Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1906 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. From our Special Correspondent: With the Pure Food Bill and the Rate Bill both agreed to, Congress has adjourned. The last day of the session saw a crowd at the White House, people with belated requests, most of which it was impossible to grant or even lay before the President, and scores of senators and representatives wishing to pay their final calls. Congressmen were decidedly ready to congratulate themselves on the amount of work that had been accomplished but as a matter of fact, the most that was done was to arrive at a number of compromises on important pieces of legislation. The one thing in which the White House had its way was the settlement of the Panama Canal problem. That this was settled at all was a victory since the railroad interests wanted to keep the matter in the air and if possible prevent action for another session. The Rate Bill was a dicided compromise. The pipeline amendment was knocked out and Senator Tillman, in charge of the bill, would not even sign the final report. The Pure Food Bill was robbed of the most of its good features by the insistence of the patent medicine firms and the various special interests all of which feared to be exposed by the searchlight of publicity. The Department of Agriculture expresses the hope that some good may be accomplished by the bill as it stands on the theory that any sort of Federal legislation is better than a lot of conflicting state laws combined with the situation presented by many states that have no food laws at all.

111 In the same way the meat inspection law was a clear lay-down to the packing interests. In spite of the exposure of the endless injury to trade that the packers forced on themselves by their refusal to submit to the warnings of the Executive, they have managed to rid the inspection law of what were to them some of the most objectionable features. Worst of all they shouldered the expense of the inspection on the government. They have done a very good job of work for themselves, whatever may be thought of its moral aspect or its effect on the public. t t t As for the various investigations and exposures that have taken and are still taking place, their affect has been more moral than actual. The prosecution against the Standard Oil Company have been undertaken with the express announcement by the Attorney General that it would be impossible to convict any of the higher officials of the company. And so long as these go unscathed, it is a safe bet that the methods of the corporations will not be much changed.

111 In the last hours of the session Senator Tillman made a final attack on the pipe-line amendment and paid back in a measure some of the things be had suffered earlier in the rate fight when the so called “Allison Amendment” was accepted He said that the Allison Amendment was the place where the Big Stick and the Pitchfork had parted company. He wanted to do something for the people and to break down the monopoly the Standard Oil Company had fastened on the country, but he said that he had been left alone on the tiring line and that all the threats of what was immediately to be done to it at some future date when the prosecutions instituted by the Department of Justice were coripleted. Thus, he said, the farce went on, the people were fooled and the promise was always of what was to be done tomorrow, while there was never any accomplishment to show for the work to-day. t t t

In connection with the oil prosecutions, it may be said that the most of the final cabinet meeting last weeK was devoted to considering the subject. Attorney General Moody arrived early at the White House with a bundle of documents that were understood to bear on the case. This was not the first conference during the week, either. There was a meeting on Thursday when the Attorney General presented his assistant, Mr. Purdy, and the special counsel that bad been engaged, Messrs. Morrison and Kellogg. The special counsel will be occupied chiefly in working up the case for the Department of Justice to determine how far the Standard Oil Company has violated the letter of the law. There are many important instances where the company has made the law work to their own benefit and to the detriment of the consumer and the independent operator. But for these cases they cannot be touched, t t t The navy department has not yet acted on the resignation of Capt. Robert Wynne, son of the Consul General at London. The court martial that tried young Wynne for insubordination in the Marine Corps, ordered his dismissal. but this was suspended by the President to allow him a chance to resign. This well meant clemency for Mr, Wynne, the father is a close friend of the President, went for naught, as young Capt. Wynne telegraphed his resignation without even waiting to hear of the President’s order, evidently hoping to beat his dismissal to the department.