Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1901 — Page 7

POLITICS OF THE DAY

The Democratic Opportunity. The growing opportunity for the Democratic party tp become the representative of the business interests of the country was never brighter than it Is at the present day, and every succeeding development Is but a heightening of it. The discussion has not yet recovered from the discjsslon of the loss of $lB,000,001) worth of Russian trade because of the anxiety of the administration to protect the sugar trust against an annual sugar import- of less than $20,000. That $18,000,000 worth of Russian trade, in which millions of people were interested, should be deliberately thrown away upon the demand of a single protected interest must have opened the eyes of the people to the character of our present policy. Bad as was this step we have now reached a second, in which, upon the behest of the Standard Oil trust, the government has raised an inhibition against the importation of Russian petroleum, and the czar, in the protection of his own people, feels called upon to add more restrictions to American trade. Hence we have the spectacle of an administration pledged to a policy of tariff protection upon the theory that it win benefit the growth of American business, deliberately sacrificing that business for the purpose of taking care of special Individual interests. As against the sugar trust the entire business of the country is thrown to the winds. When the Standard Oil Company besieges the White House there is no thought for the enlargement of American commerce, but expansion is forgotMn while American buyers are throttled at the custom house.

These are but two examples along a line that might be continued indefinitely. Instead of a broad policy intended to protect and encourage American business, leaving the result to individual skill and enterprise, we have an adjustable scheme in which favors are given out for favors received and in which there is no thought for the general interest about which so much concern was expressed during the Presidential campaign. The result Is that the Republican party stands before the people manacled and handicapped as the creature of a few interests, whose names appear in the private pocket book of the campaign manager, and the people at large are but creatures to be bled to enrich those who have earned the right to enforce their exactions. While these scandalous disclosures are being made, the demand goes up for tariff revision so that power may be taken away from those who make such iniquitous deals and injustice may cease to be a feature of our tariff laws. The strength of this cry is such that Republican protection organs have become alarmed. They are now crying out for what they call a business revision in the hands of business men. Such a revision would be one placed in the hands of the trust magnates and would probably be even worse than the tariff under which we now suffer. This opens up to the Democratic party the opportunity of becoming the organ of the whole people, those who manufacture and sell as well as those who buy and consume. With such scandals as have been disclosed by the Russian incident there will be no difficulty in rallying the people upon a common sense, progressive platrtirm which will take care of the American people at large Instead of a few favored Interests, as is the case at present.. Every campaign brings about its own questions. These necessarily pass into abeyance before others of more emergent character. The Democratic party has always moved up to the plane of the present occasion. What that plane is to be in HMM is already evident. It is to be the people against the extortion of the protected interests, the people against unjust taxation, the people against a tariff law framed in the interests of special favorites and which disregards the true growth of the country.- Atlanta Constitution. A Disgrace to Civilizat'on. Only the other <My the British authorities, confronted with necessity, admitted that the British army In South Africa had burned houses and pillaged homes, and attempted a defense which only served to emphasize their responsibility. For some time—a year, in fact —rumors, unconfirmed and strenuously denied, have reached us concerning the barbarous conditions existent in the refuge camps of South Africa. A few months ago Miss Hobhouse, representing a charitable organization of England, went to the scene of reported horrors to minister to the comfort of the South African women and children. The report which she has sent home Is the most damning evidence yet adduced to establish the savagery and brutality of the British authorities. She paints a horrible picture of weak and helpless women and children exposed by night and day to the burning rays of the sun and the beating of the rain, forced to partake of scanty food before the filthiness of which the stomach revolts, deprived of soap and water and condemned to sickly chloretlc conditions, and practically ignored in sickness. Children are slowly starved for .want of suitable sustenance, and disease and death hovers constantly over the foul-smelling pens where women In the most dellcat# condition are subjected to indignities and cruelties that

