Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-06-07

dent MIND dominated his action at the
time.
His reply of Saturday to the request
of the officials of the railroad brother
hoods that he keep Congress in session
to take action on the high cost of living
is narrow political pronounCement of
the same kind as his congressional cleo
, tion appeal of 1918. Woodrow Wilson
the economist and political philosopher.
would never have been guilty of such a
demagogic output. But it is just the
| kind of thing that is expected from the
! Woodrow Wilson who insists that when
Ii" was elected to the presidency of the
! United States he was also elected to
| the presidency of the Democratic party
and must play partisan politics without
scruple.
The President reminds the railroad
men of his address on the high cost Of
! living delivered to Congress on August
g of last year. and remarks that lin
nine months this Congress has taken
no important remedial action with re-
| spect to the problem of the cost of
living on the lines indicated in that
address or on any other lines" and he
concludes that lin the light of the
record of the present Congress | have
! no reason to hope that its continu-
ance would result in constructive meas
ures for the relief Of the economic
conditions.
When the address was delivered last
| August this newspaper took occasion to
analyze it in some detail and to point
out the inadequaCy Of the remedies sug-
gested. We said then that the country
was demanding that tn" President do
something and that he had thought it
necessary to go through the motions.
No one will deny that Congress was as
anxious as the President 10 do some
hing. II would hav" been politically
expedirnt for the party in control of
the Legislative branch uf the government
to take some action that would reduce
the cost of living if it could discover
how any action that it might take would
have the desired effect. But the think
ing men in Congress knew that the high
cost of living was due TO economic
causes, and they knew that il is as i'm
possible 10 repeal economic laws az to
repeal the law of gravitation They
HhNf "lN'lN IflTdlutu from Trying u
do the impossible. But Mr Wilson
who knows very well how little Con
gress Can do and who is aware that the
remedies which he proposed in August
would have virtually no effect on prices
is seeking political advantage for his
party on the eve of a presidential cam
paigu by asserting that the dominating
motive Of Congress has been 'poltica
eXpediency rather than a lofty purpose
to serve the public welfare"
1t might be argued with equal force
that Mr.. wilson own attorney gen
eral, who from motives of political ex
pcdiency has been promising for month";
that he would reduce prices. has failet
to accomplish anything He has Sc
cured convictions of few merchant
on the charge of profiteering. it il true
but prices have not come down as
result. And nobody believes that tn
practices of the convicted merchant
are general or even that the excessv
profits they were making on certain ar
ticles were made on all the goods il
heir stores. And the attorney genera
has the Lever act, extended by tn
present Congress, to back up his prose
cutiOns.
! II Mr.. Wilson had faced the facts /
:, August when he addressed Congress
=, and had admitted that the condition
3 we're due primarily to wartime indato
the world over, and incidentally to di
. minished production of necessities be
: cause of the diversion of producers t
the ranks of the armies, and had urge
Congress to increase the pay of tn
postal employees and the employees in a
h other governmental departments /
order to enable these people to live, h
10 would have commanded the respect &
u the nation. He could have justified thi
- course by reminding Congress tha
b manufacturers and merchants were nc
n suffering from the high cost of good
, but were adding the extra cost TO III
= prices which they were charging. II
n could have shown how much of tn
skilled labor was getting increase
y wages through the influence of the
~ IL. ..,.ld ha va t,nsntoa ...a -