Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1907 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Ooaalp of the National Capital. Special Correapendence to The Democrat. For lack of something definite in the way of a statement from the" White House on the railroad situation, it is rather interesting to note the remarks of one of the members of the . interstate Commerce Commission who was present at the conference at the White House last week. Of ’course everyone has been waiting to see whether the President would make any additional stateament as to bis views and position, the manipulators of stocks in Wall Street thinking that a soothing statement from him would have a beneficial effect on the paper valuation of railroads. But the President has been keeping remarkably quiet, for him, and the best that can be done is to draw inferences from remarks of people who have talked with him as to; whether or not his attitude on the railroad question has changed at all. The inference from the remarks referred to would be that his attitude has not changed.

One of the Commissioners who was invited to dine at the White House in company with several of the other commissioners, Marvin Hhgbitt, the Commissioner of Labor and several of the Cabinet, was talking next day on the general railroad situation. He reviewed the case disclosed by the Hr.rriman-Alton investigation where it was shown that the road had simply been ripped open and looted like a bank vault. He said that while this possibly was beyond the present reach of the penal code, it was morally as close to grand larceny as one could come and keep out of jail. He instanced a number of other cases of high financial juggling that while possibly not indicatable were ethically as vicious as could be. In conclusion be said: “If the law as it stands cannot touch the men who do this sort of thing, then the laws will have to be amended so that they can be reached. There is no difference to my mind between the man who dishonestly “acquires” a million dollars and the man who outright steals a hundred. Society is waking up to the fact thattbetwo performances are on exactly the same footing and society will see to it that not only is the high financial highwayman ostracised but that the laws ore framed, so that he can be convicted and given a jail sentence.” Of course this official was not talking for publication, at least not for quotation by name. But he was a man who had just come from a conference with the President on the particular subject under discussion, and it seemed a natural inference that the views he expressed coincided in a general way with those of bis chief. If this is the case, it means simply what the President has said before, that honest railroads or honest corporations of any other sort have nothing to fear from the administration, but that the railroads must be run honestly as real public service corporations, and if more laws are needed to have them so run, the laws will be enacted, Looks rather as though there might be more railroad legislation at the next session.

Figures are published by the Census Office showing that the population of the United States is increasing steadily and enormously and that it is now nesting the 100,000,000 mark. The enumerated and estimated population for the continental United States for 1906 is given as 83,941,510, and for the continent and the insular possession, including Alaska, the enormous figure of 93,182,240. There has been a general increase in density of population from 26 to the square mile to 28, and the population of the cities has increased much more rapidly than that of the country. The general increase of population since 1900 was only 8.8 per cent, but the increase of the urban population, namely that of all the incorporated towns, was 15.9 per cent. And this increase was still more marked in the larger cities, the increase in cities over 50,000 in population being 16.3 per cent.

Seeing that they have not gotten their increase of salaries, the government clerks of Washington are trying to enlarge their income by reducing their expenses. They are going in for a co-operative store where they think they will pe able to save money, This is a significant move. The price of all sorts of necessaries has been going up rapidly in Washington, more so perhaps in the last five years than in any other city of the country. The government employees in Washington number 23,000, quite a large proportion of

the population, and if they succeed in their co-operative scheme, it will be a great object lesson to the rest of the country. They propose to open a store for groceries and provisions and to enlarge it al occasion demands and opportunity offers. They wish to distribute the stock in small sized shares among all the government employees of the city. Anyone will be allowed to trade at the store, but it will be run for the benefit of the clerks. It will not sell any cheaper than the average of Washington' prices, but a record will be made of what each government employee buys and after deducting a certain amount of the profits for running expenses and enlargement of the plant, the remainder will be divided among the clerks in proportion to their purchases. This distribution of profit will take place quarterly and will amount to the same thing as though the clerks got their provisions considerably under the market rate. The co-operative stores have been run abroad, especially in England, for many years and have proved an immense success. But whether they are suited to the genius of the American people remains to be seen.

Records of American trade with the Orient have been compiled by the Bureau of of the Department of Commerce and Labor. They show that this country has been picking up decidedly in the trade of the Far East in the last year. The commerce with Japan and China fell off alarmingly in 1906 owing largely to the boycott in China and the cessation of the war between Russia and Japan. In fact exports to Japan for the year 1906 showed a drop of 121,000,000 and those to China of 328,500,000. But nearly all of this lost ground has been recovered and advices to the State Department say that the Chinese boycott has been officially called off. But this announcement has been made officially before, so it may be well not to put too much faith in it.