The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-07-13
WASHINGTON LETTER.

Secretary Wilson left for Chicago on
Saturday, to inaugurate the new system
of meat inspection. He took with him
the chief of the Bureau of Animal Indus
try, George R. McCabe;, the solicitor of
the Department of Agriculture and Doc
tor Mohler, one of the foremost biochem-
lists in this country.
Doctor Mohler aud Mr.. McCabe we're
on the department committee that began
the investigation of the Chicago packing
houses last April before the furore about
the situation there began. Mr.. McCabe
goes along with the Secretary to explain
the law to the packers and show them
how it will be applied and how the de-
partment will proceed in case any OBJ
struction or failure in compliance. The
first and fundamental matter to be ex-
planned is the determination to enforce
the interstate principle and stop the ship
ment of meats that have not been pro-
duced under required conditions. The
stopping of interstate traffic in contraband
meats is the key of the whole situation.
Observation-Disclosures little doubt of
the way that the new law will work out.
Ample power has been placed in his
hands to accomplish all that is demanded
of him by the President or by public
opinion.
~
A detailed statement of the work of the
House of Representatives during the first
session of the Fifty-ninth Congress just
closed, has been given out by tally clerk,
Winthrop c. Jones, which shows there
were a, sol bills passed by the House and
362 left undisposed of. The total num-
Der of laws enacted by this Congress is
given Officially as $3.50, while the Fifty
eighth Congress, in both its first and Sec
ond sessions, enacted total of 226o laws.
These are exclusive of public and private
resolutions, of which there were ffty.four
enacted at the session just closed and
thirty-nine in the two sessions of the pre-
ceding Congress.
*x*
Representative Burton, of Ohio, who is
one of the Republican leaders in Con-
gress, is working out practical scheme
for disarmament to propose at the coming
session of the Interparliamentary Union,
in London. Disarmament as a theory
has been under general discussion for
years.
Advocates of peace and arbitration feel
that the fruitlessness of this discussion is
explained by the failure of any one to
advance a practical programme. Even
though such programme were rejected,
it would shift the talk of the world from
generalities as to the desirability of
check on war preparation to the consid-
Grafton of specific details.
After three years of effort the Cleveland
man succeeded this last session in holding
up the projected 20, ooo-ton American
battleship. He had the hearty support of
Chairman Tawney, of the Appropriations
Committee. He will have that support
again next fall for further opposition to
this big battleship and other increases.
He will have the support, too, of pressure
by commercial and business interests that
have begun to feel that river and harbor
interests are being sacrificed for the bene-
fit of growing naval :and army appro,
priations.
*x*
New elements will enter into the Con-
gressional campaign this fall. AS main
issue the tariff has come to the front with
a force not exceeded since the Forty
eighth Congress, when Carlisle first be-
came Speaker of the House.
Collateral issues of great importance.
however, will be involved, and, though
not strange to politics, these come in new
form under unusual conditions. The
Federation of Labor has assumed a politi-
cal attitude not before countenanced; the
81. 4,