Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1904 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

Borne idea of the many and diverse Interests which the Supreme Court must consider may be formed from the business done on the last “opinion flay” in May, before its adjournment until October, when it announced its flecißion in an, exceptionally large number of important disputes. Three cases were decided, involving questions relating-Jp the administration of criminal lawJn the Philippines. The constitutionality of the “oleo” law was next upheld. A dealer argued that oleomargarine which received its color from butter 'used as an Ingredient should not be subject to the tax, and also that the rates under the present law were prohibitive and confiscatory. The court replied that the amount of the tax was a purely political function with which it could not deal. A concern against which a “fraud order” had been Issued by the Postoffice Department had sought redress by bringing suit against the postmaster at Chicago in a case which finally reached the Supreme Court The department it was decided, was justified in its action. A man in a suburb of Kansas City had been released by the United States District Court from payment for certain street improvements which were declared unnecessary. The Supreme Court overruled this, deciding that the city authorities must be the sole judges of the necessity. Then there were cases involving homesteaders’ titles in lowa, licenses in Alaska, street railroad fares In Cleveland, State claims against a steam railroad in Indiana, and an electric-lighting franchise in Kentucky.

In its century of bistory tbe White House has seldom been the scene of a more Interesting reception than that which was given in honor of the visiting Filipinos, who have been making a tour of the United States. Tbe President and Mrs. Roosevelt entertained them at luncheon, after which the prominent people of the national government were Invited in to meet them. With few exceptions, none of these visitors, and they are tße leading men of the archipelago, had ever been in the United States before. Some of them had never before left the archipelago, for the Philippine Islanders are not great travelers. Most of the places to which they would naturally go are a long way off, and so those who are not prepared for a formidable journey stay at home. Americans going to the Philippine Islands have been profoundly interested in the strange contrasts which the Asiatic tropics present These visiting Filipinos were equally Interested in conditions here. They found tfie American summer about like their climate all the year round. Our warm and substantial buildings told to their observing eyes of the frosts of winter and of the absence of earthquakes. The railroad system of the United States amazed them. The multitude of our cities was almost confusing.

It has been announced by the Agriculture Department that Its search for an enemy to destroy the cotton-boll weevil has been rewarded by the discovery in Guatemala of an ant which preys upon the insect. In Alta Vera Paz cotton appeared to thrive in a country infested with the weevils. Investigation showed that this was due to the ant, which gets its food from the nectaries of the cotton. This ant is equipped with powerful mandibles, and when It finds a weevil beetle on a plant at once seizes and kills it It is an inveterate hunter after the pests, and several ants usually take their stand for this purpose on each stalk, so that a single colony protects a large field. It does not sting persons, as do many Guatemalan ants, and so far as known is harmless. An attempt will be made by the department to establish permanent colonies in Texas, where tbe weevil pest is worst, and for this purpose many thousands of the ants have been brought to this country.

For the first eleven months of the current fiscal year, ending May 31, there was an excess of government expenditures over receipts of $52,265,869. This deficit is accounted for by tbe payments made on account of the Panama Canal and the loan to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, amounting in all to $54,000,000. After allowance is made for these items, however, there Is still evidence of a marked change in tbe condition of the Treasury, for in the corresponding months of 1903 there was a surplus of receipts over expenditures amounting to $38,948,616. Receipts both from customs and internal revenue have been smaller this year than last, and there has been an Increase of expenditures on the navy and for pensions. v. What has been called the "ginseng craze" has been so prevalent among farmers in many districts of the Unlb ed States that the Department of Agriculture hat considered It expedient to sound a note of warning. Previous to 1902 China imported from this country only one hundred and seventy-two thousand pounds of ginseng in four years—a quantity which could bs raised on a single farm of seventyflve acres. “Let ginseng alone. It Is s delusion and s snare.”