Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-12
Washington
' ' LETTER
BY Il 2 MAI KER
Undertaking Broken Loose
BY H. B. WALKER
Star Stan Correspondent.
DtHF bUftHus
metropolitan National Bank Bldg,

WASHINGTON, July I2.
While the Senate lobby committe,
is preparing to investigate all tn,
strikes and labor disputes of the las
ten years, investigate the McNamars
dynamiting cases and audit the book
of the National Manufacturers Asso
citation, the Hodse is planning to star
lobby hunt of its own next week
which, 1t is announced. will last fol
several months and include a probing
of the methods of everybody and any.
body who has had any dealings with
Congress or congressman in the recent
past
1t is the spirit of undertaking thai
has broken loose in Congress and is tc
be given unreserved swing. Some OF
the muck being unearthed, and which
will be dug up, is new. Much of it is
ancient history, excepting in the de-
tails, most of which are uninterestine
and unimportant.
Even the Mulhall confessions prom
ise nothing that the country has not
known for years, excepting in the
matter of names, dates and other de-
tails. And even if it Is all true, prac-
tically all the methods being exposed
are things of the past
The lobby probe is species of hys-
terics, seasoned with good deal OF
claptrap, and kept going by we'll
meaning men who are better at dig
ging into the past than building for
the future.
1t is generally conceded that the
present spasm of undertaking was
started wholly Internationally. Pres
ident Wilson was worried lest enough
Democrats would bolt the caucus, on
account of the sugar and WOOL du-
ties, to defeat the Underwood bill In
the Senate. He naiYely suggested to
the newspaper correspondents that
the lobby was unusually big, active
and seductive. There was in his
statement a suggestion that Demo-
Gratis who bolted the caucus would be
under suspicion of being under lobby
influence.
If it hadn't been for Senator Cum
minis and other Republicans VINO
thought they saw a chance to make
political capital of the statement IL
probably would have got no further
than the first days publication.
When the Republicans challenged the
Democrats to investigate the Presi-
dents charges, they of course didn't
dare to refuse. And even then, the
Investigation was tame perform
ance, and was petering out lamely,
when the Mulhall charges gave IL
new life. Now they're off. The tarlff,
currency and other big issues upon
which depend the future security and
prosperity of the country's business
and industry are relegated to places
of secondary Importance, and DOM
houses will devote their main efforts
to delving into the muck OF the past
and furnishing sensational headlines
for the newspapers for the rest of the
summer.
Few of the more level-headed men
in Congress are taking the lobby
probe very seriously. The enthusiasts
in the undertaking are, as rule,
lot of accidental Senators and repre-
sentatives brought to Congress on the
tail of Wilson'S kite, who have little
idea of what they are here for, and
peals as O chance to vent some OF
their steam and get into the limelight.
To many of the Congressman the
matter being dragged out is undoubt-
eddy new, although most of 1t was the
subject of newspaper and magazine
stories years ago.
Take the stories of William Whit
mans, and former Census Director
S. d. N. North's connection with the
making of Schedule K in the Dingley
and Payne Aldrich bills, for instance.
It's all old. SO old that to many read
ers it possibly is new again, like most
ancient history. Ida Tarbell told the
whole story in her articles on the
wool trust. and brought out the facts
more clearly and more Interestingly,
than the investigation has brought
out or promises to bring out.
Then there's Mulhall's charges that
CONGRESSMAN John j. Gardner, of
New Jersey, held up an eight hour
bill in committee at the behest of
manufacturing interests. During the
wears Gardner was chairman of the
labor committee of the House, l was
one of a number of correspondents
who wrote yards of stories for the
newspapers, years ago, about Gard
ner's chicanery and the reasons for
it. William R. Hearst's publication
of Standard Oil letters, begun in 1908,
has laid bare every proof of Wall
street and trust interest in the old
congresses.
Even the Lamar-L auterbach cpl
sode, though spicy reading, is not
particularly profitable as contribu-
ton to the political economy of the
country, and does not help much to
solve the big problems of curbing
special privilege and giving the COM
mon people q better chance to get
what is coming to them. We have
all known that Wall street is popu-
lated mainly by wolves, and we have
suspected that men who make bust
ness of fleeing others for money,
would probably have a different set
of business ethics, and fewer niceties
of scruple. than prevail in Sunday
school society.
BY and large, the whole lobby hunt
is doing little but rnuddying the
waters and diverting the attention OF
the country from the big problems
the government mas got to solve, anc
Congress has sooner or later got tc
solve