ANOTHER RAILROAD RAID ON THE TREASURY
Another Railroad Raid on the Treasury ONLY twelve months after the passage of the Esch-Cummins Law, men are rising in their places in Congress, proposing to strike out and amend the main features...
...President Harding comes into office with critical problems pressing for solution...
...Wilson in 1912 had promised to destroy...
...But one result was possible in the wake of these policies...
...In his book, "The New Freedom," in the signed preface of which he wrote that there had been "put together here in their right sequence the more suggestive portions of my campaign speeches," he said: "The trusts are our masters now...
...The real tragedy in Woodrow Wilson's career was the woeful discredit which has come to the great principles he betrayed, his brief espousal of which gave him the presidency and made him the hope of millions...
...Under its operation, he declared that the railroads are "moving rapidly toward Government ownership...
...This means that the American people are paying annually in freight, passenger, and Pullman fares a sum sufficient to buy the railroads in less than ten years, for the market value of all railroad securities is less than $14,000,000,000...
...But after September 1 the law stipulated that no further payment should be made EXCEPT FINAL PAYMENT, DISCHARGING THE CLAIMS...
...It will be said, to discourage resistance, that the people have lost the means of effective political action...
...The President called an Industrial Conference, and no act of his public career evidenced more clearly the change which had come over the man chosen to the presidency by the people in 1912...
...The rate guarantee, found in Section 422 of the law, providing that the Interstate Commerce Commission should advance rates to a level where they would pay the railroads a dividend of 5 1/2 per cent to 6 per cent upon their "aggregate value...
...IF HE IS WISE HE WILL DEAFEN HIS EARS TO IT...
...Civilization Outraged THE women of Germany appeal to the civilized nations of the world to protect their daughters and sisters from violence and outrage by the uncontrolled element of the Army of Occupation in Germany,—black and white...
...The people will be patient...
...That was Wilson's position before the American people in 1912...
...Woodrow Wilson was repudiated because he betrayed the principles upon which he was elected in 1912 and 1916...
...Our own government should at once, through its Department of State, bring the reported atrocities to the attention of the authorities responsible, with an appeal that would insure immediate and complete protection...
...Although the railroads are realizing revenues more than $2,000,000,000 a year in excess of the revenues received under Government operation in 1918 and 1919, the owners complain that they are unable to make a profit...
...The early days of the Wilson administration gave added hope to the millions who believed that in the unequal struggle with organized wealth, the people at last had a champion in the White House...
...Under the leadership of Judge Gary, head of the great trust which had flouted the law under three administrations, a concerted movement was begun to destroy organized labor...
...So excessive are the rates levied under the Esch-Cummins Law, that traffic has fallen off enormously...
...To a visiting delegation at the White House in March, 1916, he said formally and publicly: "I can assure you that there is nothing nearer my heart than keeping this country out of war...
...Countless statesmen have lost their health and suffered defeat in politics...
...The Esch-Cummins Law contains a rate guarantee even more burdensome upon the people than the six months guarantee of net profits...
...Out of a total of 14,000,000 votes cast for the three principal candidates in 1912, Wilson received 6,295,000, Roosevelt 4125,000, and Taft 8,485,000...
...NOT VOTING (23): Borah, Chamberlain, Culberson, Cummins, Edge, Elkins, Fall, Harrison, Johnson of California, Johnson of South Dakota, Kendrick, Keyes, McCormick, Newberry, Norris, Owen, Page, Penrose, Pitt man, Robinson, Sherman, Walsh of Massachusetts, Williams...
...After an exhaustive investigation, the Commission rendered a final report in 1915 establishing beyond cavil the existence of the monopoly control of American banking, business and industry which Mr...
...Wholesale raids were made upon "radical" organizations in which hundreds were arrested without warrant...
...Let it not be forgotten that Woodrow Wilson was elected President of the United States in 1912 upon a single issue...
...On February 22, the Senate passed the Wins-low-Townsend Bill which went even beyond the Esch-Cummins Law in its generosity to the railroads...
...But let it not be thought that Congress has learned anything from the disastrous results of the Esch-Cummins Law...
...UALLY SWELLING THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF CONGRESS' GENEROUS GIFT, UNTIL THAT GIFT, INSTEAD OF BEING $631,500,000, WILL REACH A BILLION AND YET NOT DISCHARGE THE CLAIM...
...Former Director General of Railroads, Hon...
