PAYING FOR THE WAR
Huddleston, George
Paying For The War Many Newspapers, Acting As Tools Of Corporate Interests, Malign People Who Favor High Taxes On Profiteers By GEORGE HUDDLESTON, Congressman from Alabama The following speech...
...I questioned the good faith of the great war contractors...
...Patriots and Profiteers BUT IT seems that I laid my hand upon the "Ark of the Covenant...
...He says that consciously or unconsciously I have cooper-'_ ated with German propagandism...
...how I am cut off from my people and can not reach them except through an occasional speech, which my foul-hitting critics would deny me the poor privilege •f sending...
...I have dar-ed to stand for the rights of men above the interests of property...
...But this occasion was a worthy one...
...It is I who am Cognressman...
...If it should be proposed to conscript money and big industrial plants to carry on the war they would howl that the pillars of civilization were being pulled down...
...Therefore, I am unpatriotic, I must be politically sandbagged...
...The country's financial situation is rapidly growing worse...
...I was met by the assertion that greater taxes would cripple business, that business could not afford to pay more than was now being paid...
...In every case the soldiers were boys of 16 and 17 or were physically unfit for service...
...that is, the only ark of the covenant that a certain element in my district care about...
...Those three are the conscription bill, the espionage bill, and the explosives bill...
...I subsequently answered this by calling attention to the enormous profits that are being made by the great industrial concerns...
...Lloyd-Georgt said that the war will be won with silver bullets, and this is nearly true...
...The Age-Herald libels me in a cartoon as a "Bolshevik...
...Then the Age-Herald took the matter up with a report which deliberately misrepresented my speech exposing the Steel Trust, and at the next liberty loan luncheon a cut-and-dried resolution was sprung, condemning my speech and charging that I did not faithfully represent my constituents in my position...
...They are merely the tools of those higher up, of the big business interests who aro their masters...
...I criticized the profiteers and money worshipers...
...they should never have been recruited...
...The American dollar is now below par in foreign countries...
...I supported the President's position as given in his war message...
...Every true patriot is concerned in seeing that proper financial measures for the support of the war are adopted...
...The real question is whether the Steel Trust and the selfish interests and their hirelings shall have them a little Congressman of their own in the Birmingham district or will the whole people be represented...
...I have been willing to vote for every soldier, every ship, and every dollar needed to carry on the war...
...Dozens of ambitious men want my job, dozens of them have had their lightning rods up for months, but they have been afraid...
...President Wilson warned Congress against "the inflation which would be produced by vast loans...
...Stands Acid Test...
...These papers have tried to create an atmosphere of disloyalty about me...
...If only the small but powerful influences which were at work at the Tutwiler will give the word these would-be candidates will spring to the task...
...perhaps I forgot or maybe I had courage enough to tell the truth in behalf of the public welfare, even though it meant my own ruin...
...Conscription not only for times of war, but to maintain vast standing armies even after peace has come, for that is what the Birmingham papers preach and the speakers and his cheerers want...
...And now, by God, we are going to lick Germany...
...I said that no man has the right to come out of this war richer than he went into it...
...I took up particularly the case of the Steel Corporation and showed that by its own admission it had made for 1917, after paying all taxes and charges of every kind, 49 cents on every dollar of the par value of its common stock...
...I took up particularly the case of the Steel Corporation and showed that by its own admission it had made for 1917, after paying all taxes and charges of every kind, 49 cents on every dollar of the par value of its common stock...
...I have been select^ ed as a victim because I have dared to criticize the profiteers and war contractors...
...The Congressman who does not interest himself in this question is lacking in a proper sense of responsibility...
...The war-revenue bill presented by Secretary McAdoo was framed on the plan to pay half of the war costs by bonds and half by taxation...
...The occasion was a patriotic one, in which men's nobler and self-sacrificing instincts were to be appealed to...
...He does not see that it is he and those for whom he speaks and the propaganda that he carries on that makes the Industrial Workers of the World possible...
...Such piffling and contemptible criticism is not to be dignified by notice...
...Whatever I did they criticized as wrong...
...Profiteers Should Pay RECENTLY in voting for the third liberty ** loan I felt it my duty to call attention to the situation and to urge that taxes be laid upon the war profiteers...
...For this frame of mind I offer no man an apol-ogy...
...Let no man be deceived as to the issue...
...He will not stand on his own merit, but upon the support of the few who select him...
...IAPPROVED the President's reasoning...
...This is false, and he knew it was false when he wrote it...
...They have reiterated that I was opposing the administration and had set myself up in antagonism to the President...
...They are merely the tools of those higher up, of the big business interests who are their masters...
