wooden guns. A vacancy had left the Commission a two-to-two body. Rotation in office had given it a chairman who is reported to have said, "I am a hardboiled Reactionary Conservative and I am proud of it." Mr. Coolidge's frontal attack was the appointment of another hard-boiled Reactionary Conservative, Former Congressman William E. Humphrey, of Washington, his pre-convention manager in the West. The third majority member is Charles W. Hunt, a farm influence appointee. He is of the follow-my-leader type.

Vernon W. Van Fleet happens to be chairman just now, but Humphrey seems to have taken over the reins as soon as he assumed office. A new rule was at once passed which provided that if firms guilty of criminal acts consented to abandon their practices the charges against them would be dropped. Another rule was adopted that there should be no detailed publicity in such cases.

In the first case that came up Commissioner Thompson and the other minority member of the board, Commissioner John F. Nugent, an Idaho man, dissented and saw to it that their dissent got the proper amount of publicity. Then there came a hint that the minority could be subjected to a fine and imprisonment for their action. But when the second case came they again dissented. This had to do with a large silk firm which, after continued warnings, had persisted in labelling its product "silk" though it was not pure silk. The dissent stated that in addition to misbranding its goods the accused firm used this slogan in its advertising: "The name on the selvage is a silk bond for your identification."

In one of Thompson's dissents he said: "While it is in no sense the duty or the desire of the Commission to persecute business men, nevertheless, when a corporation has practiced a deception, it must inevitably suffer some hardship if there is to be established a legal precedent for the information and guidance of all members of the industry."

Commissioner Nugent's dissent in a case of the same sort contained plainer and stronger words. He said:

"I believe the purchasing public have the right to know from the Commission's public declaration the names of those manufacturers and merchants who have robbed them of their money."

The next move of the

Humphrey forces was a for

mal appeal to the President to order Attorney General Sargent to advise the Com

mission "whether it had the

power" to make certain in

vestigations which had been

Attorney General Sargent

ordered by its creator, Congress. Had the President been asked to order the Attorney General to say whether they were "compelled to obey" Congress the appeal would have been more ingenuous, since the fact is known that the majority members were determined to balk Congress in its "interference with Business," if they could find a way to do so.

On the same day that their appeal went to the White House a statement of the position of the fighting minority was also handed to the President. In most respectful terms it made the point that the matter was not one for the President to bother himself about, as only the courts had the authority in the premises and that they were, most respectfully, his obedient servants, Huston Thompson and John F. Nugent.

And now a new turn was given the whole affair. The publicity given the controversy brought out Associated Press inCasabianca Thompson terviews with scattered members of the House and Senate which created a panic among the Humphrey forces, for they learned that their $10,000 jobs were in jeopardy. When the Commission was functioning the Liberals fought every attempt of the Old Guard to destroy it, but when it ceased to function the word came that the men who had hamstrung it would be legislated out of office. For the moment the reactionaries feared that they would be hoisted by their own petard, but secret assurances that there were other puddles for lame ducks must have been given by some one, for it was not long until the assault was resumed.

Senator Butler, the President's friend and Chairman of the Republican National Committee, came to Humphrey's assistance with a speech in which he condemned the "Paul Prying activities of the Commission." The National The National Chamber of Commerce, the great pro-monopoly organization, staged a public protest against "interference with business," at which Humphrey was the star speaker. The Commissioner announced that the title of this address to the men of Big Business was "Don't Shoot-We're Coming Down."

Then no less a personage than the Whitehouse Spokesman himself put in a word in support of the work that is being done by the faithful Humphrey. In his recent address before the New York Chamber of Commerce he deprecatingly confessed that there had been "times in the past when there were practices in business which warranted severe disapprobation," quickly following this daring insinuation that Big Business had once upon a time been

naughty with these sugar-coated platitudes for the consumption of its assembled representatives:

"After the abuses had been discontinued the prejudice remained to produce a large amount of legislation, which, however well meant in its application to trade, undoubtedly hampered but did not improve. It is this misconception and misapplication, disturbing and wasteful in their results, which the National Government is attempting to avoid. Proper regulation and control are disagreeable and expensive. They represent the suffering that the just must endure because of the unjust. They are a part of the price which must be paid to promote the cause of economic justice."

