The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1902-04-21
Washington
Day by Day

member of Congress has been favored
with entertaining reading matter. Bar
rels and Bottles is the widely known
monthly publication devoted to the in
terests of the retail liquor Dealers" and
is published in Indianapolis, where Sem
ator Beveridgo and Red Beverage come
from. Barrels and Bottles devotes half
of it's first page to big black headlines
that read:
Saloon men. Congress will Ignore Your
Demands Unless you make your Repre-
sentatives Realize that the Whisky Tax
Must be Reduced to Seventy Cents.
Your 100000 votes are not wanted.
1.-The American House of Lords Holds
Itself Secure from Your Interference
But How About Electing Senators by
Popular Vote?
Are the People or the Trusts SUI
preme?"
That is mighty plain talk for Barrels
and Bottles and mighty "intrustin'," ex-
cept as to the two headline interroga-
tions. The question as to "how about
electing Senators by popular vote" can
be answered in the language of so many
thousands of good fellows whom Barrels
and Bottles represents-"there ain't MOTH
in to it!' The simple and perfectly
plain answer to the second question Is
the Trusts, of course.
All this excitement on the part of Bar
rels and Bottles is due to the determine
ton of the liquor trade to move on Con-
gress with a petition ten miles long and
reduction in the whisky tax from a dol
lar and ten cents gallon to seventy
cents. But If the liquor trade knew as
much about the real practical value of
petitions to Congress as some of the rest
of us know, there would not be SO much
enthusiasm over this petition ten miles
long and containing 100000 names.
What do the Republican masters Hen
| derson. Payne and Dalzell, who consti-
tute the will of the Republican Con-
gress, care about petitions7 No more than
| they do for the thousands of circulars
sent to each of them and to every con-
| gresham through the mails, and they
never even see one of those circulars
| Congressman would like law to prevent
| circulars from being delivered at their
respective addresses. To show the utter
Stiffness and futillty of the circular bus
mess 1t may be stated that one local
board of trade in California has been
sending an average of two thick, heavy
| circulars a day to every senator and
| member for months, and 1t Is entirely
| safe to say that not one senator Of men,
| Der has read one of those circulars, eight
hundred and ninety of which reach Wash
ington daily. Although they constitute
a common nuisance, these circulars, with
the postage must have cost the equival-
ent of a days wage of 10000 workingmen.
And why should Barrels and Bottles
discuss a petition ten miles long and
signed by 100000 men, when petition
in effect signed by 100000 people for
the building of the Nicaragua canal has
been so far denied by Congress?
Barrels and Bottles is filled with hot
stuff" For example. read:
"a bakers dozen of short-haired wom-
en-, broodless hens whose feathers all
turn the wrong way, swoop down upon
Washington, and Congress falls over it,
self to win the cheap applause OF the
galleries. But ii doesn't care d-n for
the 250,OO0 dealers whose business is be-
ing ruined by the ITO whisky tax. Why
should it? They don't go to Washing
ton and raise merry hi in the gallaries"
There you are, and here you are:
"Organize! Even the puny prohibition
lists have made their sickly voices heard
by shouting all together"
Would Roosevelt veto bill to reduce
the nisky tax to 70 cents? Not If he's
the same dear old Teddy of San Juan
hill"
who makes your laws? Congress.
Who makes Congress? You do. And yet
you pay 1000 per cent tax on the whisky
you sell!'
THE brewer gets the war tax taken
| off beer. What does the retailer get?
| The brewers permission to go on buy
| ing beer at the same old price!'
"Who is your Congressman, anyway?
Your representative, in duty bound to
consider your interests and your rights,
or your lord and master who goes up to
Washington and makes laws which drive
you out of business, and then comes
|
Hello Mike, how's bizT
.'There is a great distrust of trusts
| But the real insi lie trust Is the cabal of
Republican managers at Washington who
dictatorially decide whether the repre-
sentatives of the great American people
shall have a chance to pass upon any
given measure demanded by their con-
stituents. william Jennings Bryan Is no
end of a fool, but in this one particular
he has the people behind him."
The Fake" story that Booker WASH
ineton had purchased splendid old
colonial mansion In South Weymouth.
Mass" originated with a local weekly
| newspaper published In village near
South Weymouth. The statement was re-
produced as a special by the Boston
Herald and other Boston newspapers, ae-
credited to the local weekly In question.
After the horse-type methods Of the Bos-
ton newspapers, some Of them printed the
4 thing on their front pages under Spanish
war headlines and with two to three
column portraits of Booker Washington.
Other "enterprising'' ''yellows' printed
pictures of the house washington had
bought" as they declared, though he had
never so much as seen the splendid man
sion." News associations sent the story
as a fact to daily newspapers throughout
| the country, accompanied by the gratui-