...He said: "It will inxrolve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits to the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be sustained by the present generation, by well-conceived taxation...
...I sought to make the people who are making money out of this war devote their profits to paying for it...
...Then is no question of my patriotism by any honest man who knows the facts...
...They would ruin the sale of the bonds if thereby they could injure me...
...I sent out the speech to show my constituents the reasons for my vote, and now the Ledger and the News quarrel with me for sending out the speech...
...This brings the total bond issues up to the stupendous sum of $14,000,000,000, or $140 for every man, woman and child in the United States...
...There are honest people among my constituents who have been misled into actually believing such things...
...There is only one answer appropriate to be made to such a statement...
...I raised my hand against their idol, and I must be punished...
...They would not allow the humble workers of America to put aside the yoke of military service with the coming of peace, but would keep them trained for future wars and future opportunities for profiteering and plundering...
...NEXT to soldiers, money is the most needed thing to win the war...
...McAdoo advises that we melt our silver money into bars as the silver in the dollar is worth more than 100 cents...
...and pointed out that if the true facts were known it had earned perhaps 100 per cent on its common stock...
...And as the financial view which he expressed agreed with my own I was glad to support his plan for financing the war...
...As the servant of my constituents I merely presented the facts to the authorities...
...An additional bond Issue was authorized by Congress last fall, and recently the third liberty loan was authorized...
...Evidently this gentleman of the cloth classed me as one of tha latter, for he said: We ought to conscript every man who is capable of working in the industrial plants or in the offices, at the lathe in the munition plants, or in the factory, or at the typewriter—every man in his place, taking everyone that is needed to win this war...
...Conscription not only for the Army, but for industry—dragging men from their homes to serve in the ranks and also to toil in the factories and on the farm...
...the President's plan of paying half the war costs from bonds and half from taxation...
...The object of tho meeting was to promote the sale of liberty bonds...
...There were those present who were willing to endanger the bond campaign in order to do me an injury...
...I pass by the coarse abuse of the News so far as it relates to my personal qualities...
...It is an intolerable evil of political conscription that the selection is made by the elect few, and the candidate when chosen knows well the source of the honor...
...It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to protect our people so far as we may against the very serious hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of the inflation which would be produced by vast loans...
...Had we adopted the British rate our collections for the same period would have been from $2,500,000,000 to $3,000,000,000 more, or a total of not less than $5,000,000,000...
...Taking it as a text, the News followed with a column of coarse editorial abuse and dishonest criticism...
...The resolution condemning my speech was passed by men few or none of whom had read it...
...I realize how impossible is the task of my sending the truth to overtake their misrepresentations...
...Lied deliberately and maliciously, not in the heat, but cold bloodedly and basely, to do me injury...
...I have viewed the repeated bond issues with great apprehension...
...I am standing for old-fashioned Americanism, for the America of our fathers, and for real democracy...
...It is I who must face my conscience and my Maker...
...Had I had these papers' principles I would have waited to see which way the crowd went and then been the loudest shout-er of them all...
...I have voted for the measures proposed, not because some officer of thtf-administration advised it but because they me-the approval of my judgment...
...Still, I presume they are correct...
...However, the cost of the war began to run higher than had been calculated...
...Perhaps I forgot for the moment that it controlled the press and powerful political, influences in my district...
...He held that the financial burden of the war should be sustained so far as equitable "by the present generation, by well-conceived taxation...
...The daily papers, except for the spleen of their editors, do not attack me because of any principles or convictions of their own, for they have none...
...It is a fight against the people and would deprive them of the right to choose their own spokesman...
...During the trying times of last spring and summer they nagged and hectored me in nearly every issue...
...The quotations are taken from the News' report of the speech...
...However that may be, I make no apology to the Steel Trust or to its hirelings, its editors, its sycophants, its parasites, its bootlickers, or its deluded friends, who can see no wrong in anything it may do...
...The whole "flare-up" was obviously a conspiracy...
...Glass criticizes me for having obtained the discharge from service of a number of soldiers...
...Our present rate of taxation on war profits is much lower than the British rate...
...Congress did not adhere to IFELT it my duty to call attention to the situation and to urge that taxes be laid upon the war profiteers...
...the same influence that other war profiteers exercise in other states and districts...
...Numerous wealthy business men had gathered around the well-loaded board...
...Under our rates we will collect for 1917 $3,500,000,000, which is less than one-fourth of our expenditures...
...Birmingham, Ala., is the home of a branch of the United States Steel Corporation There it exercises the same influence as it does in Minnesota, electing Congressmen and Senators...
...She was buffeted on that one, and then all scriptural law was fulfilled...