...The Government's hand, which had been lifted—by order of the people—to destroy the giants holding unlawful dominion over the necessaries of life, was held out in greeting to welcome to Washington as "dollar a year" patriots the men who had reared the trusts in violation of the law...
...Why did the American people turn against the men they had twice swept into the Whitee House against tremendous odds...
...It is admitted in financial circles that a crash is impending, and that after mulcting the Government in the past year out of about a billion dollars, in guarantees and loans, the private owners must soon apply for the resumption of federal operation...
...Harding THE passing of Woodrow Wilson March 4 marked the end of a tragio era in American history...
...The issue of 1912 was not made by Woodrow Wilson...
...NOT VOTING (30): Brandegee, Capper, Colt, Cummins, Dillingham, Elkins, Fall, Glass, Harrison, Heflin, Hitchcock, Johnson of South Dakota, Kendrick, Keyes, Kirby, McCormick, McCumber, McNary, Newberry, Norris, Owen, Page, Penrose, Pitt-man, Robinson, Sherman, Smith of Arizona, Smith of Georgia, Walsh of Massachusetts, Williams...
...Sedition laws were drafted...
...We should not only make every effort consistent with international propriety to induce other countries to observe the laws of civilized na-tions in Germany, but we should immediately withdraw American troops from Europe, to the end that we shall no longer be even indirectly a party to enforcing the terms of a treaty which violates our principles and promises, which enslaves and impoverishes the German people to the incalculable injury of the whole human race, and which has been denied the sanction of the American people, as expressed both through their representatives in the Senate, and at the polls...
...William G. McAdoo, in a public statement last month, denounced the Esch-Cummins Law as "the biggest piece of bunk" ever put over on the American people...
...One of the President's first acts was the appointment of a Commission on Industrial Relations, headed by Frank P. Walsh, of Kansas City...
...Another Railroad Raid on the Treasury ONLY twelve months after the passage of the Esch-Cummins Law, men are rising in their places in Congress, proposing to strike out and amend the main features of that infamous measure...
...It will be said that the people have abandoned their old hopes and aspirations...
...But if Mr...
...Within one month after his second inaugural, Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to put us into war...
...Our foreign policy was not the only issue before the people in 1916...
...The vote on the La Follette amendment was as follows: YEAS (19): Ashurst, Borah, Chamberlain, Culberson, Fletcher, Gore, Gronna, Harris, Johnson of California, Kenyon, King, La Follette, McKellar, Overman, Phelan, Sheppard, Simmons, Stanley, Tram-mell...
...I was opposed to the passage of the Esch-Cummins Law with its unprecedented guarantees of private profit to be paid from the public treasury or exacted in rates from the people...
...The tragedy attending Wilson's exit from public life lies deeper than the oollapse of one man's personal fortune...
...Under the evil genius of Attorney General Palmer, new checks to freedom were devised for times of peace...
...The vote on the Kirby amendment was as follows: YEAS (14): Ashurst, Fletcher, Gore, Gronna, Harris, Kenyon, King, Kirby, La Follette, McKellar, Overman, Phelan, Sheppard, Trammell...
...This bill provided that without making a final accounting the railroads could obtain partial payments from the public treasury, of amounts claimed under the guarantee clauses of the Esch-Cummins Law...
...Harding is to save himself from the fate which drove Taft from office discredited, and which finally overtook Woodrow Wilson, HE MUST MEET THIS ISSUE...
...And on September 30, a month before the election, after his party spokesmen had urged the people to uphold the administration which had "kept us out of war," Woodrow Wilson warned the country in a public address that to prevent our being drawn into the European War the Republicans must be defeated...
...NAYS (59): Ball, Beckham, Brandegee, Calder, Capper, Colt, Dial, Dillingham, Fernald, France, Frelinghuysen, Gay, Gerry, Glass, Gooding, Hale, Heflin, Henderson, Hitchcock, Jones of New Mexico, Jones of Washington, Kellogg, Knox, Lenroot, Lodge, McCumber, McLean, McNary, Moses, Myers, Nelson, New, Phipps, Poindexter, Pomerene, Rans-dell, Reed, Shields, Simmons, Smith, of Arizona, Smith of Georgia, Smith of Maryland, Smith of South Carolina, Smoot, Spencer, Stanley, Sterling, Sutherland, Svanson, Thomas, Townsend, Underwood, Wadsworth, Walsh of Montana, Warren, Watson, Willis, Wolcott...
...The war ended with the armistice November 11, 1918...
...The Esch-Cummins Law guaranteed a profit of $75,000,000 a month to the railroads for the first six months of private operation, from March 1 to September 1, 1920...
