The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1905-12-29
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Gem
eraI Topics from
the Capital.
Dec. %, 1905.

partment. The Third Assistant
Secretary Herbert II. ID. Pierce
has been appointed Minister to
Norway as it was intimated some
time ago in these letters that he
would be. He will be succeeded
in the department by Charles
DENLY, sou of the late Minister
to China. and until recently
chief clerk of the department in
succession to Colonel Michael.
who was sent to Calcutta as Con
sui General more to get him out
of the department gracefully
than for any desire to promote
him, David Thompson, the former
y Ambassador To Brazil will 60 to
Mexico as the Ambassador there
and Lloyd g. GriScom. who won
considerable commentator as
Minister to Japan during the
Russian Japanese war, will be
raised to an Enthusiastically and
succeed Thompson in Brazil. The
post of Minister to Japan, vacat-
ed by Mr.. Griscom. il still open.
The appointment of Mr.. GriScom
is very popular, as it is generally
conceded that he did excellent
work in Tokyo, and the President
has been looking for a chance to
acknowledge his services 10y pro
noting him. Also the appoint
ment of Mr.. DENLY in the State
Department is looked upon as
the expected. He has had the
widest possible experience of Far
Eastern politics. He was Secre-
tary Of Legation III Pekin for
years, was afterwards foreign
advisor to Yuan Shat Kai. who
succeeded Lii Hung Chang as the
power i'll foreign affairs at the
court of the Empress Dowager.
1t was understood when Mr.. Den
by was made chief clerk some
months ago that he would not
remain in that position but that
Secretary Root wanted to avail
himself of his experience as an
Orientallst and would promote
him as soon as an opportunity
offered.
There is talk that the Bureau
of Corporations in the Depart
ment of Commerce aud Labor
has just about completed an in
vestigation into the affairs of the
Standard OIL Company which
will end in the trial of that noted
or notorious corporation for a
com bination in restraint of trade.
1t is quite possible that the inves
LEGATION is now under way. The
Commissioner of Corporations
would naturally like to have Il
look into the affairs Of the great
oil company. But it is doubtful
if Mr.. Rockefeller is losing any
sleep over it. 1t is not likely
that the case will ever come to
trial and if it does, it is still more
unlikely that conviction will be
secured. In the case of the
latter improbability there is 10
danger that the sentence will &c
any more severe than it was III
the case of the Beef Trust men
who were fined $4,000 without IA
Jail sentence. OF course a fine
would be great hardship to Mr..
Rockefeller or Mr.. Rogers. A
fine of $4,000 would be almost
as much to either of them as a
fine of 20 cents would be to the
average prosperous citizen. But
the widest flight Of Imagination
could not picture anything worse
than a fine happening to one of
the big men in the Standard Oil
Company.
The War Department is having
all SORTS of business these days.
IL has rejected all the bids for
the Philippine Railway system
because none of them came with
In the provisions of the specitica
tons. The trouble with the bid
bers was that they wanted to con
Struct fragments of the various
lines that they knew would be
paying from the start and were
perfectly willing to leave the
other sections to be finished up at
some future time when the coun-
try developed. This did not alto
gether meet the wishes of the
War Department, though Gov
ernOr Luke Wright, who is now
in Washington, said that half a
loaf was better than no bread
aud was rather in favor of allow
ing the partial bids to stand.
But the Secretary of War has
announced that fresh bids will be
advertised to be opened January
Goth.
Then there has been more
trouble over that perennially
sore spot, the army canteen. The
officials of the War Department
profess themselves deeply grieved,
but not in the least surprised. at
the state of affairs disclosed by
the investigation in Fort Sheri-
dan, where it was shown that the