Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-23
"INSIDIOUS INFLUENCES"
AGAIN BOB Up AT WASHINGTON
Astonishing Revelations Of q Corporation
Kept Man Sitting in Hoover.Hurley
Conferences Abroad Call for

to the public on May 26, 1918. called
attention to the existence of Il corpora
tion maintained lobby in Washington
with II vehemence that effectively rallied
public opinion against these "insidious
influences" and squelched the "extraor-
dinary eXertions" of the agents for the
time being. If the President were in
Washington today it is easy to guess
what would be his attitude toward the
amazing revelations before the Senate
Agriculture Committee. showing that a
scclet agent of meat packing, oil and
other corporations, who for years has
posed as newspaper correspondent,
had actually been taken abroad to par
tcipate in the important conferences Of
Chairman Hurley, Of the Shipping Board,
and Food Commissioner Hoover. With
out doubt, we venture to believe, Mr..
Wilson would demand an explanation
which would disregard sensibilities and
personal relations and get at the bottom
of as nasty scandal as ever cropped up
in the national capital.
So far as concerns this particular kept
man of the corporations himself, little
need be said. That he was able to collect
regular monthly salaries amounting to
s27O0 from six different great corpora
tions. while the newspaper which allowed
him to remain at the head of its Wash
ington bureau assessed his value at $50
a week, affords the measure of his rela-
tive usefulness. No doubt he earned his
pieces of silver better in what he did for
the secret employers than for his news
paper.
But the serious part of his confession
is the extent to which it involves Chair
man Hurley. who. he declares, was fully
aware of his secret connections when he
took him abroad last November to assist
in the work of arranging and feeding the
starving peoples of the war-torn coun-
tries for whom President Wilson has
asked an appropriation of one hundred
million dollars.
What will Chairman hurley say to
this?
If Chairman Hurley had wanted repre-
sentatives of the packing. oil or other
large interests to attend his conferences
with Mr.. Hoover in Europe in order to
facilitate the purchase and shipment Of
supplies, he could have arranged to take
them openly and nobody would have felt
,fmpelled to complain. 1t would have
been merely business proposition,
These corporations must furnish the sup
plies since they are controlling factors in
the market.
But why should this paid informer
have been selected as an assistant to do
what he admits was largely clerical work
because he had made study of shipping
from information colated in the archives
of the Shipping Board when any ordi-
narily intelligent clerk could have served
just as well?
And why, if he did not go to serve the
interests of his secret employers, did
they continue to pay his eXorbitant
monthly retainers during the many
weeks he was away from Washington :?
Big business is not in the habit of
squanderng princely salaries in such a
fashion without adequate return. There
must have been quid pro quo or else
plckngs are easier in Washington in
these days of tremendous expenditures
Of the taxpayers money than the eff
clency experts who seek to prove how
economically great industries are oper-
a. cd would nave uS believe
The purpose Of the senatorial investj-
cation which brought to light the facts
may bo TO prevent the passage Of the
$lOO.OOO,OCU appropriation. But it should
not The Justice Of the President :
appea j. a thing apart from such
shiny contacts Mr.. Wilson assumes
the responsibility for it's proper expendi-
,ure and nobody will believe that it has
the slightest suspicion attaching 20 il 50
far As he l. concerned Indeed. It may
ne as well To have these facts revealed
now 80 that the President will have his
attention directed to the possibilities of
m application and take prompt meas.
ures 70 checkmate them. But there
should be no attempt at hushing up the
scandal The President should act and
act without fear of whore the conse-
ouences may do hurt. If Chairman
Hurley was deceived, let this drab lobby
ist be branded with the additional nfamy
Of liar If Chairman Hurley knowing y
committed the folly, MS usefulness TO the
Federal Government is gone. And the
senatorial Investigators would perform
a notable service to the people if they
would make the secret employers explain
in detail what they got for their $27OC
monthly.
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