The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-09-15
u. S. TREASURY RECEIPTS.

VI
permitted to 60 to the city (San Fran.
cisco) on the evening boat, with railroad
tickets purchased and money orders (pay-
able to themselves at their homes), 5O
would turn up next morning robbed OF ev-
erything, many dangerously injured by
blows and drugs: On one occasion out OF
81 men who foolishly stayed over one night
10 turned up next morning beaten and
robbed of tickets, orders and clothes" This
is pretty bad.
As result Of certain facts developed
by the cruise of the battleship squadron
in European waters it is not unlikely that
ships oftener than once year. Ut two
ships in this squadron it was found that
one was consuming SO per cent. more coal
than the other because of the fact that
the former had not been docked for nearly
year, and her bottom was consequently
so foul as to hinder her progress.
And. now it is Panama and Colombia
who are going to have boundary con-
troyersy. 1t appears that while the geog-
raphers have drawn an arbitrary boundary
line beginning at Cape Tiburon, on the
Gulf of Darien, as matter Of fact no
survey has ever been made. The old
treaties spoke of the boundary as lying
on the watershed crossing the ISthmuS at
that point, but even the existence of that
watershed has never been determined.' So
the first thing you know the United States
Government will have to go down there
and stake out that boundary line, and they
will probably scrap till we do.
That Guatemalan ant is causing whole
lot of humbug stories. Among others is
one that the Agricultural Department has
a colony or two on hand with which it
proposes to try conclusions with the pota-
to bug. which is devastating the potato
fields of the eastern part of the country.
Now there isn't anything on earth that viii!
eat a potato bug, and the Agricultural
them, and chickens, the uncleanest things
that swallow food, steer clear of them.
The Guatemalan ant will tackle grass
hoppers to the utter humiliation of the
hopper, and it is said that there are very
few insects that it will not devour, but
it, like all the other unfastidious creatures,
has yet no stomach for a potato bug. The
wants to get Whit of the second time,
and its juices are of an acrid character
that make it unpalatable to all insect and
animal tastes. We shall have to fare
longer and go further to find anything that
enjoys a diet of potato bugs. Ugh!
The Department of the Interior has re-
ceived advices that the Yellowstone Ma
tional Park is being entered by sheepmen
with their herds. Such action being in
violation of the regulations governing the
park, the Superintendent, Maj. Bigelow,
9th y. 8. Cav, has been instructed by
the Department to rigidly enforce the regu-
lations and keep the trespassers out.
-
And now they do say that the Carnegie
Library of Washington is no good. 1t is
one of the prettiest of white marble build
ings, and it has full sets of Dickens,
Thackeray, Walter Scott, cyclopedas,
dictionary, and few things like that,
but not a daily newspaper. Not-a.one.
holiday, which is. mighty often, by the
way (oftener than any place else in the
world excepting Italy and Mexico), and
working people get day or half day
off when they might 90 to the library. it
is shut up tight and fast. so that the peo-
pie for whom Mr.. Carnegie founded the
library get no good of it at all. 1t is shut
up so tight on Sunday that a mosquito
couldn't breathe inside. just SO long as
vice keeps beautiful places open to allure
people on Sundays, and virtue holes up till
Monday, just that long vice will have the
laugh on virtue.
The Panama Government has ordered
Ricardo Arias and Jose EusebiO Morales,
the special Panaman Fina ncial Commits
s;Oners now in the United States, to pre-
sent to President Roosevelt a collection
of the first issue of the coins of the Re
public as a souvenir. The members of
the Canal Commission have returned
to the United States, after having enacted
laws for the government Of the zone and
deciding questions of urgent Importance.
Frank Fl. Bowen, of Massachusetts, has
been appointed Chief Clerk of the De-
partment of Commerce and Labor. He is
one of the youngest men in official life to
receive such recognition.
On the date of the Inauguration of the
Civil Government at Manila. Sept. /,
1900. MIR. Bowen was appointed Chief
Clerk of the Department of Public Instruc-
ton for the Philippine Islands, and con-
tinued in that office until his return to
the United States in the Spring of 1908.
Upon the organization of the Department
of Commerce and Labor. July 1. 1908. Mr..
Bowen was appointed Chief of the Divi-
sion Of Supplies of that Department, serv-
ing in that capacity until the present
time.
Gen. Macarthur seems to have it in for
the Civil Service Commission on several
counts. One is set forth in his annual re-
port. as follows:
"The contest with the Civil Service
Commission has continued. involving in it.
self correspondence. taking time and labor,
with much disheartening consequences to
myself and to other officers responsible for
this work.
AT this late day it has been possible
to obtain but two Civil Service clerks who
are competent.
'There is now one temporary incum-
bent. for whom authority is Sbtained from
month to month. until a competent clerk
can be obtained, and one on probation
who seems to be like many Of his prede-
cessors-bound to be found incompetent
"This incompetence has not an offensive
meaning. 1t simply means that many
highly intelligent and skilIful clerks are
not competent to do this work, because it
requires familiarity with the army itself
and with the intricate and technical sys-
tenn Of army administration, that can be
acquired only by experience in the army
CAS- for time for novices to learn the
business, however reasonable such a thing
may appear. there is. as has been stated
in correspondence with the Civil Service
Commission, no time here for that kind
of a thing. The Commission insists that
there must be; that any other condition
conflicts with the spirit of Civil Service
rules. This may be so, but it is like say
ing that intemperance and the social evil
must be abolished at once. This spirit
results in compelling officers and soldiers