Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-01-23


President Roosevelt's message to
Congress transmitting the annual re-
ports of the Isthmian Canal Commits
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 in 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 unreservedly 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 in every instance they were
without foundation in any shape or
form" On the contrary, he declares,
the work on the isthmus lis being ad-
mirably done and great progress has
been made during the last nine
months" The mechanical equipment
necessary for the canal-digging opera
tons 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 III the men in
charge of the enterprise and in their
methods, though it would be n mistake
to accept it as reason for relaxing
vigilance. The essential thing, now
that a good start has been made, is
that there be no remission of the
watchfulness which has kept the work
up to a 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 800 of them were run off before
1t 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,
presumably one of the helpers, mislaid
stack of parity printed 81 bills on
similarly treated stack of the 81 de-
nomination When the So printers got
to work they, it is said, picked up the
stack of partly printed 81 bills and run
them through the 50 dies When they
came out for inspection it was discov-
cred that they were $50 bills, the
So 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 aft
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 were sew
enty-fve 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 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
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 COrpo atoms James r. Garfield en-
phaszes 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 the 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-
port soon on oil.
-
The isthmian canal commission met
at Washington and requested Chief
Engineer Stevens to furnish a work
ing plan f.. the excavation aud dis
posal of materials for canal on an So
foot level above low tide. This indi-
Gated that the commission had decided
in favor of lock canal, with three
locks on each side of the divide. 1t
was also decided to experiment with
laborers from the north of Spain.
-
When Congress reassembled after
the holidays Chairman Hepburn of the
House Committee on Interstate and
Foreign Commerce introduced his rail
road rate regulation bill, which is up-
derstood to represent the views of the