Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-07-18
BUSTING OF TRUSTS
Ex-Representative Hinckley
Gives His Views.
RELATES HIS EXPERIENCE
New Member Of Congress and the
Investigation Habit.
SOME RESOLUTION PRODUCERS
Story of Ike Philbert, the Hickory
Nut Combine and Legisla-
tive Inquiry.
SOME RESOLUTION PRODUCERS

nOtlCe CHdl SOISTeSS Is ABOUT IcduS
to wind up one of it's big trust investiga-
TONS said constituent from the coun-
try to former Representative j. Hash
Hinckley.
$50 1 see." returned that astute politi-
clan and student OF events. $50 I see.
They are eternally winding up, but some
how or other the handspring never gets
wound up enough for the clock OF time to
strike the hour. They've been winding
UP these investigations for a long time,
and / notice that dividends keep on COM
ing through the. mails. An investigation
has an ominous sound, and keeps the
boys back home talking about what our
representatives are doing down there
There is nothing that makes such good
campaign fodder as a couple O. thousand
pages of printed testimony In a hearing
in which some son of the pampered rich
class testifies that he made SloOoo,OoO IN
ten minutes after Congress had reduced
the tariff on tortoise shell shoe buttons
or some equally important article OF
consumption and commerce.
az notice that the member of Congress
who comes from a district where a safety
razor would be classed as curiosity IS
the most active little resolution intro
Queer in the entire outfit. He has to do
it to make good back home: He comes
from a district where man with an
automobile is looked on as a criminal.
and his pledge has been to squirt lemon
juice into the eyes of the moneyed
octopus.
I'll show the rich classes up. I'll intro
duce a resolution to put 'em all out o
business
Faith in "our Congressman"
''They send him. When the papers come
in through the mail and the lads who
sit round the crossroads store read
about the price Of beef they say: Wait
till our congressman gifts after EN-. He'll
make 'em come to time. You bet he will.
along in the session-some time-the
IS allowed to hand in
resolution. It's a bird. let me tell you.
It's principal aim is to tear down all
existing conditions and wipe out the en-
tire monetary system, besides Gripping
few industries and calling hitherto un-
suspected officials by names indicating
deep contempt. The sausage trust got a
jolt like that the other day
while the Congress is deep in the in
tricacies of a debate the aforesaid MEM
Der slips the resolution into the wire
basket by the Speakers desk, sends
bunch O. copies to the press gallery and
sits down to wait.
Sometimes he gets unanimous consent
to insert a speech in the Record. And
If he does. you can bet the malls back
to his district carry thousands of copies
Of this marvellous discourse. The coun-
try politicians actually believe he deliv-
cred it on the floor Of the House. and 1t
tickles them to death. When they come
to a paragraph which states that the
people of these United States. wearied
and worn under the century-old burden
Of wealth. have demanded that the czars
of gold shall be dethroned, they spit more
tobacco juice on the fiooK in their en-
thusiasm than Hank Heffer's hired man
can sweep up in a month.
When He Gets Back Home.
But that's as far as 1t goes. When
the member of Congress gets home they
seems to be proud to grab him by the
hand. He tells them that next session
Congress is going to take action on that
resolution. Next session comes. and the
resolution, having been buried about as
far into the substratum of neglected leg
islatiOn as it can get without steel drill,
nothing happens. The raw statesman
raves and rants and declares himself a
victim of plot, but that's all the good
1t does him. He Is succeeded In Congress
by a man with common sense. who slips
in on tidal wave of popular indignation
back home. where there is a growing SEN
timent that the original resolution maker
has been bought, bartered for and pur
chased by the enemies Of freedom. So
he goes back to his old job.
Most investigations Of trusts in my
time and in my state legislature were
conducted on the principle that the
trusts were never going out Of business.
We were on the outside looking in. but
soon enough we found we; were on the
inside looking out We have fine state
for trusts. and none of 'em ever suffered
much from investigations. When I was
In the state legislature as door leader Of
the minority, we had an investigation
into the hickory nut trust. one Of the
worst examples Of the moneyed inter-
ests you ever saw. would like to tell
you about it.
Ike Philbert's Idea.