The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-06-11

determine the tone of comment upon
it. 1t will be for the American people
to decide the relatively responsibility
of the Senate and the President for
the evils which are flowing from the
failure of the two to agree upon the
official termination of the war and our
future relations to other nations, for
which, naturally, but not necessarily
Justly, the President holds the Senate
responsible in his letter. A short re-
view of the session reveals how I'M
warranted is a criticism of its acts
based upon the failure of Congress to
do exactly as the critic personally de-
sired.
The first or long, regular session of
the Sixty-sixth Congress deserves
credit for important legislation, in
spite of the handicap of the contro-
versy between the President and the
Senate over the Versailles treaty
which of necessity had the effect of
slowing up the work of that particu-
lar branch and affected that Of the
other house also. There has been
about the responsibility of Congress
for the prevailing high prices and
demand for some sort of indefinite
, legislation to put an end to them. Ec-
onomists who study the fundamentals
of the present prices do not suggest
| legislative remedies nor believe in
their efficacy. We shall probably
hear much of that sort of criticism,
made for popular consumption. The
fact is that Congress did enact legis-
lation of practical sort to achieve
that end when it passed the railway
bill and made provision for the set
tlement of wage disputes without the
necessity of resorting to strikes. No
thing has done more to raise prices
and maintain them at high point
than the industrial slowing down of
the nation, due largely to the nation
wide strikes and interruption, almost
paralysis, of the nations industrial
and business life for many weeks
Legislation calculated to put an end
to such Interruptions of our produc-
ton and distribution activities is con-
structive of the highest character and
bound to exert a strong influence up
on prices, both to stop their ascent and
to create general conditions under
which they should begin to descend,
Another important constructive act is
the merchant marine bill, under which
great marine under the American
flag is to be created, fostering our
foreign commerce and thereby pro-
noting our industrial activity and the
general prosperitysof the nation. Still
others are the water power act, which,
however, the President failed to sign,
the oil leasing act, the Edge bill for
promoting export trade. the rivers
and harbors bill with special provi-
sion for developing facilities for
barge traffic on the rivers to relieve
railroad congestion. All these enter
directly into the fundamentals of the
present high prices and are construc-
tive in the highest degree. Direct eff
forts to reach high food prices made
in the cold storage and the meat pack
ing regulation acts failed, but such
legislation is at the best only parria-
tive and regulatory and does not reach
fundamental conditions, yet it is of
the character demagogues talk the
most about as the panacea for our
high cost of living evil. Congress is
rather to be congratulated that it did
not enter upon a campaign of futile
legislation for demagogic purposes.
Other constructive measures not af-
fecting the matter of prices were the
army regulation bill, the postal wage
increase bill, the measure excluding
anarchists, the industrial vocational
rehabilitation act, the appropriations
for the maintenance of all the depart
ments and many others covering q
wide range of subjects. Two very
important measures calculated to
work great economies in national ex-
penditure were voted by the President
too late to be either remodeled or
passed over the veto. These are the
budget act, which Congress has been
dealing with for the past twelve years
and which was estimated to be capable
of saving several hundred millions Of
dollars annually, and the resolution
abolished large number Of wartime
boards and commissions. laws ard
proclamations under which great ex-
pense is still being incurred and
through which there is interference
with getting back to normal condi-
tons.
No session of any Congress has ev-
err enacted all the important meas !
ures that have been crowded upon it /
for attention. Many have legislated
constructively upon few IF them. The
session just closed, in view of the par
alyzing effect of the existence Of a
Congress of one political party and q
President of another, which it will no
doubt continue in the short session
which will begin next December,
bringing to fruition other measures in
process of being crystalized into law.
That will be it's task until the fourth
of next March, when its own term will |
expire by limitation, and the Repre-
sentatives and Senators elected next |
November will constitute the Sixty |
seventh Congress, to meet first in De-
cember, 1921, unless sooner convened
in extraordinary session by the newly
elected President.-Globe- Democrat.