The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1905-11-30
WASfilNGTON~%
u g q NEWCa)

misrepresentation. ex-Colonel. and
always Presidential Candidate William
lands as a correspondent He Is to
write SO pieces for q syndicate OF news
papers and get $1,000 each for the
pieces. Who wouldn't run for the
Presidency, when the notoriety brings
one as much as the Presidential salary,
and a heap more comfort and pleas
ure?
If Secretary Root has his way the
United States will have American Con-
suls at foreign ports instead of foreign
ers representing the United States and
working for their own country instead
At the present time the salaries paid
to Consuls is SO small that there is but
little inducement for an American to
leave his own country just for the sake
of some day lacking "Ex-Consui' after
or before his name. So it happens that
D great many of these Consulates are
filled by foreigners who have but lit
tie knowledge of this country, and care
less. Secretary Root has said that he
will not appoint a foreigner to a Con-
sulate II he can possibly help It.
Sometime within the next few weeks
q committee will be appointed to take
internal revenue stamp, and greenback
plates at the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing as have been legislated out
Of existence, preparatory to a general
destruction of such obsolete matter to
be held whenever the committee fin
ishes its work. Just as the Secret Ser
vice branch of the Treasury Depart
ment, about once every three years. de-
stroys a large amount of counterfeit
money and machinery and plates for
making the same, so, in like manner,
the law directs that all the steel plates
that have been made and used by the
bureau in the manufacture Of stamps
and paper money OF a past issue shall
be destroyed.
This occurs annually, and at the last
destruction held at the Bureau Of En-
craving and Printing in May last, 20
tons Of steel plates were destroyed.
There are at present some 20 or 80 tons
Of such plates awaiting destruction. and
the work of getting 1t out of the way
will begin very shortly. The committee
that takes stock of these obsolete plates
consists of three men. one of whom Is
appointed by the Secretary of the
Treasury, another by the Commissioner
OF Internal Revenue, and a third by the
Comptroller of the Currency. A repre-
sentative of the Post Office Department
is also present to take note of the old
postage stamp plates and witness their
destruction. 1t is expected that this
committee will be appointed within a
week or SO, and that it will immedi-
ately proceed with the work.
The destruction of these plates con-
sists in reducing them to liquid metal
In the furnace of the Bureau of Engrav-
ing and Printing, running the metal off
into rough pigs, and disposing of it as
such.
Once upon a time. when the "Regu-
lars" were tramping over the Great
Plains hunting redskins, and otherwise
trying to civilize that vast region, or at
least make it fit for civilization, some
body remarked to Gen. Sherman that it
was a fine country; that all it needed
was water and good society. To which
Gen. Sherman is reported to have
brusquely replied: THAT is all that
h needs Well, the good society
went to the plains many years ago, and
now the water that has always been
therein spots-has been turned to
good account, and here is a report from
one little bit of territory. 1t reads
like an Aladdin story, but is part of
dry-as-dust report from the Superin-
tendent of Irrigation Affairs.
1.-THE Platte River and it's tributaries
frrigate 1,924,463 acres of land. Some
Of the best farming land sells for 5000,
than $40 an acre. Fifty years ago this
land was regarded as desert and prac-
dcally was worthless. II the right to
use water in irrigation were taken away
from 1t. it would be practically worth
less today.
1.-The value of water rights for irri-
cation has risen from 81 an acre to $35
IN acre. and stored water sells for even
higher prices. Water to irrigate an
acre OF land has been sold for SIS
year.
1.-THE average flow of water in the
South Platte and its tributaries is 2.765
cubic feet a second. Against this sup
ply rights to 3O,597 cubic feet q second
have been established in Colorado and
Nebraska. The area irrigated from the
North Platte and its tributaries Is about
900,000 acres. In Nebraska riparian
rights are recognized, as well as right
Of appropriation.
and the water returned to this stream
bring out the fact that large percen-
tage Of the water diverted by particu-
lar canal is not wholly lost, but returns
to the stream and is used over and
over again. Some of the measurements
seepage tends to increase the flow of
streams rather than diminish it,"
Rear-Admiral Rae. Chief of the Blu
reau OF Steam Engineering OF the Navy,
made his annual report the other day.
and 1t was corker, SO far as truth tell
ing goes. He questioned the efficiency
OF the Naval Personnel law, the enact
ment Of which Is said to have been
mainly due to the efforts of the Presi-
dent, when he was Assistant Secretary
OF the Navy, and he said lot of things
about the Navy which would go to
show that it isn't in shipshape. This
report got into print before the Secre-
tary of the Navy saw 1t. and OH my,
Well, all the other reports of the other
heads OF bureaus in the Navy are now
awaiting the blue pencil of Secretary
Ronaparte before they go to the public
press.
Secretary Bonaparte's family will not
come to Washington to live. The Sec
rotary will have apartments here, and
Mrs. Bonaparte will come over to
Washington to attend the State recep-
lions and all that, but she will live in
the beautiful Bonaparte home in Bal
timore. Baltimore is only an hour
from Washington with trains every
hour, and IL the wife Of the Secretary
OF the Navy chooses to live there and
give her receptions and dinners to the
President and the members of the Cab
met in her own home, why, 1t will be
only about as much of trip as New
York society leaders take to get from
Of hot