The Connecticut labor news., 1921-09-02
CONGRESS SIDETRACKED IMPORTANT BUSINESS OF COUNTRY TO EXPLOIT
 TREASURY TO BENEFIT RAILROADS

that it might consolidate it's attention upon the railroad problem, whlh is a problem only in the sense that ccr- everything they covct without being physically breaking into the nations $ treasury.
 Relief of the Unemployed. The good faithh of Congress will be put to test when 1t disposes of a resolution now before it appropriat- ing $500, COG, ,ooO for the relief of un- employed men and women In a statement submitted by Secretary of Labor Davis, in response to request from Congress, that official declares now idle In addition, millions are engaged but part time. Widespread distress prevails With winter ap- preaching, this situation will be more acute. Those who profess to be able to forecast the future have no hope of an early revival of trade and in dustry. By general consent it is ad- mittcd that the outlook is anything but rcassurlng.
 If anything is to be done to help matters, it must be done on large scale. The picccmeal relief work un- dertaken by individual committees does not meet the situation. The na- tional government alone can step into the breach and avert catastrophe de velopments that are apprehended.
 A pretense of helping the farmers has been made, but it is merely a gesture When the legislation that has been enacted is applied it will likely be discovered that the promised help of agriCulturists is really an ex- tension of opportunity for the mid dlemen. Nevertheless, Congress has felt impelled to give heed to the clamors of farmers and has for the that was coming to 1t from all sec tions of the country.
 The tax bill and the tariff are de- signed to relieve business from some of it's burdens. The latter are to be transferred to the backs of the masses.
 The railroads are coming in for most generous attention. They are getting everything they demand. The half billion subsidy Is to be followed by other grants, when and as they are needed
 Watch It's Fate.
 But the worker has been overlook ed, or was forgotten until Represen- tative London, of New York, offered resolution appropriating in it's be- half the identical sum of money that Congress was handing over to the railroads. It will be we'll worth not ing the experience of this resolution as it negotiates the devious pitfalls of Congress.
 If any person imagines that Con- gresS will approve the resolution, or any similar suggestion, he is a candl date for an insane asylum It hadn't Congress isn't built that way. Six to walk the streets, may starve, may fall down and be lost forever, without stirring in the hearts of congressman a sympathetic emotion.
 That may sound harsh, but 1t is the simple, unadulterated truth. Those who have listened to the defamation and Villihcation of workers that fea- ture every debate know how the leg islative and executive departments of our government react to the cry Ot distress-when it comes from those who toil
 In Washington, in official quarters, there is a sincere conviction that workers are suffering for excesses committed in the past. The average legislator sincerely believes that he is being compelled to starve because of something he did, or failed to do, dur ing the past three or four years. To interfere with matters, therefore, argues your lawmaker, would be a transgression upon the divine peroga- tive. He just simply cannot think about doing anything to help men and women whose only crime is that they produced abundantly and created great blessings and then asked that they might share some of them.
 Wall street gets its billions-the workers get swift kick for even ask ing for anything. That is the cold, brutal fact of the matter.
 Congress wouldn't appropriate five cents to help the workers unless the money first passed through the hands of the powerful interests that nam tain large Hobbies here to direct legis- lation.
 Let the worker starve-he's used to it," is what a majority of congress- men tell each other when the un- pleasant subject of unemployment ob-