Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1911-08-16

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- VI have been introduced
SN many measures Many of
II dNA them have had their
AT origin directly with the
NM people who have made
"a x their influence felt more
INN markedly within the dec
I'M ade than perhaps ever
before in the history of
the country. AS re-
Iult Of this members Of both houses
.ave been at times forced to show
,lainly whether their sympathies
we're with the masses or with the
great controlling interests. 1t has
,een hard for them to counterfeit a
oyalty to the peoples interests Some
# them have attempted it and have
seen found out, and are now In
private life. The conditions have
,een such as to make congressional
actions within the last few years OF
Ipecial interest, certainly to the on
ooker In Washington.
After the Beverage beef-inspection
amendment had been tacked-it was
hoped securely upon the agricultural
department appropriation bill the SEN
ate awaited house action on the
amendment with manifest anxiety.
Now there were some members of the
senate who it was supposed from the
very inception OF the matter had held
that the measure was altogether too
drastic and was in its very nature an
Invasion Of the right Of private COM
panies to conduct their business as
they saw fit, provided it was not con-
Quoted in a manner manifestly mimi
cal to the public welfare.
The upper house had sent the
Beverage amendment to passage
quickly, quietly and without a dis
senting vote, but the feeling held
nevertheless that some of the mem
bers voted as they did simply be-
cause they felt obliged so to vote.
One Of those who In the public mind
4 1t was held had cast his vote in favor
OF the beefinspection law rather I'M
willingly, was none other than Sem
ator Lodge of Massachusetts,.
Possibly it was Mr.. Lodges we'll
known bent toward conservatism and
the old ways that impelled people to
think that he was in mind If not In
heart opposed to carrying government
inquiry into the business of private
concerns to any greater lengths than
they had been carried.
The house changed the meat in
& spection measure by transferring the
cost Of the work from the pocketbook
of the packer to the pocketbook Of
z the government and by striking out
the clause which made obligatory the
placing of the date upon the inspec-
ton stamp. When the measure came
back to the senate In its changed
form one of the first senators to get
upon his feet for the purpose Of de-
nouneing the changes was Senator
Lodge of Massachusetts,, and the
sleech that he made upon a subject
4 matter no loftier than the dirt upon
a packing house floor and the conse-
quent duty Of the government to force
the hand Of the packers to lay hold
on the broom Of cleanliness has been
L declared since to be the greatest
I speech made at the first session of the
Fifty-ninth congress, and when this
statement was made by those who
have passed judgment the speeches Of
4 Bailey, Knox and. Spooner upon the
constitutional question involved in the
railroad rate measure were not lost
4 to sight nor to memory.
}8 There are often sneers at Massa-
chusetts, because, as the rest of the
I country has it, she arrogates to her.
4 self certain scholarly distinction
denied unto the other commonwealth
of the country. Possibly the sheer
/. at times is justifiable, because the
old Bay State not only holds herself
distinguished above all others in mat.
tiers intellectual, but she is too fond
of letting the conceit spread into 9TH
er fields where she stands not even
second, nor yet perhaps twentieth.
Massachusetts, however, generally
does send big men to the senate Of
the United States, and in the main
big men to the house of representa-
tives of the nation. In the hearing Of
such speech as that of Henry Cabot
Lodge upon the Beveridge amendment
to the agricultural bill the living
sheer of the dead and gone Mark
hanna expends itself Intellectually.
Hanna said that lin Henry Cabot
Lodge a good historian was spoiled to
make a poor statesman"
Mr.. Lodge was talking about the
pork packing industry, of corn beef,
of sausages and of bob veal, and yet
this man rose to the heights of a
great orator. His speech was as
whitening as contempt for dishonesty
in business methods, coupled with a
mastery of the language Of irony and
scorn and biting satire, could make it.
While the senator from Massa-
.chusetts was speaking not colleague
moved in his seat, not whisper was
heard. nor was one Of the papers
which Uttered the senate's desks al
lowed to rustic. Even Mr.. Tillman.
whose love for Mr.. Lodge is not
transcending, looked upon the Massa-
chusetts man with much more
sterlingly honest expression of ad-
miration in his face than he probably
would have cared to make manifest,
for it was the Massachusetts senator
who only few days before had in
the senate and in the Tillman pres
a11eo a,