would touch the heart of a savage Miss Hobhouse recites several pathetic instances of where mothers, separated from their husbands, were compelled to see their children perish one by one from literal starvation and hear protestations without receiving a word of sympathy from the uniformed brutes who swaggered and swore as they stood sentinel over them. The London Daily News passionately denounces the dishonorable policy of the war administration, and adds: “We defy any man to read Miss Hobhouse’s simple compilation without a feeling of burning indignation and shame at the deeds done and the sufferings inflicted on women and children under the protection of the British flag, and with the countenance and approval of British statesmen and ottictals. Hitherto our people at home hate been ignorant of what was being done In their name. Information was strictly withheld. Fallacious answers were returned to questions asked in the House of Commons, and on every hand there was a conspiracy of deceit and evasion carefully calculated to prevent the facts from being known.” The American people have not yet forgotten the floating prisons of our Revolutionary war when American patriots were slowly murdered, smothered and starved. The American people were humane and courageous enough to protest against the horrors of Weylerism when practiced upon legal subjects under the Spanish flag. Is there any real reason why the civilized world should remain silent and Inactive while savagery equally heartless and inhuman strikes '.t the women and children of South Africa? It would seem that the British soldiery, unable without tremendous odds to hold their own with the farmers of the veldt, decided to soothe their wounded pride by cowardly attacks upon penned-up women and children. No more shameful procedure has been discovered in the annals of modern war. It is a disgrace to civilization.—lndianapolis Sentinel. The Ohio Campaign. All factions of the Democratic party were represented in the State Convention of the Ohio Democracy, which met recently at Columbus and nominated Col. James Kilbourne for Governor. Mayor Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland, showed that he is a power in Ohio politics by securing the incorporation in the platform of “planks” relating to the taxation of corporations, including steam and electric railroads, and also in respect to home rule in municipal affairs. It has long been alleged In Ohio that corporations in that State escape taxation, thus increasing the burden of owners of real estate. The platform adopted provides that “steam and electric railroads and other corporations possessing public franchises shall be assessed in the same proportion to their salable value as are farms and city real estate.” This year the Democrats of Ohio intend to make their tight largely on State issues. The platform is, therefore, notable for its failure to reaffirm the last national platform of the party. It contains no allusion to the Presidential nominee of the National Democracy last year, but touches upon several subjects of national interest, including trusts and the tariff. In 1899 the Republican candidate for Governor, was elected, although he received about 00,000 votes less than the combined votes of the Democratic candidate and the Social-ist-Labor candidate “Golden Rulo Jones,” the Mayor of Toledo. In 1900 the Republicans elected their candidate for Secretary of State by an overwhelming majority. The Democrats of Ohio are always ready for a fight, regardless of the odds against them.— Baltimore Sun.

If the attempt of some of the protected interests to force Secretary Gage out of the Cabinet should prove successful the Chicago statesman would have the best of reasons for resuming bls place among the tariff reformers of the West who used to regard him with much favor as one of their ablest leaders. Possibly it was his experience as a free trader which made him yield so quickly to the demands of the sugar and petroleum trusts In the matter of Imports from Russia. He took It for granted that they were to have what they wanted, and he never thought of the other Interests that would suffer. This is what comes of letting a reformed free trader run a protectionist treasury department. Here is an Interesting question for the imperialists: Had George Washington been captured by Major Andre and Benedict Arnold, what would have become of the cause of freedom? McKinley’s triumph of the Filipinos Is Just as damnable as the triumph of George 111. over his colonists would have been one hundred and twenty-five years ago. We have no more business to set up our authority In the Philippines than the Chinese have a right to declare Chinese sovereignty over the United States. In 1800 there were In the world less than fifty ship building yards. To-day there are more than 700 shipbuilding yards, turning out a total of 1,000 vessels yearly. Rashness Is the characteristic of ardent youth, and prudence that of mellowed age.—Cicero.

TRAIN IS HELD UP.

Robbers Make Bold At'empt 30 Miles from Chicago. BLOW UP ONE COACH. Force Crew to Cut Mail Cars Loose and Run Them Up the Track Four Muikel Men Stop Chicago Express, Terrorize Passengers with Bullet., and Blow Up Bagg ge Car — Failing to Find Treasure Box, They Disappear - Engineer and Fireman Are Compelled, at the Point of Bcvolvers, to Assist the De peradoes* hour masked men held up the New York and Chicago express train on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Calumet Heights, near Chi-ago, at 8 o’clock \\ ednesday night. '1 hey secured no cash. 1 hey blew open one of the baggage cars, thinking it the express car, terrorized the trainmen and passengers by shooting, and escaped in the scrub oak to the west, going toward Tracy. Ind. A reward of $5tK) has been offered by the superintendent of the road for any information that will lead to the arrest of the bandits. The express car which the robbers intended to raid contained a SSO,OUU shipment to Chicago banks. The attempt at train robbery is one of the boldest on record. There is little doubt it would have been successful had there been a safe in the baggage car, as the robbers expected. The train was brought to a stop by the swinging of a red light across the tracks. It was in a lonely place with open prairie studded here and there with scrub oak. None of the trainmen made any resistance to the robbers, the shooting kept up by the bandits effectually preventing them making a tight or following the men.