...The pitiable Ledger, after remaining on the fence for weeks on conscription, came out just before the vote was taken with a bluster as to what would happen to me if I did not vote for it, and later ridiculed my speech against it and called it a "tirade...
...Of the dozens of measures relating to the war, either directly or indirectly, in only three have I voted against what was reported as the judgment of officers of the administration...
...On concerns earning as much as $500,000,000 our rate is roughly 32 per cent, the British rate is 25 per cent on profits up to the three prewar-year average, and 80 per cent upon war profits...
...Our brave soldiers will die in France in vain if by unwise financiering we bankrupt our country and become unable to supply them with munitions of war...
...But I am undismayed...
...I did my duty as I saw it, and whether I shall sink or swim, it was a patriotic action and will redound to the Nation's welfare...
...I subsequently answered this by calling attention to the enormous profits that are being made by the great industrial concerns...
...I have served my country as a private soldier in time of war, which not one of my critics has done...
...the same influence exercised by the du Pont Powder Co., the Packers* Combine, the Morgans and Standard OiL Congressman Huddleston, speaking for himself is speaking of many other congressmen who are either independent enough to represent all their constituents and therefore have the opposition of the special interests or iliey are the mere puppets of such special interests and have their support...
...My speech was made on April 6. On April 9 a notable gathering was held in the Tutwiler hotel in Birmingham—that splendid hostelry, the center of extravagance and display of the swagger and fashion in my city...
...The "hand-picked one," if he should succeed me, will be the representative not „f the people as a whole but of a few big corporations and their puppets...
...My exposure of the profiteering of the Steel Trust was in good faith...
...Glass's criticism is as dishonest as it is petty...
...A great inflation of circulation has resulted, gold money has disappeared...
...They consider that they are making a sacrifice equal to that of the soldiers who do the fighting when they lend money to the Government at a good rate of interest in non-taxable bonds...
...But the speaker went too far...
...From Luxurious Home THESE conscriptionists believe in conscripting our boys for soldiers, and men and women to toil in the factories and on the farm, but always they have in mind the conscription of the humble and the poor...
...They commanded me with threats what to do and scolded and misrepresented what I did...
...It was a congenial and prosperous company, and soon speeches were declared in order...
...For instance, the United States Steel Corporation will pay for 1917 taxes $233,000,000...
...And on Sunday morning the Age-HerTHE daily papers, except for the spleen of their editors, do not attack me because of any principles or convictions of their own, for they have none...
...I rather think that the big business and financial interests who are making millions out of the war and who have been compelled to pay the increased taxes are so powerful that Congress has been unable to carry out the President's plan...
...the Wisconsin situation, I have proven 100 pet cent pure...
...They do not favor conscription for themselves...
...The Tutwiler luncheon was no exception...
...IREALIZE what power the press has...
...He would have all the vast wealth of this great young Republic collected into the coffers of a superior class and used by them with a free hand to oppress the great masses...
...And always I have felt that I must make the final decision for myself...
...Though not always willing to go blindly where he points, I respect his master intellect...
...The News a.id Age-Herald have steadily misrepresented me...
...Oh, unhappy the day when the people of my district are thus mistreated, and when their Congressman is merely the tool of the selfish and avaricious...
...These conscriptionists believe in conscription of human beings, but not of dollars...
...Conscription of men and women, too, not only for war service 1 but for the service of the great profit-making corporations, so that millionaires may be multiplied and our Nation's resources monopolized...
...I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it seems to me that it would be unwise to base the credits which will not be necessary entirely on money borrowed...
...Glass says I am a Socialist...
...As To My Record...
...The methods of the profiteers are alike in all cases, they use the American flag, and a venal pj-ess to camouflage their wicked purpose.—(Editor's Note...
...It is I who took the oath of office...
...I supported the Presidents position as given in his war message...
...My life is an open book of service to my fellow man, and I appeal to that...
...It is the fight of the selfish, the insincere, the false patriot, the money worshiper, the parasites of big business^ against the toiling masses...
...It is a fight against me because I am the people's representative...
...Whether the President changed his mind I do not know...
...how it may create around the noblest character' an atmosphere of hatred and disgust...
...There was scurrying to and fro, mines were laid, plans formed, and a plot concocted for my quick undoing...
...THE Birmingham papers from the very first have sought to discredit me...
...I have not been a rubber-stamp Congressman, but have tried to weigh patriotically every measure presented and to vote for the best interest of my country...
...If it should be proposed to conscript one of them to follow a plow or roll a wheelbarrow or beat hot iron—to take him away from his luxurious home and would put him to doing some useful work for the country—he would resent it to the death...
