Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-12-19
Senator Ha|e's |nvestiga-
ton Of the Canal Work.
There Will Be No Tariff Revis-
ion by This Congress.
Congressman liAIefieId and Powers Start
for Maine for Holidays.

Washington, D. c., Dec. 1S.-(Spe-
ciaD.-NOthing during the past week
has been more talked about at the
Capitol than Senator Hale's excellent
examination of Panama Canal wit
nesses before the Senate Appropri-
ations Committee. In three hours he
secured from Secretary Taft, Chairman
Shonts, and the subordinate officers of
the Commission more information than
anybody else has secured in three
months. Senator Tillman, also of the
appropriations committee, and a radi-
cal in his views interjected several
questions, and SO did other senators
from time to time, but Mr.. Hale played
the role of chief inquisitor. The sue
cess of his days work is all the more
remarkable because he had no time to
prepare for it. His other work has
been keeping him busy ever since Con-
greSS met.
The room of the committee on appro-
pria was a center of interest all
day long as the hearing proceeded.
Like most committee hearings on APP
preparation bills, the hearing was be-
hind closed doors. but there was a
stenographer inside, who took down
every word that was said. In the even
ing the typewriter manuscript was
hustled down to the Government Print
ing Office and by the following morning
thousands of pamphlets, with testi-
mony complete and showing all the
questions that Senator Hale put in the
course of that remarkable examination.
We're in the committee room. 1t was
decided to make them public at once.
Word was given to Mr.. Thomas P.
Cleaves, clerk of the Senate Committee
since the days of Lot Morrill,, and a
Maine man, to let the copies be dis
tributed. They made the most inter-
esting reading that has come out of the
Capitol this session.
1t was apparent from the comments
Senator Hale made as the hearings
progressed shat he did not approve
some methods followed in the conduct
Of the canal work. He would place it
on a better business basis, have the
expenditures more carefully regulated
and cut off some of the big salaries
What little he said to Press Agent"
Joseph Bucklin Bishop could not have
been altogether assuring to that gen.
tlerlan, now paid $4,000 for looking
after the newspapers and suppress
ing" unfriendly criticism of the man.
agement Of the canal by the Commits
sion officials. Mr.. Hale has had good
opinion of the ability of Chairman
Shonts and still thinks him competent
to dig the isthmian canal but he did not
spare him in connection with this press
bureau. In telling the Committee
about that bureau Mr. Shonts has this
colloquy with Mr.. Hale:
| Senator Hale: Do you not think, Mr..
Shonts, that this feature of a Commits
| SION or of Department or of any
branch of the Government taking upon
| itself the charge of manufacturing
public sentiment through the press is
| an innovation? Have you ever known
| ii to be done anywhere else?
| Mr. ShOnts: 1t was not to manufac-
| ture public sentiment; it was simply to
state the facts through some organized
| department.
! Senator Hale: Well, I will not use
the word manufacture" although that
| is not an offensive word. 1t is to help
| create public sentiment, is it not?
| Mr.. Shonts: Yes, sir.
Senator Hale: Do you know Of it
ever being done before in any other
work?
Mr.. ShOnts: This is my first expert
ence with public work
But for the pressure of his duties as
| chairman of the Committee on Commit
| tees, which has been selecting the COM
| mittees for the senate and recognizing
| them. as is done every two years al the
| beginning of Il Congress, Mr.. Hale
| would have had charge of the debate
| on the floor of the Senate. He asked
| Senator Allison to relieve him of that
and most of Thursday afternoon and
| Friday afternoon Mr.. Hale was absent,
working with his committee on COM
mittees SO that the assignments might
be made public early. The Senators
| are impatient to know where they will
| be placed, especially the new Senators,
ana, interesting as the iSthmian canal
| debate has been, there has been more
| personal interest among the members
| Of the Senate to know what Mr. Hale
and his colleagues are doing with them
A brief interview which Gov. Bur-
leigh gave out soon after reaching
| Washington. as to the tariff situation,
| is approved by the entire Maine dele
| CATION and also by the delegations from
New Hampshire and Vermont, which
states nave almost identical tariff in
terests. "A reduced tariff on agricul-
tural products, lumber and pulp" he
| said III that interview would simply
| sthJect those articles to increased
CANADIAN competition without COM
| pensatlng advantages The situation
Is almost the same with other states
along the border. such as New York
ana the Republican members from that
state Win two or three exceptions,
agree 10 the view expressed by Gov.
Burielgh. The exceptions are members
from large cities, where the interests
are &c degree, different from the in
terests OF farming districts.
| III Is already assured that there will
CONTINUED on Page Eighty