The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1906-06-09
FRANTIC ATTEMPT IS
TO D|SCRED!T
DIR. NEIL
LETTERS FROM PACKERS VlRTU-
ALLY CoNFESSING BAD
CONDITIONS.
HE is STILL UNSHAKEN
Inquiry Poorly Conducted as 1t Affords
Poor Way of Eliciting and Clari-
flying Facts in Any
Case.
(By Julian Hawthorne.)

10Y IuiIdl
Washington, June S,-As | passed
through the Capitol corridor few min
utes after the committee investigating
the packers had adjourned for lunch
| saw DR.. Neil who had just been un-
der question in the committee room,
and Mr. Wilson, representative of the
packers.
Neill was leaning against the wall,
with his hands in his pockets, with a
-committal and unresponsive ex-
preston on his face, while Wilson was
putting" something to him with all
his eloquence and energy.
What was he saying to him?
| Possibly he was enforcing the view
hat we would have another thunder
storm before night or that the Della
ware peach crop would be a failure
this year 1t may have been on the
other hand that he was trying to in
| fluence his mind as to the significance
of what he had seen in Chicago, and
DR.. NeilI was not being impressed by
| his suggestions. If so. It would have
been in line with the manitestly des-
perate efforts which the packers are
making to avert the disaster 10 their
interests that the Neill-Reynolds re-
port and the other revelations of pack
ing house methods are threatening,
NepI "Makes Good"
DR. NELL was on the stand before
the committee this morning and he
made good If, as one Of the commit
tee remarked. Mr.. Wilson was well
chosen TO present with some plausi
bility very dubious case it may be
said of DR.. Neil that he is well equip
ped TO state and maintain, In the teeth
of the eager cross-quesioning of Lor.-
mer and Wadsforth, the truth of the
facts which he observed. The quest ons
put to him were tricky and misleading
but he refused to be entrapped, and
the final result of them was 10 rem
der only more amazing the revolving
conditions which obtain in the can
ming factories.
Among other things he read two lei
ters received from an employe of the
packers who had previously been In
the government service al the packing
houses. the first entreating him to
confide to the packers the abuses
which he had detected in their es-
adjustments, then 10 give them thirty
days in which to reform the abuses,
and only after that to make report
and to make it conform. not to the con
dition of things as 1t was before the
reforms TO be made, but as il was after
that.
The second letter, written after con
sultation with packer who had read
copy of the frs letter, and who
criticised il on the ground that II too
obviously proposed "A trade contain
ed substantially the same proposition
but expressed in less indiscreet Ian
.guage.
These two documents took all the
value out of the disclaimers which
Mr. Wilson had just been offering and
proved so far as they went, that the
original conditions were as rotten as
the report had asserted.
Force Packers to Cover.
The fact evidently is that all that
has been alleged against the packers
Is true: that they know it and that
they have been laboring tooth and nail
since Neill and Reynolds made their
visit 10 cover up The abuses which
were described. And they are now
profuse in invitations to the commit !
tee 10 come and visit them AMI "s'e
for themselves" how clean and sweet /
everything is
Messrs. Lorimer and Wadsworth and /
The emissaries Of the packers who are |
prompting them in and out of the /
committee room and meanwhile strain /
ing every nerve 10 confuse The sup /
porter of the report and 20 ass ST and I
protect the Witnesses for the packers. /
II is a disgraccful spectacle. but the 4
truth is forcing its way through. never I
theless. and If the president IS in earn /
est in his profession. and finds con
stancy To sick TO d.. the country win Il
have sensation surprising that I
caused by any other recent reveiat'0n.
and the packers viii suffer in the only
part # them which is really sensitive T
and that. I need hardly say. is their .
pcckc's
Inquiry Poorly Conducted.
One IS forced 10 the opnion. mean I
while taat fnve tigaiTon ay a coagrt 4
si0nai committee. conducted as tbs IS
affords a Poor way Of elicit
lag and Clarifying facts. There is no
order or regularity Of procedure: The
chairman attempts no control Of the
any one Of The score Of
tcOnoladed on Third Page, /