PROFITEERS OR I. W. W. AS MENACE
Pierce, J. M.
Profiteers or I. W. W. as Menace Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas Tells of the Greed of Coal Operators; Compares Them to Train Robbers. By J. M. PIERCE (Publisher Wisconsin Farmer) ONE of the most...
...And now they are collecting their war taxes from the people and exacting excessive toll besides by "soaking" them for all they can get for their products...
...By J. M. PIERCE (Publisher Wisconsin Farmer) ONE of the most scathing arraignments of the profiteer, that has been heard in a long time, was delivered in the United States senate recently by Senator Arthur Capper, of Kansas...
...As an example of this profiteering, the senator from Kansas told how the price of fuel oil in his state had advanced 300 per cent in less than 30 days, following the coal mining strike, and said he had ted charges against the oil profiteers with the attorney general of his state, demanding investigation, prosecution and imprisonment of any and all persons found guilty...
...Hitohccck), and that said committee be instructed to prepare and report to the Senate such a resolution of ratification and reservation as in their judgment will meet the approval of not less than two-thirds of the Senate...
...We are beginning to hear about $18 shoes, $80 hand-me-downs and $15 hats for next spring, notwithstanding the people have bought and paid for all the cotton and woolen mills in a single year, as during the war they bought and paid for all the shoe factories, all the big flour mills, all the steel mills, the sawmills, the packing houses, the tanneries, the coal mines, and who knows what else, and yet do not own them and are at the mercy of excessively priced products...
...Pomerene) on the table," ruled the Vice President...
...He said: "I move that the treaty, the resolution of ratification, and the reservations heretofore presented to- the Senate be referred to a COMMITTEE OF CONCILIATION composed of six Senators to be appointed by the President of the Senate, among whom shall be the leader of the majority, the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr...
...Senator La Follette, the same La Fol'l-ette who voted against the war resolution, and who during the war made a speech in St...
...When it appeared to ail that efforts to bring about a compromise had failed, Senator Pomerene of Ohio, made a final attempt to save the instrument that promised so much to the future tranquility of the world...
...Great Br Man Amazed (From "Labor", November 22, 1919) In last week's issue of "Labor" appeared an editorial commenting upon the drastic injunction rendered by Judge Anderson at Indianapolis supporting the Attorney General's demand, that officers of the United Mine Workers of America cancel a strike order voted by the organization in regular convention...
...While thousands of patriotic Americans were sacrificing everything they held dear, to save the nation in its hour of peril, these traitorous money-grabbers not only handicapped the government in its conduct of the war by outrageous profiteering, but have refused to bear the taxes levied on their tremendous profits...
...Paulthat for a time threatened his impeachment, shouted: "I move bo lay the motion on the table...
...For a moment it looked as if an eleventh-hour settlement might be reached, but this 'hope was short lived...
...But denouncing the profiteers will not solve the problem of the high cost of living...
...Many of these consumers were the wives and children of men fighting in France to protect the lives and property of these conscienceless exploiters, and not content with profiteering from these de...
...A few months ago hardly a Senator, Republican or Democrat, would speak to La Follette...
...Train robbery and burglary is a poor trade by comparison...
...La Follette, with a smirky smile on his face as he looked at Sena-tar Lodge, demanded the yeas and nays...
...pendents during the war, this class of business men have continued exacting their excess profits for a year after the armistice, with a growing greed that threatens to land the whole nation in bankruptcy...
...I do not concede that as yet labor troubles and slack production are responsible except in part, for the more and more excessive toll exacted of the consumer...
...The London Weekly Outlwk, one of the moot conservative newspapers, which generally gages public opinion in Great Britain accurately, makes this comment upon Judge Anderson's decree: "Not since Premier Briand broke the French railroad strike by summoning the strikers to the colors under general mobilization orders, making them do work as soldiers that they declined to do as railway mien, has any Democratic Government ventured upon so extreme a measure...
...The government has in its possession income tax returns, which will show those concerns that have made extra-ordinary profits, and, with these figures as a clue, it should not be difficult to ferret out those men who have put greed above humanity and patriotism...
...I can agree heartily with the senator when he says that i.rain robbery is a poor trade in comparison with such wholesale plundering of the American people, and admitting that all that has been s-.\id against the bolshevists and I. W. W.'s is true, I doubt if these radicals have inflicted any greater injury upon the country than have the men described in Senator Capper's speech...
...against the striking miners, declaring it to be "the most daring act ever perpetrated by a democracy...
...Senator Pomerene's proposal was simple and, reasonable...
