Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1906-07-12
R%00SEvELT'S SHUTTLE
People Must Pay For Meat In
spection.
THE LABELS ARE NOT TO BE DATED

Vast Patronage In the Hands Of the
Observation-Disclosures Lodge Ac-
kno,vledges That Tariff Fostered
MOnopolics Breed Socialists and I'm
rest-An AudnciOus Thrust,
The progress Of the meat inspection
measure through the house and senate
was both interesting and instructive
because it brought forth many things
that throw light on the characters and
motives as we'll as the views of pub
lie men who control the great parties
of the country. 1t revealed the presi-
dent a. an officer desiring to increase
his w powers and patronage under
the preteXt of serving the people and
also as a nan whose words are chosen
without due regard to the f~acts-ready
to compromise and shuttle, to claim
credit that is not his due and to shift
blame from himself to his friends.
1t revealed the fact that ever the
presidents stanchest friends, such as
Henry Cabot Lodge, have at last dis
covered his true character and aims
and were willing to let their disgust be
known. On June 20 Lodge severely
denounced the ~Wadsworth
compromise, although he said it might
be considered "audacious to do so in
view of the announcement that the
house had perfected the measure and
the president had accepted it," He
pleaded especially for the dating of
labels because the public has the right
to know what it is buying.
He also opposed the provision Of the
compromise" which placed the burden
Of inspection upon the public treasury,
but declared that wherever the ex-
pense of inspection might fall the pack
ers would get the advantage. Judging
the future by the past, the packers
would find in a tax of a few mills an
excuse for an increase of several cents
a pound on the meat they sell and a
similar decrease on the stock they buy.
Mr.. Lodge denied that the credit for
the exposure of the methods of the
packers and for whatever legislation
might result from such exposures was
due to the president. He claimed that
the writing Of a book, evidently mean
ing Upton Sinclair's Jungle had
brought about the present agitation
and the present effort to reform the
system. This was another ]"audacious''
thrust at the president, and the state
ment is absolutely true.
With full knowledge of the fact that
the stand pat Republicans with whom
Roosevelt is now aligned are RESPONSE
BILE for all the trusts and m%onopolies in
the country. Mr.. Lodge declared that
these men, "the men responsible for the
meat packing and Standard Oil monop-
olies, have done more to advance So
c1alism, anarchism. unrest and IN
wholesome conditions in the United
States than all of the socialists in the
world"
This is a plain acknowledgment that
the trusts which the Republican party
has bred and on whose fat it has fed
for the last ten years are guilty Of the
very tendencies which Mr.. Lodge was
formerly in the habit of ascribing to
the DEMOCRACY.
Senator Proctor, without saying that
1t seemed "~audacious" to oppose q
measure which the president had ap-
proved, declared that it would be
ceedingly unwise for the government
to pay the cost Of inspection. He did
not consider it a proper tax on either
the cattle raiser or the consumer. 1t
was a good advertisement for the pack
ers, giving the stamp of government
approval to their output. Other indus
tries, he said, would be glad to pay for
the governments approval of their
products, and all these will ask for In,
spection at government expense if the
house provision is adopted.
This shows that the Roosevelt-Wads.
worth compromise must result practi-
cally in a subsidy of many million dol,
lars to these ~monopolists and that it is
only the beginning Of a system by
means Of which the government is to
inspect and stamp at its own expense
every kind Of manufactured article, as
it now stamps the coin of the country
And this is the latest R~ooseveltian
fasco.