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DOINGS IN CONGRESS.

July 22-By 287 to 100 the House passed the drastic bill for the enforcement of war-time and constitutional prohibition, and passed by 368 to 47 the Nolan bill providing a minimum wage of $3 a day for Federal and District government employes. Henry P. Fletcher before the rules committee testified that in three years since his appointment as Ambassador to Mexico about 50 Americans had been killed in that country without a single prosecution having been made by the Mexican authorities.

July 23-Senator McKellar, Tennessee, spoke for the League of Nations. The Senate passed the $34,000,000 agricultural appropriation bill without the daylight saving repeal

rider. It passed unanimously the joint resolution raising the legation at Brussels to the rank of embassy.

The House adjourned after announcement was made of the sudden death of Representative J. W. Ragsdale, of South Carolina.

July 24-Senator Fletcher, Florida, urged immediate ratification of the peace treaty without amendment or reservation. Senator Lenroot, Wisconsin, advocated acceptance of the league with reservations to protect independence of American action.

In the House Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee served notice that they favor a licensing system for the control of imports rather than a protective tariff.

July 25-In the House R. C. Leffingwell, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, told the committee on expenditures in the State Department that every dollar of foreign loans and credits advanced by the United States is protected by ample security and will be paid in full. Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee agreed to recommend tariff duties of $15 a ton on crude and finished magnesite

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July 28 The Senate without a record vote passed the administration bill authorizing an increase from 9500 to 18,000 in the number of commissioned officers of the army.

The House voted to repeal the 10 per cent tax on ice cream, soda water and soft drinks, and to reduce war tax on fruit juices.

July 29 Senator Thomas, Colorado, criticized provisions of the covenant of the league of nations and declared it would not prevent war. Sen ator Gay, Louisiana, accepted the league in its entirety and eulogized the President for his work at the peace Senator Nelson supconference. ported the league, but demanded a strong reservation of Article X.

July 30-The Senate was not in session.

The House passed and sent to the Senate the bill fixing pay of pressmen and printers of the government office at 75 cents an hour.

July 31-Senator Owen, Oklahoma, urged the Senate to accept the covenant of the league of nations in order to establish a new world order. Senator Ransdell, Louisiana, supported Senator the league. Poindexter, Washington, denounced the League. The Senate passed a bill to provide war risk insurance of $100 a month for Henry Bitter, of Iowa, only soldier in the war who lost both eyes and hands. After numerous conferences a group of seven Republican senators classified as friends of the league of nations agreed upon four reservations they will propose.

The House passed a bill permitting national banks to lend 25 per cent of their unimpaired capital instead of 10 per cent, the limit under existing law. Republican members of the Ways and Means committee, by a divided vote, decided to recommend the

bill providing for a protective tariff on dyestuffs as well as a licensing board to control dye imports.

Aug. I-Senator Fall criticized the President, the League of Nations and the German peace treaty. Senate passed by 41 to 12 the bill for the repeal of the daylight saving law. The State Department informed the Senate that 217 Americans have been killed in Mexico since the end of the regime of President Diaz, May 25, 1911, and that claims filed since then on account of depredations number 942. Unanimously adopted the Kenyon resolution authorizing the President to call the international labor conference created by the Versailles treaty to meet in Washington in October, but withholding authority for American representation "unless and until" the peace treaty has been ratified.

The House passed the bill excluding vessels of foreign registry from American coastwise trade except to Hawaii.

Aug. 4-Senator Sterling of South Dakota announced that he could not vote for the ratification of the League of Peace without reservations.

Aug. 5-Senator Watson of Indiana spoke against the League, especially the Shantung settlement. John Barton Payne, Illinois; Thomas A. Scott, Connecticut, and Henry M. Robinson, California, were confirmed. as members of the Shipping Board.

Aug. 7-Senator Kellogg, Minnesota, held that the covenant can be ratified with interpretative reservations without requiring resubmission to the other nations.

Aug. 8 The Senate met in joint session with the House and heard the address of the President on the high cost of living. Adopted a resolution authorizing the Foreign Relations Committee to make a sweeping investigation of outrages against American

citizens and American property in Mexico and "to report what, if any, means should be taken to prevent such outrages."

Aug. 11-Senator Myers, Montana, denounced the Plumb railroad plan as an attempt to "sovietize American industry."

Aug. 12-Senator Lodge spoke at length in opposition to the League of Nations and received a demonstration at the conclusion of his address that exceeded anything ever witnessed in the Senate chamber. The following senators were named as members of the special committee to investigate and report a budget system plan for conducting the nation's fiscal affairs: McCormick (chairman), Smoot, Poindexter, Lenroot, Edge, Keyes (Republican), Simmons, Jones of New Mexico, Wolcott and King (Democrats).

In the House, Representative Fess, Ohio, discussing the high cost of living, said wastefulness during the war was largely responsible for it and declared the President already has sufficient power to handle the situation.

Aug 15-Senator McNary introduced a bill providing for old-age pensions for all persons over 65 years of age.

Aug. 18-In speech Senator Walsh, Massachusetts, declared Congress must forget politics and solve the high cost of living problem.

Aug. 10-The House by 223 to IOI passed the repeal of the daylight savings law over the President's veto. King Swope, new Republican member from the Eighth Kentucky district, was sworn in amid noisy demonstration by majority members.

Aug. 20-The Senate by a vote of 57 to 19 sustained the action of the House in repealing over the President's veto the daylight saving act. The repeal will take effect Oct. 26.

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THE

PROTECTIONIST

A Monthly Magazine of Political Science

and Industrial Progress.

Signed articles are not to be understood as expressing the views of the editor or publisher.

VOL. XXXI.

OCTOBER, 1919

No. 6

AMERICA'S PART IN WORLD RECOVERY.

By Thomas O. Marvin.

Written for Current Affairs, Published by the Boston Chamber of Commerce.

A few years ago a nationwide agitation was started in favor of the establishment of a Tariff Commission to study economic and industrial conditions throughout the world and ascertain the difference in the cost of production here and abroad. The insurmountable obstacles in the way of actually getting at foreign manufacturing costs were thoroughly appreciated in well-informed circles, and the sudden outbreak of the great war made even the attempt to study foreign industrial conditions impossible.

If there were real difficulties in the way of such an effort even in the normal pre-war times, how vastly more difficult it is now, with all Europe in turmoil, upheaval and disorder, to estimate with any degree of accuracy the industrial and commercial potentialities of the war-ravaged countries of Europe.

Political conditions are the element of chief concern in any study of Eu ropean industrial possibilities. A Bolshevik Europe would mean a bankrupt Europe; a Socialistic Europe would be an impotent and disorgan

ized Europe; a riotous Europe would be a continent of bloodshed, decay and pauperism. Order and progress are the law of civilized life, and law and order will be restored in Europe, business will be resumed and the prewar conditions, modified with a new sense of responsibility to those who toil, will, some day, be restored.

America's attitude toward this problem of reconstruction will be an important element in its solution. We have entered into the affairs of the world in a way that makes it impossible for us to abandon our share of the task or our share of the responsibility. We are the richest nation in the world. The aggregate wealth of the seven nations Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the United States-that bore the brunt of the warfare against Germany is $495,000,000,000, of which $250,000,000,ooo, or more than half, represents the wealth of the United States. We have vast resources, of which only a part have yet been utilized. We lead the world in many products, manufactured and agricultural, which con

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