Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-07-03
BIG BILLS
PASSED BY
CONGRESS
RAILROAD RATE, MEAT INsPEc.
TlNo AND PURE FOOD MEAS.
uREs UP TO PRESIDENT

HOUSE AND SENATE
MAKE CONCESSIONS
End Of Long strugeIe-victory For
Rouse in the Meat Inspection Amend
'"ehe TO the Agricultural Appropria
ton 6iII-Features of the Three I'm.
portant Measures.
Washington, D. c., June so-The
4a aliioaa rate, the meat inspection and
10 pure 1ood measures were passed
~ SoAsress yesterday afternoon. The
minuihs up OF these three most i'm
poreant oils of the session In rapid or
uer IN the afternoon and evening form
gu strikfng climax to seven solid
months of work.
New Epoch in Legislation.
Had nothing else been done hv tbis
congress these measures would stand
~; ae as monuments to the present ma
tlonal administration. In emphatic
anuer .hey mark the beginning of a
lew epoch in federal legislatfon-gov-
81 nnieht regulation of corporations and
me invocation of the police power, so
70 speak, to stay the hand of private
gTeea ana protect the pocketbook and
Ihe health and general swelfare of the
masses.
The Railroad Rate Bill,
In the end the house has had it's way
mostly regarding the railroad rate bill.
Oil pipe lines remain in the measure
as common carriers, but the commo-
dlty provision Of the bill has been 7xed
so as to make the prohibition of an al
nance between transportation and pro-
ouctlon apply only to railroad COM
panles. The railroads can not own
coal mines or transport their own pro.
ducts, but Standard Oil and the indie
pendent Oil companies can pipe their
own product. The senate yielded on
thls point because the house refused
70 give in by an overwhelming vote.
ana otherwise the whole bill would
have died.
: The Anti-Pass Provision,
minor provision Of the law which
gave congress nearly as much trouble
as the rate section was the senate
amendment on the subject of passes
which stands in the new law In sub.
stantially the form in which the SEN
ate enacted 1t. In view of the fact
that nearly all the railroads have aban-
doned the custom of giving passes, this
reform may be treated as significant of
the higher business level upon which
the whole market place has been lifted
during the last year and expresses, in
concrete way, that the business of
railways hereafter is to be separated
from politics, and that everybody here
after shall enter the freight and passen-
ger depots of the country on precisely
the same terms.
Til Imam "Roasts" Standard.
Senator Tillman contented himself
with a severe roast" of the Standard
Oil influence, and~then as the one in
charge OF the measure voted to ac-
cept the conference report. The SEN
ate gained part of it's contention in
q readJustment of the anti-pass fea-
ture of the bill which prohibits free
transportation to every one save GER
tain excepted classes, including rail
road employees and their families, and
the officers, attorneys, surgeons ETC.,
of the companies.
House Victory in Meat Bill.
The meat legislation was a complete
victory for the house. The senate
agreed to the conference report late in
the afternoon and the house formally
ratified 1t at the night session. There
We're two points in controversy-the
payment for inspection service and the
question of putting dates on the labels
of cans and packages of meat products,
The government will pay the cost of
inspection, instead of the packers, and
labels will not require the date of In
Spectlon or canning of the contents.
In announcing the failure of the SEN
ate conferees to win on these DISPUTED
points, Senator Proctor said the bill
accomplished great deal, inasmuch
as it provides for thorough inspection
OF all meat products and the sanitary
regulation OF packing plants, and that
the conferees felt they could not lose
everything by holding out for distinc-
tive features which the public would
not accept. He paid his compliments
to the packers in strong terms and
charged them with having engineered
The scheme that created sentiment in
'avor of making the government pay
The cost of inspection. Other senators
entered their protest against the con-
troverted provisions of the measure,
but finally the conference report was
adopted.
In the house, acceptance of the re-
port was a pure formality. One i'm