Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-11

been offset bv a decrease in the salaries and
wages of messengers, laborers, skilled me-
chanics, scrub women, and others OF the
poorest paid employees OF the Government.
Where Economy Seems to Hurt.
1t was a very damaging, not to say dis
graceful showing, but under it all Mr..
Chairman Holman sat as Unconditional as
stoughton bottle, as inexpensive as one of
the hoop poles of his native heath. There
are good reasons for such phenomena as
these in this sundry civil bill. Nearly
| every Congressman has son, or other near
relative in the Government service. Usually
there is no service given. The city is full
of idle young fellows, whose chief work is
playing the races or patronizing the gin
| mills, who draw anywhere from $1,000 to
81, 500 salary per year from the Government,
! all of them members of the family, or near
relatives of some Congressman or high Gov
ernment official.
Chairman Holman himself has a son
drawing a snug salary for services in
bureau whose location he could scarcely
name, so rarely is he on duty. Senator
Cockrell, of Missouri, a sort of Senator
Holman in his economical efforts, has a son
at Harvard College who draws over two
thousand dollars a year as clerk Of
Senate committee.
The Scrub Women Have to Suffer.
Some less lucky fellow does the work for
trihe, and young Cockrell gets the
remainder of the pay. And SO on without
number. Now, the higher salaried clerks,
chiefs of divisions, and others in the
bureaus in which most of these favored
ones are carried on the rolls, could make it
very uncomfortable if they wished for
sons Of Congressman and officials so sup
ported, and therefore there is as little
tampering with their estimates as possible,
and Mr.. Holman, with all his assumption
of the higher economies, kindly lets them
pass, and is dumb when he is assailed for
it, except to show that the aggregate eX-
penses of the bureaus are not increased, but
making no reference to the fact that the
aggregate is kept down by cutting off a
portion from the wages of laborers. mechan-
les and scrub women.
Little Hope for the Food Bill.
If what is known as the "pure food bill"
passes the House, as it has the Senate, it
will be against the most remarkable and
universal opposition that has attacked any
measure in long years. While Chairman
Hatch's favorable report speaks of the in
dorsement of the bill bv agricultural and
labor organizations, the National Board of
Trade and by petitions of millions of citi-
zens, there is tremendous opposition from
business men who feel that they may be
victimized and their business ruined by
rivals and blackmailers, and from persons
who are assured that the bill will be in
effective because it can only be made to ap-
ply to articles carried from one territory or
State into another.
While a portion of this adverse influence
may come from persons who deliberately
engage in food adulteration, the great pres
sure is from firms and persons of the most
reputable character, who undoubtedly pre-
sent grave reasons why the bill should not
pass. Yet on the other hand the abuse of
adulteration has admittedly become so
great, and pure food bill'' has so specious
sound, that it will be strange indeed if
enough members cannot be found to enact
it into law.
Pure Food q Rarity.
The subject has been agitated in Con-
gress for tour years. Volumes of matter
have been published in regard to it. Con-
gressional reports contain an alarming
array of figures showing the prevalence of
adulteration, and that the worst of it is
found in the food which is used by the great
mass of the people. Therefore, while the
bill is certainly faulty and will be ineffective
and will, if it become law, give oppor-
tunity for INSCRIPTIONS persons to do great
damage to reputable firms, it cannot be de-
feated by Incorporate attack. The evil
will have to be met in some way, and honest
people who oppose the bill for honest
reasons should be able to help out the dem
agogues who cannot devise an effective bill,
but who will have to vote for some bill of |
this kind to satisfy mass of their con-
stituents. LIGHTNER.