East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-03-01
LAFOLLETTE EXPOSES
ANOTHER M0CKERY
INVESTIGATION OF HIGH
PRICES is MACHINE MOVE
Wisconsin Senator Declares Senatorial
Committee Appointed to Ascertain
Cause of High Cost of Living is
Composed of Men Who are Slaves
10 Aldrich-Win Find for Tariff
Bill.

Madison. Wis.-"Under the modest
name of an Investigation OF the cost
of living the Aldrlch machine has
instituted with elaborate formallty a
senatorial investigation to prepare po-
litical campaign material to prove
that the tariff has not advanced
prices"
In this striking language Senator
La Toilette, in last weeks issue of
La Follette's Weekly Magazine, de-
nounces as a mockery, the proposed
investigation to be made by the Unit
ed States senate of the question:
why prices are soaring" He anal
Yves the records OF the membership
of the committee, which is composed
of Mr.. Lodge. Chairman Mr.. CALM
ger, Mr.. McCumber. Mr.. Smoot, Mr..
Crawford. republicans. and Mr.. Sim
mons and Mr.. Clarke (of Arkansas),
democrats, and shows that, with few
exceptions each member has been a
humble. groveling servant of the AL
drich machine.
"The Aldrich-Cannon management
has had recourse to measures which
are heroic. II not desperate" says
Senator In Toilette in exposing the
method by which the committee is
packed. 1T has decided to meet the
issue-in its own peculiar way. 1t
has put itself on trial. but. to make
sure of the outcome. it will conduct
the trial itself"
senator La Toilette drags the tariff
oil a
alyzing the increased cost of living,
proclaims: THAT the Payne -Aldrich-
Cannon tariff revision was a mockery
and a betrayal of the party pledges;
that the tariff was a revision up
ward"
Senator La Toilette shows the abb
ject servitude Of Senators Lodge and
Gallinger. and. in speaking of Sena-
tor McComber of North Dakota. says:
He is only in a slightly better po-
sition than Aldrich and Lodge and
Gallinger to investigate the cause of
high prices and to report that the
new tariff. most OF which he sup
ported faithfully by vote and argu-
ment and for all of which. as n mem
Der of the Finance Committee. he is
in part answerable. is responsible for
these high prices. and thereby to con-
denim his own record"
Senator Smoot of Utah, is held up
to scorching ridicule in the following
| language:
I'm the tariff session it was Smoot
who wracked his brains by night and
strained his voice by day, in the ef-
| fort to make n good case out of bad
| figures and to make wobbly. weak
kneed arguments in defense of the
tariff bill stand erect on the floor OF
the senate. Smoot, too, will Investi-
gate high prices and their relation
to the tariff. He will struggle with
the facts and wrestle with the fig
ures, But he viii prove that the tar
IF has not raised any prices! He
will prove it. He has got to-"
In discussing the record OF Senator
Crawford of South Dakota, Senator
La Toilette shows that on So roll calls
he voted against Aldrich, while on
| 20 he voted with Aldrlch. The pre-
ponderance of the record is against
him
| oiiiiiNi w thc iiSN"' N9 VI S'Hhtoi
Simmons of North Carolina. and
Clarke of Arkansas are discussed as
| follows:
Democrats on such a committee
can only be chiefly ornamental al
best The democrats named are moi
senators who will be so vigorous In
their participation in the investiga.
ton as to be an embarrassment NC
the safe Aldrich majority. More.
over. their findings. IL they make c
minority report, will be easily dis
posed of on the ground of politica
bias"