Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1906-06-22
ROOSEVELT HAS HIS WAY
INSISTS ON THOROUGH, NOT SHAM
MEAT INSPECTION.
The House Obliged to Yield AFTER Stud
born Controversy Pointed Com
nuaiea,ions- Amendment, as Finally
Agreed Upon,

Agreed Upon,
The house a, Washington Monday sent the
agricultural appropriation bill back to the
agricultural committee for further amend
meni Of the meat Inspection amendment THIS
action was In compliance with the demand
Of President Roosevelt who wrote Chairman
wadswor,h Of the committee Thursday that
the substitute amendment adopted was
very, very bad, almost every change made
being for the worse, lie said the amend
men, struck him as one which, no matter
how unintentionally, was framed so as to
minimize the chance Of roofing out the evil
| Ia the packing business. lie declared that
u he signed the bill at all, II would be with
written Statement, Of the defects ofthe meas
ure the provisions Of which "are so bad
that. in my opinion, II they had been dehb,
era,ely designed to proven, the remedying Of
the evils complained Of they could not have
been worse.
Sir. wadsworth replied to the president;
aYou are wrong. very, very wrong In your
estimate" Of the bill, He declared that II
was as perfect a piece Of legislation as pos
sible. 10 carry GU, the presidents views on
Il this question: that every member Of the com
mlttee was honest IN the desire for rigid
meat inspection bill and knew the English
language lie pointed out that the presi'
dent was wrong In his charge that no pro-
vision was made for making the plants ae'
cessible AZ all hours to inspectors. He as
sured the president that II he would point
out specifically wherein the bill failed TO &C,
eomplish the presidents purpose, u would
/ be promptly remedied. He closed as follows;
~ regret that you, the president OF the
United States, should feel justified, by in
nuendo at least in impugning the sincerity
and the competency OF a committee Of the
house Of representatives You have no war
rant for IL.
A conference was held at the white house
Friday between the president, Commissioner
IL. b. Reynolds representative Of the de-
partment of agriculture and Representative
Adams Of Wisconsin. one Of the republican
members Of the agricultural committee who
signed the majority report on the meat In
spection substitute The president insisted
that the substitute was absolutely inadequate
and indicated just what he wanted written
into the law. He objected particularly to
the court review paragraph. which he thought
ought to be eliminated. The president said
that he was not trying for any particular
form Of words in the proposed law, but he
was after o substance that would be etfec.
tive and adequate and proposed to get 1t II
that were possible. Mr. Adams said he would
accept the suggestions made by the presi'
dent and would work 90 that end in the
committee.
In a second letter to Chairman Wadsworih
Friday, the president acknowledged his error
/ in the statement, accepted from Senator
Beveridge that there was no provision in the
| bill for making the plants accessible at all
hours to the inspectors. He reiterated his
other objections especially as to the court
review provision which he denounced as ex-
Iactly what the packers themselves would
have provided and representing, in some
cases "a deliberate purpose to interfere with
the effective administration by trying to pro
vide that the courts shall in reality do ad'
minstratiye work which they would be the
first 10 assert their inability to perform. ,
He continued: "If the bill as You reported
Iii from the committee were enacted into law.
YOU would have the functions Of the secretary
Of agriculture narrowly limited, so as to be
purely minsterial and when he declared a
given slaughter house unsanitary, or given
product unwholeSome, acting on the iudg'
ment OF the government experts, you would
| put on the Judge who had no knowledge what
! ever OF the conditions the burden Of stating
whether or not the secretary was right In
! Chicago for instance, You would make any
Judge whom the packers chose to designate,
and not the experts Of the department Of
agriculture the man to decide on any ques'
tion OF any kind which the packers thought
Iit worth while to dispute. you may pos
sibly remember the recent judicial decision
in Chicago in which the packers were con
| cerned.) | wish TO repeat that this provision
is, in my judgment, one which il enacted into
law will nulliiy the major part of the good
which can be expected from the enactment
Of this law. He said that he had seen Mr..
Adams at the request of Speaker Cannon and
had made specific recommendations for such
changes as seemed needed Mr. Adams agree.
ing with him. If these changes were adopt
ed, he said he thought the amendment would
become as good as the Beyeridge amendment.
He would gladly accept either, or any atera-
ton Of either or both which will accom-.
plish the object he 'has in view-''a thor
ough and rigid. and not sham, inspection.
The one feature to which the president OBJ
jects, but to which he has given reluctant
assent is that the expense of the inspec-
ton shall be borne by the government in
stead Of by the packers. Speaker Cannon
was responsible for settling the controversy
and for obtaining such compromise as the
president made. The latter yielded on the ex'
pense question only when Speaker Cannon
expressed unaterable opposition to the prin.
ciple Of letting any executive department col
lect fees and disburse proceeds without nav
ing turned them in to the treasury or hav.
ing received the usual specific legal sane
tion for their expenditure, and when, added
to this objection of the speaker 5, Secretary
of Agriculture Wilson declared that he could
satisfactorily administer the law ii the APP
preparation were made large enough.
The principal changes in addition to elm.
ination of the court review clause, are the
substitution Of continuing annual govern
ment appropriation of 100000 instead of
81 900, 600 semi.annually, to pay for the in.
spection elimination of the clause suspend
ing the ciyil-service rules, the strengthening
of the clause permitting inspection of pack
ing plants at all times, and the agreement
that labels for canned goods shall not bear
| the date Of inspection and that the words
sat the discretion of the secretary shall
not be inserted in the proposed law. With
this agreement the bill was sent back to the
committee for further consideration.
The compromise measure was agreed 10
| by the house Tuesday without debate and
the agricultural appropriation bill, with It's
meat inspection provision, was sent to con.
ference with the senate In appointing the
conferees Speaker Cannon administered a
snub to Representative Henry of Connect
cut who has persisted in his stand that
inspection should be paid for by the pack
ers. Instead of appointing Representative
Henry OF Connecticut, the ranking republic
can and Representative Lamb OF Virginia,
the ranking democrat, to be the house con-
ferees with Chairman Wadsworth, the speak
err named Representative Scott of Kansas,
cattleman, and Representative Lever Of
South rarol;,a Mr. Lamb had also insist