The last words of this sentence from The Spokesman's speech are peculiarly significant:

"While there has been in the past and will be in the future a considerable effort in this country of

different business interests to attempt to run the Government in such a way as to set up a system of privilege, and while there have been and will be those who are constantly seeking to commit the Government to a policy of infringing upon the domain of private business, both of these efforts have been very largely discredited, and with reasonable vigilance on the part of the people to preserve their freedom do not now appear to be dangerous." No mention of the operations of Mr. Mellon's Aluminum Trust is made, the formation of the Bread Trust is ignored and the whitewashing of the beet sugar crowd by the Trade Commission is tactfully omitted.

Mr. Hoover Collector of Bureaus

While matters were at this stage the Supreme Court made public an opinion which tamped down the earth on an already dead and buried Sherman Act. A majority opinion gave a clean bill of health to two business associations which had been charged with price-fixing, curtailment of production and other reprehensible practices in restraint of trade. In effect the decision means that firms which have been competing may form associations, open up their books, "reveal trade secrets," exchange information as to costs of production, details as to overhead and labor, swap statements on amount of production, all of which may incidentally result in concerted price-fixing and curtailment of production, but that no court has a right to assume that such a consummation was the purpose of combination in restraint of trade.

The Court assumes that organizations of this sort among former competitors are made for the purpose of "the acquisition of wider and more scientific knowledge of business conditions." rate, even though this revealing of trade secrets

At any

results in automatic price-fixing and production curtailment, the opinion has legalized the practice.

Justices Taft and McReynolds dissented, holding that the Court was reversing itself, in that its decisions in the Hardwood Lumber case and the Linseed Oil case had been directly antipathetical. Nevertheless, the decision stood and another nail had been driven into the Trade Commission's coffin.

Now when Mr. Coolidge picked a man to bore from within he selected the sort of a fellow who, when he kills a snake, stands by until sundown in order to be sure that the tail quits wiggling. To Humphrey's monopoly loving soul the Federal Trade Commission is a poisonous reptile to be bruised with the heel, scotched, killed and killed again, until it is dead, dead, dead. He wears a gogetter air and an Old Hoss Hoey make-up. Pleased but not satisfied by what the Supreme Court had done to Competition, he devised a new attack on the already defunct danger of "interference with business." Without waiting for the publication of the Attorney General's decision as to whether Congress could force the Commission to investigate combinations in restraint of trade except by concurrent resolution of both houses, Humphrey et al jammed through an order directing that no economist or investigator should spend any Trade Commission money in investigations, "unless for the purpose limited by said Act." No explanation was made as to the Commissioners' own interpretation of "said act," and demoralization resulted. Uncle Sam is now paying a lot of investigators who don't dare to investigate, and economists who have refused opportunities to accept attractive offers from private corporations are, to use the expressive slang phrase, waiting to get the gate.

During the long fight against the Commission its enemies have always been cheered by the aid and comfort tendered by the Hon. Herbert Hoover, tireless champion of Big Business Combinations. If the present plan of the Administration is carried out successfully he will loom large in the telling of the last chapter of the story of the Federal Trade Commission. Newspapers have printed the statement that the Commission, whose business is supposed to be the regulating of outlaw business, will be disinterred, reburied in the Commerce Department graveyard, the dirt once more tamped down, the grave levelled and the green grass of forgetfulness planted over the spot, so that those who knew it shall know it again no more.

And then, who knows but that a black-bearded stranger will appear in the dead of night, dig up what remains of the cadaver, cremate the pitiful remains and scatter the ashes to the four winds. After that, peace.

A Congressional investigation of all this is quite likely to develop. It is certain at least that a real inquiry is due the American public.

Mr. Kent and the Mellon Plan

THE

HE brilliant correspondent of the Baltimore Sun, Mr. Frank R. Kent, who enjoys the distinction of having been barred from White House conferences, comments on the new Mellon bill, as follows:

In view of the stir over recent developments, notably the apparent acceptance by House Democratic leaders of the traditional Republican principle that the fortunes of the many are best promoted by relieving the burdens of the few, it may be of interest to present one or two of the newer points those who do not favor the Administration ideas are now making and which undoubtedly will be conspicuous in the debates on the Senate floor this winter.

Two main points are being advanced concerning the forty per cent. surtax. The first deals with the rate itself, and in this connection it is set forth that the forty per cent. surtax applies only to incomes in excess of $500,000 a year, and this means that it is paid by only 213 individuals. It also is maintained that, while it sounds as if the tax meant forty per cent. of the whole income of these 213, they really pay forty per cent. only on their income in excess of $500,000 and that actually it figures out a little more than eighteen per cent. on the whole.

