Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1907 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and deneral doaaip of the National Capital. Bpecial Correspondence to The Democrat. The department of Justice announces that it is about to institute proceedings against the Powder Trust under the Sherman an-ti-trust aot. The only wonder is that the proseoution has delayed so long. Bat the explanation probably lies in the fact that Senator Dnpont, the new Senator from Delaware, is at the head of the trust and is powerful in politics as his election to the Senate proves. The recent investigation of the trust by bureau of corporatipna and the department of Justice indicate that it is one of the most complete monopolies ever devised in any country. It has followed the methods of the Standard Oil Company in beating down and breaking np competition. It has ran its rivals one after the other out of business and bought them up when it was convenient after their business had" ceased to be profitable. The result is that although there jure a lot of nominally independent companies still operating, they are all or nearly all under the direct management of the trust which controls about 95 per cent of the powder output, a larger proportion of the finished product than was ever controlled by the Standard Oil, Probably the thing that baS moved the government to' proceed against the trust is the increasing cost of powder for the army and navy. There are bids formally opened for powder supplies as formerly, but the officers of both the army and navy know that it is a faroe. The same company presents all the bids under different names and if there is any difference in the prioe it is because the trust wants some particular mill to do the work instead of some other. Efforts to establish government powder factories have been succeßsfally fought in the past, and if the country were to be plunged into war next week, it would either have to confiscate the mills of the powder trust or else pay whatever price the trust chose to name for the firing of every gun in the army and navy. t t t

One of the most important pieces of archeological work ever done in the United States has just been reported to Washington. It is the partial completion of the work of excavation at the “Casa Grande.” Most people know that the Casa Grande has always been ranked as the most important and impressive of American ruins. The translation of its Spanish name is “The Big House,” and it is located in southern Arizona where it has been known to the scientific world since the oonquestador Alvarado first entered that section in his search for the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. It is a great building something less than 100 by fifty feet in area with walls in some places thirty feet high. It is built up of adobe concrete with wooden doors and window frames, and is different from any other Indian coiistruotion of the southwest. It is such a remarkable structure that the government some years ago made an appropriation to help preserve it from the effects of the weather, and last year Dr. Walter Fewkes of the Bureau of Ethnology was sent down there to do a little more protective work. But instead of confining himself to the work he was sent to do, he commenced excavating, and the result is that he has unearthed what was the ground floor of the house which is 400 feet by 235, and 30 feet high, making the original house small by comparison, What the world has known for three and a half centuries as the Casa Grande, is merely the delapidated top story of an immensely larger structure. It seems to have been the oitadel of the Pima tribe against the attacks of the Navajos and Apaches. It is by far the most remarkable ethnological discovery ever made on this continent and has won Dr. Fewkes much credit from the branches of the Archeological Society aU over the country. j t t t It will be of interest to users of the weed to know that the Treasury Department has officially decided that tobaoco is a necessity and not a luxury. The case came up in an appeal to the Comptroller over an expenditure for tobacoo for some laborers who were held in quarantine in Panama, There was $15.50 worth of tobaoco bought for the laborers, and the item was questioned by the disbursing officer. The Treasury decided that it was an expenditure for one of the necessaries of life within the meaning of the act. . The decision went on to say that whatever might

be the moral or hygenic aspect of the caae, that tobacco, especially in the laboring clasees, was so sity and the item was allowed in the aooonnt. The Treasury la oalled on harender a numbfr of interesting decisions, and another even more curions than this was made some time ago where a man coaid not possibly tell how old he was and could not be convioted of perjury in swearing falsely on the snbjeot The case came up under the civil service act where a Treasury employee hod stated his age at a certain figure and where it was proven conclusively that he was at least five jears older. It was shown in this oase that the man had gone on information given him in stating his age, and the department made a ruling in general form that nobody oonld be certain of their own age, as they always had to depend for the information on hearsay evidence. ft t There have been no new developments in the Japanese situation in the past few days, and it is inferred that this government does not feel much uneasiness on the subject, as the Navy Department has just sent 6,000 tons of ooal to the American naval depot at Yokahama where the < vessels of the Asiatic squadron refit instead of going to Manila- This action certainly would not be taken if there were any apprehension bf trouble during which the coal sapply would easily fall into the hands of the Japanese. t t t The Navy Department has just started on a new system of identification for the sailors of the service. The “scar system” has been in use for a number of years, and has worked very well. The recruits were all identified by scars and moles on the body, and it was found to be a remarkable fact that the scars of no two men ever coincided. Bat the army has gone in for finger print identification after the Bertillion method, and it has been found so much easier and more effective that the navy is going to adopt it as well: ' ’