The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 19, 1919, Page 7

. : ~vote. “But the supreme court is not fully converted yet to the need for laws for the benefit of the people. While approving a work- men’s compgnsation law the court has within the last year declared " that congress has no power to. pass a law to regulate child labor. It has declared ineffective a law passed by the people of the state of Washington by, 1n1t1at1ve to prevent the operation of grafting "~ employment agencles, this in spite of the fact that the government of this country is based on the theory that the people, acting in accordance with the provisions of law, can do anything. What is to be done about this condition? The late Colonel Roosevelt suggested, in 1912, when he was a candidate for president, the plan of recall of judicial decisions, whereby the people by their votes might decide whether the judges, their servants, acted in accordance with the wishes of the people in setting a law aside. This was one of the best things that Mr. Roosevelt ever advocated, in the opinion of the Leader, but he dropped the subject after a few weeks and never referred to it in the latter years of his life. The state of North Dakota has taken a step in the right di- rection by making it necessary that four out of the five judges on’ the supreme bench of that state concur in any decision that holds a-law unconstitutional. Personally, the editor of the Leader be- lieves that North Dakota might have gone much farther than this te carry out the will of the people. SHOCKING THE GRAIN MEN ULIUS H. BARNES, president of the grain corporation of the United States food admmlstratmn, can hardly, by the widest stretch of the imagination, be called a radical or be considered an.enemy of the grain dealers of the country. Therefore, when in a recent bulletin he demanded that speculation in white flour" must cease, and declared the high price of flour unjustified, the abuses in this direction must, indeed, have been great. Nevertheless, it took a aneapohs grain man, one H. P Gal- laher, vice president of the Consolidated Milling company, to spring the millers’ usual alibi. Here is what he said: - I think the farmers are the real speculators in this case. At any rate, the demand for flour has been extremely heavy and we have been paying a'most any price for wheat. Just what effect Mr. Barnes’ @ MILLER action will have, further than stopping the buymg of flour, I can not predict. If there has been any speculatmg in flour, I have not known about it. All farmers who have received more than the government- fixed price for their wheat will please rise. Not one. We thought not. Mr. Gallaher will please leave the stand, and Mr. Barnes will be asked to testify again. Mr. Barnes, being duly sworn, says: The purpose of this (stopping purchase of flour by the grain corporation for export, except first clears and Victory mixed flours), is to stop the speculative fever in flour before it becomes necessary to take off all import restrictions on foreign wheat and flour, for there is plenty of American wheat and flour if this speculative tendency is checked. Therefore Mr. Gallaher stands accused of makmg three mis- statements in four sentences. How in the name of anything sen- sible have farmers been able to speculate? The government made every effort to ferret out nearly every last bushel of wheat. The farmer has had nothing to gain by holding his wheat. - The price for the product was fixed. He was guaranteed a price for his wheat, but the grain grading succeeded in paring down this price to a great extent. Mr. Gallaher says he knows nothmg of speculatxon in flour. Mr. Barnes, on the other hand, is probably the least likely member of the food administration to make such a charge were it not true and were the abuses not extremely glaring. Surely the farmers can’t be accused of “speculating in wheat.” But the farmer always has been a convenient goat for the grain profiteers. Among men who know, Mr. Gallaher’s statement perhaps will produce a wide smile. Mr. ‘Gallaher, .caught with his fingers in the jam jar, is trying to blame the cat. The alibi won’t stick. ; LOGIC IS LOGIC IEUTENANT COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT JR. says the veterans of the world war in a few years will rule the country. Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt Jr has started the orgamzatlon of the veterans of the world war into a national body. Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt Jr. has announced that he intends to devote the rest of his life to politics. Evidently Colonel Roosevelt Jr. is planning to build up a huge political machine with veterans of the great war. But these men are c1v111ans now—they w111 thmk as CIVlllal‘lS and vote as civilians. ' PAGE ‘One judge, by changmg h‘xs vote, would have set at naught ] the desires of millions of working men and women throughout the i country, expressed by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states. N S M T A A R AN A R ISP RS R R AR PG THE MENACE OF REACTIONISM . HERE is an old story about the early days of railroad bulld- ing in the Northwest. It tells of the opposition of the In- dians to the roads, and their various attempts to stop the work. Despite the objections of the red men, however, the road was completed and the first train sent out over the tracks. In a final desperate effort to halt the train, two stout bucks were chosen - to hold up the engine. They obtained a heavy rope and strung it across the track, each of the Indians gripping an end. The engine _arrived, struck the rope and plowed on. After being dragged a few feet, the Indians loosed their hold. . The object lesson has not yet penetrated the minds of most of the legislators in our states. They are indulging in an orgy of reaction. They hope to check progress by making laws against it. Their case is as hopeless as that of the Indians against the rail- .road engine. Business interests see in the next congress and in the present “bolshevism” scare their greatest opportunity to obtain specigl legislation, and they are preparing to make the most of it. Opposed to this program is only a small group of progressive men in the next congress. On the shoulders of such men as Baer, Young and Sinclair of North Dakota will fall the burden of the fight for the people’s rights. Thelr most effective weapon probably will be the approaching election in 1920. Neither the Repubhcans or Democrats dare go too far with reactionary legislation in the year preceding a presidential election. But whatever the outcome of the people’s fight in the next congress, it will not change the final result. Whatever reactionary laws are passed can not stop the will of the people or the progress of the move toward greater democracy. But it will hurt and ham- per the people for a while, and the menace of actual bolshevism will increase under oppressive laws. Were business as acute as it be- lieves itself, it would perceive that its program of reaction is a mighty weapon in the hands of the extremists. It would learn that reaction begets revolution. It would reflect that it is the pent-up waters that break the dam. But business has not yet learned the lesson that two Indian bucks of the Northwest learned in the days of railroad building. MR. BURLESON’S SENTIMENTS LBERT SIDNEY BURLESON, postmaster general and di- A rector of the cable, telegraph and telephone lines of these United States, wants to get out from under. Mr. Burleson has announced that he intends to ask President Wilson that the. telegraph and telephone lines be returned to private ownership and that the companies be granted financial protection by congress. He already has recommended that the cable lines be returned. Mr. Burleson was cited as the one real friend of public owner- ship of utilities in President Wilson’s cabinet. Mr. Burleson never has been a friend of public ownership. He has never done anything to further the cause of public ownership, but he has, on the con- trary, done everything in his power to wreck the postal service and “destroy the morale of its working force. It is unfair to cite Mr. Burleson as an argument against public ownership of lines of communication, but his control of them dur- ing the war will be a very pressing argument against Mr. Burleson. OLE HANSON, BOLSHEVIST : PEAKING in Kansas City recently, Mayor Ole Hanson of S Seattle made this statement: . “You may be willing to deport these traltors (I. W. W.), but I am ready to hang them to the first lamp-post.” While Ole Hanson was making- this statement, mobs in Cleve- land, in an effort to break up a demonstration of Soclahsts, caused HANG FM ALL, /'M AGAINST - VIOLENCE! the death of one person and the wounding of 100 others. Socialists and sympathizers in two instances were ridden down by mounted police -and soldiers in tanks and trucks. Ole Hanson uttered pure Bolshevist sentiments. The Cleveland mobs carried them out. Whether such outrages occurred as the .result of Bolshevist or anti-Bolshevist agitation is immaterial. - Both create a distrust and disregard of the law. Ole Hanson was elected to uphold that law. Ole Hanson, reputed foe of bolshevism, -sanctions by his words at Kansas City what bolshevism has come to mean m the United States—-mob law. S AR R RO AR5