The age-herald., 1902-01-06
Washington Day By Day

mercial purposes are to be revolutionized, according to reports of inventions made by two Washington men, John McF'ar- lane and David Reinohl, and in which said to be interested. It is claimed to be ''the greatest stride forward in the cot ton industry since Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin," nearly a century ago. The invention relates entirely to the cot ton seed and covers everything in the course of treatment of the seed for the varied purposes of commerce. and it promises to add about two cents pound to the value of seed huls alone. Six diff ferent operations requiring intricate and costly machinery will be rendered useless by the new process, which substitutes chemicals for mechanical means, enabling the perfect delnting and hulling of the seed, the saving of all lint. and the pres ervation of the hulls in perfect condition and worth two cents a pound as paper stock of very high quality, as compared with relatively small percentage of hulls worthless for paper stock under the existing mechanical processes employed throughout the south. The production of refined oil will be made easy in three op- erations requiring an hour and twenty ! minutes, instead of ten separate opera tions requiring many hours under the old method. The new process Is held to not n treat cotton seed, but reduces the cost of treatment one-half Thus it promises great things, for the cotton planters and the cotton seed mills alike; for there is no reason to assume that reduction in the cost of manufacture will be allowed to bring about a fall in the prices of cotton seed products.
 The new process has been tested in Washington in a small plant built for the purpose, and is understood to have been entirely satisfactory.
 With reference to Postmaster General Smiths ruling forbidding newspaper rates to all publications not legitimate news papers or magazines, it is interesting to note the official fact that hundreds of such publications have been excluded some thing like a hundred being in New York, and ten of them from one firm; sixty in Chicago and so on. One of these pub lications which had long profited by news paper rates was a book of stories from a widely known weekly of New York. and the ruling names as being excluded the Tribune Almanac and the World Alman- ac, the best known standard almanacs in this country. As far back as 1860 the Tribune Almanac was everywhere &C., cepted as standard authority; and today no newspaper can well do without 1t or the World Almanac. But neither useful book Is entitled to newspaper rates of postage. Upon each will have to be paid the third-class rate-"one cent for each two ounces or fraction thereof, prepaid by stamps affixed" This rate applied to the hundreds of publications forbidden the second-class rate is held to be practi- cally prohibitory; and that is great good thing for the newspapers and the treasury of the United States.
 Probably no other department of the government except the treasury will en- gage so much serious consideration of Congress this session as the postoffice department. At least two great issues are to be fought out-"penny' or one- cent letter postage and the purchase by the government of all the telegraph lines of the country and the making of the telegraph an adjunct of the postoffice, as is the rule in Great Britain and various continental countries of Europe. A ten word telegram can be sent from any one point to any other point in the British Isles, Ireland included for the uniform charge of twelve cents. Upon that basis ten-word telegrams may yet be sent be- tween Birmingham and New York for quarter of dollar each.
 Nobody here seems to know what atti- tude the two gigantic systems, the Vest ern Union and the Postal. will assume towards the proposed legislation. Certain it is the government could not conduct those systems of telegraph better than they are now conducted, and whether the government could make rates much cheaper and earn interest on the invest ment Is not clear.
 
 that is one cent for each ounce on let ters, the charge would seem impossible of adoption by the present Congress, un- less the Dingley tariff omnipotent power should favor it as a means of disposing of the surplus revenue MT. Land of Cali fornia, chairman of the House Commit tee on Postoffices and Post Roads, de- clares that one-cent letter postage would entail an outlay of $35,ooO,o00 in excess of the receipts of the Postoffice Depart ment But thirty-fve million dollars Is about the size of the annual surplus in the treasury, that is surely something for the champions of infant industries to consider; it Is such an easy way to dis pose of the demand for reduced tariff!
 It transpires, as you have been other wise briefly informed that the publish CTS of county newspapers were misled by General c. H. Howard of the Ma tional Publishers Bureau, Chicago, in his sensational postal card to the effect that the Postoffice Department had ruled that all newspapers not paid Tor in ad- vance must be excluded from the mails as second class matter and therefore de- prived of the newspaper pound rate of postage.
 You are another, Is in effect what the department says to General Howard, and so all postmasters in the United