Dynamite Used. As soon as the train came to a standstill two of the robbers mounted the engine, and placing revolvers at Engineer J- IV. Collins' and Fireman F. 8. Deveny’s heads, told them to get down and waste no time. The robbers fol owed, and while one stood guard over the engineer the other walked the tireman to the rear of the baggage car. which was the second car back of the engine, and compelled him to uncouple the two cars from the train. Th< n they returned to the engine, and the engineer was ordered to go ahead about 200 feet. As soon as this was done cne of the robbers produced a bunch of dynamite sticks, and, placing one nt the door of the baggage car, lighted the fuse and told tlie engineer and fireman to stand back. The explosion did not blow* open the door, but loosened it, and the man with the dynamite then lighted another stick and threw it into the car through a wide crack that had be<n made. This explosion blew a big hole in the side of the car and in the floor. The robbers then compelled the engineer tut] fireman to get up into the ear with them, aud a quick search was made for the safe. Kept Up Incessant Firing. All the time the bandits were operating with the baggage car. they kept up a constant firing to keep the crew in subjection, and to compel the passengers to remain inside the coaches. Not finding what they sought, one of the robbers said: hat will we do now?” The other said: “Let's get out of this ' Both leaping to the ground, thev ran to the side of the track, climbed the fence and were lost in the darkness. While this was going on in the front part of the train the other masked bandits were keeping watch over the train standing on the track. They fired frequently, but no one was hurt, the passengers remaining in the coaches, and the crew making no sign. Just before the robbers who were with the engineer quit tlie spot, one of them wrenched the engineer’s watch from the chain. This was all the property that was taken. The dynamited ear was badly wrecked on one side, and the second explnsi. ti threw one wheel off the rail. After'the disappearance of the robbers the crew assisted in getting the car on the track again, ami tlie damaged car was pulled to Chicago. The men left forty-six sticks of dynamite. To insure the stopping of the train, three or four bags of sand and two short rails were placed across the track. The red light seen by the engineer was waved about 300 feet from this obstruction.

IN A NUTSHELL

■ The St. Lonis world's fair may have no midway. Concessions may be scattered instead of being massed in one strc“t. An elevator was destroyed by fire nt Salina, Kan., together with 14,000 bushels of wheat. Loss $10,500, insurant o $9,000. Chicago Board of Trade finds “Corn King” Phillips not guilty of the charge that he “fleeced'’ some of his customers in his big Muy corn deal. Marion Lehr, aged 9 years, n son of C. F. Lehr, an Ice dealer, was drowned in the Missouri river at St. Joseph, Mo., while playing on the river bank. Over half a million dollars has been sluiced at winter dumps, near Nome, Alaska. Near Bristol, Texas, a farmer named Matt Andrews was fatally stabbed by Mnck Earls in a fight. Said that 3,000 threshers have secretly joined a trust in Chicago. It will be extended to other States. Gen. Goines says the Cuban patriots who are talking the loudest arc the ones who never smelled powder. One result of the drought in England is the Duke of Manchester's declaration that he will sow no more oats.

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Henry Clay Evans, who, it is said, is slated for appointment as Comptroller of the Currency in place of Mr. Dawes,

went 1 to the South from Pennsylvania several years ago, and grew quite popular in Tennessee, the State of his adoption. He has a strong political following and his friends have always claimed that he was elected when he ran for Governor, but was counted out. , Mr. Evans has a good war rec-

H. CLAY EVANS.

ord. He is about 57 years old and one of the live, pushing men of Dixie. So well was lie thought of by all classes of persons in Chattanooga that he was twite elected Mayor of that town. In 1890, when he ran for. Congress, he had a strong Democrat for an opponent, but althoiigh-.it was a close race Mr. Evans was elected by 18,(541 votes to his opponent's 18,353. His administration of the pension oilice has brought sharp criticism from people favoring a more liberal policy.

