NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING
News Worth Remembering GOMPARED with the stirring debates and battle of votes of the previous week, the proceedings of the Senate last week on the rail bill seemed uneventful. The Cummins amendment...
...The cost of the largest battleships when fully armored and equipped is $18,000,000 and within a few years the vessels become obsolete and must be replaced by larger and more costly fighting machines...
...A new franchise was denied the water company by the voters...
...At the time this report was made, Dr...
...The Bureau will soon report to the President and at that time the course of the government will be decided if it is found possible to take action...
...The present bill carries $133,-000,000...
...After confessing, the man was allowed to return to his cell, weak and exhausted from the ordeal, and in the morning was found dead, having hanged himself with a handkerchief...
...Ample notice must be given to them by the Attorney General before withdrawing from cases...
...They were suddenly accosted on a dark street by a man who bade them halt...
...In the other case, which has stirred public sentiment profoundly, a prisoner accused of murder was subjected for several days and nights to the "third degree" by police officers and finally gave a confession, which must of necessity have been valueless because of the means employed to secure it...
...Another objection to the large naval appropriation was made by Senator Hale, who predicted a deficit in the national treasury at the end of the year despite the assurances made by leaders of the party to the effect that a surplus would be shown as the result of the new tariff law and the economies put into practice in government offices...
...Oppose Bigger Navy During the consideration of the annual naval appropriation bill in the Senate last week, Senators Hale, Gallinger, and Clay strongly opposed the further increase of the naval force and quoted President Roosevelt in support of their arguments for a halt on military expenditures...
...Foss, the newly-elected Democratic representative from Massachusetts, stirred the House with a speech in which he characterized the recent tariff revision as "an intentional an...
...Clark took issue with the President in his defense of the tariff and charged the Department of Justice with neglect of duty in the enforcement of the anti-trust law...
...Neill stated that he believed that the same conditions prevailed throughout the industry...
...It may even devote some of its time to a consideration of the actions of the police of New York and Philadelphia, in defiance of the law, in attempting to crush the strikers in New York and Philadelphia during the recent street car and shirt waist makers' strikes...
...The Springfield grand jury heard testimony relating to the methods employed to secure the passage of certain bills by the legislature and is said to have found evidence of gross corruption...
...The progressives of the Senate believed that the authority for the defense of such suits should be given to the commerce commission, from whose decisions the cases arise, but they were unable to gain their point...
...Continued Cannonading Speaker Cannon made a fiery speech before the National Association of Manufacturers in convention at New York, on May 18, in which he likened the insurgents to traitorous soldiers and declared that shooting was too honorable a death for them— that hanging should be their punishment for abandoning the organization and leaving it in the lurch...
...To Probe Steel Trust On the 19th the United States Senate unanimously authorized an investigation cf the conditions of the men employed in the steel industry of the United States...
...Miner' Strike Ordered Negotiations pending between Illinois mine owners and their employees failed to bring about agreement on the question of wages and on May 19 a strike of the 72,000 union miners ef the state was ordered...
...Denver adopted the initiative and referendum and recall amendments to the city charter in an election held on May 17...
...The Third Degree" The people of Chicago were made uneasy last week by two cases of police brutality...
...He proposed that the President send a message to Congress asking substantial reductions in the woolen goods schedule of the tariff law, a schedule that has been deprecated by Mr...
...The Cummins amendment to strike out of the b:ll the provision for a commerce court was lost by a vote of 28 to 37, ten Republicans voting against the establishment of a new court...
...It is said that the Hepburn law will be attacked on constitutional grounds in the trial of this case...
...Clark expressed confidence that the Democrats would have a majority in the House in the next Congress...
...News Notet Last week, the Chicago grand jury which has been investigating the means by which William Lorimer was made Senator from Illinois, heard no more testimony...
...A water commission will be appointed to investigate the advisability of municipal ownership of the waterworks...
...Some of the miners and their families are said to be in actual want for food and clothing, and on the other hand it is stated that the supply of coal on hand for use by the industries of the state is exceedingly low...
...The commission and shippers are given the right to intervene and even to continue the suit in case the Attorney General withdraws...
...The Bureau of Corporations has been conducting an investigation into the nature of the corporate organization of the United States Steel Company, in order to ascertain whether action can be brought by the government under the anti-trust law...
...Three Democrats voted for the amendment which lays on the Attorney General the responsibility for the defense of the cases...
...It is also suggested that action be taken to confine the unlawful activity of the metropolitan police in their efforts to suppress speakers whose views are not pleasing to the "authorities...
