The Washington times., 1913-06-30
THE MULHALL CHARGES.

1t is not necessary to agree on the accuracy ol
ultimate details tc appreciate that the story of lobby
ing, corruption, bribery, and vicious influence on
legislation told by Martin Muhall, is substantially
presentation of conditions that long existed. Any
experienced observer of affairs in Washington has
known for years that men of the class named in
the Mulhall story-most of those men, too-were
in the most complete sympathy and cooperation
with the general purposes which Muhal ascribes to
the lobby he is describing in the New York World
revelations.
Mulhall has good deal to tell about the control
of Congressional committees with the purpose of
killing one kind and promoting another kind of
legislation. 1t is the commonest knowledge that
under the old regime on Capitol Hill exactly that
was the regular thing. No newspaper in America
has more often or nsistenty attacked such egisla-
tive methods than The Washington Times. Only a
few days ago The Times told the story of one Con-
gressman's fatal mistake He represented dis
trct in which organized labor was supposed to have
no power. II was safe" for him to serve the pur-
poses of the organization in killing legislation that
labor approved So he was placed on the Labor
Committee for that very purpose, and, as compensa-
ton for doing this dirty work, also assigned to
the Public Buildings and Grounds Committee, with
its easy access to the pork barrel The labor peo-
pie made fight on him, found that, after all, there
was some organization and good deal of sympathy
with labor in his district and defeated him for re-
nomination.
Take the case of Mr. LttleReld He was the
most bitter enemy Of progressive labor, with a So
cial industrial direction it, that could be found
in Congress. Judge Jenkins, of Wisconsin, served
many years as chairman of the Committee on
Judiciary, during the long and dreary period when
that committee was known as the graveyard of pro-
gressive measures. Jim Watson, of Indiana, a
leading lieutenant of Cannon, was known as
statesman of exactly the stripe, and after he
got out of Congress he turned up in Washington as
one of the most active lobbyists throughout the
tariff session Of 1909.
These things are so well known that, in Wash
ington, they give color or reasonableness and
probability to the Mulha narrative that is quite
important the documents which are adduced to
buttress it. These activities and affiliations of the
brazen old organization-in House and Senate alike
were at last responsible for the wreck of the Re-
publican party. The general conditions that Null
hall is describing were so well known and under
stood that he has hardly mentioned a name that
gives shock or surprise.
There is thing that ought to be said in justice
to class of men whose interests and regulations
liable to be unjustly prejudced by this exposure
The National Association of Manufacturers included
a vast majority of men who would not have assented
to such proceedings if they had realized what was
going 1t gave its confidence, an organization,
to men who betrayed it, who used it to serve their
wicked and dsreputable purposes. Several times in
the documents thus far published the cautionary
suggestion has appeared, that it would not be safe
to let the rank and file of members know too much
about what was going on. II was realized by the
bold and reckless in control that if the great
majority of plain members realized the sort Of traf
6c in which their good names were involved they
would not for an hour assent. One of the purposes
to be served by Congressional investigation such
as must come, is to make all this clear.