Theodore J. Shaffer, tlie directing head of the mill men in the great steel strike, was formerly a Methodist minister. In

his early years he was employed in the Pennsylvania rolling mills. While thus employed he studied privately and took up alone the study of Latin. Greek, Sanscrit and the modern languages. He worked his way through the Western University of I’ennsyl-

PRESIDENT SHAFFER.

vania and in time entered the Wesleyan Theological Seminary. He became a Methodist minister at Connellsville, Pa., and later at Brownsville, the birthplate of James G. Blaine. Unfortunately he was one of those brilliant men whose physical resources were unable to maintain the drafts made upon them by his versatile mentality, and physician after physician asserted that unless he gave up mental work he would die. Reluctantly he abandoned the ministry at Monongahela City, in 1889, returning to the sheet mills. In 1896 he became president of the Amalgamated Association.

Ogden 11. Fethers, Supreme Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias.

who has been at the head of the investigation of the Endowment Rank of the order, has been conspicuous in Pythian affairs for several years. He is also a prominent citizen of Wisconsin. whi 11 has been his home ever since he settled in Janesville in 1877. Before he came West he was a practicing lawyer in New York. He is an ardent- Pythian, and

O. H. FETHERS.

for more than twenty-one years has been a member of Oriental Lodge. No. 22, of Milwaukee. He was made Supreme Chancellor last year. Princess Hatzfeldt is the adopted daughter of the late Collis P. Huntington. She was married to Prince Francis

Von Hatzfeldt in London. Oct. 28, 1889. The marriage aroused intense interest in the United States. The prince, though tlie bluest of German blood flow e d through his veins, w a s pra-ti aliy without fortune. Upon the death of tlie railroad magnate it was found that he had bequeathed to Princess Hatzfeldt sl,(K)0,000. The lintz-

feldts are now in frinckss H4Tzfsi.dt. San Francisco, and, it is alleged, will ask for a larger share of the Huntington money.

At Brattleboro, Vt„ Morton Starr Cress.v, n Harvard law student, awakened at 3 n. in. to find himself in the grasp

of a num. He struggled until free, and, snatching a revolver from the bureau, he tired four shots nt his assailant. On lighting his lamp lie was horrified to find that he hnd shot his friend and classmate, Sidney Bristol of Battle Creek, Mich., who had been invited by Cressy to stay over night at the home of Mrs. P. Starr, Creasy's grand-

uourox ». c-K«-Y. mother. Bristol was killed almost instantly. lie lived only long enough to gasp: “You have shot your friend.”

Thia and That.

The Martin & Riedele tannery, Aberdeen, Ohio, burned. Loss SSO,(KM). Philip Dieted h, 80. Nome, Alnskn, is charged with murdering Liuis Borub. Mrs. .Bright and sister-in-law, Carrie, 15, drowned, Philadelphia, while bathing. Carnegie has offered £3,000 to Annan in Dumfrieshire, Scotland, for a library. Carrie Dietermnn, 20, Covington, Ky., burned to death. She stepped on a match, which ignited, the Hames reaching her flimsy white dress. .»

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. Sleep* on Train and Loses a BrideShot Dead by an Enraged MotherFatal Battle in Kokomo—A Woman Driven Crazy by Acid Burn*. Charles Arnold, of Rockport, has retained attorneys to bring an action for $20,000 damages against the Clover Leaf Railroad Company. Arnold and Mrs. William Stillwell, a widow, were betrothed. Two days were occupied by the groom in getting a license and in a vain attempt to reach the home of his intended bride. He told the Clover Leaf conductor that he wanted to get off the train at Melott and then lapsed into a sound sleep. He was carried miles beyond his destination. Meanwhile the angry bride canceled the engagement by wire. Arnold holds the railroad company responsible for his failure to secure a wife. Killed by Enrage! Mother. William Gray, a contractor and builder, was shot and instantly killed by Mrs. Mark Frieze at the Red mills, ten miles northwest of Shelbyville. Mrs. Frieze, in company with her husband, drove from Franklin, where she resides, to the place where Mr. Gray was working. She whipped out a revolver and fired, the ball taking effect in bis right side and passing through his heart. He struggled, stepped two steps and fell, when she placed the revolver near his head and shot him through the neck. Gray had been keeping company with Mrs. Frieze's daughter, but unexpectedly married another girl, which enraged Mrs. Frieze. She and her husband are in jail and refuse to talk about the crime. Fatal Affray in Kokomo. - Ex-Councilman Jerry McCool was shot by Edward Van Hart, a bartender, in Kokomo. Hart’s wife and McCool's wife had quarreled. The men took it up in McCool's yard, McCool striking Van Jlart with a fence picket and Van Hart s.hooting McCool through the right lung. The latter will die and Van Hart has surrendered.

