NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING
News Worth Remembering POPULAR interest and discussion during the past week have been chiefly devoted to President Taft's message. The general impression, as reflected in the press, seems to be one...
...The Commission found that the business of importing women from foreign countries for the purpose of prostitution had assumed large proportions and that the traffic of this kind within the country was enormous...
...In the Senate and House are forceful enemies of these two leaders...
...That President Taft stands ready to back these efforts to root out corruption in the customs service, was the declaration of Secretary MacVeagh in a speech in New York on the night of December 11...
...Yet this disappointment appears to be tempered with a desire to "wait and see...
...It will be made legal for railroads to combine in the making of rates...
...The railroads state that a number of the strikers have returned to work and the strikers say that many of the strike-breakers have given up on account of the cold weather...
...The general impression, as reflected in the press, seems to be one of disappointment that the President did not touch upon the great questions of an economic and social character that have been stamped in the public mind as "the Roosevelt policies...
...The right to carry interstate commerce is denied to any transportation company engaged directly or indirectly in any other business...
...Government to Fight White Slave Traffic On December 10, the Immigration Commission made a report to Congress on the white slave traffic, which was of great interest...
...On the 11th, a dispatch from Berlin indicated the formation of a new mineral phosphate combine which, it is expected, the American trust will enter...
...The railroads announced that the strike was broken and that no trouble was being experienced with moving freight...
...It has been turned down by Congress after Congress...
...This bill provides that the commission shall be given power to prepare a freight classification which all railroads shall be obliged to adopt...
...and legislation on the subjects of railroad rates and postal savings banks...
...that the commission shall serve upon every common carrier a form or plan of freight schedules, and these also are made uniform and obligatory...
...Railroad Legislation in Foreground It is reported that the President will recommend that Congress create a Court of Commerce to settle all disputes arising from the rulings of the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...An attempt is being made to prevent the appropriation of any more money for the Merriam Commission to investigate the affairs of the city, but it is said that even though the courts decide against the commission, the inquiry will go on with the aid of private funds...
...The president has tied himself hand and foot to Senator Aldrich, believing that through him and his supporters in the Senate he can obtain the legislation that he wants...
...It is thought that this program is sufficiently conservative to receive the approval of Congress and that the interstate commerce law will be so amended...
...No bonds will be issued except to pay debts, buy equipment or build new lines or terminals...
...New Minister to China On December 6 it was ann0unced in a dispatch from Washington that William J. Calhoun of Chicago had accepted the position of ambassador to China...
...Meanwhile experienced newspaper correspondents at Washington are casting up straws to see in what direction the political wind is blowing and the reports of their observations are interesting...
...The men higher up seem to be almost in view...
...Taft will have to reckon...
...On the 13th President Gompers and the executive council of the American Federation of Labor and the national officers of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Plate Workers, met in Pittsburg to consider plans for a fight against the United States Steel Corporation...
...The master that gave the wheel its first impetus is 10,000 miles away...
...On the 10th, the American Ice Company was found guilty of trying to secure a monopoly and was fined $5,000 by the Supreme Court of New York...
...Chicago continues to supply information to those who desire pointers on "How Not to Run a City...
...The popular demand for the passage of a postal savings bank bill is insistent and widespread...
...He is a corporation lawyer...
...the "eternal struggle between the upper and the nether...
...Secretary Nagel believes a special bureau for the purpose of obtaining information of this nature is necessary, and states that the department is now engaged in investigations of the lumber and steel industries, the International Harvester Company, the concentration of water power ownership and conditions of the tobacco industry and the operation of cotton exchanges...
...Calhoun served two years as a member of the interstate commerce commission, and was also a member of the commission which settled the Venezuelan difficulties of a few years ago...
...Simultaneously with the arrival of the Cook records in Copenhagen for examination by the Danish scientists, the New York Times published the affidavits of two men, tending to throw discredit on Cook's story...
...Walter Wellman of the Chicago Record-Herald says it is substantially as follows: No special messages until after the holiday recess...
...The president and each of the factions will endeavor to make the country believe that they are acting as he would have them act...
...A common carrier will not be allowed to hold stock in a competing line or consolidate with any other unless for reasons of public policy...
...Tariff Not to be Dropped With the approval of the President, it is said, Secretary Mac-Veagh made a speech in Boston on the 7th, which aroused much discussion...
...But Senator Aldrich and Speaker Cannon are not the only actors with whom Mr...
...No court shall set aside or enjoin a rate made by the commission unless it is proved that the rate is confiscatory...
...The strike leaders, on the other hand, declared that such was not the case...
...There is strong opposition to the bill introduced by Senator Carter of Montana, however, and a hard fight will be waged...
