NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING
News Worth Remembering AGAIN has a great natural disaster, causing human distress, awakened the sympathy of all nations. For a week, now, Paris and the country surrounding it have been in the...
...Other measures have not progressed as smoothly...
...The Speaker appoints the Committee on Rules— the committee which has the power to control the proceedings of the House—and it is the plan of the insurgents to make this committee representative of the whole House and not of the Speaker alone, as at present...
...For a week, now, Paris and the country surrounding it have been in the clutches of the Seine River...
...Thousands were rendered homeless...
...If passed, the law will make all postoffices authorized to issue money orders, depositories for postal savings...
...Surface transportation was severely crippled...
...More indictments are expected...
...While it is not thought that such legislation will be considered at the present session of Congress, strong efforts are being made to regulate by statute speculation in stocks and bonds, and necessities of life, such as cotton and foods...
...Carter...
...Publishers Oppose Increase of Postal Rate When Postmaster General Hitchcock declared that the huge annual postal deficit was due to loss on the carriage of second-class mail matter, magazine publishers all over the United States made vigorous denial...
...This would amount to $2,000,000 per hundred acres, it is said...
...News Notes The legislature of Kentucky has adopted a resolution favoring an amendment to the United States Constitution to allow an income tax to be levied...
...That stream, usually peaceful, rose to an extent unparalleled in 170 years, and as the rushing torrents of water burst over the banks along its course from the mouth at Havre to the upper parts of its affluents, the Marne and the Oise, every town near the river level, including Paris, was flooded...
...The publicity features of the law have met with strenuous objections by the corporations...
...The government is offered a royalty of 50 cents a ton of coal mined...
...Sums of one dollar or more will be received as deposits, but no person may open more than one account and no account is to exceed $500...
...It seems likely that the bill will be passed by both Houses of Congress within a short time...
...Panama Libel lndictmtnt Quashed On the 26th, United States Circuit Judge Hough in New York handed down his decision in the famous "Panama libel" case instituted by the federal government against the World because of certain articles published in 1908...
...It has been argued that such a discrimination on the part of Germany would lower the price of meat in this country on account of the increased supply and for that reason no protest should be made against this part of the German tariff law...
...In my judgment Congress has never intended to do more than this...
...Result of English Elections With the voting practically over in England, it is still impossible to say whether the reforms advocated by the Liberal party will be enacted into law...
...T,he passage of such a measure would not only mean the complete renunciation of Cannon but would do much to prevent the exercise of any great power by future Speakers of the House...
...In Paris, where the population is conjested, the suffering was especially intense...
...Interstate Commerce Commissioner Clements, speaking at a dinner of the Economic Club, in New York, on January 28, strongly urged the enactment of federal laws to prevent the manipulation of railway stocks and bonds, pointing out instances where great quantities of "water" had been thrown upon the market...
...Officers and employees of most of the great packing companies of the country have appeared before the grand jury and the investigation has been most thorough...
...Of the Government's contention that a Federal libel law could be created by construction, Judge Hough said: "I feel that the burden of proof is upon those who assert that it was the intention of Congress in 1825 or at any subsequent time to intrust to the Circuit and District Courts of the United States the punishment of offenses other than those which were either begun or primarily committed on a national property...
...The President has urged Congress to enact a postal savings law in order to fulfill the platform pledge of the Republican party...
...The interstate commerce measure advocated by the President is meeting with many objections, and the ship subsidy bill is at a standstill in committee...
...On January 26, Representative Fowler of New Jersey introduced a resolution providing that on February 7, the House shall elect five additional members to the Committee on Rules, and that the Speaker shall cease to be a member of that committee...
...Roosevelt, President Taft, Charles P. Taft, Douglas Robinson, and William Nelson Cromwell...
...On January 26, Judge Tayler, in the United States Circuit Court at Toledo, handed down a decision sustaining the law...
...Postal Savings Bill Advanced January 27, the postal savings bank bill, which has been in committee, was introduced in the Senate by Mr...
...Smith...
...Added to this came hunger, and, when the hungry thousands tried to get food by storming the shops, riots with the troopers...
...The agitation continues all over the nation and the investigations begun by various state legislatures and Congress are throwing much light on the subject of the high cost of living...
...Delavan Smith, proprietor of the Indianapolis News, was indicted on the same ground...
...Attack Made on House Rules Now that it seems certain that Cannon will not again be made Speaker of the House, the insurgent members of that body are devoting their energies to the reform of the rules which enable the Speaker to wield great influence in the making of legislation...
