Republican farmer., 1919-11-07
COMMISSION ID
 CONTINUE ITS
 INVESTIGATIONS
Packing Establishments His tory One of Contempt
 For Law.

Washington, D. C.-IThe Federal Trade Commission has informed the Senate that the total cost Of publish ing statements as to Senator James E. Watson of Indiana and his alleged interest in the Big Meat packers waa taken from the funds Of the Commis- sion. The total cost was s2.35. With the information handed to the Sen ate, 1t Is taken for granted that no effort will be made to pursue this lin. of attack on the Commission. The Commission, however will not hesitate in its investigs ton of the packers. The Commission, according to Chairman CoIver, is charged by law with seeing that an American business concern shall be assured the right in peace to pursue that hap piness which accompanies a good conscience and 8 lively sense of equi- table and fair dealing. It has sought to discharge that obligation faithfully and honestly, he says.
 "In doing so, the Commission haq run afoul of a group of great busi- ness concerns whose business theories and practices we have had to ques- tion,'' he says. These are the five big Chicago meat packers. They have retaiated. They have spent millions of dollars in advertising.
 These men have charged the Com mission with conspiracy and what amounts to treason. The charge made by Senator Sherman of Illinois has been answered and proof has been challenged. Instead Of proof weN get new charges. Employees of the Com- mission are charged with sedition and bolshevisnn.
 q have challenged them to prove their charges I challenge them again I dare them to come forward with their proof.
 '"This is not new. Go to a public library and get the bound files of any newspaper covering May and June of 1906 and you will find these very charges, these very phrases-about socialism and anarchy (the typical ats--> charges-and destruction of ex- port tradc-an applied to the then president of the United States, The odore Roosevelt. His fault was that he was urging the passage of neat inspection law to keep unfit meat off the tables of the people Roosevelt won and on June 30, when the fight reached it's climax, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge arose in the United States Senate and said:
 "'What has been the history of that group of men who run these
 
 a history of utter defiance of law and of public opinion. But I say and I say it in all seriousness, that thosa packers in Chicago have done more to advance socialism and anarchisrn and unrest and agitation than all the socialistic agitators who stand today between the oceans
 In connection with this statement, Chairman Colver reviewed the acti- vities of the Trade Commission to disprove the assertions of Senator watson's personal defender. Senator Penrose of Pennsylvania. Penrose, in defending Watson, insisted the Com mission had been the subject of gen. =ral attack from aln1e everyone and had been attacked in almost every kind of profane language. Penrose's statement, if conceded to have been rue, would have put the commission n a very poor light. and Colver's re- fly therefore, could not have been ther than reply to both Watson 11 Penrose.
 The Commission has had 1453 complaints brought against business --lrrls throughout the country he said.