If, as is proposed, the maximum surtax is cut from forty to twenty per cent., it means that the actual tax on these great incomes will be about nine per cent., which, take it all in all, is out of proportion to their size.

The other main thought is that the assertion that heavy reduction in the forty per cent. tax would make available for business enterprise capital now held in tax-exempt securities is answered by the fact that there is no scarcity of capital in this country for such enterprises; that for any legitimate business money can be had cheap; that the amount of securities that can be sold the public is apparently without limit-that, in fact, there is so much capital available that millions of dollars are being poured into European investments and industries.

But perhaps the most interesting argument of all on this side is that the drastic reduction in the heavy surtax is a backward social step. The theory of this is as follows:

While it is true that the maximum surtax of sixty per cent. was put on the great incomes during the war because the country needed money, and it could not have been put on at any other time, still it was the result of some twenty years' agitation over the tremendous concentration of great wealth in a few hands. Such a tax-sixty per cent. on incomes above $500,000-was sufficiently confiscatory to act as a curb upon the automatic and unchecked growth of such incomes. At the last session of Congress this sixty per cent. tax was cut to forty per cent. Now it is proposed to slice that to twenty, which really means nine.

What this amounts to, it is claimed, is taking the brakes off and letting these great fortunes roll down the road, gathering dollars as they go until, in the course of another generation, they will reach incredible proportions. With the surtax cut to the nine per cent. figure, which-so it is asserted-is what the proposed cut to twenty per cent. means,

the men whose incomes today are more than $500,000, or more than $1,000,000, would find, in the course of relatively few years, their capital to have automatically doubled itself, regardless of how extravagantly they spend or give.

In another twenty-five years we would have in this country, so it is held, not a group of multimillionaires, as now, but a group of billionaires wielding an inadequately regulated economic power too great to be good for them and very bad for the rest of us.

So they argue. It is interesting to hear them. It will be an enlightening Senate debate. Imagine how greatly people would have been stirred by arguments such as these twenty years ago. They may be again in another decade or so-but not now. Big money doesn't frighten anybody now.

Couzens to Report

HE Couzens committee, a body that has been Mellon, will submit at least a portion of its report very early in the coming session. That is, a majority will report.

The majority on this committee consists of Senators Couzens, Jones and King, the last two Democrats. Senators Watson and Ernst are the proMellon members.

Undoubtedly there will be a dissenting "minority report," and possibly it will be written by "friends" in the Treasury Department. Certain Senators quite frankly assume that that will be done.

Of course The Searchlight does not know what revelations of Mellonism the Couzens report will contain; but any one who has followed the "hearings" would naturally expect a lot of dynamitish facts and conclusions.

At any rate, such a report will be timely. It may have a real effect upon the passage of the new Mellon bill.

Wheeler and Cameron

ENATOR WHEELER is being prosecuted by

SENATOR is in

formed believe to be trumped-up charges. Senator Cameron, against whom there appears to be more of a case, is having no trouble at all.

Mr. Wheeler attacked Daughertyism. Mr. Cameron has been consistently pro-administration. Does that explain it?

No Appetite for That

EFORE leaving for home, one of the French

Debt Commission was dining and came to dessert. The waiter suggested Honey Dew Mellon. "No, no," he objected; "that is too much like 'money due Mellon.""

YOUR SERVANTS IN THE SENATE

A

NOTHER month of work has gone into this forthcoming book, which is now nearing completion. A revised outline of the contents is as follows:

INTRODUCING THEM TO YOU-a quick characterization of the thirty-two next up for re-election, followed by a most necessary revelation of their relations to forces "higher up" in

INTRODUCING THEIR MASTER-which presents Mr. Andrew W. Mellon, the most powerful figure in America, whose industrial influence is paralleled only by his super-governmental jurisdictions; showing the obvious illegality of his position as Secretary of the Treasury; analyzing the results of his regime; all of which affords a necessary background for the subserviency of the Senate to Mellonism in—

CHAPTER V

They Appraise Themselves—

This being the sensational story of the Newberry scandal, than which no fiction is more interesting, nor more revealing of political depravity. Then comes another highly important prologueINTRODUCING MODERN PROPAGANDAWhich explains a lot concerning why you actually know so little about your official servants, they and their friends being able to manipulate public opinion almost at will, a condition so "dangerous to the perpetuity of a free government," as they said of the Newberry scandal, that we offer a practical, workable antidote, which you should insist on applying, found in the following—

CHAPTER VI

Questions for Them to Answer

INTRODUCING YOU TO OPPORTUNITY-Reveals what you can and should do about all this, as the very selfishly interested "party of the first part" in elections and legislation. Then, finally, comes the constructive part

CHAPTER VII

What the Senate Should Be and Do

We expect to have this book-Your Servants in the Senate-completed and ready for distribution very soon.

