Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1888 — THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. [ARTICLE]

THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.

The great event at the national capital on Monday was the decision by the Supreme Court of the telephone cases, which has been so long in coming and has been the source of much anxiety, controversy, and speculation. The number of people directly interested in this decision, including the stockholders in the various corporations involved, says a Washington special, was probably greater than in any case that has been decided for many years, as the value of the entire telephone interest, reaching almost every town of size in the world, was affected. The Bell patents were sustained, however, as was expected by almost everybody but the attorneys and stockholders in the rival companies, in fact, it was a fight of all the other companies combined against the Bell. The crowd in the court-room was unusually large, and the opinion, written and read by Justice Blatchford, although the longest that has been presented to the court for years, and occupying nearly an hour and three-quarters in the reading, was listened to with the greatest attention. This decision settles the entire controversy. While it does not prove, as Justice Blatchford said, that Bell was the original discoverer of the fact that articulate sounds may be transmitted over a wire, it establishes the fact that he was the first to adapt the discovery to the wants of his fellow-men, and is entitled to the full value of the invention. One hundred and twenty-one of the Lest lawyers in the United States have been engaged in this litigation, including Senator Edmunds. ex-Senator Conkling, Postmaster General Dickinson, Robert G. Ingersoll, and many .others almost as famous, aud it is estimated that several million dollars have been expended in counsel fees and other court expenses. The Bell monopoly will now have its own way, and the stock of that company, which has fluctuated widely on account of the constant litigation, will have a fixed value until the expiration of the patent. Justice Gray did not sit in the case for the reason that different members of his family hold a large interest in the Bell Company, and Justice Lamar because he did not hear the argument. The decision was prepared byChiet Justice Waite, but was read by Justice Blatchford, owing to the former’s indisposition.

During a storm at Washington lightning struck the Capitol, the flash being especially vivid In the Senate Chamber. All the occupants of the Supreme Court-room—Justices, lawyers, and auditors —jumped to their feet, but quickly subsided. In the House wing balls of blue fire were noticed playing about the corridor, and some members thought the roof was about to tumble. A horse outside was knocked down, and an engineer in the basement was prostrated. A bill is to-be reported by the House Committee on Revision of the Laws, at Washington, providing for an amendment to the Constitution whereby Senators will be elected by a direct popular vote instead of by the Legislatures. A member of the committee is quoted as saying: We have agreed upon this report only after a careful and painstaking investigation of the whole question. We believe the change is demanded by tne people. If adopted it will add much to the representative character of t-ena-tors, and will do much to relieve the odium under which tne senate has long rested on account of the disreputable methods alleged to have been used in many instances to influence Legislatures. A proposition is also pending in the committee for a Second Vice President, but th s does not seem to be in response to any popular demand.