Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1907 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

As the meat trust and all the other food trusts are raising prices, word is given out that the whisky trust has concluded to do likewise. The unbusted trusts are getting entirely too gay under this trust-busting administration.

An exchange says that the death of a football player at Hanover, N. H., from injuries received in last Saturday’s game begins the fatalities so early that it almost looks as if the gridiron sport were going to attempt to compete with the automobile.

That Fairbanks’ cocktail joke is getting to be stale. It may be said that it is already Hat and unprofitable. In the first place, it was no joke to begin with. The cocktail was there with the cherry. But it was merely the forerunner of other liquid “good things,” including several kinds of wine and a stout brandy digester at the finish. Give the cocktail a rest.

The Republicans of Nebraska, in their state convention, indorsed Taft as the best man to "perpetuate” the Roosevelt "policies.” This is rather funny when it is recalled that Taft has been doing his level best to carry water on both shoulders and has shown that he has no certain opinions about anything except the Oklahoma constitution. He told the Oklahomans that their constitution should he defeated, but when they voted they ratified it by a tremendous majority.

In announcing his candidacy for tho Republican nomination for governor, ex-Attorney General Taylor declares that taxes are too High in Indiana, and that they should be reduced. That is what the Democrats have been saying for along time and it is what they will continue to say more loudly than ever. But there is no hope of a reduction in taxes so long as the Republican party continues in power. Its reckless increase of the expense of government will make more taxes necessary, and instead of a reduction of the taxpayer’s burden, an addition to them may be expected. A comparison of the administrations of the two parties in Indiana shows that the Democrats practiced economy while the Republicans have given wav to extravagance. The voters will have another opportunity to judge between them at the next election.

Notwithstanding the fact that Oklahoma was carried by the Democratic state ticket by 40,000 majority and that the new oonstitu-

tion was ratified by a still larger vote r it is asserted that the Republicans will try to keep the state out of the Union until after the next national, election. They fear that the seven electorial votes that Oklahoma will oast for the Democratic party may be important in determining who shall be president. Whether President Roosevelt will lend himself to the proposed outrage is not known, but if he does so he will reveal himself as the narrowest of partisians and will win and deserve the execration of all fair-minded men. It is inconceivable that he will do such a thing, but he has surprised the country a good many times. The recent announcement that he will promulgate the constitution gives ground for hope that serious trouble for the new state is at an end.

Frank B. Kellog, the St. Paul lawyer who is conducting the investigation of the Standard Oil Company, says that “the government must kill the trusts or the trusts will kill the government.” But it will take something more than investigations to kill them. The beef trust, the tobacco trust, the coal trust and the oil trust have all been investigated by the government, but they go right along doing business in the old way. The probing of the Standard Oil Company that is going on is bringing to light its villainy and its stealings, but everybody knew beforehand that it was villianous and that it was robbing the country blind. The present administration has done a lot of talking about the trusts, but it has not put one of them out of business or apparently checked their lawlessness. Mr. Roosevelt has been president more than six years and the net result of his trust-bust-ing is practically nothing.

YOUR OWN OX. The American Newspaper Publishers’ Association contains many men who have fought for the “sacred principle of protection” campaign after campaign, But the other day, at a meeting in New York, the association resolved, without a dissenting vote, “That it is the sense of this meeting that the duty on printing paper, wood pulp and all material entering into the manufacture of printing paper be immediately repealed.” This is a severe blow to that feeble "infant industry,” the paper trust, which is one of the numerous unbusted busted trusts. Democratic publishers have contended for years upon years that the tariff should be reformed, not only as to printing paper and the material entering into its manufacture, but as to other things which bear oppressively on the people generally. The Republican editors—or most of them —have no such record, however. Will they hereafter continue to stand pat on everything except the paper ,on which they print their stand pat arguments, or will they join the general tariff reform procession?

