to inter-
fere with the rights and liberties Of
the great masses Of the people.
''One of the intolerable and hated
things that was crushed in Ger
many with the exit OF the kaiser
and the downfall OF his regime, was
the "verboten" idea in government.
Forbidden" Thou shalt not" these
were watchwords and accursed
words in the old Germany. They
signiied the existence Of a power
which had the right to deny to
other rights and privileges which Il
could grant to the elect and the fav-
ored. 1t was the right to bestow
opportunities by favor, unequally.
Humanity Looks Forward.
Humankind is going forward.
The mind and the heart of the race
has seen to the front a better day.
1t has dreamed a great dream 1t