The Connecticut labor news., 1924-06-21

press to exalt President Coolidge and . be1itt1e Congress. This gained impetus , after the Mellon tax plan met defeat .. passage of the soldiers bonus over the , Presidents veto, enactment of a re- . strictive immigration law, and the child . labor amendment and was emphasized , at the Republican convention a,
 Cleveland.
 During the closing days of Congress
 this attack was met with forceful speeches i'll the Senate and House
 Senator Walsh of Massachusetts
 read into the Record an article from
 the Baltimore Sun telling of "dis-
 charge notice" placed in the pay en- velopes of 107 enp1oyes of. the Edison Storage Batter yCo., of West Orange, N. J. These notices informed em- p1oyes that their discharge was due to "Q) partisan political Investigations j; 1 @ passing of the soldiers bonus bill j; and, (3) failure of Congress to adopt the, Mellon tax plan"
 1 Senator Walsh also read an article l from the Manufacturers News, May 24 1 issue, containing a vicious attack on Congress, declaring that it was 'breed- ing panic
 | There Is no agency in this country doing more to break the faith of the l American people in representative gov ernment, not excepting communism, than the Edison Storage Battery Co. and other industrial and financial or propaganda of this character The pur- pose and intent of this propaganda IS to control elections and the govern ment itself by duress," declared Sen ator Walsh, and continued in part as follows:
 sFor some time past it has been the vogue in certain circles to spread prop aganda of this poisonous type for the purpose of discrediting Congress and particularly the Senate. It is not sur prising that it has arrested the atten- | tion of the American people and is widely believed, for even some mem bers of this body and others in high position in the administration and captains of industry, like Gary, have denounced the present Congress, re- | ferring to 1t amidst prolonged ap- plause at the sumptuous banquets of the money changers as never being at such a low ebb.
 The statement of the employer i'll this news article, setting forth certain | acts of Congress as the reason for cur tai1ing employment in the industries of this country is an unmistakakable at tempt to shake the confidence of the people in democratic government. It is the cry of group who are resent ful because their political and economic views have not been approved and supported. It is the vail of those, small in number but influential cap tains of industry and finance who con slider themselves the very props of the government itself, and who denouncc all public servants as feeble-mlnded and incompetent who refuse to advo cate and accept their political theories. Their conception of the government is government for and by the few-the | few who have power, either the pow | CT of wealth or the medium to make their dependents and employees politi cal serfs.
 The public upon reflection will dis cover that the oil scandal is only typi cal of the many other scandals which 1 have been disclosed from time to time and hundreds of other corrupt govern mental acts which have never been dis closed; that practically all the dehle- ment of our government has arisen be- cause of efforts of certain groups either to use the government to promote pri- vate exploitation or to prevent the ef- forts of public servants to control these exploiters through governmental action.
 These propagandists are raising political issue of more importance than they realize. It will be in the next
 campaign. It can not be avoided. It
 is this: Are the selfish, plundering, ex
 plotting vested interests wore power
 ful than the plain American people?
 Are public. officials to be condemned
 if untranime1ed; vindicated if they
 serve the wealth of the nation? Is
 incompetency and dishonesty in gov
 ernment to be condoned and removed
 from the sphere of congressional in
 terference? Is it the welfare of man
 or the power of the dollar that the Igovernment will serve when they are
 in conflict?
 These questions must now be settled
 through political action. This propa Iganda' against democratic government