Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1907 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Ooaeip of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat. Thia is not yet the real “silly season,” as summer politics are known in this latitude. But there has just been sprung a political sensation that would do credit t? the weather with the thermometer at one 100 in the shade. It emanates from the inside of the ReSublioan party, and most of the Republican papers seem inclined to take it seriously. Whatever there may or may not be behind it, the mere currency of the story shows the deep rooted distrust that the Republican leaders have of each other and the strong under current of opposition that is known to be running against the President and his policies in the financial world.

The facts or the oanard, as one chooses to class it, are that at a recent dinner either in Washingr ton or Philadelphia, Senator Penrose dined not wisely but too well and boasted that there was a plot on foot to block the Roosevelt policies for the next four years by nominating a man not of his own choice for the Presidency. Senator Penrose declared, so the story went, that there had been a fund of $5,000,000 started by high financial interests in New York, including! he Standard Oil Company, E. H. Harriman, Jacob Schiff, H. H. Rogers and a number of others, as the nucleus of an immense corruption fund wherewith to secure the nomination in the next republican national convention of any man, so long as he was a man whom the corporations could handle and who was pledged against all of the Roosevelt doctrines.

It was said that there were a number of real supporters of the President at the table who listened with astonishment to this recital, and regardless of whether the narrator was responsible for his utterance or not, they at once' told all that had occured to the President, Then as a sequel came a prompt denial from Senator Penrose that he bad ever attended the dinner in question, or that be had ever made any such statement as was attributed to him. At the White House on the other hand, while it was not denied that the story bad been told to the President it was distinctly stated that the name of Senator Penrose had not been mentioned, and outsiders were left to their own speculations as to how much faith the President and bis advisers put in the tale. Senator Penrose has always been counted as one of the loyal if not warm supporters of the Administration and it is known that the President helped him substantially in his fight recently in Pennsylvania. The name of Senator Scott of West Virginia and of Senator Elkins are also mixed up in the story of the plot and the dinner, but there is not enough tangible stuff to go on except to suggest that there are things doing underthe surface in the Republican party, and that however calm and cordial relations may appear to be there are developments ahead that will bear close watchjog.

The railroad policies of the Administration have not crystalized far enough to say what sort of legislation may be recommended so the next congress, bnt the attitude of some of the big interests were brought outin the further bear* ing of the Harriman case before the Interstate Commerce Commission this week. There has been an argument before the commission with the Harriman attorneys on one side and the special government attorneys on the other, to decide whether the Commission will press for answers to some of the questions that Mr. Harriman on the advice of counsel refused to answer recently in New York. John G. Milburn for the Southern Pacific road boldly announced that the Commission could not proceed against Mr. Harriman for the violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law as Mr. Harriman had bought the Southern Pacific outright, and, being his own property, he could suppress competion between them or manipulate them in restraint of trade if he chose without any interference from the government. But in an earlier stage of the hearing, a remarkable situation was developed by Lawyer Paul Cravath of the Harriman lines talking a little too freely. He was assuring the commission that whatever might be the present moral view taken of Mr. Harriman's manipulation of the Chicago and Alton railroad, that it was wholly in accordance with railroad practice at the time the reorganization was effected and Mr. Harriman and his associates pocketed about $40,000,000 of unearned increment. In illustrating

bis point, be said that times had changed so that the railroads themselves were in favor of federal supervision of the issue of securities. This was a nice' little boquet to the Administration. But Commissioner Lane took the cue more quickly than was meant, and said as solemnly as an owl: “Ob, please don’tstop, Mr. Cravath, seeing you have touched on the subject, won't you extend your remarks a little and tell ns just what you would recommend in the. way of federal supervision of stock and bond issues.”

There was just a suspicion of a smile around the bearing room and Mr. Cravath swallowed bard as though he was taking medicine. He said that be was only speaking personally and be did not know that as a lawyer be ought to give an opinion, but he thought there ought to be some sort of government supervision of the issue of railroad and other corporate securities, and perhaps government supervision also as to the application of the money so raised. This was a very remarkable statement, coming as it did from one of the most astute and high priced railroad lawyers in the country. But the gentleman is on record whether he intended to be so or not, and bis little admission is likely to bear fruit when the president is recommending further railroad legislation to Congress.

Walter Wellman, the arctic explorer and ex-newspaper correspondent, was in Washington this week, the last visit be will pay to the city before starting for the pole in an airship. He talked a little about the preparations that bad been made for the trip, and said that be has almost ready to entrain for Spitsbergen, a dirigable balloon that will lift 19,500 pounds and carry a car 115 feet long suspended beneath it. This is one of the most novel and daring attempts that has ever been made on the pole, and from the careful preparations that have been made, may meet with success where so many others have failed.