St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-08
Under WHICH KING

wv ~ HObDN16N0 W wv -
nifty of the legislative department
of the government, and what au-
thority it has for Furnishing those
who stand in contempt of its
mandates. And in the third place, it is
still more important to the people of
this country that it should be at once
and forever settled whether or not
trusts and combines are matters of
purely private concern, with which the
government has no right to interfere.
This is the opportunity to determine all
of these important questions, yet for
reasons which will be stated further on,
we are apprehensive that the Oppor-
tunity will not be improved.
There is a growing feeling among the
people that ongress is disposed to be a
little too inquIsitorial, and that these
congressional investigations are gotten
up more for the personal accommodation
of the members than for any public
benefit that is expected to be derived
from them. There is not a vacation but
a dozen or more of these congressional
committees are junketing through the
country, living on the fat of the land at
public expense, and yet in nine cases
out of ten the results of their missions
are never heard of. These things have
a tendency TO make the taxpayers tired
of congressional investigations, and
when the news was first flashed over
the country that PHIL ARMOUR and
his Chicago stockyard associates had
q caData ipvactiuatipU commit
tee the public were tickled by the an
nOuncement. But, upon a little reflec-
ton, the people of the country are dis
posed to take a more serious view of the
matter, and to see in it something of
grayer import than a mere rebuke to
that senatorial dignity which has be-
come so offensive to the popular sense.
1t SO happened in this case that the
senate special committee vas engaged
in the investigation of a subject in
which the whole people are interested.
1t Is a notorious fact that, while in the
last five years the price of beef cattle
has lowered 100 per cent, the price of
the dressed article to the consumers has
not decreased II farthing. Dressed
beef is Just as high to-day as it was five
years ago. when live cattle were
worth just double what they are
now bringing in the market. 1t
is also well enough understood
that this anomalous condition of the
beef market is the result of a combina-
ton formed by four of the wealthiest
dressed beet concerns in the country,
which gives them the power to practice
an outrageous eXtortion upon the con-
sumerS. 1t was Ostensibly with a view
Of remedying this great public evil that
the senate sent Mr.. VESTS committee
to Chicago to inquire into the matter.
But the investigation was blocked on
the threshold by the refusal of Mr..
ARMOUR and his associates to appear
before the committee. although they
were repeatedly summoned to do so.
The best lawyers and the most ex-
perienced Legislators agree that the
ARMOUR crowd make a mistake in not
appearing before the committee, even
though they had refused to testify when
brought before that august tribunal.
No citizen has a right to Geny the au-
thOrity of the government to require his
presence before any legally established
tribunal, for to do so would be Subyer-
sive of all government; and in this re-
Spect the ARMOUR crowd stand in as
bad a light before the country as did the
anarchists who swung from a beams
end for pressing the same idea to an ex-
IRENE limit. If constitutional govern
ment is to endure upon this con-
tinent, then each and every Amer
lean citizen must be taught the
duty of respecting the symbol of au-
thOrity. No citizen, whether he be a
cattle king OF pauper socialist, has a
right to openly manifest his contempt
for the forms of law, or to assert his
individual superiority over and indie
pendence of a department of govern
ment established by the constitution
itself. What a splendid opportunity
does this case present to the senate for
indicating the boosted dignity of that
body, and at the same time furnishing
an example which will impress upon all
classes of society the duty of cultivat-
ing a law-abiding spirit.
The popular apprehension that this
opportunity will be lost grows out of
the TACT that the United States senate is
abOdy of plutocrats who are in sympathy
with the ARMOUR crowd, and who are
really more anxious to establish a prece-
dent granting to the trusts and combines
the right to manage their affairs with
out governmental interference than
they are to cultivate a laR-abiding
spirit among the people. 1t is safe to
assert that the Chicago beef mag
mates presumed upon the peculiar
composition of the senate as a
justification of the extraordinary
course they pursued. If it had been a
committee of the lower house of con-
greSs before whom they had been sub
ppnaed, the chances are that they
would have obeyed the summons.
The lower house of congress is
too close to the people to admit of
any of that reckless assumption of
authority and un-American autocratic
bearing which distinguish the upper
branch of congress. Still, there is a
hope that vel the ariStocratic senate
will come to its senses sufficiently to
realize the Importance of maintaining
the forms of law in this country. even
though that action inv Olives the humilia-
ton of a plutocrat. If, as has been sug-
gested, this singular conduct of the
Chicago beef kings is the first move
ment of an organized conspiracy on the
part of the plutOcrats to resist the right
and authority of the federal and state
governments to inquire into the opera
tons Of the trusts and monopolies,
then the quicker the issue is precip-
it lted the better for the country. 1t
cannot come too soon or be settled too
declsively.
CHINESE RETALIATION.
There is some reason to believe that
| fharn &c corioDS ooncidarotiOn -, &La