Evening star., 1925-07-11

sought to give the agriculturist a lit
tie of that Government aid which the
industrial interests of New England
for instance. have so long been able to
commander. When the farmer seeks
his place in the protective sun he is
accused Of wanting the Government to
become a price fixer. But he knows
perfectly we'll that the protective
tariff in effect fixes the prices on the
manufactured commodities he must
buy. and fixes them good and high
I'm telling the people another
thing that hasn't so completely
dawned on them as industry's prefer
ential place at the public trough. I'm
explaining to them how their basic
constitutional rights are being taken
from them one by one Four years
ago Congress passed the budget law
That took away from the people, rep
resented by Congress, the constitu-
tional right of regulating Federal ex-
penditure. That job is now bossed by
the director of the budget. The Con-
stitution gives the people, through
Congress, the right to control taxa
ton. Nowadays Congress gets a Mel
Ion plan and is told to sign on the
dotted line. The Constitution con-
fers upon the people, through Con-
Cress, the right of free speech and un-
sions. Along comes the latest and
greatest scheme Of all, to suppress the
rights Of the people, whereby dis
agreeable discussion in the United
States Senate can be choked off or
gagged whenever it becomes embar-
RAISING to the higher powers. That's
called a revision Of the rules.
Cites La Toilette Filibuster.
ssrT1l-- 7
Toilette in Washington he told me
how filibuster four years ago saved
the American taxpayers 5000 ,000, 900
at one blow. Just before the adjourn
nent of a regular session of Congress
appropriation bills aggregattng $1,000
600 900 were brought in. Senator
La Toilette, in order to obstruct that
raid on the Treasury, talked against
the bills SO long that 1t was impossible
to bring them to vote and pass
them before the statutory adjourn
ment of Congress at noon on March 4.
A special session was called for the
purpose of ramming the appropria-
tions through. But before they could
be debated a total of 5000, ,000, 900 was
withdrawn. Its sponsors feared to
face the fierce debate the bills would
have had to withstand if their authors
had dared to defend them. That
showed what unlimited and ungagged
discussion can do in the realm of ex-
penditure, to say nothing of the
threatened rights of the people that
might be involved on other occasions"
Senator Shipstead snorts at the sug-
gestion that the Farm-Labor move
ment in Minnesota, or the radical
movement elsewhere, has gone where
the woodbine twineth, just because
the Republican party rolled back the
La Toilette tide in November, 1924.
In Minnesota, on that occasion, Ship
stead recalls, FarmLabor candidates
for governor and United States
Senator poIled the heaviest vote in
the party's history. He is convinced
they would have carried the State, in
cluding the La Toilette and Wheeler
presidential ticket, except for the
widespread scare" which was sue
cessfuIly thrown into the farming
West.
The constitutional scarecrow" so
effectively raised by Gen. Charles q.
Dawes in particular was the thing
that stampeded the Northwestern
country into voting for Coolidge and
against the Progressive candidates.
One argument alone used by Dawes
is said to have driven tens of thou
sands of voters into the Republican
camp Dawes, according to Ship
stead. warned the God-fearing Scandi-
navian regions that If La Toilette were
elected and permitted to tinker with
the Constitution the day might come
when the Congress of the United
States would tell people what church
they had to attend. 1t was stuff and
nonsense" like that. Senator Ship
stead alleges, and not ''the calm and
cautious Christian character of Cal
vim Coolidge" (Senator Moses cele-
brated alliterative aphorism) or the
virtues of the Republican party that
carried Minnesota.
The farmers have learned a lot since
the ides of last November, Shipstead
thinks. He seems quite content to
trust his own political future and
that of the Farm-Labor movement to
their keeping, confident that the Re-
publican elephant will not shed its
hide. Shipstead is persuaded "the
farmers cannot be fooled a second
time" even though good crops and
high prices temporarily make them
forget their troubles.
copyright. 1929