The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-06-05
PACKING men FIGHTING
Are Directing to Proposition to
Pay Fees
FOR A COMPULSORY INSPECTION
IF BILL Is LEFT TO GOVERNMENT
TO PAY INSPECTION WILL BE
CRIPPLED.
FOR A COMPULSORY INSPECTION

WASHINGTON, D. c.. June s.
Senator Beveridge, of Indiana, is like
ly to come out Of this session of con-
gress with more of personal credit than
any other member Of either house,
provided, as now seems likely, congress
accepts his bill for the rigid inspection
Of all packing houses and the official
labelling of their products This is true
because to Mr.. Beveridge alone belongs
credit for initiating this investigation
Several men worked together on the
rate BILL and on all the other import
ant acts Of the session, and no one
man, therefore, can claim credit for
any one of them. Mr.. Beveridge how
ever shared his thought with nobody
He made a careful study of the ques-
ton, in the light of all he could learn
regarding home conditions and what
is done in Europe in the way of in
spectiOn. Then he went to Indiana
for a week, during which time he
worked out the phraseology Of the bill.
Previously Mr.. Beveridge had talked
to the president about Upton Sin
clair's book, 1.-THE Jungle" and the
president had said that Sinclair was a
''muckraker." Previous to this, the
bureau of animal industry of the de-
partment of agriculture had examined
the Chicago packing houses and pro-
nOunced them wholly bad. This re-
port, however, was not convincing The
Sinclair book was also discredited
The administration, however, had be-
come sufficiently interested as the re-
suit of these disclosures to have a re-
port made under the presidents per-
sonal direction, and Labor Commits
sioner Neill and James B. Reynolds
Of New York went to Chicago.
President Cried, "Good."
Concurrently with these movements,
Mr.. Beveridge was preparing his bill,
which he wrote and rewrote perhaps a
score Of times before he introduced it.
He submitted a copy of it to the presi-
dent, who slapped him on the back and
cried Good! Introduce it at once"
This was done and the bill was pend
ing before the senate committee on
agriculture when the verbal report of
Neill and Reynolds was made at the
White House regarding packing house
conditions.
Then the president prepared a red
hot message in which he summarized
the verbal reports, and he had intended
to send it to congress last week. Such
an act would have forever killed the
European market for American meats
and meat products. Jealous packers in
Europe have already had the Sinclair
book translated and distributed by the
hundreds of thousands of copies over
England, France, Germany, the Meth
erlands, Belgium, Scandinavia, Den
mark and Austria. The reply of the
American packers to this book has
been that it is untrue, that Sinclair
was a sensation monger
This was the situation when the SEN
ate last week, without debate. attach
ed the Beveridge bill as a rider" to
the agricultural appropriation bill and
passed it without opposition-a most
unusual performance and hardly
matched in senate procedure for
generation.
Nearly all of Sunday and for num-
Der of hours Monday, there We're con-
ferences between the president and
various leaders in congress- Emissaries
of the beef trust were also in town,
doing what they could to see if the
bill couldn't be headed off in the house
From the best available reports the
president stood pat, demanding that
substantially the Beveridge rider" be
retained on the agricultural appropria-
ton bill
Packers Make Demand.
Finally, it is said, the agents for the
packers demanded that the cost of in
spection be paid by the government
and not by the trust To this the pres
ident also is understood to have OBJ
jected. 1t costs $750.O0O a year to fur
nish the present inadequate inspection
of packing house business. To admin
lister the Beveridge act in good faith
would require between s1,500,000 and
100000, and if this sum were not
set apart every session of the congress
the law would be crippled. 1t is a
favorite plan in congress to nullify a
statute by failure to appropriate for
it's administration. BY making the