The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-21

Intentionally HOn6ol, WeTe the ftcIn1S OF
a bad system, he would be compelled TO
say in general: Your appearance Is
all well and your speech fair, but the
late rule of this establishment is TO re-
gard with suspicion any business man
who comes from world whose mer-
chants have the reputation of being
adulteraters, for the sake Of filthy iucre,
of everything that is used as food, from
the milk that nourishes the motherless
babe to the last cordial that moistens the
parched lips of the expiring patriarch.
We can imagine this supposed visitsnt
examining the sugar, the coffee, the tea,
the -four, the butter, the wine, and with
some hesitation and impelled only by
sense of duty, the whisky. to find that
the adulterater has done his work IN all.
he would next investigate the clothing
of earth's children to find shoddy every
where and the cheap and worthless pass
ing for the valuable. Even the fertlllz-
ers which the farmer spreads on his
fields would bear the touch of the detile-
ment of the adulterater. But we think
his disgust would reach an unusual
height on finding that even the grease OF
the despised hog had not escaped the
pollution of the adulterater, that no
creature is so lowlv or so filthy but that
filthier hands viii adulterate its products
with something cheaper and MASTER, and
palm of the deception on a non-SuSpect-
public, provided only and always that by
deceiYing the public aforesaid they can
increase their own gains. If, curious 10
examine more closely this mOnStrOuS
system of adulterrtion at its fountain
head, this super-mundane traveller would
betake himself to the great packing
houses at Chicago, he would find
10 his utter astonishment this adultera-
ton carried on in the most systematic
way. He would find. for example. the
oil of beef fat pressed out to be used as
an adulterant for butter, and stearine of
the beef mixed with cottOn-seed oil and
more of less lard and sent into the
worlds markets as ''refined lard" ''pure
refined lard. etc. If he went across to
the Indiana line he would find at the
proper season of the year one brand of
lard without adulteration, shipped in
casks 10 European markets, on which no
manufacturer will place his name or re-
veal the fact that it is lard unadulterated
from hogs that have died of cholera.
If, disguised and grieved with this
revelation of systematic and open
adulteratiOn he should read in the tele-
graphic dispatches that at the national
capital bill had been introduced, not 10
prohibit this systematic adulteration of
food but to compel the adulteraters to
brand it with its own proper name and
ingredients, he would betake himself
to Washington and hover as an
unseen presence around the committee
of agricultural, he would learn some
things that might well make him won
der whether honesty was, after all. any
thing but an intangible, poetic sentiment
instead Of a guide to human conduct
He would find to his disgust the sons of
the slaves Of 1860, put forward as the
mOuth-pleCe Of the cotton seed oil trust
that Is robbing them yearly, begging
that congress will not make their woke
heavier, by refusing their masters the
privilege of passing off cottOn-seen oil
for lard. and thus robbng the men who
shed their blood 10 give their father free
dom. he would lind the cotton seed oil
trust pleading with tears for the poor
black men of the south whom they rob
day and night, supported by their faith
ful ally the Standard oil trust, and back
of all the burly pork packers of Chicago
and elsewhere with the officers OfraiI-
roads that want the privilege of hauling
cotton seed oil to Ceicago as oil, and back
as lard. We can imagine the mental
replies which our supposed visitant
would make to the sophistrise of this
gang of adulteraters. When it
Is urged that the product
was pure and healthful he
would say: why not pass under
its own name?" When it is urged that
II Is actually better than pure lard, he
would think: why, then, should this
superior article, this vegetable oil dis
titled in the alembic of nature from the
beams of a southern sun go sneaking
round the world bearing the brand Of
the swine" When it Is urged that this
protest against congressional action is a
great phllanthropic movement TO give
the black man q chance to prosper by
a market for the refuse of his
cotton crop, he would say: "'What a
pack Of hypocrites is this that
dare pOllute with their unciean presence
the temple of liberty" And then think /
ing of the million farmers over the
pTairies of the west who are yearly
robbed by this unclean horde of adulter-
aters. and of the millions of laborcrs III
America and Europe who are deceived
and imposed upon by the fraud Of adul
terated lard. he would scrutinize the
committee, visit the house and senate
and gaze into the inner souls of the mem
bers, and ask himself: How many of
these men will be true TO their cOnstitu-
ents, to the men who have given them
homes and satisfied them with bread.
and will vote for the Conger lard bill:
How many of them, when this measure
comes up for passage, viii vote for delay
or pOstpOnement, or to rc-COmmlt. or Of I
fer other dilatory motions or amend /
ments. and how many of them will truly I
and honestly vote for the interests of the I
men who sent them herel How MANY I
Of them viii skulk and dodge, or do /
nothing. and then 20 home and lament /
that under the circumstances it was i'm |
possible to pass a bill to brand with its 4
true name a commodity that rnasquerades |
under a false name on the shelves Of 1
every grocer and the table OF every citi- I
zenY'
We are not gifted with angelic vision. /
and we do not know how many towards /
here are In congress. or how many mem /
1ers have grease IN. and not on their f.
hands. But this we do know. that a /
member of congress that has not the (
to see through the sophistry Of .
his gang Of lobbyists against the Cougcr /
pure lard bill. or has not the mauliuess /
% stand by and pass it. should never. I
= bile his head is hot, have the opportun- /
II 70 betray the peoples trust again. Let /
he weakness Of the Simple Simon be (
aid bare and the mask stripped of the .
1t Ii no time Low 70 send (
babes 70 do mems work. nor
allow tirne~serving hypocrites 10 conuiye .
It the robbery perpetrated on an in /
iustrious and long suffering people. f