Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-30

1t is reasonable to presume that, spurred
to action by the straightforward re marks
of Judge Miller and the earnest acquies-
cence of District Attorney Birney, the grand
jury will carefully investigate as to the con-
dition of the rickety old Government Print
ing Office structure, in which large NUM-
Der of men and women are practically COM
PEELED to labor daily. That the jury will
discover anything to the credit of the build
ing-more than the fact that 1t has stood so
much longer than 1t was expected to-is not
at all likely, for experts have reported
against almost every feature Of its con-
struction and have again and again sketched
most graphically the existing and growing
dangers The whole subject has been dis
cussed in both houses of Congress and in
the press, and the strong statement of Lieut..
sewell furnishes final and conclusive testi-
mony to the existence of conditions
which menace the lives of nearly two thous-
and persons during the working hours of
every weekday. There can be no question
at all to where the responsibility lies,
but it may as well be admitted now as at
some future time that the responsible is.
paradoXically, irresponsible. As law
making force Congress Is very real and
concrete and powerful, but just as soon as
any serious effort is made to locate respon-
sibil:ty for failure to legslate then nothing
could be more airy or intangible than the
national Legislature; it would be the work
almost of a lifetime to separate the thought
full and the humane from those who were
wholly careless or else sought only to add
vance their own personal interests. These
considerations should not however influ-
ence the grand jury in the task which it
will undoubtedly undertake.; the work of
making plain to the people of this country
the fact that the representative body of
the land had no thought for the wase-earn-
ers who were and are cooped up in a build
ing that threatens to collapse at any no
ment-that even now is tottering to its fall.
That the courts cannot do anything with
any Congress--past or present-will have to
be admitted, but inability to inflict punish
ment upon those who are blameworthy in
this instance should not have any effect
whatever on the jury. In a secondary way
there is responsibility upon the shoulders of
those persons who, not being members of
Congress. exerted themselves to the utmost
for purely selfish reasons, but the heavy
burden is not theirs; they might advise the
House and Senate to do improperly. but it
would be difficult to hold them accountable
for anything the House or Senate might do
while under their advisory influence. The
only course open to the grand jury is to
secure testimony sufficient to put on record
the actual condition of the Government
Print Office and then declare that Con-
gress-or. for that matter. several Con-
gresses-failed to deal intelligently and hui
namely with a situation which would not
have been borne by the public for one day
had private individual been the amenable
party. There will be something Of a novelty
In making presentment against Congress.
but the grand jury ought to do it if for 10
other purpose shan to bring about prompt
abandonment of the rotten shell which 1uay
come down at any moment and bury within
it's ruins men and women sufficient in the
mere point of numbers to make the catas-
trophe the greatest OF its kind in the homi-
cidal history of the century.