The Elk Mountain pilot., 1920-12-23
CONGRESS IS IN SESSION

This is time of disaster. There
was World War. There was an ar
mistice secured on the basis of four
teen points. There were to be no in
IDENTITIES, no annexations and no war
after the War. But this is time of
disaster. No other treaty ever COM
PEELED such vast indemnities, nor
made such worldwide annexations,
nor was there ever another under
which the nations continued so ruth
lessly at war after a supposed cessa-
tion of hostilities.
This is time of disaster. The
useful people of this country have
always been able to produce more
with their industry than they have
been able to buy with their incomes.
Other countries have become unable
to buy the surplus, and hence disaster.
The international bankers arranged
to finance China, ordered limitation
of credit at home, made impossible
the usual purchase of the annual pro-
ducts at reasonable prices, and by
denial of credit, effected a CONNER
cial blockade within the boundaries
of our own country almost as effec-
tive as the war ships of the Allies
maintained against Central Europe
during the War, and hence disaster.
The army of the unemployed is be-
ing rapidly recruited. Bread lines
are already in formation. Crowded
granaries and exhausted credits move
hand in hand. Workers with the skill,
the strength and the desire to pro-
duce great wealth, are turned out
jobless, they are becoming penni-
less,-and hence disaster.
And now, as If to complete this
story of misfortune, the American
Congress is again in session. Under
the Constitution it is the purpose of
our Government, and it is the partic-
ular task of Congress ito form a
more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility, provide
for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the bless
ings Of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity."
There are many things which Con-
gress has the power to do under the
Constitution. Most of these things
it will be unable to undertake under
instructions from Wall Street. Here
are some of the things it might do,
in keeping with the requirements of
the Constitution. 1t might pass
resolution refusing to join the League
of Nations, unless it were Immediate
ly agreed and as a condition of ac-
cepting membership, that the sub
| marines of the world shall be junked,
and that submarine warfare, poison
gas and the production and distribu
tions of the germs of bubcnic plague
and other infectious and contagious
disorders shall be placed under the
ban of all nations; shall really be
treated in the future as piracy is sup
posed to he treated now.
Acting under the Constitution, the
Congress could provide Immediately
for certain very simple directions for
the guidance of the Federal Reserve
Bank. 1t could require the banks to
deny credit to all persons who seek
to buy any staple product, unless the
buyer is himself user of it, as a
manufacturer, or buys it for the pur-
pose of resale direct to final consum-
ers and to final consumers only. 1t
could make it felony for any bank
to grant loans, to carry the accounts,
or honor the drafts issued, in connec-
tion with any such transactions. 1t
could make it felony to buy or sell
or to send through the mails any pay
ments or communications concerning
such transactions. 1t could put the
business of the cotton and grain
sharks, and their banking confeder-
ates, on the, same footing as is the
Louisiana lottery.
1t could further instruct the Fed
eral Reserve Bank to grant credit to
the producer of any staple article and
to the manufacturer Of any such ar
ticle on warehouse receipts, as long
as these articles remain the property
of their producers or as soon as they
become the property of the manufac-
turers. 1t could, under the Constitu-
tion, provide Immediately for all of
the unemployed, and whenever the
owners of shipyards, railways, mines
or factories, whose operation is nee
essary for the common welfare, go on
strike and close their doors and dis
miss their workers, the Government
could Immediately take over these