The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1922-01-20
WASHINGTON LETTER.

| Special News Correspondent.
| Washington, d. c., Jan. THE
most of the Senate Republicans evil
IDENTIFY take the view that the seat be-
| longs to Newberry because he bought
and paid for it, for there can be no
other reason for their attitude. The
price was a bit high, for several hun
dreds of thousands have already been
accounted for, but just at that time
the Senate was practically tie, and
control in the hands of the big inter-
ests was very important
| A new party is being organized in
| Nebraska-or the revival of an old
one called the Progressive party
/ The Wall Street Journal doubtless
discovers a danger that it may grow
into something that will take from the
/ Republicans a few seats in the Sen
ate, for it has not forgotten the Popu-
| lists. the Silver Republicans, the Bull
Moosers and the Non-Partisan League.
1t is curious what an attraction those
| parties have for the Northwestern
farmers. Probably it is due to their
having repeatedly been stung by ac-
cepting Republican promises. Certain
| ly the moral is plain-they might vote
| the Democratic ticket. The Journal
| devotes the best part of a column to
| crushing the new party in it's very in
! ception-which would be some indica-
| ton of its possessing both virtue and
| possibilities.
Cordell Hull, the able chairman of
the Democratic National Committee,
recently made a speech in which he
iuevoLed two hours to some of the fail
! nd CHI nj inn nf h
lican party. The Washington Post
promptly took up the cudgels in de-
! tense of the administration and took
occasion to warn Mr.. Hull of the EN-
barrassing position he would be in
IF somebody in the audience should
ask for an accounting of the money
spent during the war;" Has everyone
| forgotten that the last Congress con-
stituted the Graham smelling COM
mittee" to go into that very thing, for
the purpose of digging UP enough
scandals to keep the Democratic par
ty out of power forever? The Commit
tee spent nearly year on the job and
finally agreed that there was one COR
poration toward which the finger of
suspicion might we'll be pointed--a
great Pittsburgh steel corporation of
which Secretary Mellon is a Director!
This doesn't seem to have hurt the
gentle Secretary greatly with the Adj
ministration, for he is still handling
The peoples money and has been OF
great aid to the big rich fellows in get
ting them "unsoaked' in the matter OF
income and excess profits taxes, but
it suggests that Republican editors
might find it less embarrassing at
times to be better informed.
Secretary Mellon is not very well
known to the general public, a fact
due largely to his peculiar reticence.
With him secrecy is foible. He is
connected in a large way with some
of the worst predatory corporations
in America, such as the Aluminium
Company of America, one of the
greediest. OF the monopolies, but it is
practically impossible, after search
ing through all sorts of manuals, to
learn anything worth while of these
companies, their income or their prof
it's; they are all well concealed. So it
was in the days of John Barleycorn,
when Mellon was making a huge for
tune out of whisky and beer. Few are
aware that MELONS family wealth ri
walls that of the Rockefellers. In fact,
; Deueved that the family controls
about two billions of capital-twice
the amount of the national debt at the
BEGINNING of the wa--and also cCr-
trolled the Republican machine OF
pennsylvania through the late Senator
Penrose. Secretary Mellon is an Off
Ger and director in banks and insur
ance companies with resources of
$860.193 .541. He is an officer and di-
rector of other companies having
known assets of $753,4S0,923. He is
head of a family having controlling
voice in banks with resources of $18,-
S45,310 more, and corporations with
assets of $1O6, 1902, 265 additional, max
ing a grand total of $1,739, 222,039. 1t
is small wonder that he is satisfactory
the big interests.
Mr.. Tincher, of Kansas, in the eXu-
berance of his soul, cried out in the
House for tariff tax of one thousand
per cent on importationS from Ger
many. Mr.. Mann of Illinois, who tries
to keep his feet on the ground, said in
reply: Let there be few more state
ments on this side of the House that
the Republicans are in favor of tar
if duty of one thousand per cent, and
there will not be enough Republicans
here to gather together in one aisle.
have been here long enough to
know"
Mr.. Frear, of Wisconsin, is Repub-
lican Congressman; on page S32 of
the Congressional Record, January 3,
he said: Congress is repeatedly
charged with unsoaking the rich while
preparing to skin those least able to
pay. Is that charge true? In
this session of Congress it is proposed
to pass a consumption or sales tax
that will lay new tax burden and
increased prices on necessaries of life
consumed by four to five millions of
idle laborers and their families, on
millions of farmers and other labor
ers and their families who are now
fighting for a bare existence, and on
over three millions of ex-soldiers and
their families, who are told the price
of any compensation bill is a consump-
ton tax, And yet the Congress has
sent 20 millions to Russia to feed peo-
pie no more starving than millions
here in the United States.