Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1906-01-19
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GOSSIP


sion will be received with qualification
throughout the country. 1t will do
much to allay recently circulated sto-
rieS as to the way in which the great
work of canal construction is being
conducted. These stories, While fire.
quently vague i'll details, have been
sufficiently numerous to create an i'm
preston. There have been rumors of
eXtravagant waste in salaries and the
letting of contracts. Progress toward
the actual construction of the canal
has been represented as slow and char
acteriZed by inefficient management.
That the President finds it possible to
deny these various charges sweeping
ly and unreseryedly is highly reasur-
ring. AS to the charges of incom-
potency or extravaganza, he says he
has examined every one of them and
found that i'll every instance they were
without foundation in any shape or
FORM" On the contrary, he declares,
the work on the isthmus lis being add
mirably done and great progress has
been made during the last nine
months" The mechanical equipment
necessary for the canal-digging opera
lions is being rapidly installed. The
work of sanitation is progressing we'll
and an effective organization of the
administrative forces has been made.
On the whole the President feels justi-
fed in saying that the canal will be
dug in shorter time and at lower eX-
pense than had been anticipated. This
highly optimistic report gives cause for
increased confidence In the men in
charge of the enterprise and in their
methods, though it would be Il mistake
to accept it as a reason for relaxing
vigilance. The essential thing, now
that good start has been made, is
that there be no remission. of the
watchfulness which has kept the work
up to high standard.
A series of Sc bills was turned out at
the bureau of engraving and printing
few days ago. Why these exception
ally unique bank and treasury notes
were printed is not known, though
about 300 of them We're run off before
it was discovered that such !. devia-
ton from the regular denomination Of
the "long green would cause much
CONSERVATION. At the bureau, wnen
the error was discovered, it was eX-
planned that an uninitiated employee,
hi nf t6o ho1 81
a stack of partly printed 81 bills on
similarly treated stack of the s. de-
nomination. When the So printers got
to work they, it is said, picked up the
stack of partly printed ST bills and run
them t. rough the So dies. When they
came out for inspection it was discov-
cred that they were $50 bills, the
S. stamp being on one side and the 81
stamp on the other side" They were
expended in the fire-box of one of the
big furnaces, but it required an all
davit from Director Meredith, the fore
man Of the dieroom, and the superin-
tendent of the paper room, to explain
what disposition was made of 500
worth of 81 bills.
Sentiment may find special interest
in the current report of the Postmaster
General, for We are celebrating the
two hundredth anniversary of the
birth of Franklin, who was Deputy
Postmaster General of the British colo
MES in America. At the time of
Franklin's death, 1890, there We're sew
enty-five postoffices in this country.
To-day there are siXty-eight thousand.
Then the receipts were less than forty
thousand dollars. Last year they were
hundred and fifty million. The num-
Der of people employed by the post
office department is nearly three hun
dred thousand-equal to the working
population of a great city-and the
number Of employees and of all agents
and means for distributing mail
mounts faster in proportion than the
receipts. The Postmaster General
touches on many suggested improve
ments, such as the reduction of GER
tain rates of postage, the parcels post
and postal savings repositories, but he
recommends that attention be paid not
so much to possible additions to the
service as to the Improvement of the
kinds of service already established.
-:
The annual report of Commissioner
of Corporations James r. Garfield en-
phasizes the administrations position,
namely, that the great interstate cor
porations have gone beyond the posi-
bility of proper control by State au-
thorities, and says that Congress
should so legislate as to afford an OPP
portunity to present to the Supreme
Court tie question whether insurance
is interstate commerce. He tells of
extensive inquiries that have been
made into the beef, Oil and steel in
dustries, and promises a special re-
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