Jilted Lover's Cruel Deed. Peter Tillbury, an ironworker, called at the home of Kate Phinney, in Muncie, and threw the contents of a small bottle filled with carbolic acid into the face of Mrs. Mary Torrey, a guest, burning out the woman’s eyes and burning her neck, breast and arms frightfully. The man has pleaded with the woman to marry him for years. She is now a raving maniac. Excursion Beat Sinks in Lake. The steamer Ethel, on Webster Lake, twelve miles north of Washington, struck a sunken log at midnight, and in two minutes the boat sank from sight. Twen-ty-nine excursionists were rescued, some of them iu an unconscious state. The boat sank in forty feet of water. State News in Brief. A snake with sixteen rattles has been found near Martinsville. Mrs. Carrie E. Hanliu, Marion, killed herself with laudanum. William Babcock, Porter County farmer, was killed in a mowing machine. Erasmus Calahan. 40, near Brownstown, blew out his brains with a pistol. He had been ill. The body of suicide Frank Eggert was found in the woods near Laporte, partly devoured by hogs. Layrnon & Co., wholesale grocers, assigned at Kokomo, with liabilities of $12,000, and assets of $3,000. Indiana lodges of the Amalgamated Association. iron and. steel workers, will raise a fund to help the strikers. David Jones, well-known Blackford County farmer, died from blood poisoning after being kicked by a horse. Jennie Clark, aged 18, of Lawrence,' jumped from a train which was carrying her beyond her home and was killed. William M. Young. 35, Columbus, was found dead back of a grocery store at Anderson. An epileptic attack is supposed cause. Ralph Gillispie, 9. sou of James Gillispie, Anderson grocer, was thrown from his father's delivery wagon and his skull fractured.

The postoflice at Mier has finally been (dosed. Postmaster A. 1,. Fox has been trying to resign for the past twenty years. He got It! cents a day. The body of Edmund Frank, who was waylaid, robbed and thrown into the Mississippi river at Memphis, has been returned home to Petersburg. Charles Dolan. Elkhart brakeman, was injured in a Lake Shore wreck at Laporte which piled up several cars in the yards. A bursting air hose did it. Maurice Si hufhnuser and his wife, living near Indianapolis, were shot by Herman Sickinger, whom they had sent to jail for abducting their daughter. William Shirley of Edwardsville stabbed his sweetheart, Miss Florence McCulloch. and then inflicted a fatal cut in his throat. The girl is dangerously injured. Farmers around Barber's mills have perfected a trust in handling grain and live stock. Farmers claim the middlemen have exacted large protits, and propose to take up transactions direct with city dealers. Nearly all the farmers in Rock Creek township have signed the agreement. Negotiations for rates on grain and stock for one year have been taken up with the Lake Erie and Western, Erie and Clover Leaf roads, and the line making the lowest bid will get the business. The highest net prices on track in Wells County will be asked of eastern elevator and stock men. varying with the quotations in eastern markets, and farmers in the association will ship to contracting dealers direct. While thermometers at Terre Tauto registered MM) degrees, Mrs. Eliaa aged 52, became deranged by the heat nnd committed suicide by taking poison. Mary Blume, 8, burned to death while hlone in the house at Goshen. Her fu.her was seriously burned in attempting to rescue her. It is not known how she ignited her clothing. Rev. Marion Gause, a former pastor of the Friends' Church at Stillwell and who was believed to have efided his life in Kan Francisco fully a year ago. has been found in Honolulu, where he is preaching.

