The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-02-22

Congress that has been amazed by the revelations of the munitions inquiry, or whether Congress will prefer to follow the recommenda. tions of the American Legion with respect to this legislation, seems to be the only question requiring possible settlement.
 Seek Common Goals
 The president has said that he wants legislation deprofiting war and has set his own board to work drafting a law to that end. Since 1922, the Legion has worked dili- gently for the adoption of legisla- tion making war a profitless busi- ness" It has presented Univer- sal Service Act, providing that In time of war capital, industry and man-power shall be drafted and used in the service of the, nation without special preference or profit. si
 When the World war ended and the veterans associated themselves together in the Legion, one of the first things they determined was that the profiteering that went on at the expense of the country and the men who did the fighting should never be repeated in a fu- ture conflict. From that moment the Legion began it's campaign to take the profits out of war.
 At the Kansas City convention in 1921, studies of the previous two years were translated into action by demand for congressional &C., tion. A special committee, with the advice of some of the nations best qualified military and econom- ic experts, made a careful survey, including the experiences of France, Britain and Germany dur ing the war and a complete review of wartime legislation in this country. As a result, the Capper- Johnson Bill, embodying the Le- gion's recommendations, was in- troduced.
 Congress Slow to Act
 Congress was afraid of the legis- lation at first and from 1922 through 1926 it got no further than hearings before congressional com- mittees. President Harding and President Coolidge, however, both advocated such protection and later it was included in the plat forms of both of the major po- litical parties at their national conventions. The Legion kept pressing it's case until, on June 27, 1880, President Hoover signed it's resolution creating joint commis- sion to study the proposal in it's entirety. Thus, after eight years of steady fighting, the first major objective was attained. On March 3, 1882, the commission made it's report and this was transmitted to Congress on March q, 1932. It re- quested the following legislative steps: (1) governmental author ity to fix prices at the inception of war; CD confiscation of 95 per cent of all war incomes above nor- mal, so that funds escaping the freezing of prices would be divert ed back to paying the cost of war; (3) a constitutional amendment specifically giving to Congress the authority to control prices in war. time.
 Credit to Legion
 The next major step toward en. actment of legislation came last April 12, when the Senate adopted creating special committee to req sion and investigate war profiteer. ing. This resolution, out of which has grown the expose of activities of munitions makers, officially title that 1t was approved in re- sponse "to the long-standing de- mands of American war veterans speaking through the American Legion for legislation to take the profit out of war;"