States which would
be unjustly affected, would resist, regardless of party affiliations,
harmful discrimination against their constituents and their States.

I shall assume that it is not the purpose and intent of Congress, under
the guise of the necessities of the war situation, to embrace the
doctrines of Socialism.

Our present economic system, our present method of wealth distribution
may or may not stand in need of change; the fact remains that Congress
has no mandate to effect a fundamental change.

The consequence of such a change would be so immensely far-reaching
that no government has the right to sanction steps to bring it about
until the subject has been fully discussed before the people in all its
bearings and the people have pronounced judgment through a Presidential
or other election.

I will first state what in my opinion ought not to be done:

I

I take it that not many words need be used to expose the fallacy of the
argument, heard even in the Halls of Congress: "If men are to be
conscripted, wealth also must be conscripted."

_Men will be conscripted to the extent that it is wise and just and
needful. So, and no other, should wealth and the country's resources in
general be conscripted._

And, are not the children of the well-to-do conscripted equally with
the children of the poor?

Indeed, the proportion of the sons of the well-to-do on the actual
fighting line is bound to be a predominating one, because vast numbers
of wage workers in the industries and on the farms will necessarily
have to be retained at their accustomed vocations in order to maintain
the output of our factories and farms.

Have the children of the well-to-do been backward in volunteering? Were
they not, on the contrary, amongst the very first to offer to serve and
to fight?

II

_There appears to prevail amongst not a few people the strange delusion
that America's entrance into the war was fomented by moneyed men, in
part, at least, from the motive and for the purpose of gain._

_Were there any such men, no public condemnation of them could be too
severe, no punishment would be adequate. I am absolutely certain that
no such hideous and dastardly calculation found lodgment in the brain
of any American, rich or poor._

Moreover, is it not perfectly manifest that any rich man in his senses
must have known that his selfish interest was best promoted by the
continuance of the conditions of the last t