The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1918-07-16
WARS ON WASTE"
BY "AUTOCRATS"
FOOD AND FUEL BUREAUS ARE
ASSAILED. AGRICULTURAL
BILL BUTT OF SARCASM.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-Declaring

WASHINGTON, D. declaring
"the autocratic authorities" created
through the "false economic princi-
pies up on which we are fighting
this whole war" are squandering mil
# dollars in absurd" investi-
gao- S and administration, Senator
Penrose has served notice on the
senate he "has reached the limit of
his patience" and intends in the
future to fight every appropriation
asked of congress for a 'monstrous"
purpose.
The activities of the food and fuel
administrations and of the agricul-
tural department have approached a
public scandal, he said. Senator Pen
rose made the food-production bill
the vehicle for his attacks upon what
he charged to be misuse of funds. "
He opened the filibuster against the
prohibition rider to the bill late last
night, and said he had only begun
his speech when the senate adjourn
ed after he had spoken for an hour.
He cited provisions in the food
production bill and the general agri-
cultural bill, which was vetoed by
President Wilson last night, to show
the absurdity of departmental activ-
tiles in time of war.
Senator Ridicules Houston.
The senate was convulsed with
laughter while the senator sought to
hold up the department of agriculture
to dicule for asking an appropriation
of almost half million dollars with
which to investigate skunks, squir-
rels, coyotes, oysters and cottage
cheese.
81 consider that in the general ag-
ricultural appropriation bill recently
passed and before the president and
his alleged supplement bill for slim
ulating agriculture there is more
waste, criminal waste, of the public
funds than in any measure that has
been pending before the American
congress in one hundred years." he
said
Il have long considered the bill for
the agricultural department approx
mated about as nearly condition of
graft, department graft, as it is pos
sible to approximate without actual
ly involving the participants in legal
proceedings. We only have to exam
inc some of the items to realize their
wastefulness. There is in the two
bills-the amount can easily be es-
timated-a number of millions of dol
lars, | hesitate to say how many,
which, in my opinion, are virtually
being poured into the gutter. Three
hundred and ninety-four thousand
dollars to investigate the habits of
skunks, minks and prairie dogs in the
general agricultural appropriation,
while there is another item to invest
igate oysters.
Eating Oyster Millions of Years.
"Why, Mr. President, men have
been eating oysters for several mil
lion years. We find oyster beds
among the bones and rubbish of
primitive and primeval man. The oys-
ter is the original food of man, to-
gether with fish and other things that
he could reach with his primitive
weapons. Immense bodies of them
occur along our seacoast, and yet in
the midst of this great war crisis the
agricultural department asks for a
considerable appropriation to investi-
gate oysters"
"The bolsheviki in Russia have not
acted as absurdly as the department
of agriculture proposes" Mr.. Pen
rose continued.
eve talk about the troubles of the
bolsheviki and the condition of the
Russian government. l think that
there is nothing more ridiculous in
any proposition pending in the Rus
sian Duma than three-fourths of the
items in this agricultural bill in this
great war crisis, when every dollar
of the taxpayers money, borrowed
or taken from him in taxes, should
be applied to strictly war purposes"
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