The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-09-05
WILL MODIFY
THE FOOD BILLS
q fet~et-----
s~.1s-f
Congress Is Not SO Fierce
Against Packers as It
Was Few Months. Ago i
WILL NOT TAKE
REFRIGERATOR CARS
MOI, Will Government Take Over Re
factory CONCENTRATING Corpora
lions Have Conducted Expensive
Campaign in Washington.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5.-Congress was
all set six months ago to pass legislation
placing the great meat packers of the
country under rigid government regula-
ton. Since then sentiment has been
changing gradually until today neither
house sis1lnchned TO enact legislation max
ing radical changes in the affairs of what
are commonly known as the big Five.
1t is believed on Capitol Hill that legis-
lation OF some kind is needed, but at the
same time there seems to be agreement
that neither the keudric1 nor the. Ken
yon bill should be passed in their pres
| ent form. Weeks of hearings which the
senate committee ON agriculture has held
| on these measures have made possible the
! prediction that the committee will draft
| a bill of its own eventually 1t may be
intimated, furthermore, that the commit
| tees bill probably will differ from the
| Kenyon and Kendrick bills in two i'm
portant respects, namely, that it will not
compel the packers to give up control OF
refrigerator cars and will not give feder-
al courts the power to appoint receivers
to manage packing corporations which fail
to live up to the terms and regulations
| laid down under the proposed government
| licensing system
Washington does not seem to be so
| much interested in the fact that senti-
ment has changed as 1t is in what brought
about the change. Summed up, it seems
that those opposed to the bills have waged
the most intensive campaign the capitol
has witnessed since the days Immediately
Il prior to the war, when congress was liter
ally bombarded by German-American or
carnations. Persons who have studied
the campaign III all of its intricacIes aver
that but for the intense interest in the
contest over the peace treaty and the
league of nations the country would have
been plastered with information regard.
ing the fight for and against government
control of the Big Five" As it is, the
people knew very little about how the
| corporations interested have opened then
purses In what is SAID 70 be the NEST ex
: pensive campaign that has been waged il
: recent years; how the representatives %
t one great section of the nations have
been lined up almost to a man against The
proposed legislation, and how, among 9th
er things the enmity of years standing
between the Independent packers and the
so-called combine has been apparently
patched up All and ALL the story, as tolC
wherever senators and congressman gath
er in Washington, is most interesting
: The extensive propaganda wagcd by tn,
packers has been factor 1t has takeI
the form of advertising publicity agents
telegrams, letters, petitions and every con
ceivable sort of way of convincing con
gress that the public does not want tn
Kenyon bill The handspring of the prop
: uganda apparently has been through
banks and banking connections cit.
bank writing to the country bank etc
down the line Senator Capper of kansa
y received 26 letters from country banker
all against the bill, in three days las
: week 1he bankers reach the bushes
men and then the farmers and even. som
! of the cattle raisers. Where cattleme
- six months ago Were demanding the legis
= ation, the packers are showing now tina
:" they are divided. Cattlemen opposing tn
= bill before the committee express the fea
- it will disturb cattle prices and injur
the industry. National farm organIza
tons on the other hand, are a unit in d,
manding the legislation and say it wi
D. benefit the farmer. Labor elements ais
are behind the bill
E. Apart from the direct packer night
the suspicion and mistrust in congress
any government regulation and guldr
d of business. The experience OF the go'
st eminent with the railroads and the tel
De phone and the telegraph has sickened col
i'll gress of government regulation. The o.
t. moments Of the bill have played on tn
IS feeling both in congress and before tt
n Country They have dangled the preseI
al railroad disaster before the eyes of CO.
o. gress and have asked: do you want
take another big business and wreck it,