West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1906-05-31
OUR washington LETTER
Congress Likely To Adjourn And
Leave The Panama Canal Bust
ness In The Hands OF The
President.
PATENT OFFICE BIZ INVESTIGATED
There Is Every Prospect That There
VIII be an investigation or the Stan
dard Oil Company.
rom Our Regular Correspondent.

from Our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON May 30, 1906.
Enemies of The Panama Canal are
chuckling gleefully over the
thought that after all there may be
no action by Congress on the type
OF canal at this session and that the
whole question will have to go over
or else that the President will be
forced to proceed on his own initia-
tive, which he has a right to do I'M
der the law. Now it is not as # he
were a man who would not proceed
either. 1t is quite possible that If
Congress leaves the question open
he will go ahead with a lock canal
and leave the experts to fight over
it after the fact. 1t is not a step
that many men would take, but he
is quite capable of doing it.
The case stands this way. Con-
gress wants to get away between the
10th and 18th of June. And then
there is the election to be looked
after. That will give impetus to the
flight of good many. The Panama
Canal bill will soon have to come
up on the report of the Senate Com
mittee and that favors the sea level
type. On the other hand the Presi-
dent has pronounced in favor Of the
lock canal and to a good many
minds, that is just about as good a
reason as any for the Senate taking
kindly to the other form of con-
struction. However, the best en-
cheering talent of the world has
been brought to bear on the subject
and the experts were much divided,
so there may not be much to chose
between the two types after all.
One of the latest arguments of the
Senate in favor OF the sea level type
is the earthquake in San Francisco.
They say that such a disturbance
would put lock canal out of COM
mission. But the chances are that
such shake as they had in San
Francisco would lay out a sea level
canal quite as easily. Still the point
is that there is an apparent dead
lock between the Senate on the one
side and the President and the
House on the other. II the question
should be decided IN favor of the
sea level canal, 1t will mean revision
of all the plans that have been pre-
pared, based on the assumption that
the lock canal was to be the type.
1t will also render of non effect much
OF the preparatory work that has
been done. 1t would not be at all
surprising if Co ,gress adjourned and
left the decision to the President,
but if il does, the chances are that
the lock canal-,will be we'll under
way by the time Congress reassem.
bles
1t looks as though the next place
where there might be house clean
ing is the Patent Office. The big
bureau is in worse shape than it has
been for many years past. The ex-
aminers are eight months behind in
their work in some divisions and
there is no prospect Of their catch.
ing up. This means that If a man
puts in an application for a patent
it will be eight months before the
government gets ready to take
look at IL. After that it may be
year or two years before the patent
is ready TO issue. The trouble is
principally with the head Of the
Office. He is a man who has held
the position for long time, and
like a good many other officials who
have had long term on fat salary
he has let his department get into
the habit Of running itself. The
result is that though the examining
force has recently been increased by
Congress, the increase has only left
more time for a good many Of them
10 smoke visit and gossip. The
work is piling up meantime and
there is little prospect Of the force
catching up with il under the pre-
sent management. The Patent
Office is one Of the few
departments OF the govern ment
that is self supporting. Il is
much more than that. The office
now not only pays its own way but
has brought, in revenue ofS4, 900, o.
600 10 the government Meantime
the man who has a small pstentable
device out Of which he might make
a compe tenoy or big concern with
some important feature Of their
machinery that they wantto protect,
have 70 wait the leisure Of an ill
conducted Office to get an official
hearing on their claims.