...His election upon those principles proved that the country had accepted the progressive policy toward monopoly...
...Accepting the President's leadership, Congress repealed the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Law— under which monopoly had fattened— added what were put forward as strengthening clauses to the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, and enacted legislation creating a federal reserve system and a Federal Trade Commission...
...If the administration casts its lot with reaction, a NEW "INSURGENCY" WILL ARISE...
...THIS BATTLE WILL GO FORWARD...
...As he trudged from the Capitol, a private citizen, he left behind him a record of failure which has delayed—if it has not prevented—the solution in this generation of the political and economic problems which beset the people...
...WITH THE WINSLOW-TOWNSEND BILL A LAW THEY MAY NOW COLLECT SEVERAL HUNDRED MILLIONS OF THIS MONEY, BUT THE DOOR OF THE TREASURY WILL BE LEFT AJAR SO THAT THEY MAY COME BACK YEAR AFTER YEAR PYRAMIDING NEW CLAIMS UPON THE, OLD, ADDING FRESH ITEMS OF LOSS, UNEARTH-ING NEW INDEMNITIES, AND GRAD...
...New forces are moving in Washington...
...President Wilson returned from Eu-rope where he had given his signature to the Treaty of Versailles to find the nation in a state of profound unrest...
...A small fighting group of "progressives," grappling with the forces of organized greed in state and national capitals, had by 1908 made monopoly a leading issue in the national campaign...
...Why have the railroads been "padding" their expense accounts...
...Evidence has already been placed before the Commission showing that since their return to private operation, March 1, 1920, the roads have been placing their contracts for repairs and equipment with "outside" repair companies owned by the same interests that own the railroads, at prices ranging from 300 to 500 per cent above the cost of doing the work in the railroad shops...
...Making the world safe for democracy" by armed force, became the dream of Woodrow Wilson, and as the League of Nations took shape in his brain, the cause of saving democracy in his own land was dwarfed until finally he rejected it entirely as a petty and unworthy aim...
...The rates went into effect August 26...
...Time reveals the evil in every bad law, and it has taken scarcely one year to make plain to everybody—except certain Senators and Representatives in Congress —the abominations of the Transportation Act of 1920...
...The administration will be given a fair trial...
...I bleieved then, as I believe now, that such guarantees are AN INVITATION TO FRAUD and DISHONESTY...
...Our government has been for the past few years under the control of the heads of great allied corporations with special interests...
...But bad as was the Esch-Cummins Law, Congress has just passed a measure which goes beyond its terms, and fastens new burdens upon the American people...
...The Interstate Commerce Commission has already begun an inquiry to ascertain whether the railroads have been paying extravagant prices for repairs and equipment "in disregard of efficient and economical management" and in violation of law...
...Men and women whose crime was opinion were deported by the hundreds...
...When Congress passed the Winslow-Townsend Bill last month, this protection to the Government was struck down...
...The munition makers and financial interests of this country began to realize enormous profits...
...The great trusts which had fattened upon the American peaple for a generation before the war, greedily raked in unprecedented profits in the extremity of the nation...
...Amidst these preparations preliminary to a real solution of the trust problem, the war in Europe cast its first shadows across American life...
...But in 1916 he yet remained a staunch advocate of peace, declaring that this country should not be drawn into the horror which had engulfed Europe...
...people reelected him believing in his professions of peace and relying upon the integrity of his purpose to continue the fight against the domestic enemies of democracy...
...He not only put forward these specific promises, but he amplified them in speeches in the important cities of the country...
...Monopoly became entrenched...
...Senator Kirby, of Arkansas, offered an amendment proposing to strike out Section 422, which guarantees the roads rates producing 5l/2 to 6 per cent profits on their aggregate value...
...When it became apparent that the Winslow-Townsend Will would be passed, I offered an amendment proposing that NO MONEY SHOULD BE PAID IN THE FORM OF GUARANTEES to any rail-road WHICH HAD PAH) "UNREASONABLE AND EXTRAVAGANT PRICES FOR SUPPLIES, EQUIPMENT OR REPAIRS, OR UNREASONABLE SUMS AS SALARIES TO ITS OFFICERS OR DIRECTORS," charging these DlSHONEST EXPENDITURES IN ITS ACCOUNTS...
...Every government that honors womanhood should respond...
...Pledged in 1912 to "vigorously enforce the criminal law against trust officials," President Wilson in 1919 invited Judge Gary and John D. Rockefeller, with half a dozen lesser trust magnates, to represent the "public interest" in this bootless inquiry...
