Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1906-11-14
WASHINGTON GOSSIP.
Interesting News From Our Special Cor
respondent at the Nations
Capital.

next month, it will doubtless be sur
prised to learn that during the recess
period, political, but business
meaning organization has been
formed, and which is even now en-
camped in offices almost under the
dome of the Capitol, to watch its
every movement as legislative body
and to spy upon the public acts of
each individual member. This newly
formed organization, known as the
Peoples Lobby, is composed OF pro-
minent journalists, lawyers. bankers
and a few former government officials,
all residing in different large cities OF
the country. At the first meeting
held in Washington last week, the
scope of the work to be performed was
Outlined thus: First-The collection
and dissemination: of information
regarding pending national legislation
and the attitude of members thereon.
Second-the Excepting of an accurate
record of the official acts and votes OF
members of Congress together with
other information pertinent TO their
official records and from time to time
the making public of these records
and securing for them the widest
possible publicity in order that the
people may have the real inside in
formation regarding public questions
and how their Representative or Sem
ator is voting on those questions.
licity is to take the form of pam
phlets and circulars which are to be
mailed to names of persons secured
from county tax sheets, but just how
and from where the money is to come
for all this watching of Congress, :"
has not been divulged and whether
Congress will sit up and take notice
of it's self appointed guardians, or
what effect, if any, the Lobby will
have, are questions that time only
can answer.
Officers of the War and Navy de-
partments are becoming alarmed
over the deficiency in the country's
coast defense and are looking about
for means to remedy the existing
conditions. Attention is drawn to
the fact that when it became neces-
sary to send a few troops to Cuba
several weeks ago. the greatest diff.
Guilty was experienced in finding ships
to transport the soldiers, and vessels
flying the flags of many nations were
chartered before an adequate number
were secured. Forty thousand men
are needed to properly man the guns
at coast forts and torpedo stations vet
only fourteen thousand men are
available. To fill the vacancies caused
by those whose terms of enlistment
expire, it requires constant advertis-
ing with posters, space in newspapers
and a resort to every other means to
bring the army and navy service be-
fore the public, but even with all this
the number of enlistments fall far
short of the necessary number. In
the navy conditions are not much
better. At present almost the re-
quired number of men are enlisted
but as soon as the ships now building
are completed the naval authorities
will be at a loss to properly man
them ALL Officers are now at work
upon several schemes which they
hope will have a pulling power TO
attract able bodied men into both
branches of the service and with
the granting of increased pay for the
men already asked of Congress it is
likely that conditions at coast de-
tense points will change for the bet
ter.
Considerable progress has been made
by Treasury DepartD emit officials in
their undertaking to provide greater
abundance of clean paper money es-
pecially of the small denominations.
There is no longer any doubt but
that the public health has long been
in jeopardy by the old and filthy
money which is permitted to circulate
until it hangs in shreds before being
redeemed by the Treasury, but up to
the present time Congress has not
provided sufficient appropriation to
remedy this trouble. The matter
received some consideration in the
House Committee on Banking and
Currency during the first half of the
present session and Treasury officials
have since been pushing the matter
with such relentless zeal that from
what they know now, their efforts
will be crowned with success early
during the coming session and as a
result new crisp paper money will be
obtained at any and all banks when
ever demanded. 1t is considered re-
markable that Uncle Sam Should per-
NIT his currency to be a source of in
fictitious diseases, especially when he
knows that the profit he derives from
the issue of currency is ample for the
small expense in producing it.
Rural free delivery carriers are to