EDITORIALS

...Burton's Defense SPEAKING ON THE FLOOR of the United States Senate last week in defense of the President's Canadian bill, Senator Burton of Ohio said: "It is not the intention of this proposal for reciprocity to reduce the price of articles sold by the farmer...

...Solicitude for the Farmer SENATOR BURTON'S DEFENSE of "reciprocity" contains several friendly and solicitous allusions to the farmer...

...The remedy lies not in tariff legislation but in other directions...

...Clearly enough something must be done to remove these barriers that have grown up between the producer and the consumer...

...List of Killed and Wounded Grows Larger...

...Roughly speaking, he gets his paltry third while the two-thirds share goes to fill the already overflowing coffers of the railroads, the beef trust, the millers, the commission houses, and all the other agencies that stand between the farmer and his home market...

...A Handbook on Commission Government AN EXCELLENT little book of information about the commission form of government for cities has just been published by the University of Wisconsin...

...The change from the meaningless, noisy, dangerous celebration to the purposeful, orderly, wholesome celebration is enhancing, not destroying, the patrri-otic impulse that causes us to set aside as a national holiday the Fourth of July...

...This subject requires the careful attention of Congress and such legislation as may give the farmer the full benefit of increased prices for farm produce...

...Burton's caution is well-considered...

...Too much light cannot be thrown upon our courts and the powers they exercise...

...And in this country people have not delegated such power to their courts...

...Instead we were treated to such as these: "Sane Fourth a Great Success...

...It will injure the farmers...

...He echoes the President's own statement in his message to Congress...

...There is no dispute over the fact that the farmer does not get his rightful share of the prices extracted for his products from the consumer...

...It would require resort to vague conjecture to prove that the farmer will suffer from this agreement, save in exceptional instances...

...benson...

...Nowhere in the constitution of the United States is the Federal Supreme Court authorized to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional...

...The Unsurped Power of Our Courts" THE UNITED STATES is the only country in the world that permits a court to override a legislative body...

...that is admitted by both sides, the only difference being over the extent of the injury...

...Admitting that in some instances the farmer will be injured by lower prices for his products, Senator Burton urges this bargain with Canada on the ground of the "general good...

...Four times in the constitutional convention of 1787 was a motion made to give the Supreme Court power of censorship over acts of Congress...

...Tariff revision—and this pact is but a hybrid species of tariff revision—is demanded by the whole country as a means of relieving the great mass of consumers—farmers as well as other classes—from the oppressive burdens of the skyscraper duties...

...Let us not blink at the facts...

...The simple fact is, however, a tiller of the soil supplies articles the prices of which have increased altogether out of proportion to the average of other commodities...

...It would be unwise to hold out the prospect that any material change in the cost of living will be accomplished by this agreement...

...says Mr...

...But it is convincing only in two respects, namely, that it will confer great advantages upon the Canadian farmer, and that it will open up an enormously valuable market for certain combinations of American manufacturers...

...Is this the kind of tariff revision the American people have demanded...

...Taft said: "I do not wish to hold out the prospect that the unrestricted interchange of food products will greatly and at once reduce their cost to the people of this country...

...A Sane Fourth NEVER BEFORE was there such a "sane" fourth...

...And significantly enough, in the newspapers of the fifth we missed the accustomed headlines beginning something like these: "Fire Department Kept Busy...

...Children Enjoy Games and Pageants...

...It will not give the consumers any relief from tariff extortion...

...That means, if anything, the Ultimate Consumer...

...We suggest that you read this series in Pearson's, "The Usurped Power of Our Courts," in connection with Mr...

...We recommend this book...

...How, then, is this pact to be defended on the ground of the general good...

...Such is the story Mr...

...Write to the University Extension Division, Madison, Wisconsin, for "City Government by Commission" by Ford H. MacGregor...

...But in all our deliberations it is the whole country and the general good of all the people to which we must look for our mandate in legislation...

...If judges are making and unmaking laws in this country—and they are—they are exercising despotic power...

...Roe's articles in this magazine on "Our Judicial Oligarchy...

...It is probable that by reason of the complicated machinery of distribution and the increase in the profits of the middleman he has not realized the benefits which he should...

...This usurpation of power makes it possible for a few men to set at naught the will of 90,000,000 people...

...Here is one of them: "I should certainly hesitate a very long time to advocate any policy which would in the slightest degree inure to the disadvantage of the farmer, whatever my opinion might be of the best tariff policy to be adopted...

...But is it to be regarded as a "defense" of the President's bill to admit these conditions and to recommend them to the consideration of Congress at some time in the indefinite future, while at the same time urging the ratification of this pact which still further increase the disadvantages under which the farmers are now laboring...

...And, precisely to the extent of such judicial activities, we are living under a despotism...

...every time was it voted down...

...Its purpose, is, the author states, "to meet the already enormous and growing demand upon the University for information" about this new and rapidly spreading plan of municipal government...

...How, in spite of this, the Supreme Court presumed to take this power into its own hands is told interestingly by Mr...

...This much may be said of Senator Burton's speech: it is an abler defense of the President's bill than any that has emanated from the White House...

...Fireworks Display in Evening Draw Thousands...

...Allan L. Benson is unfolding in Pearson's, beginning in the August number...

...Benson...

...the courts themselves have usurped it...

...that also is admitted...

...Now what does Senator Burton say about the consumer...

...It is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject...