Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1907 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat. Secretary Taft has gone to Ohio to personally take up the fight against the machine wing of the Republican organization. He it up against a hard formation, and the situation has been complicated by the fact that the President has aroused the animosity of the labor union element by bis remarks during the Harriman controversy in lumping Harriman and Eugene Debbs ana Moyer and Hayward, the accused murderers of Gov. Stunnenberg of Idaho, in the same category as "undesirable citizens.” The labor element bolds that as Moyer and Hayward are about to be brought to trial for murder, the President’s remarks will have the effect of prejudicing justice against the accused. Therefore labor unions in various quarters have entered strenuous protests and are preparing to inject themselves into the fight in Ohio and to take an active part in the general campaign as anti-Roosevelt bodies, more with a desire to gratify a personal desire for vengeance than tor the principle involved.

Word has been received at the State Department of the signing at Ampala of a treaty of peace between Nicaragua and Salvador. This marks the end of the present Central American war, and the treaty provides for a general peace conference of the Central American republics in the near future that it is thought will insure the continuance of peace in that region for years to come. The President has received a congratulatory telegram from President Zelaya of Nicaragua thanking him for the part he had personally taken in bringing about the cessation of hostilities. The peace pact containing the provision for a general peace conference is the same in effect as that signed on the Marblehead about a year ago, but which was never put into effect owing to the strained relations between the Central American countries at the time. Now that the pressure has been relieved by a fight, the air is clearer and it is thought that the conference will be held with some chance of success. 6

Patent Commissioner Frederick I. Allen has resigned from the important post he has held under the Interior Department for the past six years, and will follow the example of some of his predecessors in office and return to the practice of law. Commissioner Allen has not had an altogether tranquil time in his long administration. The office tinder his care fell dreadfully into arrears of work, and there were many criticisms of bis administration. A good many influences were at work to oust him from his job, but it took a good deal of time and much effort to pry him loose from such a good official salary. His successor has not yet been named, but quite possibly it will be assistant Commissioner Moore. What is needed in the office above all things now is a prompt and effective business administration to clear up the long list of arrears with which the office has been struggling for some years past and for which Commissioner Allen’s incompetent administration is at fault.

A new record was established in the Dead Letter Office this month in the return of undelivered letters to their writers. This has always been a serious problem, and till a few months ago it looked as though the Dead Letter office had become so congested that it never would be able to catch up and return dead letters with reasonable promptitude. The work has been systematized under the administration of Assistant Postmaster General P. V. DeGraw. He held from the first time be took office that there was no reason why dead letter mail should not go back to its writers immediately. He set the force in the office to cleaning up the arrears and two months ago succeeded in returning 14,488 letters. This record has been badly beaten this month, when 20,308 letters were returned, leaving arrears of only 60,000 to be dealt with. This is a cheerful contrast to the situation a few months ago when there were over 200,000 letters in the division waiting vainly for return - De Graw is himself an old newspaper man and was formerly manager of the United Press in Washington. He is an expert telegraph operator and has the distinction of operating daily the shortest telegraph line in the world. It is a little over 30 feet long and runs from his desk into the next room to that of his private secretary and confidential clerk, both of whom are ex-opera-

tors. Mr. DeGraw uses the telegraph line instead of the telephone in directing bis two assistants. He sometimes uses it also for dictation, and will sit at his desk and dictate letters by wire to his clerk in the next room. It is a very private sort of communication, too, tor there are not many visitors who can “read code” and the line is much less subject to eaves-drop-ping than a telephone line would be.

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, which has just come under the administration of a new secretary in the person of Chas. D. Walcott, formerly director of the Geological Survey, has made a move that will be of interest to scientists all over the world. It has constituted itself a sort of clearing house for the major scientific societies, chief among them the American association for the Advancement of Science and National Academy of Sciences. These two important institutions will hereafter have their permanent headquarters in the Smith r sonian building, and will transact through it their mass of correspondence with the rest of the scientific world. It is a courtesy that has been accepted with thanks by both bodies, and will tend to make the Smithsonian more than ever the clearinghouse for the scientific work of the whole country.

A new board of food standards has been established in the department of Agriculture, composed of Dr. A. H. Wiley, chief chemist of the department, George McCabe, the solicitor of the Department, and Dr. F. L. Dunlap, who has been brought to Washington from the University of Michigan for the purpose of acting as chief assistant to Dr. Wiley. This board, under the direction of Secretary Wilson, will pass on all questions of law and fact connected with the food standards established under the Pure Food and Drug Act.