CURRENT AFFAIRS 119 118 THE CLASS STRUGGLE all did their duty each trying to reduce the tax on his industry. the Detroit members assailing a tax on automobiles, the representatives from Hartford objecting to a tax on insurance, and so on, as the same reporter informs us. The climax of this exhibition of self sacrifice came when Mr. Meeker, the delegate from the perfume industry, offered an amendment reducing the tax on his industry. It seems that Mr. Meeker, whose amendment was similar to that of the Detroiters, expected support from that quarter. But the automobile makers delegates had lost all interest in the proceedings of the House as soon as their amendment was carried, and when Mr. Meeker amendment came up they were nowhere to be seen. Whereupon the disappointed and wrathful Mr. Meeker exclaimed. What has become of that bunch of automobile patriots who were here a while ago?
Patriots all.
lies, in order not to create any disharmony while the fighting is going on, only to be revived at the green table when terms of peace will be taken up in earnest, and when we may find ourselves on the side of our erstwhile enemies struggling with our erstwhile Allies; or have we actually and definitely abandoned it?
And if so, what compensation have we been promised for it?
Are the Unfree Seas of the future to be controlled by a Joint Board of the Allies, or are they to be parcelled out among the different Ally Powers as special Spheres of Influence? And in the latter event, what is to be our particular domain? Is it to be the Caribbean only or the Caribbean and. Automobile Patriots Those who have any doubts as to the high moral purposes for which we entered the war and the high moral plane on which we intend to conduct it, the sense of service to the community which has taken hold of us with the declaration of war should watch the proceedings of Congress, where the representatives of the people vie with each other in offering their own and their constituents special interests on the altar of national welfare. Such an exhibition of unselfishness and spirit of sacrifice as those proceedings present is well calculated to make any slacker blush.
The reading of the Congressional Record in which are recorded the doings of our National Legislature from day to day ought therefore be made obligatory by law on all men and women (including children above twelve years of age) dwelling within our borders. There is, for instance, the debate on the War Tax Bill in the House of Representatives: Whose soul is so dead but that his heart would not swell at the reading of it?
The question under consideration was, what articles of manufacture should be taxed, and how much, in order to raise some of the funds at least which are necessary for the successful prosecution of the war. And the spirit of patriotism was indeed marvelous to behold. The debate, reports a war enthusiast. was more real than the serious but artificial discussion over the question of going to war. For this was real business. The representatives, representing the different industries involved, Mr. Wilson and Child Labor These are times which try men souls. And many a man innermost soul has been exhibited to the gaze of the world, which had been neatly tucked away in a corner in peace times where no one could observe it. Among others, these stirring times have brought to the surface President Wilson innermost soul on the subject of child labor. Mr. Wilson public record on the subject is a rather variegated one like his record on labor generally. His antecedents, his political associations, as well as his natural bent of mind predisposed him in favor of child slavery.
His first act after his election to the Presidency and before he assumed office was to announce his opposition to any Federal law against this evil. At a luncheon given in his honor by the social workers, many of whom had undoubtedly voted for him in the belief that he was friendly to the cause so particularly near their heart, he grasped the occasion to announce that a Federal antichild labor law would violate the sacred principle of State Rights and was not therefore to be thought of.
Later on, under the stress of circumstances, confronted with a campaign for re election in which the labor vote and the vote