NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING
News Worth Remembering FORTY - THREE persons went down to death in the Atlantic last week when the liner Nan-tucket rammed and sank the steamer Monroe when the two boats met in a dense fog....
...Louis, Brownville and Mexico Railroad...
...Captain Leylan testified that the Monroe carried eight life boats and six life rafts, sufficient to accommodate 328 persons...
...Ten directors of the 'Frisco railroad have been sued for $14,408,921 alleged to have been pnid out by the 'Frisco in connection with the purchase of the St...
...News Notes —The vacancies of the Interstate Commerce Commission left by the death of John Marble and the resignation of Charles A. Prouty were filled last week by President Wilson, who appointed to these positions Winthrop More Daniels of Princeton, chairman of the New Jersey Public Utilities Commission, and Henry Clay Hall of Colorado Springs, president of the Colorado Bar Association...
...Representative Marahan of Minnesota, a member of the House Merchant Marine committee, said such an inquiry might be advisable...
...He promised, however, that as a result of the Monroe tragedy he would ask speedy action upon the La Follette bill probably within a week or ten days...
...On January 28, by a vote of 53 to 13 the United States Senate decided that Blair Lee of Maryland, who was elected by a direct vote, was entitled to a seat in that body...
...The significance of the vote is that it declared that the seventeenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States already is in effect —that in states where the legislature had not provided machinery for direct election of Senators, the Senators would have to be chosen by a direct vote if they expected to retain their seats in the Senate...
...The insolvency of the 'Frisco, the report says, may be attributed to various causes, among them disproportionate capitalization, the acquisition of new lines, the financing by the 'Frisco of the New Orleans, Texas & Mexico railroad, and other South Texas lines, and the desire for an entrance into Chicago, resulting in the assumption of heavy fixed charges in the acquisition of the stock of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad...
...Agitation started for a congressional investigation of the Monroe disaster...
...Leylan appeared before the committee to protest against a provision of the La Follette "seamen's bill," which would compel steamship owners to equip their boats with life saving apparatus for every soul aboard...
...Thirty-six passengers and fifty-five of the crew were saved...
...It appears," says the report, "through statements secured from the St...
...Speyer & Company should have been aware of the poverty of the 'Frisco and of its difficulties in obtaining funds...
...Miscellaneous causes among which are the payment of dividends upon its preferred stock in spite of its weakened credit and need of money...
...Louis Union Trust Company, manager for syndicates that financed the construction of a number of properties which were subsequently sold to the 'Frisco and which statements were in part supported by the testimony of witnesses, that a number of lines acquired by the 'Frisco were purchased by that company at prices which afforded large profits to the syndicate subscribers and trust companies...
...Poor investments and expensive rentals, among which are the investment in the New Orleans terminal company, stock in the Kirby Lumber Company, and rentals paid the Crawford Mining Company...
...The following Senators voted against seating Lee and thus giving recognition to the principle of direct elections: Bradley, Clark of Wyoming, Dillingham, Fall, Gallinger, Lippitt, Lodge, Nelson, Page, Root, Stephenson, Sutherland and Weeks...
...Following this most recent disaster it was pointed out in Washington that life rafts on the sunken steamer Monroe were condemned and ordered out of commission December 31, last, according to information at the House Merchant and Marine committee...
...The Curley raft is composed of a copper cylinder...
...Other causes for the road's difficulties were these: "The sale of its securities at prices so low as to indicate a deplorably weakened credit or an extravagant arrangement, with bankers to whom large profits accrued in the purchase of the bonds and the subsequent sale of the same to the public...
...Frenzied finance was the cause of the receivership of the 'Frisco railroad system and not ordinary railroad difficulties, according to the Interstate Commerce Commission's investigation reported last week at the direction of the Senate...
...A transcript of Captain Leylan's testimony of the Monroe's life saving equipment said: "These life rafts are what they call the 'Curley' life raft...
...Blair Lee Seated...
...Colonel George W. Goethals, chairman of the present Isthmian Canal Commission, will become the first civil governor of the Canal Zone April 1, if the Senate confirms President Wilson's nomination of Mr...
...In other words, as long as the people say by their votes whom they want for Senator, even if the validity of the state's machinery be questioned, the Senate will recognise the people's wish until the legislatures of states have had an opportunity to change their state primary election law...
...I understand there has been an extension of ninety days given us until delegates from Europe (of the international Marine Safety Congress) make their reports...
...B. F. Yoakum, chairman of the 'Frisco directorate at the time of the receivership, heads the list of ten directors who are charged in the petition with "unlawfully, carelessly and negligently" to have caused the 'Frisco line to pay out the sum of more than fourteen million dollars named...
...Goethals...
...He said he would bring up the matter at the next committee meeting...
...It is protected by canvass, but there is only a net in the bottom and this net is in the water...
...Captain Jamea Leylan of Rutherford, N. J., superintendent of the Old Dominion Steamship company, owners of the Monroe, testified last month before the committee...
...Chairman Alexander of the committee said he was opposed to a congressional inquiry...
...They have been condemned on coastwise and ocean steamers after December 31, 1913...
...The report declares "that the sale of securities to the investing public through bankers at a time when every appearance indicated the insolvency of the issuing company invites and warrants the condemnation of all who assisted or participated in each sale...
...Bankers Rebuked for 'Frisco Dealings...
...We put the Curley rafts on the Monroe when she was first built, twelve years ago," Leylan testified...
...Senator Reed Smoot of Utah asked to be excused from voting...
...A person who gets into the raft would be in the water all the time...
...It does not deteriorate one-half so rapidly as other metallic cylinders...
Vol. 6 • February 1914 • No. 6