...While the "third degree," with its beating of prisoners, the use of the water-cure, confinement, threats of bodily harm, restriction and withdrawal of food and sleep, has excited the most indignation, the principles endangered by the other methods are fully as vital, it is pointed out by investigators who have made a study of police usurpation of authority...
...Incidentally, Mr...
...The provisions most likely to arouse debate and opposition are those relating to the investment of depositor's money...
...The "wets" won a decisive victory...
...The chief of police refused to take action against the detective, who, it is said, broke the law by shooting a man who had been charged with and had committed no crime...
...It comes as a result of the facts ascertained by the Bureau of Labor which were noted in this column a few weeks ago, concerning the condition of the men employed at the Bethlehem works of the United States Steel Corporation...
...With the belief that he was a thug they fled, and the man, a detective in plain clothes, fired and killed one of the number...
...deliberate bunko game from start to finish" and expressed the opinion that reciprocity with foreign nations was the proper middle ground between a protective tariff and free trade...
...The investigation will be in charge of Charles P. Neill, United States Commissioner of Labor...
...The common ownership of stock, what investments the express companies have made in railroad stocks and bonds, the capitalization and actual value of the plants, franchises and good will of the different companies, and the extent to which the express companies compete with the mails and their participation in the maintenance of a press bureau to oppose a parcels post law are subjects which will be investigated if the resolution passes...
...When negotiations were begun, several months ago, the miners went out pending a settlement and the ending of negotiations means a matching of strength with the employers...
...Twelve years ago the appropriation was $28,000,000...
...The conference passed resolutions stating that the financial condition of tne railroads warranted a reduction rather than an increase of rates, asked for a suspension of the new rates until the interstate commerce commission has investigated the facts, and raised a fund with which to fight the railroads by means of injunctions, should arbitration fail.—Application has been made by The Pullman Car Company for an injunction to prevent the interstate commerce commission from enforcing its recent ruling lowering rates for berths on sleeping cars...
...The company claims that the reductions are unreasonable and that the commerce commission has exceeded its authority...
...Both sides claim that they are confident of victory...
...In the first, it appears that several men, peaceable and law-abiding citizens, were returning to their homes late at night...
...Tariff Discussed Again Following a defense of the tariff law by Chairman Payne, meant for use in the next campaign, Representative Champ Clark of Missouri, leader of the House minority made a strong speech, in which he cited figures showing the rates of the new law to be excessively high and a burden on the mass of the people of the country...
...Progressives are determined to prevent the passage of a measure which would make way for the central bank scheme of Senator Aldrich by allowing the banks to dispose of their two per cent, government bonds to the postal bank trustees...
...Express and Railroad Rates Fought A resolution introduced by Representative Sabath of Chicago provides for an investigation by a committee of six members of Congress to ascertain the relation of ownership and management between the express companies and the railroads as well as between rival express companies...
...The committee will look thoroughly into the subject...
...In conclusion, Mr...
...The failure of Senator Aldrich to secure the cooperation of enough Republican senators to make certain the passage of the rail bill without the distasteful progressive amendments has forced him to the necessity of securing Democratic votes...
...It was pointed out by progressives that the interests of the public would not be at all times best safeguarded through the additional power given to the Attorney General, who is not only subject to political influences, but is not as well prepared to conduct the defense as is the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...Postal Bill Reported On the 17th the postal savings bank bill which has been the subject of contention in committee for many weeks was reported to the House and a petition for the calling of a caucus of Republican members of the House was at once circulated...
...It has been asseited many times that the corporation absolutely controls the output and price of steel in the United States...
...The bill was amended in conformity with that passed by the House so that the defense of suits arising from decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission is placed in the hands of the Attorney General...
...The insurgents were also referred to as Populistic Democrats with a sprinkling of demagogues...
...These instances added to many like them occurring .in the larger cities of the country have caused a special committee of the United States Senate to be formed for the investigation of police abuses...
...Taft, and promised that every Democrat in Congress would vote for the reduction of the woolen duties and would not seek to make political capital by reopening the whole tariff fight...
...A conference of delegates held in Chicago on May 17, representing over two hundred commercial organizations and shippers, decided on a fight against the proposed general increase of freight rates by the railroads...
...Charges by labor union officials that men injured in the mills of the corporation were murdered in the company's hospital in order to cut off claims for damages, and other allegations almost as sensational, induced Congress to order the inquiry...
Vol. 2 • May 1910 • No. 21
