Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-03-13
THEY TALKED ABOUT LARD.
Two Lively Orators Plead for Their Re
spective Constituents.

Two Lively Orators Plead for Their Re-
spective Constituents.
WASHINGTON CITY, March l3.-Butter-
worth of Ohio, and Mason of Illinois made
arguments before the agricultural commit
tee OF the house yesterday on the proposed
legislation taxing lard compouuds Butter
worth spoke in favor of his bill, and Mason
opposed both the Butterworth bill and the
measure introduced by Conger Butter
worth said that the object of his bill was to
raise a revenue; to regulate a certain indus
try so that il should not be permitted to de-
stroy an established industry, and so that
it should be conducted with view to com
mon honesty, and to prevent the destruction
of an established article of commerce, man.
ufactured by the farmer.
The Granger becoming a Peasant.
The legislation had been proposed not to
prevent the manufacturers of compound lard
pursuing a new industry. ave only ask"
he said, "that in taking its place it shall not
place lis fingers on the throat of another in
dustry." Butterworth discussed the present
condition OF the American farmer He took
gloomy view OF the situation, stating that
the farmers were becoming a class of peas
ants, and debased class at that The farm
ers had been robbed by means of gambling
shops, and now they were robbed by means
of a counterfeit
Butterworth Grows Beiiigerent.
Concerning the compound lard manufac-
turers. he said that he only asked that they
conduct their business honestly. All this
talk about the compound lard being better
than the original article was "pure rot"
When people asked for lard they wanted
pure lard. II he sent his baby to his grocer
for squirrel and the grocer gave the baby
a rat-no matter how luscious the rodent
he would lick that grocer IL he could He
asked for a squirrel, as the people asked for
lard, and he did not want a rat Statistics
showed that last year the farmer had been
robbed by msans of this compound lard in
dustry of sl5,OO0,0OO.
A Question of Gray Matter"
Mason, in addressing the committee, said
that there was no counterfeit in compound
lard He did not understand how any man
with an ounce of ''gray matter" In the up
per end Of his anatomy, could buy lard la
belled plainly compound lard" and then say
that he did not know what he was buying;
that he had been misled Those representa-
tives In congress living in agricultural dis
tricts, flew to the farmers as a rock of ref
uge As representative of the working
people OF his city he few TO the working
people as his rock of refuge, and was In
favor of giving them an economical food
In aiming 10 help the farmer a tax was be-
ing placed ON the food of the working peo-
pie.
Word for the workingman.
Mason said there was great deal OF talk
about the deplorable condition Of the farmer,
but little was said about the hard times the
working people were forced to meet. Com
pairing hog lard and compound lard, Mason
held that the latter was healthier than any
product from the hog, because IL was a vege-
table compound. 1t was not 50 much the
tax imposed on the compound that he OBJ
jected to; II was that the stringency of the
internal revenue law would prevent dealers
keeping the product in stock. He did not
object TO the passage OF any measure that
placed all lard-whether from the hog or
compounded-on the same basis, by having
each marked with label containing a state
ment Of exactly what the lard was COM
posed of