The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-06-16
A SHARP REPORT President Taken Severely to Task for Criticism of Meat Inspection
 Bill.
COMMITTEE TAKES DEFENSE
CHAIRMAN WADSWORTH TELLS
 HIK HE IS WRONG.

NA< ARMAN VADcWOhA AALAD
 HIM HE IS WRONG.
 Also That He Has No Warrant by Inc nuendo to Impugn the Sincerity and
 Competency of Committee of the
 House of Representatiyes-Mea a Perfect Piece of LegisIatiOn-COm-
 mittee Knows Meaning of English
 Language-An Instance Where the
 President Has Been IlsinfOrmed.
 Washington, June 15.-Chairman Wordsworth, of the house committee on agriculture, tonight made public the correspondence between President Roosevelt and himself regarding the meat inspection bill prepared by the committee.
 The president in his letter says that almost every change in the house amendment was for the worse, as com pared with the senate amendment, and, in his judgment, "so framed as to min imize the chance of roofing out the evils in the packing business" In his reply Mr. Wadsworth declares the pres ident is very, very wrong" in his esti- mate of the committees bill; calls att tention to provisions in the bill, and concludes with an expression of regret that the president should feel justified, by innuendo at least, in impugning the sincerity and the competency of com mittee of the house of representative You have no warrant for it" says MT. Wadsworth in closing. The correspond ence follows:
 "The White House,
 Washington, June 14, 1906.
 My Dear MT. Wadsworth-I have gone over your bill very carefully and not only obtained a report from MT. McCabe, as I told you would, but also obtained report from MT. Reynolds on it. am sorry to say that the more closely investigate your proposed sub- stitute the worse I find it. Almost every change Is for the worse, so it hardly seems necessary for me to emu merate them. Perhaps the amendment as you have now drafted it is not quite as bad as it was when you submitted it to me in the first instance; but it is very, very bad. There seems to be one point in which it Is possible that the amendment is even worse than the original amendment, If, as seems likely, there is no provision for making plants accessible at all hours to the inspectors. In any event, am sorry to have to say that this strikes me as an amendment which, no matter how unintentionally, is framed so as to minimize the chance of roofing out the evil in the packing business. Doubtless 1t suits the pack CTS, who object to thoroughgoing in- spection, much better than the senate amendment have no doubt, that not only the packers, but thes= allies in bus mess and those stock growers who are influenced by them, would prefer it. But I am convinced 1t would, in the long run, be a heavy blow to the hon. est stockraiser and the honest packer to adopt these provisions rather than the far better ones contained in the senate amendment, for, as compared with the senate amendment, this pro- posed amendment, which you tell me is that of the majority of the house com mittee, would hamper, in the most grossly improper fashion the secretary of agriculture in doing the work which you have appointed him to do, and will prevent even so much of this work as can be done at all from being well and thoroughly done.
 If the bill should go through in the form that the majority of your commit tee proposes, it might be that I should sign it as working a certain slight irn provement over the present law; but if so, I should accompany 1t by a memo randum explicitly stating how grave the defects were, and l cannot even prom ise to sign it, because the provisions (about the courts as well as about oth- CT matters) are so bad that, in my opin- ion. if they had been deliberately de- signed to prevent the remedying of the evils complained of, they could not have been worse.
 "It seems to me that the surest way to keep our foreign trade from us, and indeed, our interstate trade likewise, in a thoroughly unsatisfactory condition, and to prevent its resunling the position which it formerly had, is to enact the law in the shape proposed in the amendments submitted to me by you.
 Sincerely yours,
 (signed) Theodore Roosevelt. s.Hon. James w. Wadsworth, Chairman Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives"
 "Committee on Agriculture,
 House of Representatives,
 washington, D. C., June 15, 1906. ':Ny dear MT. President;
 T received your letter last night, You are wrong, very very wrong in your estimate of the committee bill It is as perfect piece of legislation to carry into effect your own views on this question as was ever prepared by committee of congress. Every member of the committee is absolutely as hon. est and sincere as yourself in his de- sire to secure the passage of a rigid
 (Continued on Eighth Pagel