The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-06-28

sible for us to finance the war?
 What would have been the situation if the Republican Party had been in
 control and had maintained it's old
 attitude toward legislation? There
 would have been an inevitable break
 ing down of the economic structure
 of our country. We would have been
 caught in the throeS of a panic more
 devastating than any we had ever
 known. Industrial life would have
 been disorganized and the tasks of
 war, difficult as they were, might then
 have become altogether impossible.
 The Republican Record Since 1918
 The Republicans have now been in
 control of the Senate and the House
 for more than a year. They won the election of 1918 upon the faith of
 alluring promises. They said that they would earnestly support the President, at least, until the tasks of war were finished. It was their con- tention that they would enter upon the work of reconstruction with su-
 perior intelligence and even with greater patriotism than would be possible under Democratic leader ship. They gave publicity. when they entered upon the recent session, to detailed and ambitious statements
 as to their program. If we are to be judged, as I hope We may be, by the record, let them also be judged by the record. What have the Re
 publicans accomplished since their
 political success in 1918 What bene- f1cial results have flowed to the American people? What promises
 have been redeemed? What pro- gress has been made in the settle
 ment of foreign or domestic ques- tionS?
 Twice the President went before Congress. since the termination of hostillties, calling attention to needed legislation. He urged the passage
 of laws relating to profiteering; l measures to simplify and reduce
 taxation; appropriate action relative
 to the returning soldiers; the passage of a resolution concerning the con. structive plar,s worked out in detail by former Secretary Lane, and the i measures advocated by the Secretary Of Agriculture He suggested that the Congress take counsel together and provide legislation with refer. ence to industrial unrest, and the nu- tua1 relations of capital and labor After more than a year of sterile de- bate, our country has neither peace nor reconstruction. Barren of achieve l ment, shamele in waste of time and money, the record of the present 1 Congress is without parallel for it's | 1ncompetencies, failures and repudia- | tions. Are the American people so unjust or so lacking in discrimina- ton that. they will reject the service l of a party which has kept it's word 1 and place trust in a party which | merely renews the broken promises of a previous campaign?
 Attacks Upon the President l Republican leaders have been nov 1 ed by strange and inexplicable
 jeasousy of the President Their feverish anim osity, expressed in l gross abuse and through secret in | trigue, has been productive of one i of the most unhappy chapters in
 American history. recalling the sim | liar experiences of Lincoln and Wash
 ington. Political malice followed 1 the President to the Peace Table. A l Senatorial round robin" was widely E lscircu1ated. Every device which 1 partisanship could develop, was enl.
 Ployed for the purpose of weakening l the influence of our Commission at I Paris, and making the task there still
 more difficult. At a time when every | instinct of fairness pleaded for a
 who1ehearted support of the Presi- | dent political antagonisn and per- 1 sona1 envy controlled the anti-Ad d. ministration forces.
 The President made every sacrifice 1 for the cause of peace. The long | continued strain while composing | differences abroad; the expenditure 1 of nervous vitality and intellectual l force in building a new order of hu- l man relationships upon the ruins of | the old, laid heavy toll upon his re- | serve powers. Then came the return
 in triumph, only to find here a wide | spread propaganda of opposition, l making it imperative that he take up
 in his. own country, struggle for the l preservation of that which had been won at such incalculable cost. Fol- | lowing the superhuman labors of sev- i en years of unexampled service, this l meant the wreck of his health, sick 1 ness for months upon a bed of pain, 1 and worse than the physical sickness,
 the sickness of heart which comes from the knowledge that political ad- | versaries, lost to the larger sense of 1 things, are savagely destroying not | merely the work of mems hands, but | the worlds hope of settled peace. This was the affliction-this the cruc- 1 ifxions
 l As he lay stricken in the White i House, the relentless hand of malice | beat upon the door of the sick cham . ber The enemies of the President