The Republican journal., 1922-11-02
Whittier Are We Drifting?
From Boston Herald


House of Representatives by reduced
msiority-as now seems probable-they
will be more than ever at the mercy of
the farmers bloc. Change in the Senate
are counting in the same direction.
While we see no reason for expecting the
Republican majority in that body to be
reduced much, its personnel IS everywhere
changing in the direction of radicalism.
We are destined TO see in the United
States in the next decade or two the en-
sctment of a line of legislative projects
which bids the East to sit up and take
notice. The conservative interest of the
country can none too soon inquire what
they purpose to do about it. Here are
some of the things that we expect to see
enacted and, after reciting them, we shall
tell you why we think they are coming.
1. We shall see education regulated
from Washington, much as it is in France
from Paris. That one of the Towner
twins. now awaiting enactment, will raise
the salary of every school teacher in the
United States, broadly speaking, and SO
will set in molten propaganda for in
creased federal oversight, control and sup
port of leducation in America. This will
be capped by the National University of
prodigious proportions.
2. The maternity legislation to which
the country is already committed will
spread into health legislation, so that we
shall have health centres as plentiful as
postoffices; we shall have secret airy of
health in the cabinet and his ramifyiBg
agencies will seek to do for human beings
the same work that our agriculture de-
partment has long done for live stock, an
argument which the radicals never cease
to urge. The whole power of federal
government goes forth to stamp out hog
cholera in the smallest county OF Mis-
souri,. Why should it not attack an influ-
enza epidemic in Massachusetts, Are
children less precious than hogsf Such
federal agency could double the earning
power of the young man fresh from the
medical school, and assure him life sup
port, not unlike that which the army and
navy provides for the graduates of West
Point and Annapolis. Ia time, the govern
ment will educa.e at its own expense the
man for this service.
8. We shall have legislation of which
our farm loan enterprise is only begin
ming, further cheapening the rate of in
terest for loans on agricultural products
and widening the zone to which the ad-
vantage may apply. We shall have still
further restrictions on the speculative re-
lations to farm products, including live
stock. We shall make it illegal to derive
any immediate profit from any product
coming from the farms and fields
4. We shall have the public ownership
and operation Lof storage warehouses and
grain elevators, unchecked by the failures
of this policy under the Nom Partisan
League in North Dakota. Perhaps OF the
railroads and telephones.
S. We shall hay1 st. Lawrence
waterway project into which the govern
ment will pour money by the hundreds of
millions with the same rapidity that it has
sent smaller sums into the petty river and
harbor developments of the past. We
shall make Halifax and Montreal large
commercial ports. We shall bring Duluth,
once the "Queen City of the Great Un-
salted Seas" to their deepwaters.
Who is going to pay for this7 On the
first crack out of the box, the weil-to-do
people of the East will pay, through in
come and inheritance taxes. The greatest
war in all human history saddied on the
American people measure OF taxation
including that of city, state and nation,
wholly without precedent. The war has
been over for some years. We long ago
elected the most conservative administra-
ton, headed by one of the most conser-
vative of senators, and we have had prac-
tically no reduction in these taxes. He
sought to have the maximum rate for peo-
pie of 500, 600 year incom made the up
per limit; but Congress took that measure
out of his hands and made the $500, 600 in
comes the upper limit, figure beyond
which, practically speaking. nobody pays
or will pay, so long as ''tax exempts" can
be found. He did abolish the excess pro-
fits tax, enacting certain ofisetting
levies; but the clamor for the reimposi-
ton of these so-called excess profits taxes
increases in volume. The great and or
dinarily conservative state of Iowa has
Just given its Republican nomination to
the Senate to a man who made his fight
on the reimposition of these taxes, and
the general increase of our ievies upon the
rich. He will be elected. We shall have
higher taxes in the future instead of low
q oneA
But it would be contrary to all human
experience to assume that such burden
would stay on the shoulders of the rich
They will feel its first impact, but will
promptly transfer it to the great consum
ing masses. And what will they do with
it2 The so called middle classes OF our
industrial areas, who have formed the
bone and sInew of the American people,
and the safety of its political system. will
be ground out of existence. Economic
forces viii be too much for them. East
ern cities will be Inhabited by those who
are professionally rich, deriving their in
come from inyestments-if we may as
sumo the continuance of the existing So
ciaI order-and of the southeastern Euro
peans. with their prolific families, who
will be able to maintain an existence out
of what is left from the product OF cir
industry, after the army of federal func-
tionaries have extracted their increasing y
heavy toll
But, you may say, this 10 all very absurd;
that there is nothing in the present situa-
tion to justify such predictions Let US see!
Patrick Henry said the only way TO judge
the future was by the past. Let Us look
over the recent past
Do you remember when President
Roosevelt, 10 laying the corner-stone OF
the ofice building for the House of Re-
presentstives, perhaps Is years ago, pro-
poeed . fede4al income tsx3 Do you
remember the storm which il created in
al Conservative quarters7 Do you re-
member how free you were Ut that time
from income taxes of state or nation,
from inheritance taxes, and similar ievies
% business and Industry In most OF the
stataa, No hardly knew Of their existence.
The federal government did nothing IN
that linz. It supported itself rom Gus
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