Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-12-05
Monday, December S, 1921.
LOGIC, RHETORIC AND OTHER
THINGS ..

Histories make men wise: poets,
witty. the mathematics subtitle;
natural philosophy, deep; moral.
grave; logic apd rhetoric, able to
contend"
So said Bacon and here come SEN
ators Capper and Moses with several
mouthfuls of logic and rhetoric.
Before we are through with it there
will be need to consider history, pos
sibly some of the poets and all kinds
Of philosophy.
In the December Forum Senator
Capper has this to say about the ag
ricu!tural bloc.
'In central Illinois, the heart of the
most fertile agricultural region on
the globe, more farmers have gone
bankrupt and been sold out by the
sheriff in the last year than in many
preceding years together. One of the
most successful and respected farm
ers in the United States. j. f. How
ard, president of the American Farm
Bureau Federation, has declared that
one and a half million of the six mil
lion farmers of the country are today
insolvent. Agriculture is sick The
measures supported by the 'agricul-
tural bloc" are not proposals to give
the farmer something for nothing.
nor are they class legislation" They
are the remedies urged by econom-
lists and students of agriculture, and
above all by the farmers themselves,
to uplft this fundamental industry
to a place where it will be blessing
to the country because it is self sus-
tanning and prosperous"
And Senator Moses sees peril in
this and says so. .
IF this bloc is to endure; Congress
Is to embark upon the choppy seas
Of coalition control, it cannot stop
with mere legislation arising from the
kxigencies of'a given minute. The
coalition must seek not only to en-
force its demands upon the floor
when the roll call is taken, but to
seize complete control OF dominant
party machinery, to make itself in
fact the dominant party, to choose its
own Speaker Of the House, to select
and arrange the membership Of all
Congressional committees. This
means, the disappearance of the an
cient but still serviceable rule of SEN
iority. It means that the member
ship Of important committees shall
be thrown open to political competi-
ton, with it's attendant evil train of
log-rolling and a still further subsi-
80 <t1
scheme. 1t means destruction of in
centive for individual effort in the
drudgery of the committee room; it
means, in a word, chaos"
The onlooker. scratching his puz-
zled head may be moved to remark:
Better go slow boys"
One won't have to delve in history
to discover that something besides
bIocs are needed to mend broken ma
chinery: something besides politics
to make the laws of supply and de-
mand; that often when a theory is
pursued to a logical conclusion the
pursuer wishes he had been doing
something else, such as applying well
known remedies, firSt-aid, like COM
nonsense, the golden rule plus hard
work and patience that leaves some
conclusions to time.
Logic and rhetoric may help TO
contend. but contention IS over plen-
tiful already.
There is no surplus Of mutual
helpfulness in sight; no department
seems TO be overstocked with it to
meet the ever increasing demand.
Good business men anticipate an in
'creasing demand.