The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-05-28
Jap MAPS WHILE
: PROF|TEERS GET
IN DEADLY WORK
Walsh Likens Indifference of
Republicans to ReveIs of
|. CourtierS of Louis XIV
When Peasants Ate Grass.

WASHINGTON, May 2s-The mac
tivity of congress while an orgy Of
profiteering continued and the failure OF
the legislative branch to consider six
separate recommendations made by the
president to check profiteering were
brought to public attention by recent
speech by Senator David l. Walsh of
|sMassachusetta.
profits made by various profiteering in
terests and warned that discomfort and
national unrest was increasing while
congress remained passive.
The inactivity of congress" he ex-
claimed, presents spectacle Of indif-
eerence that has seldom been surpassed
since the courtiers of Louis XIV.
reveled while the French peasants were
eating grass. While the story of profit
teering is being recited from pulpit and
soap box, prices continue to rise I'M
hindered 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 Lever
act to bring few articles within its
provisions. Congress did pass law
that authorized the sale of 100000 bar
rels of surplus flour held by the army
but this flour was distributed among
Euffering European peoples and not
among American consumers, This
might have checked profiteering some
Hildt dCIOSS Tue water, Sdlu 0elldlOl
Walsh, but it relieved the American
profiteer of the fear of just that much
competition.
Again scoring congress for inactv-
ity and recalling that the president had
asked action many months ago, Senator
Walsh said:
ut is not amiss to pause here and
point to the positively wanton indiffer-
ence and Responsiveness of congress
10 the proposals made thus far to ale
viate the suffering of our people. Why
have we not taken action on the vari-
Gus 'blue-sky laws that have come up
before us; on the Kenyon Kendrick and
,Gronna bills, which followed out the
suggestions of Mr.. Hoover and Of the
federal trade commission in regard to
INDEPENDENT abattoirs and a separation
of packing houses and stockyards as
means of lowering meat prices? Why
must we still answer, Nothing done, on
the punitive measures against profiteers
urged by the public and the press; on
the McNary bill, intended to make CON-
pulsory the stamping of costs of manu-
fracture and distribution of articles en-
Ibute from maker to consume, and on
the several other such bills and reso-
buttons coming up before us? 1t remains
the lamentable truth, that we have linn
lied our efforts in behalf of our i'm
posed-upon classes to pitiful and to-
tally cumbrous and unavoidable exten-
sion of the Lever act and the organi-
zation of a sugar board, which, so far
SRs it appears, by the very action of the
profiteers themselves, has been rendere i
incapable of functioning.
ION the Sth day of August, 1919, Pres
ident Wilson, in his address to congress
on the high cost of living, made six
separate recommendations for legsla-
ton to check profiteering. Two of these
fecommendations-the first for extend
ing the life of the food control commits
sion and including fuel and clothing
under its authority, and the second for
providing a penalty for profiteering
have since been carried into effect
With the exception Of the cold storage
bill, which passed the senate, having
previously passed the house, no final
action on the other four-as to regu-
lAting cold strage marking stored ar
tieles with the date of their receipt
snd stamping all articles in interstate
commerce with the price realized by the
producer, licensing corporations engaged
in interstate commerce on conditions
freventing exorbtant profits, the fed
eral control Of security issues to pre-
vent stock watering, and so forth, has
been taken in the nine months that
have elapsed since the recommendations
were made"