...On November 2, 1920, the administration was repudiated by the most smashing defeat ever dealt a great political party in the history of the country...
...The Republican platform omitted earlier pronouncements against the trusts, and as the campaign progressed, the people became suspicious that the Republican candidate had fallen under the domination of the reactionaries of his party...
...Harding's associations in the Senate, his selection of a cabinet, and his inaugural address INDICATE NO INTENTION TO GRAPPLE WITH THIS ISSUE...
...During this period the railroads spent unprecedented amounts for "repairs," maintenance, and equipment, piling up a deficit of $631,500,000...
...Although the United States Senate has wisely rejected the Treaty of Versailles and refused to ratify it, American soldiers are now stationed in Germany charged with the duty of enforcing the terms of the treaty...
...We will not allow the few to continue to determine what the policy of the country is to be...
...Senator Albert B. Cummins, of Iowa, joint author of the law, was forced to admit a few weeks ago that, since their return to private operation, the railroads have been brought to the verge of ruin, So questionable have been the methods of operation employed by the private owners, that Senator Cummins has publicly announced he will call for a Congressional investigation when the new Congress meets...
...A new tariff law is to be written...
...Of these three candidates, Taft alone openly defended the policy under which monopoly had fastened its grip upon the pepole...
...The transportation break-down under the Esch-Cummins Law must be dealt with...
...Why did they demand of a servile Congress the enactment of the Winslow-Townsend Bill...
...President Wilson, meanwhile, repeated his promises of 1912, and the...
...Prisoners were tortured and mistreated...
...The Esch-Cummins Law provided that during the six months guarantee period, the roads might receive advances to enable them to meet their operating expenses...
...NAYS (47): Ball, Beckham, Cal-der, Curtis, Dial, Edge, Fernald, France, Frelinghuysen, Gay, Gerry, Gooding, Hale, Henderson, Jones of New Mexico, Jones of Washington, Kellogg, Knox, Lenroot, Lodge, McLean, Moses, Myers, Nelson, New, Phipps, Poindexter, Pomerene, Rans-dell, Reed, Shields, Smith of Maryland, Smith of South Carolina, Smoot, Spencer, Sterling, Sutherland, Swanson, Thomas, Townsend, Underwood, Wadsworth, Walsh of Montana, Warren, Watson, Willis, Wolcott...
...the freeing of the Government from the industrial and commercial monopoly established under the Roosevelt and Taft administrations...
...Concurrently with his demand for the immediate ratification of the Peace Treaty, the President announced that Attorney General Palmer would bring the profiteers to justice...
...The deficits in time of war under Government operation, which were cited as an excuse for turning the roads back under the Esch-Cummins Law, were less than $28,000,000 a month...
...The Esch-Cummins Law plainly stipulated that after the expiration of the six months guarantee period, September 1, THE RAILROADS SHOULD RECEIVE NO PAYMENTS UNTIL THEY SHOULD MAKE A FINAL ACCOUNTING AND ACCEPT PAYMENT IN FULL...
...The answer is simple...
...The vote on these amendments plainly marked the dividing line between the friends of the railroads and the friends of the people...
...If the press of the nation keeps from the people the facts of this struggle a A NEW PRESS WILL SPRING INTO EXISTENCE AND THE PEOPLE WILL LEARN THE TRUTH...
...This is the plea of cowards and weaklings...
...The outrages reported on the highest authority, from the occupied territory of that defenseless people are a menace to the future peace of the world and cry aloud for the condemnation of every civilized nation...
...Having already exacted $260,000,000 during the guarantee period, they are unwilling to accept final payment of the balance of $370,500,000 claimed under the Esch-Cummins Law...
...There is a LESSON FOR PRESIDENT HARDING in the CAREER OF WOOD-ROW WILSON...
...He said: "The certain prospect of the success of the Republican Party is that we shall be drawn, in one form or another, into the embroilment of the European War...
...Freight rates were advanced 35 per cent, passenger fares 20 per cent, and Pullman fares 50 per cent...
...We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world—no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men...
...President Wilson not only gave his sanction to these policies, but urged Congress to adopt peace time conscription...
...When Woodrow Wilson took office March 3,1913, he did so knowing that his pledges had been confirmed by an overwhelming vote of 3 to 1 in repudiation of the existing governmental policy toward the trusts...
...Addressing a meeting in Chicago ill January, 1916, he said: "It is your duty to stand off and not let this nation be drawn into war...
