The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1922-11-29
Honorable Albert

Of Interior. Honorable Albert 3
Fall, Republican,, of New Mexico, the
| present Secretary of that department,
was in the Senate in 1913, and he
said: II have no information as to
the use OF money to maintain a 90
called lobby. 1t is we'll known that
| certai industries have agents here in
Washington and have had when tariff
legislation was pending. ! suppose,
OF course. those agents are paid @
salary and have their expenses paid"
! "Of the Past"-PenrOse
| BY reason of the authority vested
in the President to change and alter
any rate in the Fordney- -McCumber
tariff law, and to apply the American
valuation plan, it is perfectly clear
that no duty upon any article or class
mentioned in the act can be said to
be permanently fixed; therefore, it
may we'll be said that the Fordney-
| McCumber tariff law will remain
pending" during it's life. Thus, it
you'd seem quite natural that the
agents. spoken of by Mr.. Fall will
have quite lot of business III Wash
lngton for many months to come.
senator. Penrose, reactionary Repu-
| pllcan,, now dead, did not say great
| opou" iobbJlliSs IL was l1OC his
! hablt to talk very much about. any
! thing. He could be most optimistic
under very unfavorablc circumstan-
ces. So, when Washington had out
the standing room only" sign for
| lobbyists, he said: GAS far as the
uncertain term lobbyist is concerned,
my own opinion is that the lobbyist is
very largely an incident of the past"
Which is terse and to the point and
requires no explanation, especially
whdn one knew the Penrosian mental
slant.
Returning to the Senate, let us
hear the opinion of. Senator Lodge,
standpat Republican, of Massachu-
setts, who was at that time minority
leader in the Senate. 1t was as fol-
lows: AS to the meaning of the
words lobby and lobbying" of
course the words are very loosely us
cd. think that the word 1obbyiat"
implies person who frequents leg-
| lslativc bodies for the purpose of in
fluencing Legislation.
1T usually, think, in the public
mind, is associated with the .dea of
something improper. 1t may be i'm
proper or it may not" which would
seem to be fair proposition. No
one can dispute that lobbying may be
visitor to Washington can deny that
lobbyists frequent our Legislative
bodies. If they would do nothing
more than merely to frequent" them,
there would be no basis for this story.
hikened to Lawyers
The ,venerabl lie Senator Nelson, plain
Republican, of Minnesota, who told
me-, some months back, that no man
OF his age-74 years--ought to be
member of the United States Senate,
rs the work required Of Senator
these days calls for younger and more
vigorous men, appears to put the Sen
ate IN the class of court room, for
he said: "In reference to the aca-
lcmic question, what is lobby, or a
lobbyist, in Il broad sense anybody
who comes here to advocate or oppose
legislation is Il lobbyist; but in the
more pertinent and legitimate sense,
l think a lobbyist occupies the same
relation to legislation, tariff or any
other legislation, that an attorney
does to lawsuit; that is, that he is
hlred in some way to come and appear
and present that case.
"'As matter of fact, there is lob
bylng going on in matters connected
with al legislation"
1t was left to Senator LaFollcttc.
Progressive Republication, of Wiscon-
SIN, to point out an actual case of
improper lobbying, in which he rccit-
ca that: -Four years ago, | was in
tervicwcd on the subject of hides and
leather, and the interviewer inform
Cd me that he had already engaged a
page OF two of advertising space in
the weekly magazine which publish.
l told him he should get to the telc-
graph Office as quickly as possible
and cancel that contract, and would
probably be in advance of him."
lie then continued, giving his inter-
probation of lobbying, which was as
follows: "The people who are here
in very constant attendance upon the
session are either expcnding a vcry
large amount Of money themselves or
are being maintained here at the cx-
pcnditurc Of goodly sums of money.
ITO my mind, lobbying consists in
influencing Legislation by argument or
otherwise. | think it is as much lob
bylng when those engaged in it's arc
the owners of business, as it is when
made business or profession.
AT the same time, do believe that
many times the very strongest in
fluences that can be brought to bear
upon legislation, and i'm some instan-
ces, the most pernicious influence that
has been brought to bear upon lcgis
lation, either in state legislation or
congressional legislation, has been
cXertcd directly by owners of the bu-
siness.
Lobbyists and Lobbyists"
Senator LaF Toilette, makes clear the
relationship of the owner of the bust
ness or enterprise to the game of lob