...In this speech, Senator Capper declared that the profiteers of this country were as great, or a greater menace to us and our institutions than the bolsheviks, the I. W. W.'s and the radicals who are preaching the overthrow of the government...
...Profiteering must be stopped, and it can be done wherever the department of justice is willing to enforce the prison penalty for taking excessive profits...
...The government has stretched the Lever act to reach the striking coal miners, though labor was not supposed to be subject to this law, and there is no excuse for not enforcing this act against the profiteers for whom the law was enacted...
...The La Follette motion carried and the last chance of bringing immediate peace to the world was lost...
...There is little to choose between the safe-blower and the forger, and for my part, I can see no consistency in jailing and exporting radicals who want to destroy the government by force, when we allow at large financial pirates who are looting the nation by cunning...
...It seems difficult to conceive of men so avaricious, so inhuman, so utterly lacking in every patriotic impulse that they should take advantage of the country's desperate need in a time of war to plunder, not only the government, but private consumers, both rich and poor...
...That is in order...
...President, unless we speedily check price gouging, the high cost of profits is soon to be translated into the excessive cost of existence, and an unbearable and still mere difficult situation will arise...
...In tibia comment it was asserted that perhaps in no country other than Japan could such a decision be made...
...Pirobably nothing America has done has aroused such general interest in England as President WSsion's course toward the mine strikers—for England has passed through several critical strikes and has won all through compromise only...
...He seriously questioned the pet theory of the business interests, that under-production and labor troubles Were the causes of the high cost of living, and put the most of the blame reedy business concerns that are exp the public by means of excess profits...
...The question is on laying the motion of the Senator .from Ohio (Mr...
...The war is over, but speculation, spoliation and plunder are as rampant as ever and more daring...
...Such is the charge of Senator Capper, and his charge is borne out by the continually rising prices and other facts that have come to light since the war ended...
...Hardly had the Ohio Senator, whose earnestrjass left no doubt as to the sincerity of his suggestion, finished reading his motion when...
...He was the general of the "Battalion of Death...
...Following his reference to the oil profiteers, Senator Capper said: Mr...
...Senator Lodge jumped to his feet and raised a point of order...
...Among these facts I might mention the announcement of William G. McAdoo, that many coal operators made from 15 to 2,000 per cent profit during the war, a statement that has been corroborated by Secretary of the Treasury Glass...
...The apparent understanding between Lodge and La Follette in the final stages of the treaty fight left a bad taste in the mouth of gallery spectators , who watched the frequent conferences between the two Senators on the floor...
...La Follette Chief of Pact Killers (From Democratic National Committee Press Bulletin) Washington, D. C.—In the parliamentary maze that temporarily, at least, destroyed the treaty of peace with Germany in the Senate of the United States last Wednesday night one incident stands out as convincing proof that Senators Lodge of Massachusetts and La Follette of Wisconsin were the chief assassins of this document of humanity...
...But more contemptible, if possible, than profiteering from the dependents of the American soldiers, is the action of these interests in passing their war taxes on to the people...
...A wave of expectancy swept the Senate...
...While the people made sacrifices and fought during the war, and are still fighting and sacrificing, these industries have paid no part in the cost of the national defense, nor have they contributed anything to help the country except at war prices and at tremendous profits...
...In the treaty contest, however, it was this same La Folllette who moved tihe pawns on the Senatorial opposition chess board that brought the treaty of peace to defeat...
...Such men are indeed as dangerous as bolshevists and I. W. W.'s, and it is a pity that the "Ark" which carried Emma Goldman and other undesirables back to Europe, should not also have had as passengers a few hundred millionaire-profiteers...
...Consulting his book of Senate rules, Vice President Marshall decided that the Pomerene motion was in order...
...Since this editorial was written there baa appeared in the Chicago Tribune a cablegram from London expressing the amazement of the English press over the fight inaugurated by the American Government...
...He voted against war, and now he votes against peace," later commented Senator Hitchcock upon the effect of the La Follette "coup...
...Lodge) who shall be chairman of the committee, and the leader of the minority, the Senator from Nebraska (Mr...
...Lodge ostensibly was the sijsokesmian of the treaty destroyers, but actually — as events disclosed in the finial hour—La Follette was the guiding spirit of the irreconcilable...
...In Great Britain, where property-rights are ranch less sacred than in the United States, individual rights are more respected, and here, where legislation regarding labor is more advanced than in America, bo vrotent an hmova-tk» vrwM be unthiriabkv...
Vol. 12 • January 1920 • No. 1
