THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES THE REVENUE BILL. AS this issue of La Follette's goes to press the senate is in the midst of the fight on the revenue bill. The forces of autocracy are lined up...
...That a close question of constitutionality Is Involved in the amendment as passed was an opinion quite generally expressed in Washington...
...The resolution calling for the submission of the constitutional amendment for prohibition was passed in the senate by a vote of 65 to 20...
...He maintained that if the necessary 30 states were not obtained within the six year period but were obtained within the eight year period that the amendment could be quickly resubmitted aud little time would be lost...
...and Smoot...
...They knew that congressmen saw the red fire, the brass bands and the banquets back home when they returned with appropriations for a postoffice at Hoakum Junction or for malting Tombigbee creek navigable...
...Members assailed the bill as being indefensible at a time when the nation is being called upon to face $17,000,000,000 for war expenditures...
...They, therefore, were not to be criticized for using the only instrument available...
...I call on you now to show the same enthusiasm in conscripting the wealth of the nation and to stand behind the lads we are sending across the seas to battle...
...The revenue bill will be taken up in more detail in the September issue of La Follette's...
...Senator Johnson said the tax ot incomes, as outlined, is entirely insufficient He favored taking practically all of the extremely large incomes...
...Senator Underwood made one of the principal speeches against the bill...
...The following voted against the resolution: Brandegee, Broussard, Calder, Culberson, France, Gerry, Hardwick, Hitchcock, Hosting, James, Lewis, Lodge, Penrose, Phelan, Pomerene, Reed, Underwood, Wadsworth, Warren, Weeks...
...That the Simmons bill, recommended by the finance committee, is satisfactory to Big Business seems apparent...
...Senator La Follette said that while ho was opposed to prohibition he recognized the right of the people to settle all questions by the referendum and for that reason he voted for the resolution...
...The friends of the resolution maintained that the six year feature will not necessarily invalidate the amendment...
...Sentiment out in the country, however, favors a goodly exaction from those concerns which have made millions in war profits...
...PROHIBITION...
...This question centers around the six year restriction which was attached to_the resolution by tho Harding amendment Senator Rorah, one of the leading constitutional lawyers of the senate, questioned the right of congress to say that unless an amendment is ratified within six years it shall fail...
...How the people must love to scorn a congress that deals thus tenderly with war profits while dealing with such severity with the common human clay to be put up against the guns of the Steel corporation, to which is returned under the bill nearly $300,000,000 profit for this year...
...at a time when the whole country is being asked to conserve and economize, the congress of the United States calmly passed the notorious rivers and harbors bill with its appropriation of $28,000,000...
...Congressman Madden discussing the bill in the house said: "When the people begin to pay the taxes next year you will hear from them...
...Congress hands the corporation this vast sum...
...The La Follettc measure seeks to raise revenue through war profits and swollen incomes...
...AT a time when citizens of the United States are being asked to make one pat of butter do where three did before...
...The members of the senate who voted against this vicious measure were: Ashurst, Borah, Brady, Gore, Kenyon, King, La Follotte, Pomerene, Shafroth, Smith, Mich...
...He contended that there are 36 states in the union having a population of 46,000,000 and 12 states having a population ot 56,-000,000 people...
...The Steel corporation will make nearly $300,000,000 in profits—not ordinary profits, but war profits computed under this bill...
...Can you justify it...
...at a time when housewives are being asked to eliminate little wastes here and there in the kitchen...
...We give the Steel corporation a dividend on its preferred stock in this time of dire distress, which is equal to what has been paid on its capita) stock in times past," he said...
...The pork plunder, to repair political fences back in constituencies where congressmen look npon post-office buildings as evidences of serving the public was passed with only eleven members of the senate standing out against it...
...Suitable depth to the river would increase this traffic owing to the ease with which owners could communicate with their yachts at this point...
...Here is a sample of the contents of the bill: There is an appropriation for $35,000 for Cold Spring, Abescon Inlets, Tuckerton Creek and Toms River, N. J. The recommendation for the Toms river improvement follows: "Toms river is located on one of the principal automobile lines of travel...
...THE senate of the United States has decided that if 36 states of the union declare, within a period of six years, that the United States is to be dry that liquor shall be banished from the country...
...He urged heavier demands upon big business, seying that his aim in so doing was to contribute to the . successful prosecution of the war by insuring the contentment of the people without irritation by unjust taxation...
...Our yacht owners must be taken care of even though we do face expenditures of seventeen billions...
...Those who coin tho blood of war are the best able to pay the expense of war...
...Senator Kenyon of Iowa made an able assault on the bill and laid bare the public steals contained therein...
...The forces of autocracy are lined up against the forces of democracy...
...We must remember that this democracy of ours is a big thing after all...
...But those who assailed the measure made perfunctory speeches...
...When we conscript the blood of the nation wc also 'oust conscript the wealth coined from that biood...
...PORK...
...When the draft bill was before the senate we voted with abounding enthusiasm to conscript the youth of our land and send them across the seas to battle...
...Friends of the resolution contended, in reply, that they were following the only available constitutional way in which to bring about national prohibition and that the method prescribed had been laid down by the fathers of our country and had never been changed...
...They knew that nothing could prevent tho passage of tho bill...
...He then launched into a bitter attack on the United States Steel corporation...
...Senator Penrose, the senator fioni Pennsylvania, the home of the steel trust, has been particularly anxious to have the measure passed with little delay...
...Those who are making swollen war profits are the best able to pay the bill...
...Senator Sheppard defended his vote for the Harding amendment by saying that it was evident that the resolution could not pass the senate without the Harding amendment, a two-thirds vote being required...
...This time, however, the little group of "wilful" senators, who opposed the conscription of MEN, are fighting valiantly for the conscription of WEALTH...
...As Senator Borah said: "Appropriations are made for creeks on which a duck cannot swim...
...He maintained that it was a matter for the states to settle...
...This was a ringing sentence from a masterly address made by Senator Hiram Johnson of California in pleading for a heavy war profits ta6c...
...This sentiment is being felt in Washington and for that reason the dollar patriots in tho senate fear the strength developing for the La Follettc substitute to the Simmcns bill and are endeavoring to rush things...
...We must keep our eye not merely upon the line of battle," lie caid, "but upon affairs at home...
...To have 46,000,000 people prescribe a rule of conduct for 56,000,000 people Senator Underwood held unfair...
...The resolution now goes to the house but no so-tion is expected until December because of the rulo which provides that no legislation shall be considered except that having to do with the war...
...Congressman Frear, Wisconsin, conducted an ablo and vigorous campaign against the bill in the house...
...The senate voted to take the youth of the land to fight the war...
...He contended that the constitution provides that an amendment becomes a part of the constitution whenever ratified by 36 states and that the constitution allows of no restrio-tion in this method...
...With more vigor than the senate is treated to in most speeches, the Californian belittled the taxes as carried in the pending bill, as compared to the taxes on war profits...
...Members of the senate who so enthusiastically voted for the conscription of MEN are now declaiming on the danger to this country of doing anything to "disturb business" or PROPERTY...
...Y The Phelan amendment providing for separate submissions on beer and distilled liquors was rejected, as was also the Stone amendment providing for a policy of compensation to those put out of business...
Vol. 9 • August 1917 • No. 8