...It seems to be an accepted fact that a program of legislation has been agreed upon by President Taft and the leaders in Congress...
...to suspend judgment until the President has finally expressed his views on the regulation of railroads, anti-trust legislation, the conservation of natural resources, and other momentous problems that the people have been led to expect would be "clinched" during the present administration by wise and constructive laws...
...It would seem hardly conceivable that the leaders in Congress, facing public impatience near the point of revolt, would think it wise to continue their policy of delay...
...Already a bill has been introduced by Representative Mann of Illinois, for the purpose of ending the trade...
...no recommendations for anti-trust legislation until after the rendering of the Supreme Court decisions in the cases of the Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company—which will probably not be during the present session...
...Publicity for Corporations Urged In the annual report of Secretary Nagel of the Department of Commerce and Labor, it is recommended that all interstate corporations be compelled to submit regular reports on the essential facts regarding their organization, management, and condition...
...Representative Sabath has introduced a bill in the House authorizing an investigation, by a committee of seven, of the American Sugar Refining Company...
...On the 6th a blow was given to the plan for expediting decisions in cases involving the construction of provisions of the interstate commerce act...
...The commission will be empowered to regulate the holding of stock in competing lines, and stock and bond issues will be regulated by law...
...Meanwhile Cook is still in seclusion...
...The Outlook for Postal Savings Banks Included in the program of President Taft is a postal savings bank bill...
...One of the men, a navigator, declared that Cook had hired him to fake data of a journey to the Pole, and the other said that he had acted as go-between for the two men...
...The switchmen's strike now in progress will also be considered and it is possible that the men employed on the eastern divisions of the roads involved may declare a strike...
...Representative Steenerson of Minnesota is said to have prepared a bill for introduction in Congress making arbitration compulsory in disputes between employers and organized labor...
...This view is expressed in a different way by John Callan O'Laughlin of the Chicago Tribune, who says: "Harmony lies upon the surface, but there is disruption in the deeps...
...Sugar Trust Still Under Fire Government officials show no disposition to let up in their prosecution of those responsible for the defrauding of the government by the American Sugar Refining Company...
...He is maintaining friendly relations with Speaker Cannon...
...This is declared to be the first step toward the dissolution of the company, which serves 8,000,-000 people and is capitalized at $40,000,-000...
...The power of the interstate commerce commission will be enlarged as to classifications, bills of lading, routing, and other relations between the shipper and the railroads...
...Switchman's Strike Continues As yet no settlement has been made of the differences between th striking switchmen and the railways of the Northwest...
...He declared that the Republican party would hereafter lower tariff duties more and more and hat the day for a high tariff wall around this country was passing...
...News Notes With the advent of cold weather, the Cook-Peary feud took a new lease on life...
...What is the Program...
...But, it has been pointed out, the people will do well to examine carefully the kind of bill that receives the O. K. of Aldrich and Cannon, or they may get "something just as good" but not at all what was ordered...
...It found no evidence of an organization for the purpose of carrying on the traffic, but gained much information as to the scope and method of the work of the "slavers...
...It is possible that a strike may be called involving all the union men employed by the company...
...that the commission shall be authorized and directed to make an investigation of every rate in the country, on its own initiative, and whenever it finds an unjust rate a hearing shall be ordered...
...Senator Cummins has had a bill introduced for the amendment of the interstate commerce law, and it is expected that the Progressives will attempt to pass this bill if the President's measure is regarded as too conservative or inadequate...
...No change of rates or schedules shall go into effect without the approval of the commission...
...This has been taken to indicate that President Taft means gradually to reduce the most objectionable duties in the new tariff law and that the fight for honest revision will continue, supported by the administration...
...So it seems entirely probable that Aldrich and Cannon will swallow their opposition to this measure and permit it to be enacted into law, as the President has recommended...
...On the 7th all railroads involved in the strike were accepting perishable goods for shipment and guaranteeing prompt delivery...
...recommendations for a Court of Commerce...
...The Supreme Court ruled that when a lower court is in doubt regarding the interpretation of the law, the case cannot be certified to the Supreme Court for the purpose of securing an early decision...
...engaging in airy persiflage with the speaker whenever they meet, giving him half-hearted approval in his public utterances and criticising him sharply in private conversation...
...Of more profound importance to the people, however, than anything included in this program, says Wellman, is the struggle for control...
...The decisions of this court will be final, except that appeal may be made to the Supreme Court on the question of constitutionality...
...The annual report of Attorney General Wickersham submitted on December 11, clearly indicates that the Department of Justice intends to sift the frauds thoroughly...
...On the 9th an investigation was begun by the State of New York of the milk trust alleged to exist in that state...
Vol. 1 • December 1909 • No. 50
