Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-09-18

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buting the present hard times to the
political party In control. It does
not take Z very old man to remem.
Der "the full dinner pail" campaign
conducted by Mark Hanna, and II
won out too. In that campaign the
Republican press Of Montana day
after day pounded out the refrain
that hard times and the low price
Of wool was the direct result Of
having Democratic president in
the White House. When the bust
ness depression was over and prices
revived they told their readers that
Mckinley raised the price Of wool
and a good many people in these
parts believed 1t. The Republican
party has educated the people to
believe that bad or good times are
due to the political party in pow
er, 50 if Samuel Gompers was a
Republican we would know where
he got the idea that the Repub-
licans are to blame because the
dinner baskets are not full.
If Mr.. Gompers was a Democrat
we would hardly blame him for rub
bing it in to the Republican ad-
at this time, for there
is sort of poetic justice in seeing
them hung with their own rope, or
hoisted on their own petard, or
poisoned with their own lies. But
Mr.. Gompers has several times an
nounced that he is neither q Re-
publican nor Democrat in his poll
tics, but a labor man, ready to use
each party for the profit Of organ
lied labor.
Of course the Republicans are
not to blame because Of the mil
lions of working men with empty
dinner pals at this time any more
than the Democrats were to blame
for similar conditions in 1894. But
it takes some self denial on the
part of a Democrat to refrain from
offering the Republicans a dose Of
their own medicine. The Spring
field Republican commenting on
the Gompers statement states the
real facts with absolute clarity
when it says:
1.-THE Gompers idea is one made
respectable by age-that is to say,
blame the party in power. But
there is seldom anything in it; and
there is certainly nothing in it to-
day. A Democratic politician might
find some political justification for
saying that inasmuch as his party
had always been held accountable
for depression in business while it
was in office, the Republicans
should likewise be held accountable.
But that kind Of argument gets us
nowhere if we are in pursuit Of the
truth.
1.-THE Republicans are no more to
blame for these hard times, Of
which Mr.. Gompers complains, than
they are for the plaques Of ancient
Egypt. It was their fortune to at
tain full control of the government
just when the economic reaction
from the feverish activities Of the
war was entering upon its great
downward swing. The first signs
of the reaction were seen in the last
year Of the Wilson administration.
Deflation was in progress before
the presidential election Of course,
it kept right on regardless Of the
speed limit or the election result.
IF Gov. Cox had been elected presi-
dent, the industrial and agricultural
would unquestionably have
developed substantially az it has
under Mr.. Harding. It IL impossi-
BILE to imagine anything Mr.. Cox
could have done to check the down.
ward movement.
"Mr. Gomper's statement 10 rath-
er surprising because he is not a
party politician, and because he
must have an intelligent conception
Of the economic forces now at work.
The statement calls attention, how
ever, to q natural tendency Of many
people to hold the government of
the day, or the party in power, re-
sponsible for all Of their misfor-
tunes. And 1t is this tendency, how
ever irrational it may be, that
makes the Republican leaders 80
anxious to have the business cycle
swing forward again before the next