NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING
News Worth Remembering EVENTS during the first week of the special session of Congress indicated that a stormy session might result from the President's call. The Democats, like the Republicans,...
...Announcement was made in the French Senate on the 7th by the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Cruppi, that the republic had entered into an agreement with Germany by which both countries could work in harmony wherever mutual interests were concerned...
...General Madero, "provisional president," has expressed the opinion and reiterated it within the week, that the army of rebels will not cease intermittent warfare until President Diaz steps down from his place and permits the people of Mexico to elect a new president...
...Hines and others will be called to the stand...
...In my transmitting message of the 26th of January, I fully set forth the character of the agreement and emphasized its appropriateness and necessity as a response to the mutual needs of the people of the two countries, as well as its common advantages...
...In concluding the negotiations the representatives of the two countries bound themselves to use their utmost efforts to bring about the tariff changes provided for in the agreement by concurrent legislation at Washington and Ottawa...
...Senator La Follette's resolution names a committee, this being done, of course, in order to forestall the appointment of a committee that would not make every effort to get to the bottom, and to put "new" men on it...
...Shocked by Lorimer Revelation While the readjustment of Congress to changed conditions engaged the attention of the country to a large degree, the new revelations regarding the election of William Lorimer as United States Senator made the special session pale into insignificance...
...A morals commission is recommended and the report points out the necessity for a morals court...
...On the 7th, Congressman Mann, at a meeting of Republicans, took occasion to denounce the Democratic majority for its "unfair, arbitrary and brutal action in trampling the rights of the minority" in the matter of committee assignments...
...This measure failed of action in the Senate...
...The strike of eight hundred girl workers in the button factories of Muscatine, Iowa, has reached a serious stage...
...When, however, the full text of the agreement, accompanying correspondence and data explaining both its purpose and its scope, became known to the people through the message transmitted to Congress, it was immediately apparent that the ripened fruits of the careful labors of the commissioners met with widespread approval...
...that matters had advanced to a point where the Senate ought to step in...
...26 last the text of the reciprocity trade agreement which had been negotiated under my direction by the Secretary of State with the representatives of the Dominion of Canada...
...The exposure in Illinois was followed closely by the introduction into the United States Senate of a resolution by Senator La Follette asking that a special committee of five members be named to carry the Lorimer investigation further than the old committee saw fit to pursue it...
...Every road operating in Michigan reports increased earnings per mile, the Michigan Central earning $4,-306 a mile as against $3,639 when the fare was three cents...
...The House of Representatives of the Sixty-first Congress, after the full text of the arrangement with all the details in regard to the different provisions had been before it, as they were before the American people, passed a bill confirming the agreement as negotiated and as transmitted to Congress...
...Andrew Carnegie has refused to head an amalgamation of societies designed to further the movement...
...Steam is to be abandoned on the Stadtbahn and complete electric equipment is to be substituted at a cost of $30,000,000...
...Progress in the movement to bring about the adoption of a complete arbitration treaty between England and the United States has been encouraging during the last week and it is reported that the Senate soon will be asked for its approval of the formal document...
...The Republicans have been slighted in their committee assignments but it is not likely that the denunciation of Mann will have much influence in changing the schedule...
...In declining the post he said that the time for public demonstrations had passed...
...Besides presenting an array of facts regarding the vice problem the commission makes recommendations which, if carried out by the municipality, are expected to check the present appalling toll levied on the young manhood and womanhood of the western metropolis...
...The strike has been in progress for six weeks and the chief demand is for a wage increase...
...He said also that Edward Hines, millionaire lumberman of Chicago, had a hand in the election and that efforts had been made to collect the money, after the election, from ten wealthy persons in the state...
...Judge Hanford at Seattle decided that it was not illegal for C. F. Mundy, E. E. Siegley and Archie Shields to assign their coal claims...
...Within the last week an unconfirmed report came from the border to the effect that the insurrec-tos would be willing, pending a complete settlement of all trouble in the republic, to permit the Diaz cabinet to name a provisional president...
...The volume of support which has developed shows that its broadly national scope is fully appreciated and is responsive to the popular will...
...People Win and Lose While the Supreme Court at Washington, D. C, on the 3d, decided that the government might amend its injunction petition against the railroads which own and operate coal mines in the east, thus furthering the interests of consumers, the United States District court at Seattle on the same day handed down an adverse decision in the effort to punish alleged fraudulent locators on Alaska coal lands...
...I have felt it my duty, therefore, not to acquiesce in relegation of action until the opening of the Congress in December, but to use my constitutional prerogative and convoke the Sixty-second Congress in extra session in order that there shall be no break of continuity in considering and acting upon this most important subject...
