Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1906 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. From our Special Correspondent : Senator Aldrich says that there will be three weeks more of debate on the rate bill and that it will then be passed with a rather broad court review provision that will be acceptable to the House. Senator Aldrich is a very good judge of pending legislation and h’e may be right There is a rumor, however, that the Senate is going to put the rate bill into form that will be acceptable to the House for the purpose of holding it up at the last moment till it can get consideration for a ship subsidy bill. This is of course a Senate provision for the House is not in the frame of mind to consider subsidy at this session. Also the Speaker has declared himself against it on several occasions, almost as much against it as he is against tariff revision. But it is said that the friends of subsidy have won the Speaker over to their way of thinking and that his influence will be used to get favorable consideration for the measure. Though it is a question whether even the almost all powerful influence of the Speaker could force a bill of that sort through just at this juncture. However, there is back of that still another story, that is that Uncle Joe figures on posing hs the dark horse of the next nomination convention and while he is not particularly keen about the fate of the rate bill he wants to make friends unto himself of all the White House influence he can muster before the fateful day arrives. t t t

The Keep Commission are a canny lot of boys. They are all of them young, as seasoned politicians ge, and all of them are dose personal friends of the President. He appointed them on this pet commission simply because he knew that they were honest young men and he thinks that any man who is honest and willing can do as many different things and do them well as he can himself. Now Keep, Hitchcock, Pincbot, et al are by no means as versatile as the President, though they are all of them honest, well intentioned young men. But they have shown themselves to be crafty to a degree. Everyone has heard of the famous Keep Commission, but not everyone tjas heard of the sub-committees that are doing the work. The Commission goes into a department that it. wants to investigate and selects a sub-com-mittee from among the bureau chiefs and beads of divisions who already have as much as they can canveniently do, and makes them do the actual work of investigating. This sub-committee then reports to the Commission after it has spent a month or two working after office hours getting up the data, and the Commission puts out the gist of the sub-committee’s report as its findings. Yes, it is a beautiful scheme and it makes the Keep Commission look mighty erudite when one reads its report. But the funniest thing the com-

mission has done yet was its report on the Government Printing Office. Now this office is about as much in need of reform as oouid be well imagined. But the interesting thing was that the Keep Commission printed its report on the need of economy in the most wasteful volume that ever came off the government presses. It selected a folio page* with a quarter wide margin, which as any printer will testify is about as wastefuLa form of composition as could oe devised. The report was on the most expensive brand of government paper, bar only that on which gold certificates are printed, and the binding was in keeping with the rest of the report. There was an edition of 20,000 copies, not six of which will be read, run off. And altogether the report on Economy was itself about the most striking object lesson in the need of economy that has ever come out of the government Printing Office. + t + It is said that a compromise has been reached on the statehood bill. Of course it will not be known just how .nearly correct this is till the bill comes out of conference. But it is said that the conferees will report a bill providing for joint statehood for the four territories involved with the Foraker amendment added, giving the territories of Arizona and New Mexico the right to vote on the adoption of the bill as regards themselves so that a majority against that section of the measure in either of the two territories will be enough to defeat it. This means of course that the House lays down its hand to the Senate so far as the Arizona, New Mexico end of the Hamilton bill is concerned for there is not one chance in ten that the bill could be carried by a referendum vote t t t

A plan of interest to all cotton growing and cotton milling sections of the country has been devised by the Department of Commerce and Labor. It has been decided to push our cotton goods trade in the Orient for all it is worth and to successfully compete in that part of the world, the manufacturer must know what the market requires One cannot sell China the same goods that go in the United States. They have their own patterns and colors and sizes of material. 111 . Europe buys cotton in this country, weaves it into prints and sells it in China, $200,000,000 worth annually, where we sell $30,000,000 But the Department of Commerce and Labor has eent to China and gotten a lot of the standard grades and patterns of cotton and is arranging to send them out in the form of card libraries. There will be a sample of the cloth, a photograph of the pattern and a technical description of the goods. About a hundred sets of eighty different cards each are being prepared and they will .be sent out to all of the milling centers. As therft are not enough to go round they will be returned at the end of a certain time to the department and sent out to fresh towns The sets of cards can be had by chambers of commerce on application. OBITUARY. • Me' a Swaim was born in Jasper county, May 12, 1891, and departed this life on the 29th day of Mar., 1906, at the age of 14 years, 8 months and 17 days. She had lived all of her short life at the place of her birth, and was sick only a few days. She united with the United Brethern in Christ, at the special meetings held at the Aix church in February last. She was a very devoted Christian child. Her beautiful light soon went out? She leaves her loving father, two sisters, two brothers and a large number of loving friends. Funeral services were conducted by Rev. B. F. Ferguson in the church at Aix on Friday, March 30, and interment made in Weston cemetery at Rensselaer. %• For Rent: Small new cottage in the northwest part of town. Enquire of John Schanlaub. Eyes examined free; latest methods; by A. G. Catt, Eyesight Specialist. Graduate refractionist. Permanentlflocated in Rensselaer. Office upstairs in new Murray-Long Block. 160 Acres Free! Walk, Write or Telegraph. In the best spring wheat belt in tbe world, in the clear sunshine where health is improved, Then waste no time; if you cannot come •nd look for yourself, have the locator of government land to file for you. Writ© for particulars. B. F. Gaines & Co. I i Hanley, Assa.