Political and General Gossip of the - National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat. President Roosevelt came back to Washington last week to find an immense accumulation of work on his desk to bedispatched before he could start on his western trip. There were a number of details to be settled about the voyage of the battleship squadron to the Pacific, the chief of these being the coal contracts. There has been an attempt on the part of the coal trust and the ship owners to hold up the United States on coal prices. The bids of the native producers both for furnishing the coal and transporting it have been decidedly higher than the offers from abroad. There is no excuse in the case of the coal and some but not much in its transportation. The American ship owners claim that they cannot transport coal or freight of any sort as cheap in American bottoms as in foreign vessels, and thia is true to some extent, owing to the higher wages paid American seamen and the greater expense of running American vessels. The President says he is willing to make some allowance for this in favor of American bidders, but that the total bonus for American ships ought not to exceed $200,000. This is a generous allowance and probably will be excepted by the American ship owners when they find that they cannot get any more. One of the first matters settled by the President on hisresumption of work was the name of one of the new 20,000 ton battleships. Secretary of the Navy Metcalf submitted the matter. There has been a great deal of pressure brought to bear in favor of naming the new ship the New York. But it was pointed out that there is already a cruiser New York and that several other of the cities of the Empire state have be, n honored by having warships named after them, so the new 20,000 tonner which is as yet officially known as “No. 23” will be called the North Dakota. The sister ship will be named the Delaware, rather an ananomoly by the way, to have the biggest battleship in the navy named after next to the smallest state. But that is the decision and it leaves only the state of Utah unrepresented in the * battleship flotilla. There will soon be the new state Oklahoma putting in its claim for a name and after that the territories will have to be recognized and then there will have to be some other means found for indentifying the battleships than by naming them after the states. t t t

Speaking of Oklahoma, the President has decided to approve the constitution adopted by the people notwithstanding that some of its provisions are not at all satisfactory to him. It is a foregone conclusion that the new state will be a permanent addition to the Democratic column. There has been but one Republican representative elected to Congress and the first act of the new legislature will be the election of two Democratic Senators. This is bad enough from a Republican point of view. Still it is not so bad as though there had been two states and four Democratic Senators. It is claimed also that the Democrats who were in control of the constitutional convention shamelessly gerrymandered the state on behalf of their own party. But whether this is true or not, the chances are there would have been something doing in the same line had the Republicans been in control of the convention. It is not likely that the official copy of the new constitution will be received in Washington in time for the President to issue his proclamation admitting the state before he starts west, but this proclamation will be issued immediately on his return.

There has been a good deal of interest this week in the performances of the balloon corps of the Army in Washington. The army has just established such a corps and while it is not so large, the government has already purchased 10 observation balloons and the men are being drilled in their use. The work in Washington this week has consisted in teaching the enlisted men how to inflate, pack and transport the big bags\md how to handle them while in the air. The work is under the direction of Lee Stephens, the professional aeronaut and Capt. Forest Chandler of the Army. There have been six ascensions made Already and there will be thirty before the series is finished. TlJare is a good deal more to the A>rk than merely tjing the bag rfKhe balloon to a gas main and Wng her fill. All of the intrity Jof the art are being imparty Ithe

meh and quite soon the army ought to have a baloon observation corps equal in skill if pot in size to that of any of the foreign armies. The experience of the Russian balloon corps in the Japanese war was not very encouraging, The report of the experts was that satisfactory photographs could not be taken from the captive balloon car both because of the altitude and the vibration, though it is popularly supposed there is no vibration in a baloon. It was said alpo that the conformation of the earth was so deceptive and topography sodistorted from a safe observation altitude that the balloon proved almost useless. One interesting feature of the work on which the government is embarking, however, is the building of a dirigible baloon. The plans for this are already drawn. It is said that the bag will be 190 feet long and it will be driven by two 120 horse power gasoline motors. It is expected that it will be able to make 35 miles an hour in still air. The projected cost is about $60,000.

It is said by that most useful of all persons, “the man close to the President,” that there will be no objection offered by this government to the reappointment of Wu Ting Fang as Chinese Minister to the United States. It will be remembered that while Mr. Wu was an entertaining person during his stay here, he often overstepped the bounds ofi diplomacy in the things he did and said. He was also credited with having instituted the Chinese boycott of American goods on his return to China, so that there were various reasons why the United States might have objected to his appointment. But it is said that the president did not wish to show any animosity to China and he decided that while there might have been wiser appointments made from the standpoint of the American government it was just as well to adeept the old diplomat as though he were the best possible selection. It is quite certain however that Mr. Wu on his second coming here will not be accorded all the diplomatic latitude he was allowed before.