Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 112, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1904 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

Out of 29,287,000 persons in the United States engaged in earning their bread by the sweat of their faces in the census year 1900, 10,438,219 were employed in agricultural pursuits. These were divided into many classifications, farmers, planters and overseers, dairymen and dairywomen, gardeners, florists and nurserymen, stock raisers, herders, drovers, wood choppers and apiarists. Next to the farmer In numerical strength stands the manufactlring and mechanical pursuits. :There are 7,112,304 persons actively engaged in these wonderfully varied occupations, so extensive in all their ramifications and classifications that a mere list of these would enumerate more than 150 forms of skilled and ordinary artisanship, ranging through all the different forms of manufactures. Domestic and personal service comes next, 5,093,778 persons being enrolled as barbers and bartenders, watchmen, policemen, firemen and waiters. In addition to these, under this classification, are gathered the solfilers, sailors and marines of the regular army, 128,736 In all. Fourth position in this great rank goes to trade and transportation, which gathers within its numbers 4,778,233 persons, or about the present population of New York city. This includes an army of Steam and street railway employes, Bailors and their officers and the like. Immigration officials say that the class of Immigrants coming here has materially changed within the last few years. Formerly passage was more expensive and it required industry and moral stamina to acquire the necessary funds to make the journey. Then men and women of the sturdy pioneer type came to this country and made good citizens. To-day the competition between the steamship companies has resulted in offering unusual inducements to Immigrants. Foreign governments are also more or less indirectly promoting immigration of the undesirable surplus in their overcrowded districts. The result is to overcrowd the cities, reduce the price of labor by oversupplying the market and crowding every avocation and to tend constantly to lower the standard of living of the American workman by bringing him into competition, in the mines and on the railroads, with tlie same class of labor from competition with which he has been shielded by a protective tariff.

Prize money for the capture of Spanish ships and property in the battle of Manila Bay has recently been paid to Admiral Dewey and his tnen. Bounty for the destruction of the Spanish ships has already ben paid. The payment of prize money, which is distinct from bounty, was delayed by complicated litigation; the disagreement about the real value of the capture was genuine, and in no way involved unfriendliness between the claimants and tlie government. Half the prize money went by law to the naval pension fund; the other half, amounting to three hundred and seventy thousand dollars, was divided between Admiral Dewey and those who fought under him. Tlie admiral received $18,500; the commanding officer of each vessel received one-tenth of the amount awarded to it; and the other officers and the men were paid in proportion to their salaries, an amount equal in each case to five months' pay. United States treasury experts figured that on the first of last month both the total-and the per capita monetary circulation of the country lied reached the highest point over recorded. The total in circulation was a little more tfian two billion five hundred and forty-six million dollars, and the per capita thirty-one dollars and six cents. There may be some comfort in knowing just what each man’s share is, even if some persons find themselves unable to recall, just at tins moment, where their thirty-one dollars are. The treasurer of the United States on May 6, 1903, redeemed two halfcent pieces. This is the first time in the history of the country that any such coins have been presented for redemption. It is more than n century since the first half-cent piece was coined, and it is nearly' fifty years since the government discontinued minting them. Speaker Cannon said the other day that he received a thousand dollars in wages for tlie first five years that he worked for hire, and saved hulf of it. If he should write an article on “How to Live on Two Dollars a Week,” it would be worth reading, for it would be a record of actut.l experience. If the entire production of coni in the United States during 1903 were loaded on freight cars with a capacity of thirty tons each the trains containing it would encircle the globe at the equator about three and one-third times. The late George G. Vest, when a member of the United States Senate, was the pygmy of that most august body—physically.