The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-05-25
WASHINGTON LETTER.

The real Railroad rate issue was tenn
porarily obscured the greater part of last
week by the scandal launched by Senator
Tillman in his charge of bad faith Against
the President. Grave discussion Of the
| constitutionality of the bill gave way to
noisy harangues in which Liar" and
''You're another" have been. the pyro-
technics. Senator Lodge posing as the
handy friend of Mr.. Roosevelt precipitat-
ed an awkward embroglio by his illcon-
sidered action in calling up the White
House by phone and getting the Presi-
dent to reply without time for thought
that Senator Tillman's charge that he
had criticized Senators Knox, Spooner
and Foraker was unquali6edly false. Sci,
dom in our history has there been time
when it would better become all high
officials to apply to themselves the we'll
worn principle that there is so much good
in the worst of US and so much bad in the
best of us that it's hardly worth while for
any of the pots to call the kettles black.
The President has no worse enemy in the
country than his effrenata lingua and that
he is so little averse to using his tongue
is his greatest inconvenience. Senator
Bailey's quarrel is interesting but not i'm
pressive. Some. newspaper correspon-
dents have accused him of something not
agreeable to him, and he has been hurl-
ing anathemas at the Administration for
several days but the explosives Lies"
and Liars" have been so common in the
Senate of late that they have lost their
sting.
~
| The Beef Trust is getting it from every
side. All the world is reading and be.
lieving "The Jungle" story by Upton
Sinclair, jungle being the stock
yards about Chicago and the meat slaugh-
teriug factories there. The author openly
charges that cattle arriving on the trains
mutilated, dead, dying and suffering from
contagious diseases pass the inadequate or
corrupt inspecting force of the Govern
ment and reach our tables aud dinner
pals in various DISCUSSES under taking
trade names. Few people will eat Trust
beef after reading this book without
gastric qualms, and, to'make the criticism
more deadly, it is confirmed by a writer
who is an Government inspector, in a
recent article in "The Worlds Work
Magazine" who gives statistics and de-
tails and who says that the only remedy
is to divide up and scatter over the coun.
try nearer the sources Of cattle produc-
ton, the great, fetid slaughter house
excreseuces in Chicago, Kansas City,
Omaha and other congested meat pack
ing centers. If this is done another ont
rageous evil will be remedied, that of
unspeakable cruelty to millions of ami
mails by transportation without food.
water, or rest, in half dying condition,
over thousands of miles of railroad.
-
| Now is lifetime of all other for people
of the country to let Congress know and
feel that the public eye is upon it and is
watching the vote of each member and
Senator. Congress can pass the pure
food and pure drug bill if it will, but
there is powerful and desperate lobby
trying especially to maintain the grip of
the patent medicine harpies of the coun-
| try. Their vile poisons have murdered a
million times more innocents than were
slain by Herod. All that the law requires
| is that these constituencies poisoners
shall state the actual constituents Of their
nostrums. They are spending millions
of dollars to avoid telling the truth. Will
Congress abet them?
~
The question of buying Canal supplies
wherever they can be bought cheapest,
which means buying great quantities of
them in Europe, is uppermost again, and
the President and Secretary of War Taft
agree that they should be purchased
abroad if necessary. This of course raises
great stir in Congress and threatens to
once more bring up the question of the
tariff which has been so assidnously
avoided. In the matter of steel dredges
for the work there it was found that
Scotland could furnish and deliver to the
Isthmus dredges at saving of sixty to
seventy thousand dollars on each one.
Cement also, of which vast quantities will
be required, may be purchased abroad
cheaper than at home, and those who are
in favor of saving the Government ex-
pense rather than adding to the great
wealth of a few corporations believe that
the supplies should be purchased where
they can be had cheapest. The Com
mittee on Interoceanic canals has favor
ably reported the adoption OF the sea
level type of canal which will cost $a47,-
ooo. 900 or about fifty millions more than