The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1905-03-03
WASHINGTON LETTER.

and the summoning of clouds of witnesses.
the investigation of the Standard oil
Monopoly. The railroad rate bill passed
almost unanimously by the House but
held up by Senators Elkins, Keau and
other representatives of the roads in the
Senate portend other far reaching and far
searching investigations of monopolies
until the country is on tip toe of hope and
iexpectation., What will the Summers
incubation bring forth? 1t is not doubt.
full that the country is behind Theodore
Roosevelt, more powerfully behind him
than it was on the fourth of November,
for that splendid majority has been re-
enforced by Bryan. and powerful Demo
cratic contingent. Will the Senate con-
tinue its obstructive or TO be polite, its de-
Lucrative tactics? 1t is believed in polit-
ical circles here that there will be called
session of the new Congress in September
or October aud that the Senate will
not then stand in the way of what the
country so unanimously demands.
~
Congress is finishing up in hot haste.
One day this week a hundred and thirty
bills were passed in less than forty
minutes.
*xx
The Canal bill passed the Senate Thurs
day Notwithstanding the newspaper
prophecy that it would not be taken up at
this session, but the recommendation
most desired by the President that the
Canal Commission be abolished was
stricken out. Secretary Taft has been
most outspoken in declaring that the
Commission has been an obstruction
rather than an aid in the administration
of canal matters and the House bill made
provision for the adjustment of the Com
mission hut the opposition in the Senate
led by Allison who is close friend of Rear
Admiral Walker, the president of the
Commission, and Senator German, result
ed in the elimination of the provision.
The bill as it passed the Senate states that
the President shall have authority to ap-
point person or persons to govern the
Canal zone and that the President shall
be given further authority to direct such
control but it is not likely that the House
will accept this most important amend
meut and the bill will 60 to conference.
Among the reasons that have made the
president so eager to have the Canal COM
mission abolished was the lack of actual
work done under the commission.
~
The House Committee has threatened
that if this provision of the bill were
eliminated by the Senate it would lay be-
fore the President statement of the
facts developed at the recent hearings re-
garding the acceptance of fees on the
part of the Commissioners for acting as
directors of the Panama railroad, and it is
probable that the Committee will proceed
to make.the report at once. The accept
ance of such fees was in direct violation,
the committee states, to the order of the
president.
~
Indications now are that a sea level
canal will be dug. Engineers have been
watching with great interest the work on
the Simplon tunnel, the longest SUBJ
terrauean road in the world and it is ar
gued that experience in this great excava-
ton will greatly aid in tunneling the
Culebra mountain and letting the Chagres
river out through the tunnel, thus elimi-
mating the food problem which has been
the greatest. or in fact the only obstacle
in the way of sea level canal. The Sim
plon tunnel is twelve miles long, the Guile
bra tunnel will only need be four miles
long and will probably not cost more than
the Bohio dam and locks would cost.
~
Representative Campbell who has
emerged from youthful obscurity to be
one of the most talked of men of the
day by his introduction of resolution re-
commencing the investigation and crimi-
nal prosecution of the Standard Oil Com
pany insists that he has the evidence in
hand to prove all of the charges he has
made against the company to Commits
sioner of Corporations Garfield. The de-
velopment of the situation in Kansas.
taken in conjunction with the popular
feeling aroused by the many newspaper
and magazine articles of late on the SUBJ
ject, gave Mr.. Campbell's act a peculiar
timeliness and the House indicated its
feeling by adopting the resolution regard
less of party lines. When the Govern
ment starts the investigation it will
measure strength with one of the most
powerful industrial and financial institu.
tions in the world. and the movement
may we'll be regarded as the most mo-
/