...Circulars issued by the League call for fire-drills, and girls who work at the various trades are being urged to concerted action...
...Finds Approval Grows THIS approval has been strengthened by further consideration of the terms of the agreement in all their particulars...
...While the general subject was under discussion by the commissioners I felt assured that the sentiment of the people of the United States was such that they would welcome a measure which would result in the increase of trade on both sides of the boundary line, would open up the reserve productive resources of Canada to the great mass of our own consumers on advantageous conditions, and at the same time offer a broader outlet for the excess product of our farms and many of our industries...
...Protect Chicago Workers The recent appalling fire in the Asch building in New York, which ended the lives of 141 persons, mostly girls, has stirred the Woman's Trade League of Chicago to action...
...I now lay that message and the reciprocity trade agreement as part of the present message before the Sixty-second Congress, and again invite earnest attention to the considerations therein expressed...
...Experts have decided that the plan not only is entirely practicable but that it is almost necessary in order to relieve Berlin of soot and smoke...
...The President's message was unexpectedly brief and confined itself only to the Canadian reciprocity agreement with an urgent appeal for its approval...
...NEWS NOTES — The German Kaiser's influence soon will bring about the complete electrifying of the greatest suburban railroad in Europe...
...So wide has been the interest in the Chicago report that it is likely that similar investigations will be made in other cities with a view to uniform methods of wiping out illegal and vicious resorts...
...Details regarding a negotiation of this kind necessarily could not be made public while the conferences were pending...
...An imperial edict issued in Pekin assumes for the infant emperor supreme command of the Chinese army, which in late years, has been brought to a high state of efficiency...
...Pact Wholly Commercial The agreement in its intent and in the terms was purely economic and commercial...
...The edict reviews the history of the present dynasty and intimates that the empire is threatened with serious complications along the frontiers...
...At a recent meeting the League took up the subject of providing safeguards for workers in manufacturing establishments and compelling the city authorities to make a thorough inspection of these establishments...
...The Illinois commission reports that the year ending June 30, 1910, was the most prosperous in the history of roads operating in that state...
...The inmates of the levee resorts, in case such drastic action were taken, would be cared for in institutions until ready to begin life anew and make an honest living...
...Railroad Incomes Increase Reports of two state railroad commissions—Illinois and Michigan—are held to be significant in view of the recent efforts to raise freight rates...
...The Democats, like the Republicans, are divided, and there is evidence that many of the new majority in the House are giving special attention t the game of politics...
...Early Action Urged I am constrained in deference to popular sentiment and with a realizing sense of my duty to the great mass of our people whose welfare is involved, to urge upon your consideration early action on this agreement...
...Testifying before the special investigating committee of the Illinois Legislature, H. H. Kohlsaat, editor of the Chicago Record-Herald, made the not altogether surprising statement that $100,000 had been used to elect Lorimer...
...Net corporate incomes reached $180,550,004, an increase of $37,012,247...
...The lands in question, known as the Sir Edward Stracey group, are said to be worth a hundred million dollars or more...
...Representative J. R. Mann of Illinois, Republican leader, led Champ Clark into the chamber after the latter's election as Speaker and the Missouri member made a speech in which he urged his party colleagues to act upon questions hitherto outlined...
...President Taft's Message TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:— I transmitted to the Sixty-first Congress on Jan...
...The Democratic rules as adopted by the new House were the object of a bitter attack on the floor by ex-Speaker "Joe" Cannon, who eulogized the "old guard" and defended himself against charges of czarism in the past...
...This agreement was the consummation of earnest effort, extending over a period of nearly a year, on the part of both governments to effect a trade arrangement which, supplementing as it did the amicable settlement of various questions of a diplomatic and political character that had been reached, would mutually promote commerce and would strengthen the friendly relations now existing...
...Only about $5,000 has been accounted for in the confessions of various Democratic members of the Legislature who voted to elect Lorimer and the special committee will make an effort to secure further information...
...On the 10th, Tom L. Johnson, former mayor of Cleveland, single taxer, and world-renowned champion of fundamental democracy, died, after an illness of several years...
...The session opened on the 4th and the Democratic programme was carried through without a hitch...
...Reports on Social Evil Chicago's vice commission, the first of its kind in the country, made its report on the 5th, after an investigation that has been going on for more than a year...
...Insist That Diaz Must Go Leaders of the insurrection in Mexico still maintain their position against Diaz...
...The Michigan commission reported that the two-cent fare law had resulted in larger profits than those reported during the years when passengers paid three cents a mile...
...The commission asks that the city government regulate the levee district by wiping it out...
Vol. 3 • April 1911 • No. 15