WASHINGTON GIOSSIP

Instead of falling off $3,300,000 a month, as was figured would be the Result of the reduction of the war taxes, the receipts for the first month of the fiscal year will be a million dollars more than the corresponding month last year. Tlie first twenty-five days show an increase of $749,924.(52 over the receipts for the corresponding period of 1900. In other words, the receipts for the month of July will be nearly four million dollars in excess of the estimates. Each day has shown its increase. For example, tho receipts on July 25 a year ago were $913,481.93; for the 25th of the month this year they were $980,092.89. The internal revenue receipts of the month, as shown by the statement compiled July 26, were $23,079,723.71. The receipts for the same period last year were $22,329,799.09. Secretary Gage has looked at these figures and been puzzled by them. Even allowing for a certain falling off, which is regarded as inevitable, it begins to look as if there must be a vastly increased sale of the articles which are the revenue producers. Secretary Gage says it is earty yet, and there may be some temporary condition not apparent on the face which is responsible for the stimulation of revenue. He is not willing to admit that hi 4 estimate of $40,000,000 reduction is $40,000,000 out of the way. He will not admit it on the basis of a twentyfive days’ showing at any rate. The customs receipts for the first twenty-five days of this fiscal year are greater than last year by nearly a million dollars. The month's receipts were $17,303,966.01; for the same period last year, 216.097,(511.16. There is always a deficit at this time of the year. Last year the total expenditures were $43,555,009. The war expenditures are the largest item—sl4,l3o,ooo. Pensions cost this year $10,335,000. The civil and miscellaneous are only $11,360,000.

It is believed by those who have been keeping in close touch with the arrangements for the court of inquiry in the Schley case that a series •vs sensations will result as the outcome of the investigation. The precept that was issued is considered by the unprejudiced as a bill of indictment found by the Navy Department against Admiral Schley. It is understood pretty generally that jealousy is rampant in the navy. While it is firmly believed that Admiral Schley will be given the hot end of the hearing, notwithstanding the precautions that Secretary Long will throw about the inquiry, there is an undercurrent of opinion that the admiral realizes this, and in view of his speedy retirement from the navy purposes to open up to public gaze all the ins and outs of tho naval management m times of peace and war, at home as well as abroad. If there is any truth in the stories of jealousies and improper striving for official preferment that have been bruited about for years past in a more or less aggravated form, it is believed they will be presented by Admiral Schley and his counsel at the court of inquiry in such a manner as will gravely accentuate the fact that’ has heretofore been intangible gossip.

Up to date something like $4,000,000 have been withdrawn from New Y'ork and sent West to move crops. The withdrawals have been as follows: To New Orleans. $2,235,000; to Chicago. $1.3(M),(MM); to Cincinnati, $100,000; to St. Louis, $225,000. The money has been mostly in currency of small denominations—s2o notes and under. The money sent West thus far is about $700,000 more ’.han was withdrawn nt the same period in 1!MM). Despite the increase in the withdrawal, the Treasury officials have no fear of ill consequences on the New Y'ork money markets, such as occurred last year. It will be recolfected that money was then taken out of New Y'ork at such a rate as to create almost a panic in Wall street. Nothing of this sort is anticipated now, however, the department having an ample supply of money on hand to meet the demands.

It is estimated that the cost of the Sampson-Schley court of inquiry will l>e about $25,000. This estimate is based on what Navy Department officials have now in sight, but making allowance for an examination of probably a third more witnesses than are now contemplated the expenses would perhaps be $35,000 or $40,000. Secretary Long and Captain Cowles. Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, expressed the opinion that the inquiry would not be an expensive affair. The opinion of a very high naval official is that not more than a month will be required to thoroughly investigate all the poinfs in issue. Two months, however, would not be too large a margin considering that many new issues may be sprung. Secretary Long has issued imperative orders prohibiting naval officers publicly discussing the Sampson-Schley controversy. It is the purpose of the Secretary to keep the case out of the newspapers as much as possible until the court of inquiry meets. In Washington there is not much danger of the service being demoralized by the conflicting claims, as nearly all officers about the Navy Department are partisans of Admiral Snmpsou, and can see only his side. Nevertheless, the Secretary has decided that there has already been too much talking, despite nn old order which prohibits officers discussing matters pertaining to the personnel of the navy without first obtaining permission from the department On account of timber land frauds discovered in Montana and Idaho, Commis sioner Hermann of the general land office has suspended ftll proofs made during the present year under the timber and stone act pending the concluaion of the full investigation and inquiry begun some time ago. This action applies to all stations where government timber land is purchased and involves thousands of cases. Many of the large companies and speculators, who, it is alleged, have had *'dumm.ies" as agents, make purchases of these lands from the government.