Arizona republican., 1906-11-16

held control of the Treasury Depart
 ment but little more than nine years
 and five of those were the first five years of the government
 As Americans we are proud of our
 congress. and delight to speak of it as
 the greatest legislative body of the
 world. This is especially so when we have occasion to refer to the senate. Then we add another qualifying word
 and call it the highest parliamentary
 body. We endeavor to make foreign
 CTS believe that all legislative wisdom , is concentrated in our congress, but we
 know better ourselves, and sometimes
 smile in our sleeves when stuffing for eign visitors with our glorification. Congress makes the, laws for the Dist
 rict of Columbia. TfA District is under
 the guardianship of our high legisla- tive body. the residents here being pol
 itical orphans. classed with minors.
 idiots, women. and Indians not taxed
 So it is that congress exercises a
 guardian care over us.
 Some months ago it crept over the
 people of the District that they were
 frequently made the victims of short
 measure and light weight in purchas-
 ing the things supposed to be the nec-
 essaries of life. They went to congress
 for protection against the trickey gro
 cer and coal dealer. and that body at
 once proceeded to digest and pass a
 law for our benefit. The law is a
 daisy In fact 1t Is about as unique a
 piece of legislation as can be found on
 any statute book. It makes it unlawful
 for a dealer to sell, or offer for sale,
 any commodity for a weight or meas
 ure Tess" than it's true weight or meas
 ure. Thus, if grocer offers to sell ten
 pounds of butter as six pounds he is
 in danger of a heavy penalty, but if he offers to sell six pounds for ten. he is not guilty of violating any law. and can not be punished. It may be added that no dealer in the District has ever been charged with selling a greater weight or measure as a less. so there will be no prosecutions under the law
 The much heralded Peoples Lob by has at last been organized and settled down to work with temporary organization. The first preliminary is to get money. after which a permanent organization will be effected and the business of regulating congress will be taken in hand seriously. As set forth by the temporary chairman of the tenn porary executive committee, the prin- cipal function of the lobby will be to keep an accurate record of the sayings and doings of every member of cong ress on all political and legislative sub jects and to keep his constituents prop erly informed-of what he Is saying and doing. For small fee the public will have access to these records. Whether the Bertillion system of measurements will be applied to congressman is not known. but the purpose is to keep a sort of "Rogue's Gallery that will be open to the public. All meritorious measures will be supported by this lobby. while all bad bills will be expo sed and killed through its agency. In short, it possesses to be a sort of un- official committee on Introduced Bills" It will examine all important bills and when it e. Ks a measure congress will 1 be expected to promptly pass n. and I vice versa This will relieve congress- men in general. and the Speaker and l chairman of important committees, in particular. of a great deal of hard work, ] and they will doubtless welcome the l Peoples Lobby" with open arms. If i they do not let them beware. for the l lobby will have them all carded and and in a trice will have | them thrown out of congress. if they I don't behave. In passing it may be that "meritorious'' measures will he those of which the lobby ap- | proves. Bad hills" will be those the lobby does not like. Being a People Lobby it will not. of course. accept from wicked corpora tions. Therefore the common people" are expected to send on their dollars.
 None of the eminent gents who com . pose this remarkable and amusing ag- yregation are of any particular impor- tance. Four or five have made repu- | tations as muck -rakers." One is a To- | gal patent lawyer and another the son | Df the president of local college. The | latter has broken into print occasion ally articles principally devoted to con- lemning the existing order of things. | These are the only two who are Wash the others being familiar Niln lDe clly pTlnclpdilN pN nedTSdN. one did spend a few weeks | here last winter. stalking gloomily and | through the capitol to the [ of the press gallery and | the legislators. Another is R. NJ. Allen. whose activities on the part of a cor poration of whiskey dealers is connec- ton with the pure food bill. are well | Hon. Samuel Hopkins | Adams. who also passed through Wash | ngton once and gathered much misin- Daniel Graham Philipps, | who has just closed his entertaining | articles on the Treason of the Senate" and others have escaped from member ship fin this aggregation of talent. Is not clear
 The lobby is welcomed by the news paper correspondents. for the chairman has announced that it will be part of | Lhe game to make the dispatches of the correspondents the leading features of the papers they represent. | The correspondents will extend the I glad hand to these gentlemen who have only a superficial knowledge of | matters. and who would get lost in the capitol. and will appreciate their kindly efforts to secure proper recognition from the pa- perS of the services of their able Wash |