...The progressives in both parties rallied to the President's support...
...Under the Esch-Cummins Law the public pays the bills...
...The government of the United States in recent years has not been administered by the common people of the United States...
...3) "To give the public substantial relief from the high cost of living" by "breaking up criminal commercial conspiracies...
...He traveled back and forth over the country during the months preceding the election discussing one great policy...
...The liberal press lent its influential aid...
...Confronted by international difficulties, Woodrow Wilson began to arrogate to himself sole authority to negotiate with foreign powers, excluding Congress from its constitutional share in determining the foreign policy of the United States...
...The Government of the United States at present is a foster-child of the special interests...
...By the Winslow-Townsend Bill, Congress destroyed the safeguards to the payment of the guarantee...
...Questions of foreign policy must be met...
...That policy was the destruction of monopoly, and...
...Back of all these questions looms the old issue between the Government, representing the people, and the great organizations of capital which have established a policy of economic autocracy at home and are seeking to establish imperialism abroad...
...Since the physical valuation of the railroads is far from completed, the Interstate Commerce Commission was forced to accept the fictitious and fraudulent accounts of the railroads as the chief guide to "aggregate value," and on July 31, the Commission authorized the largest rate increase in history in order to pay a dividend of 6 per cent upon this watered valuation...
...The people of this country, so long as the spirit of American independence survives, will NEVER REST CONTENT WHILE THE PACKERS, THE STANDARD OIL TRUST, THE STEEL TRUST, THE WOOLEN TRUST, AND OTHER MONOPOLIES CONTROL THE BASIC INDUSTRIES, the NATURAL RESOURCES, AND THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE...
...IT WILL BE WAGED UPON AN ISSUE WHICH WILL NOT DOWN UNTIL JUSTICE SHALL PREVAIL...
...From that hour the struggle against the Special Interests which Candidate Wilson had denounced in 1912 was abandoned...
...Swollen with war profits, grown arrogant and merciless, the trust tyrants advanced prices to yet higher levels...
...The men who lured Taft to ignominious defeat will whisper this untruth to Harding...
...THE SENATORS WHO SUPPORTED THIS LAW, and who VOTED AGAINST THE AMENDMENTS for the RELIEF OF THE PUBLIC, WILL FIND IT HARD TO DEFEND THAT ACT BEFORE THEIR CONSTITUENTS...
...In Woodrow Wilson's administration the painful and heroic efforts of progressives through a score of years came to naught...
...Woodrow Wilson wrote that platform...
...By gavel rule tactics, the Winslow-Townsend Bill was put through the Senate without a roll call...
...Exit Woodrow Wilson---Enter Pres...
...If the old leaders fail to respond to this quickened impulse, THERE WILL BE NEW LEADERS...
...The tax laws are to be revised...
...The men who have been ruling America must consent to let the majority into the game...
...At the time this bill was under consideration, however, two amendments to the Esch-Cummins Law were brought to a vote...
...The conditions in Germany today are the fruit of the inhuman, unjust, and imperialist peace set up by the Treaty of Versailles, which violated every principle professed by the Allies during the war...
...This was an average monthly deficit of $105,-000,000...
...On February 2, 1916, at Kansas City he gave this further assurance that we should be kept out of war: "We can show our friendship toward the world and our devotion to the principles of humanity better and more effectively by keeping out of this struggle than by getting into it...
...In 1912 the question of how the Government should deal with monopoly had become the paramount issue, and it was on that issue that Woodrow Wilson was nominated and elected President of the United States...
...It is not allowed to have a will of its own...
...Meanwhile in open violation of the Constitution, he lent American aid to the illegal war on Russia...
...Why were the railroads unwilling to present final claims for the settlement of the guarantee at this time...
...Those were his pledges to the American people...
...The period between the armistice and March 4, 1921, will remain a nightmare in the memories of those Who lived through it...
...This was Wilson's specific platform promise In 1912: (1) "To vigorously enforce the criminal, as well as the Civil law against trust officials," (2) "To enact such legislation as will make it impossible for private monopoly to exist in the United States...
...In 1910 a reactionary Congress, ruled by "Cannonism," was turned out of office and the Republicans lost the House by 40 majority...
...This enormous increase in rates has netted the railroads, revenues of about $600,000,000 a month, so that the annual transportation bill of the nation will now total more than $7,000,000,000...
...The powerful interests which own the railroads see in these claims an opportunity to drain the public treasury for years to come...
Vol. 13 • March 1921 • No. 3