...Such a merger would probably be capitalized at over a billion dollars...
...Beef Trust Probe to be Thorough The grand jury investigation of the beef trust has been progressing steadily since January 24...
...It is contended that the postoffice department has not been managed efficiently, that the railroads have been receiving more than a just compensation for carrying the mails, and that the figures submitted by the Postmaster General are far from correct...
...If it is buried there, the insurgents will attempt to have the resolution considered in the House itself, where favorable action would probably result...
...It was declared that this tax would yield sufficient revenue to prevent another deficit...
...Charles R. Heike, secretary of the American Sugar Refining Company, who was indicted for complicity in the sugar weighing frauds, pleaded immunity on the ground that he had appeared as witness on several occasions before the grand jury investigating the frauds...
...In a general way" says the World, "the decisions of Judge Anderson and Judge Hough are based upon the same practical administration of the law—that the Government has no right to usurp the jurisdiction of State courts...
...Baliaine states that a bill is now being supported in Congress by a former United States Senator and other lobbyists, by which this land would be virtually donated to certain interests at $10 per acre...
...A gigantic merger of all the copper interests of the country is said to be impending...
...Recent attempts to "corner" cotton have served to direct public attention to the subject...
...It is a novelty, and the burden of upholding a novelty is on him who alleges it...
...The corporation tax law, it will be remembered, was passed as a substitute for an income tax at the last session of Congress...
...The bill differs greatly from that originally introduced, and among other important provisions, is one aiming to prevent the concentration of postal deposits in eastern money centers...
...Alaskan Coal Lands May be Leased On January 25, John E. Baliaine of Seattle, one of the largest individual property owners of Alaska, submitted a proposition to the Senate committee on territories, for the lease of 5,000 acres of coal lands in Alaska...
...Meat Boycott Continues The meat boycott, which started several weeks ago in a few of the larger centers of population and spread rapidly throughout the entire country, resulted in a notable decrease in the price of that commodity for last week, wherever the boycott was generally observed...
...The House committee on postoffices, which is considering the advisability of raising the rate on second-class matter, has heard a number of publishers' views on the question...
...Eleven men, city employees and contractors, have been indicted by a grand jury of Chicago on charges of conspiring to defraud the city in public construction work...
...The price of butter and several other food products also declined...
...Supreme Court to Pass en Corporation Tsx Since the government, at the beginning of the current year, began the work of collecting the tax on corporations, many suits have been brought to test the constitutionality of the measure...
...It was alleged that these articles, which related to the manner in which the Panama Canal property was purchased by the United States government, had libelled Mr...
...A year ago, Governor Hughes of New York appointed a committee to investigate this subject...
...But it is not at all certain that a satisfactory alliance can be affected on other matters and in that case another election will probably be called, Parliament wil be assembled on February 21...
...The resolution was referred to the committee affected...
...The case will be taken before the Supreme Court at once, and a decision is expected within a few months...
...It has not yet reported, but when it does so, bills will be introduced providing for state regulation of stock exchanges...
...The Liberals and Unionists or Tories hold about the same number of seats in Parliament, but the Diberals will have the support of the Laborites and Nationalists, on the budget, at least...
...On October 1, United States Circuit Judge Anderson, in Indianapolis, dismissed the proceedings against Mr...
...Coming as it did, at the beginning of the Congressional investi-ration of Secretary Ballinger's course of action with regard to these lands, the proposition aroused widespread interest and earnest consideration...
...A bill authorizing the appointment of a commission of seven to investigate employers' liability laws in this country and Europe, is pending before the Illinois legislature...
...It is charged that the companies involved in the investigation have a monopoly on about 76 per cent of the fresh meat of the country, and that they combine in fixing the price to be paid the producer as well as that paid by the consumer...
...I am, however, of the opinion that the construction of this act claimed by the prosecution is opposed to the spirit and tenor of legislation for many years on the subject of national territorial jurisdiction...
...The court is considering the plea...
...Two per cent, will be paid on all deposits, yearly, and the deposits are to be placed in solvent banks nearest the place where they are received, the government to receive not less than two and a fourth per cent, interest...
...Traffic in the subways came to a dead standstill...
...On January 27, Watertown, South Dakota, rejected the commission plan of government by 56 votes...
...Because of a discrimination against American meat by Germany it is possible that a tariff war between the two nations may ensue...
...All Paris is now under martial law and food and clothing are being sent to the sufferers from all parts of the world with the greatest possible dispatch...
Vol. 2 • February 1910 • No. 5
