The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-05-27
SENATOR WALSH .FLAYS CONGRESS
 FOR INACTIVITY
Claims No Measures Were Passed to Check Practice
 of Profiteering.

Washington, D. C., May 27-The inactivity of Congress while 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.
 l "The inactivity of Congress- he exclaimed, "presents spectacle of l indifference that has seldom been 1 surpa assed since the courtiers of Louis the Fourteenth revealed while the | French peasants were eating grass i 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 profiteering except to amend the Lev i CT act to bring a few articles within 1 it's provisions. Congress did pass i law that authorized the sale of five million barrels of surplus flour held 1 by the army, but this flour was dis | triEbuted among suffering European | peoples and not among American con- 1 sumers. This might have checked | profiteering somewhat across the wa l ter, said Senator Walsh, but it re- l lieved the American profiteer Of the | fear of just that much competition. | Again scoring Congress for inactiv- l ity and recalling that the President
 had asked action many months ago,
 Senator Walsh said:
 ''It is not amiss to pause here and
 point to the positively wanton indif- I ference and responsiveness of Con- gress to the proposals made thus far to alleviate the suffering of our peo- l pie. Why have we not taken action on the various blue sky laws that | have come up before us; on the Ken I 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 of packing houses and stockyards as g
 means of lowering meat prices? Why 1 must we still answer, Nothing done, on the punitive measures against pro- | fiteerS urged by the public and press
 on the McNary bi11 intended to make
 compulsory the stamping of costs o1 i manufacture and distribution of ar
 tieles en route from maker to con l sumner; and on the several other Sucf l bills and resolutions coming up be
 fore us? It remains the 1amentab blt 1 truth, that we have limited our eff
 forts in behalf of our imposed-upor
 classes to a pitifu1 and totally cum
 brous and unavoidable extension O.
 the Lever Act and the organization o
 a Sugar board, which, far as i
 appears. by the very action of thu
 profiteers themselves has been rend
 cred incapable of functioning.
 ''On the sth day of August 1919 , President Wilson, in his address t,
 Congress on the high cost of living
 made six separate recommen dation l for legislation to check profiteerine Two of these dations-th first for extending the life of tn = Food Control Commission and includ l ing fuel and clothing under its au /, thority, and the second for providin f penalty for profiteering, have sine been carried into effect. With tn
 exception of the cold-storage bi1
 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 : receipt, and stamping all articles i i interstate commerce with the pric . realized by the producer, licensin corporations engaged in interstat commerce on conditions preventin
 exorbitant profits, and Federal con = trol of security issues to prevent stoc u 1 watering, and so forth, has been talk Il en in the nine months that have ella ps ,. 1 ed since the recommendations wer e made"
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