The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-08-13
LA TOILETTE
ARRAiGNS THE
REPS. AND DENIS.

Senator La Toilette makes his first
public declaration since the Repub
lican convention in Chicago in a
signed editorial which appears in the
July issue of La Follette's Magazine,
! published at Madison, Wis. Under
the caption, "The Old Parties Have
Failed" the Senator pays his respect
to the Republican and Democratic
platforms. He says neither of the
old parties "can be expected to
change the SYSTEM" by which "the
few have acquired the earnings of
the many"
The following excerpts from his
editorial are herewith reproduced
Neither of these parties for years
has willingly admitted new or pro-
gressive idea into the policies of the
national Government. They have
shamefully deceived and ruthlessly
betrayed the voters who have given
them power. Having no other pur-
pose than to protect the monopoly
powers Of the great financial inter
ests which are their masters, they
have joined in permitting the merci-
less exploitation of the pepole and
are rapidly converting the freest and
most beneficent Government of the
world into a tyrannical despotism.
THE Crime of 1920"
Acting in vicious accord, die
tated by their financial masters
through the greatest lobby ever as
cratice and Republican parties joined
in the enactment of the infamous
Esch- Cummins Railroad bill the
crime of 1920-which has paralyzed
transportation, stagnated industry,
demOraIized credit, and thrown hun
dreds of thousands of workers out
of employment.
Under their joint sanction profit
teering has fl0urished and notorious
prOfiteers have gone unpublished,
while the laws intended to protect
the people from outrageous increases
in the cost of living have been turned
into instruments of oppression and
persecution against those seeking in
lawful manner to better their work.
ing and living conditions.
Trusts Are in Control
''The great trusts which control
fix prices so low to the farmer as to
allow him at best only a hard-earned
existence, while the prices of the
same products to the consumer are
so high as to compel him to limit his
purchases to the barest necessities.
Thus the producer and consumer are
robbed and commerce and industry
are paralyzed.
"The Beef Trust, the Grain and
Milling Trust, the Coal Trust, the
Steel Trust, the Oil Trust, the Cop
per Trust, the Lumber Trust, the
water-power monopolies now form
ing, the transportation oligarchy and
thousands of lesser combinations
have seized upon the exigencies of
the war to increase UNNECESSARILY
their wealth and their control over
the lives of the people.
Self Government in Peril
"War has merely precipated the in
evitable crisis. 1t has FASTENED the
day when the people must enter upon
the supreme struggle to recover their
civil liberties and economic freedom,
or else admit their defeat and con-
| fess that our experiment in self
| government Has ldlICu.
"The best blood of the country
was spent without stint to win the
war, while the great fortunes of the
country were not only protected to
the last dollar, but were increased
beyond what the avarice of man had
therefore deemed possible.
1T is the deliberate and annOunc-
ed intention of both the Democratic
and Republican parties to mortgage
the earnings of labor and industry
of this and many future generations
to pay this debt. Had we adopted
the policy of conscripting wealth as
we did men there would have been
no enormous bond issues, no cur
rency initiation and no unconsciOn-
able prOfiteering.
People Losing Faith
"In vain millions of people at re-
cent Presidential elections have shift
ed their votes from one party to the
other and back again, ever hoping
that a change of administration
would bring a change of conditions.
This political establishment carries
with it a terrible menace to the safe
ty of the nation. Betrayed and de-
celVeu, tne people III eVer-lncfedSlnS
numbers have lost faith in political
action. Thus reactionary control, in
it's blindness and avarice, is leading
| the nation toward revolution and an
archy.
although the war has been over
for almost two years, hundreds of
citizens are still in prison, or under
indictment, for no other offense than
the expression of opinions. Admin
istrative officers have been allowed
to exercise autocratic and illegal
powers over the mails, rifling at
/ pleasure the letters of private citi-
zens and permitting or suppressing
publications as they might desire.
"All these repressive laws are still
on the statute books, and while the
eXigencies of a political campaign
may make it desirable to suspend
temporarily their enforcement, it is
the policy of both the old parties, as
shown by the bills their leaders have
introduced and supported in the last
Congress, to continue the substance
of these laws as part of the per-
manent peace-time policy of the Gov
eminent"