The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-08-21

ate commissions without power and win
not hesitate to make gesture of assist
ance To the executive by providing a fact
finding commission.
Mr.. Harding showed that he did not
believe congress could do anything at this
time TO affect the rail or coal strikes and
that he was simply paving the way for
the future. With the tariff and the
bonus on its hands and deep seated
desire to adjourn congress and get into
the electoral campaigns, members are not
bestirred over the Presidents address
and regard it simply as a convenient way
the President had 10 answer critics.
Many senator's in fIct, urged the
President to make the address so as to
federal government. Ever since the
massacre at Herrin, H.. for instance,
letters and kilograms have been pouring
into the administration urging that some
thing be done. TO all this the federal
government has tried TO answer that it
had no power and that the states alone
could punish murder within their bor-
ders. The request that congress pass
law giving the federal government power
70 punish murder il aliens are killed is
based on the theory that the federal gov
eminent. can eonStitutionally assert the
right TO fulfill ITS promises to foreign gov
ernments that their nationals be pro.
American citizens in labor warfare. This
rests with the states alone unless they
ask specifically for federal aid
Reciprocity With Mexico.
Curiously enough. the message of
President Harding in the matter of pro-
tecting aliens grows out of the fact that
two Mexican citizens are said to have
been killed at Herrin The government
OF the United States publicly declares it
self powerless to punish the crime. Sup
posing the facts were reversed and two
American citizens were murdered i'm a |
labor fight in Mexico. Would the United |
States government listen sympathetically |
to the plea that the federal government
of Mexico had no power to punish the |
offenders and that it was a matter for |
particular states? Mexico, which has a !
constitution similar to that of the United |
States, has made that plea to deaf |
American ears before and has been
forced to exert indirect influence on the |
states and frequently to invoke federal |
jurisdiction on one pretext or another.
There are many lawyers who say the |
United States government could make /
test case of the Herrin disaster, and. on |
the ground that aliens and treaty obliga- /
tions were involved, make an inquiry
through a federal grand jury. If this is /
possible, the Harding administration has /
decided against it and sought to place
the matter before congress, where the
chances are it will remain, as it has for
Il generation, an academic question.
As for the other requests of Mr. Hard
ing that coal protiteering be stopped by
means of a national coal agency consti-
tuted by the federal government, the
average member of congress fights shy of
government price regulation, or rather
legislation in that direction, for if it can
be applied to coal, the precedent might
be used in other articles of commerce
necessary to life.
Up to Department Of Justice
Most members Of congress feel that the
laws already on the statute books are
adequate, that priee-iixing or monopolies
in restraint of trade are well covered by
the Sherman antitrust law and other
and that the department of JUS
tlce can cure proiiteering by indicting a
few profiteers So congress win not
worry about that phase of the question.
Legislation to make the decisions of
the railroad labor board enforceable has
been talked of ever since the transporta-
ton act of 1920 was passed. But with
the prospect of a settlement of the rail
strike through the mediation efforts of
the brotherhood chiefs. congress is I'M
willing to intervene at this time in fact,
MIR. Harding hints that it would be un-
wise. When the strikes are over. how
ever, congress will not feel the compul-
son to duty any more strongly than in
the months that have elapsed since the
act was passed. when the
attitude of carriers and employees alike
showed the necessity for teeth in the
law to increase the prestige and author
ty of the labor board
About the only significant expression
in the whole message of President Hard
ing, and on the surface it is considered
by some members of congress to contra
dict the earlier requests for power from
congress, Is contained in the last sentence
Of the address, which says:
Wherefore, / am resolved TO use All
the power of the government to maintain
and sustain the right of
men to work.
Where Power Exists
The impression prevails in many quar-
tiers that Mr.. Harding confessed that in
an emergency the federal government did
not have enough power to act. This NAV
seem that failure of the peace negotia-
ions at New York between rail execu-