Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1907 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and Oeneral Gossip of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat. Stock market and railroad crises are so inextrioably tangled up that it is hard to discuss one without touching on the other. The recent flurry in Wail Street came just at the time when the railroads were complaining they were being most unfairly treated by the state and general government, and the railroad explanation of the occurrence naturally is that the panic was precipitated by persistent maligning. There is another side to the situation, bowever, and that is that the whole drop in securities was a carefully planned coup on the part of the big manipulators who knew that they could buy back at an immense profit the stocks whose paper value they so ruthlessly slaughtered.

Of course the situation was represented to the White House as serious the first day of the flurry. But the President denominated it as a gambler’s panic and took no more interest in it. Still there was an urgent demand for money from New York and to save a good many innocent persons, Secretary Cortelyou opened the Treasury department and “relieved the situation” as has been done so many times before by buying bonds and releasing banks from their obligations to retire so much currency monthly.

Now the crisis is over there is considerable speculation as to what the railroads are going to do. Especially is it wondered whether the railroad presidents who were to have come to the White House to see the President will persist in that intention. Already one of them, Mr. McCrea of the Pennsylvania, has announced that he will not come without a special iuvitation, and as he of course will not get that, it looks as though the whole scheme of the visit would fall through. Whether the officials come to Washington or whether they do not, there is certain to be considerable additional railroad legislation at the next session of Cougress, and before the magnates get through, they probably will wish they had taken counsel with the President when they had a good chance. t t t

Oue of the most important moves on the part of the government recently was that of the consular examination held here this week. There were fifteen or twenty men, mostly young men, who took the examination. The decisions have not been published and will not be for some time, but it marks the beginning of real reform iu the consular service when the best man will get the job. And the possibilities of foreign trade for this country are so immense and heretofore have been so neglected, that anythiug looking to improvement in this line is to be welcomed.

The applicants were appointed to take the examination very much as the cadets are appointed for examination at West Point or Annapolis. One of the first qualifications of a candidate was a good working knowledge of French, German, Spanish or Russian. A section of the examination was devoted to language, and beside this were a series of examinations on commercial resources of the United States, trade and banking laws of foreign countries, international law and political economy, and a few similar things. Onecau imagine an examination of that sort being put to many of the political henchmen, retired school teachers and ministers and other derelicts, with whom the service has been loaded in past years. But the inovation has been made, and the appointments will follow in due time on a strictly competitive basis. t t t Speaking of the consular service and foreign trade calls to mind a lecture that O. P. Austin, chief of the Bureau of Statistics delivered in Washington this week. It was on the same line of foreign trade aud contained a good many truths that were so old and so patent that it would seem needless to impress them on wide awake American manufacturers except for the fact that they have been hammered at in government reports for years past and seem to make absolutely no impression. Mr. Austin pointed out that the possibilities of trade between this country and the Far East were almost limitless. Of the clothing and household utensils that were imported into the Oriental countries, he said that 90 percent came from Europe, and only one per cent from the United States. In explanation, he said that the trouble was that too many American manufactur- ' era relied on foreign agents who

would rather push the goods of their own country than of the United States But he said that an equally serious error on the part of American manufacturers was that they tried to educate foreigners, especially Orientals, up to using stock goods of American manufacturers rather than to cater to the trade as they found it. For instance, if a certain pattern of cotton or cloth goods made a hit with the people of the Malay Archipelago, the agents of the French, English and German firms on the ground would hurry samples home to their own houses and immediately goods would be manufactured to suit the market and would be forthcoming in quantities. But with the American houses it was different. They wanted the natives to accept the latest New York styles whether it was in dress goods or rat traps, and they lost trade while they were trying to educate the natives into using something they did not want. This is an old story with government officials who have had to deal with American foreign trade relations. But it is a lesson that American manufacturers seem woefully slow to learn, and until they do learn it the foreign trade of the country is bound to lag far behind that of other nations. f t t Representative elect Hobson made a speech to the Navy League here this week that gives a very good idea of one of the forms of legislation he will try to push when he gets into the House of Representatives. He said that he was first of all a man of peace and was the last oue to wish this country to indulge in a foreign brawl. But he pointed out the immense commerce and foreign interests of this country and said the safest and cheapest peace insurance we could have was a navy that could meet any two navies likely to be sent against us. He said frankly he was in favor of a big naval program, and that he looked on it as an investment and one of the best investments that could possibly be made in the interests oi international peace.