...Perhaps I forgot for the moment that it controlled the press and powerful political influences in my district...
...I confront the plot against me with calm and untroubled faith that God is in Heaven and justice will triumph...
...But always there are those who are willing to pervert a patriotic occasion to base political ends...
...Paying For The War Many Newspapers, Acting As Tools Of Corporate Interests, Malign People Who Favor High Taxes On Profiteers By GEORGE HUDDLESTON, Congressman from Alabama The following speech of Congressman Huddleston is given because it accurately portrays conditions in many other districts where war profiteers control the press and political action for their own selfish interests...
...ald cartooned me on its front page as a Bolshevik, and the News reiterated its false criticisms...
...This bill had the President's approval, passed with my support, and is the law now in effect...
...I challenge my critics to show to the contrary...
...No favoritism was shown nor polifc ical pull exerted...
...I attacked their god—the Steel Trust...
...They have belittled and ridiculed whenever they could, and for the rest have ignored me altogether...
...The fight on me is not one in which I alone am interested...
...and while we are at it we might conscript a Congressman who is in sympathy with tha sentiment in this community and who will represent this people and that great sentiment in Congress...
...My exposure of the profiteering of the Steel Trust was in good faith...
...I have dared to have hu-manity as my watchword instead of greed...
...And so we have the key to the sentiments of the speaker and his cheerers and the platform of the candidate for Congress whom they will conscript...
...Birmingham had been worked to a fever heat of patriotism in the sale of liberty bonds and was responding nobly to the call, but these narrow and venomous partisans had no respect for that...
...Of the two perhaps the News has been the least despicable, for its editor has done his own lying, while the Age-Herald has set its hired slanderers to sandbag me...
...Human beings may be conscripted, they say, but property is sacred...
...Evidently there were a number of conscrip-tionists at the meeting, for the News says that the pastor's reference to conscription, including Hie conscription of a Congressman, was cheered mightily...
...When patriotic fervor had reached its height up rose the pastor of a fashionable Episcopal church in my city and proceeded to climb the ladder of eloquent praise for America and denunciation of her foes...
...I realize what a load I carry in the united opposition of the Birmingham dailies...
...The Plot Thickens T IS obvious that the attack on me was prearranged...
...In his war message of April 2, 1917, after advising a declaration of war against Germany he proceeded to discuss what the war would involve...
...Press Tool of Masters...
...The assassin of political reputation is as despicable as the slanderer of private charac-ter...
...He and his kind are driving for the same conditions in "America that produced the Bolshcviki in Russia —rhe the bourgeois—while I would stay the rapacity of exploitation and strive toward conditions where there would be few millionaires and no anarchists, but reasonable plenty for all...
...and pointed out that if the true facts were known it had earned perhaps 100 per cent on its common stock...
...They have misrepresented and criticized whenever that course was possible...
...But notwithstanding the repeated bond issues and the many billions increase of the public debt no increase in taxes on profits has been mode...
...I see the evils which the President predicted transpiring before my own eyes...
...There at least is no need to conscript a candidate for Congress to oppose me...
...I tried to protect coming generations and babes yet for a hundred years unborn...
...The favored one will be the candidate, not of the people, but of his conscriptors...
...I do not think that he did change...
...I will be frank...
...Had I had these papers' principles I would have waited to see which way the crowd went and then been the loudest shouter of them all...
...perhaps I forgot or maybe I had courage enough to tell the truth in behalf of the public welfare, even though it meant my own ruin...
...THE real fact is that in all respects neces-sary to stand the acid test of loyalty as described by the President in his recent letter on ISENT out the speech to show my constitutents the reasons for my vote, and now the Ledger and the News quarrel with me for sending out the speech...
...The question of financing the war was one jf the first to which President Wilson gave consideration...
...This is the direct result of repeated bond issues...
...Prices of all commodities have increased 21 per cent since we entered the war...
...The military laws required that they be discharged...
...He lied...
...Poor dolt...
...how it may mold public opinion, how, by base innuendoes, it may destroy the proudest reputation...
...And having paid me this tribute, he proceeded to demolish the Germans by saying: America was buffeted on one cheek by Germany amd she turned the other one...
...Had that corporation been located in Great Britain it would pay for the same earnings $387,000,000, so thut the Steel Corporation by paying the American rate instead of the British rate saves $154,000,-000, and is able to pay its stockholders 49 cents on the dollar for 1917 alone...
...I was met by the assertion that greater taxes would cripple business, that business could not afford to pay more than was now being paid...
...These boys were unfit for service...
Vol. 10 • May 1918 • No. 5
