NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING

News Worth Remembering THE Senate made rapid progress with the railway rate bill last week. Before amendments were voted upon, Senator La Follette made a speech in which he outlined the amendments...

...The capitalization sections of the bill were stricken out and Senator Dol-liver's substitute for them was defeated...
...Clash Over Taft's Traveling Expenses President Taft's long "swing around the circle" early in the year, exhausted his traveling allowance...
...Mann of Illinois, though ostensibly deeply pained, had to rule against the inclusion of the provision, but not before certain regulars uneasy in their seats at the thought of the coming elections and intensely conscious of their votes for the tariff bill, had had a chance to utter loud and resounding speeches (for home consumption) in favor of the appropriation...
...It was stated that these great interests intend to fill all judicial and administrative offices of the territory with their "hired men" in order to safeguard their operations in connection with the Cunningham claims and other matters...
...Democratic members who opposed the advancement of the allowance were charged by Representative Tawney with having accepted the President's hospitality by traveling with him at his expense, and were scored for refusing the courtesy requested...
...The advance was refused...
...Tawney expressing his displeasure over the affair and denying -that certain Congressmen had been a burden to him while on the trip or that he had been charged board while in the South as a guest, as was insinuated...
...His remarks were bitterly challenged by Southern representatives...
...His resolution authorizing an investigation of the Tribune charges was referred to the committee to audit and control the contingent expenses of the Senate and later will be referred to the committee on privileges and elections...
...that he was later paid $700 by Senator Broderick, presumably as his share of the "jackpot...
...Last week when it was sought to advance to him the $25,000 appropriated for next year's traveling expenses, an acrimonious debate ensued in the House...
...More confessions and indictments are expected at any moment at the time this is written...
...After the provision had been thrown out, a new resolution was passed which gives the tariff board the additional $250,000 requested but expressly limits the scope of inquiry to a determination of what nations discriminate in their tariff laws against the United States, for the purpose of helping the President administer the maximum and minimum provisions of the Payne bill...
...Many regular members of the House were opposed to broadening the scope of inquiry of the board and devised a scheme by which they could defeat the appropriation and yet appear to favor it...
...New Turn to Alaska Scandal Scarcely had the Ballinger-Pinchot inquiry been ended when new charges of corruption concerning the safe-guarding of Alaska's resources were made...
...A refund to shippers, based on receipts, bills of lading, etc., will be made in cases where a new rate has gone into effect before the commission has passed upon it and it is subsequently found to be too high...
...He devoted most of his time to a savage denunciation of the Tribune and a review of Illinois politics, charging the Tribune with using its power to defraud the city of Chicago out of more than $100,000 a year...
...Carpenter...
...On the following day the President wrote an open letter to Mr...
...It was stated that ill health caused the retirement...
...He voted as directed but did not receive the money...
...On May 28 he arose in the Senate and read his speech to an attentive audience...
...that no money had been used to purchase votes for his election and that the allegations were a result of the determination of the owner and editor of the Chicago Tribune, Medill McCor-mick, to ruin his venture into the Chicago banking field, and to drive him out of politics because he would not become subservient to the paper...
...With Holstlaw were indicted State Senator Stanton C. Pemberton and Representative Joseph S. Clark for conspiracy to commit the crime of bribery in the purchase of furniture for the legislative chambers by the joint committee of which they were members...
...Before amendments were voted upon, Senator La Follette made a speech in which he outlined the amendments to the interstate commerce law which he considered vital to the public welfare...
...This period, too, is not sufficient to allow the commission to make a thorough investigation, and it was decided by the "regulars," who foresaw defeat of such a provision, to force the adoption of the Martin amendment giving the commission six months in which to pass on a new rate before it becomes effective...
...He declared that the charges of corruption were lies...
...A compromise was finally made by which the commission is empowered to suspend a rate for 120 days and if at the end of this time it has not found time to determine the reasonableness of a regulation or rate, it may suspend its going into effect for six months longer...
...Representative Tawney reported as part of the sundry civil appropriation bill the provision for the quarter million dollars and the broadening of the powers of the board so that it could determine the difference in the cost of production here and abroad of tariff protected goods, the proportion of labor cost, etc...
...Carpenter was at once appointed minister to Morocco by the President who said that he thought the climate would be more salubrious there...
...A Little Political By-Piay Another appropriation which caused trouble was that of $250,000 requested by the President for the purpose of continuing and extending the work of the tariff board authorized at the last session of Congress...
...After it had been introduced, however, it was found very suddenly that the proposals were "new legislation" and therefore could not be included in the sundry civil bill...
...The judiciary committee of the Senate which had under consideration the appointment by the President of John Rustgard and H. L. Faulkner to be district attorney and United States marshal, respectively, for the Juneau district, heard, behind closed doors, evidence to the effect that the predecessors of the appointees were removed summarily at the behest of the Guggenheims and allied interests, which had been menaced in their illegal operations by the conscientious adherence to duty of these officers of the government...
...He argued for a reorganization of the commerce commission, with a view to dividing the country into districts in charge of sub-commissions, as a means of expediting the work...
...On the 27th, Senator La Follette's amendment placing the telegraph and telephone lines of the country under the control of the commission was adopted...
...The day also brought forth the resignation of the President's private secretary, Mr...
...Another version of the resignation is that Mr...
...and that as member of a committee appointed to purchase desks for the legislature he was promised $1,500 by a desk company representative to give the contract to the highest bidder...
...Lorimer Explains The railway rate bill was temporarily side-tracked last week for the purpose of making way for Senator Lorimer's answer to the charge that his seat in the Senate had been secured by the corruption of Democratic members of the Illinois legislature...
...The Cummins amendment placed no limit on the time for which the commission could suspend a rate, and for this reason was objectionable to the railroads and the "regulars...
...New Bribery Confession No sooner had Senator Lorimer completed his "explanation" than news came that State Senator D. W. Holstlaw of Illinois had confessed to the Springfield grand jury that he voted for Lorimer for U. S. Senator and received for his vote from State Senator John Brode-rick of Chicago $2,500...
...It was manifestly impossible for the commission to pass on any one of the many thousand new rates made every year, within this short time after their filing, and so the time of suspension was made 120 days by the "regulars...
...He enumerated some of the increases in railroad rates that have been made within the last year, and, carefully analyzing the elements entering into the cost of transportation, showed that there was no reason for a general advance in freight rates, but, on the contrary, that conditions warranted a decrease...
...Carpenter supplied Representative Tawney with the statements which he made on the preceding day, and thereby incurred the President's wrath...
...Senator La Follette asked for more thorough equipment for the commission and the inclusion in the bill of the Cummins' amendment and an amendment for the physical valuation of railroad properties...
...The original administration railway bill provided that the commission could suspend a new rate for sixty days, pending an investigation of its reasonableness...

Vol. 2 • June 1910 • No. 22


 
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