St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-19
A VERY GOOD KILLING.

The senate judiciary committee.
by a vote of 3 to 1, decided to re-
port the McKenney meat inspection
bill for indefinite postponement, and
that will be made this morning
We have sufficiently exposed the
purpose of jobbery that turks in the
bill. and are heartily glad that the
committee takes the same view of it.
Senator Stevens is repo.ited as
willing to stake his reputation as
a lawyer on the cons'tftutbonaEity of
the bill. The seGla tor should be
more careful Of his reputation ait
the bar. He may be the superior
as "a constitutional lawyer of the
late Gordon E. Cole, but he has not
yet established it, and we have a dis
'tinot recollection of that eminent
lawyer putting his reputation at
stake and losing it on the
consiaitutHouaality of a ball sim
ilarly motived. There wasn's "a
court, from the municipal court of
Saltwater to the supreme court of
the United States, that did not
~ ~ : q SOSlSA cllIb IOuI lDIOuSH
the bill, and solely because of its
violation of the constitution.
It was in vain that Mr.. Cole in
sisted that the professed purpose of
the bill appearing on its face was
conclusive and made it a lawful ex-
ercise of the police power of the
state. Every court told him plainly
that court could so behind the
pretended intention of a law and
find its real motive and effect. And
there will not be wanting ample
evidence of the jobbery of this bill,
THE public health. Here is the Min
neapolis Journal avowing it with
true Minneapolfban frankness. It
says that these two cities are send
ing out S12000,000 annually fer meats
that might be slaughtered, cured
and packed here. Admitting that
the inspection charges are designed
ito have the effect of discriminating
against meats from other cities, it
bluntly and coolly wants to know
why these outside packers can't
come here and build their abattoirs.
The bill before the legislature is
calculated to encourage this
From natural causes the price of
meats has gone up to a point that
reduces the meat consumption of
thousands of families in these two
CITIES as well as elsewhere. If the
cost and veNation Of an inspection
is added, more families will go with
out meat, or with diminished SIM
pIles. 1t is nonsense to say this will
not be the case. Here again the ex-
perlence of the old act comes in
The claim was 6hen made that
IL would not raise the price of
meats locally. A squad of butchers
were quoted in the papers as saving
ut would not affect the price. And
as soon as lit was passed, the paDers
teemed with accounts of the adj
Vanoes OF two, three, five cents a
pound on all meats. You can't p1t
an obstruction Of any kind between
the producer and the consumer with
out increasing to the latter the cost
of the product.
Again, the purpose of the hill ba-
nes It's pretended end in its limfta-
trcn to cities Of $4,000 Is the health
OF the people in cities of "a, 900 not as
much "a matter of proper care as
those in cities of the limited size ?
IL lunpy jaw and tuberculosis make
the meat unfit for one, WHY is If
not unfit for others? What occuIt
virtue is there in mere numbers
That exemplts from the effects Or the
pretended effects of such meat
those who chance to live in the lesser
cnties? But why argue this matter
seriously? The bill is as rank a
piece of jobbery, intended to nro-
mote certain private interests ait the
general expense, as was ever Of
Tered in a legislature, and that is
all there is to it.