It will cost $1.75 for each cloth-bound copy, and $1.00 per copy in paper binding. Reductions will be made where a number is desired.

The first edition will be limited to the public demand.

Therefore let us know in plenty of time if you wish one or more copies.

Is Mr. Nye a Senator?

HE Governor of North Dakota, A. L. Sorlie, has appointed Gerald P. Nye to fill the vacancy in the Senate caused by the death of Senator Ladd. Mr. Nye is a Republican, but not a regular. Probably, therefore, the machine will raise a question as to the legality of his appointment. This may be done because that state has no statute specifically authorizing its chief executive to fill a vacancy.

The Old Guard is very particular about ultralegality-when their interests can best be served by taking that position. Otherwise they are rather inclined to be lax. None of them, for example, has raised the question of Mr. Mellon's illegality as Secretary of the Treasury, whereas, if Mr. Mellon had been of a different type, undoubtedly he would never have been confirmed, on that ground.

The determination to pass the new Mellon bill is likely to be a factor in the fate of Mr. Nye.

Our Source of Encouragement

IS a difficult and often discouraging matter to keep The Searchlight going. At times we have the feeling of standing almost alone, that no one else really cares about the welfare of American humanity.

But such moods are never more than momentary. One has only to turn to "the morning mail" for fresh courage to go on.

You should share somewhat in the encouragement that is our daily portion. For example:

A Congressman, not a radical, in renewing his subscription, says:

"This is the best publication that comes to my desk for information on Congress and other branches of our national government. I cannot afford to be without it."

A Wisconsin citizen uses pretty forceful language, as follows:

"I certainly believe, as you do, that the country is going through an era of economic slavery and that our actual form of government is on trial. The indifference of the people is our greatest danger, coupled with their ignorance as to the strangle-hold that the exploiters now have on the necessities of life.

"One of the most important sessions of Congress that this country will ever see opens in a short time and I believe the only thing that can be done to wake up the people is a campaign of education. If this fails, and it probably will, we will have to wait, I guess, until the grafters make the load a little too heavy, which they surely will, and then some fine morning we will wake up and learn that a lot more tea has been dumped in Boston harbor. It will then be a serious matter, but it looks to me now like that was the only sure cure for the situation."

W

Think About This

E have unawares been committed to a policy of empire. The people of this country have never been consulted about it. Their elected Representatives in Congress have never been consulted about it. The executive departments, acting as irresponsible bureaucrats, have initiated and carried out a policy which has brought us to a pass where, of the 21 republics in this hemisphere, 10, or almost half, are under almost complete domination by North American bankers. In 6 of the 10 the financial agents are, or have been, supported by American troops on the ground. At least four other countries are closely tied to the United States by fiscal bonds, and in these and others concessions and loan contracts seem likely to lead to a repetition of the old process by which the marines follow the investor."-Lewis S. Gannett, Assistant Editor of the Nation.

THE

And This

HE following resolution was passed by the American Manufacturers Export Association at its sixteenth annual meeting in New York on November 12:

"Whereas, in the opinion of this Association, the present method of attempting to determine the cost of production of imported merchandise by probing the books and accounts of foreign manufacturers and producers under threat of embargo is ill advised and tends to interfere with the amicable commercial relations so valuable to our export trade; now, therefore, be it

"Resolved, That the Congress of the United States be requested to amend Section No. 402 of the Tariff Act of 1922 which legalizes and authorizes the practice above objected to."

Concerning the Countess Karolyi

Q

UOTING the President's own speeches in favor of toleration and freedom of thought, the firm of Curtis, Fosdick & Belknap, attorneys for Countess Karolyi, on November 18th asked President Coolidge to "remove the stigma of bureaucracy” and countermand the order barring the Countess from the United States.

"The situation presented is one where the Secretary of State has adopted an arbitrary position without being willing to state any grounds for his decision," their letter states.

"If, as we believe, Countess Karolyi is being excluded for her social or political views, then few, if any, of the great protagonists of freedom would have been admitted to this country under similar rulings."

The letter to the President was referred to the Secretary of State, who announced to the press that the case was closed and that the Countess' lawyers knew it. Apparently nothing further can be done until Congress meets, when the issue will be raised in the Senate by Senator Borah.