The National tribune., 1906-03-08

eminent should investigate conditions
in the Congo Free State, and do some
thing to ameliorate conditions there.
He addressed an inquiry to Secretary
of State Root on the matter, and in re-
turn got the information that the Unit
ed States is powerless. Mr.. Root says,
in part:
Your inquiry expresses the difficulty
in the way. 1t is not clear that the
United States is in a position to bring
about such an international inquiry and
adjudication. We are parties in a gen.
eral act for the suppression of the slave
trade and the regulation of the fire
arms and liquor traffic in Central Afri-
ca, but that act relegates and confines
all power and functions to those ends
to the several powers having possess
Sions or spheres of influence in Africa.
The United States has neither, and its
participation in the general act was on
the distinct understanding that we had
no territorial or administrative interest
in that quarter. Our only potential
function is in relation to the search
and capture of slave vessels within GER
tain waters of the African coast, and
no occasion has arisen to exercise that
function. We are not parties to the
other more commonly cited general act
of the Congo (signed at Berlin on Feb
26, 1850.
Moreover, we are without oppor-
tunity or power to investigate conditions
in the Congo. We have no diplomatic
or consular representatives in that
country. We could not send any one
there, except with the consent of the
Government of the Congo. To do 9TH
erwiSe would be an invasion of its SOW
ereignty. Other powers, being parties
to the general act of Berlin, have made
investigations through their authorized
representatives, and the Congo Govern
ment also has sent an investigating
X. .,,f0 tfnr, how
on the subject of Congo misrule comes
at second hand through opposed chan
nels.
'I most sincerely wish that some way
could be found by which the whole of
Central Africa could be rightly admin
3stered by the several powers ruling or
exercising controlling influence there
in, so as to realize the intention of those
powers when they framed the general
act of the Congo. Much may be and
doubtless is desirable in way of good
Government in that vast region, else
where than in the Congo. If the Unit
ed States had happened to possess in
darkest Africa territory five times as
great and populous as the Philippines,
we, too, might find good Government
difficult, and come in for our share Of
Just or unjust criticism. No such re-
sponsibility falls upon us. That per-
tains to the powers which have as
sumed control and undertaken by mu-
tual agreement to regulate its exer-
else
It now develops that Gen. Kuroki
the great Japanese" military leader,
is an American-at least, he was born
in the southern part of this country
known as South America, and, to par
ticularize, in Chile. He has acted all
along as though he might have been
born in the United States.
And this is the way Congressman joke
each other. Representative Sperry. of
Connecticut, looks. as a spicy corre-
spondent has said like a keg of nails"
In other words as hard and uncompro-
missing as steel bolts, a Puritan in looks
and not far from it in habits. He is a
rank teetotaler, and is a member of the
Committee on Alcoholic Liquor Traffic
of the House.
The other day Mr.. sperry stood in
the depths of woe by House elevator.
Mark Smith, Delegate from Arizona.
who, it is violating no confidence to say,
is not a teetotaler, came along.
Whats the matter, Sperry?' he ask
ed.
81 am worried about my liquor bill
over in the Senate" said Sperry.
"Oh, cheer up" chortled Smith: 'go
on over and pay it,"
The Army bill calls for an appropria-
ton of $4,000 which is S1,000,00O
less than it was last time, and $1,000
600 less than was asked for by the War
Department. The Chairman of the
Committee, Representative Hull of
Iowa, is evidently "skeered o." China,
for he says:
Every Nation that-has business re-
1ations with China must be prepared
to defend them or else pull down its
a, taa Of
the Pacific"
The Chinese are awakening to their
great power, he explained. and he could
only express the hope that in the
awakening they would emulate the ex-
ample of Japan and become factor in
civilization, instead of menace to the
peace of the world. The best way to
avoid war, he argued, is to be prepared
for il.
Oklahoma citizens are kicking on the
provisions of the Statehood bill which
makes Guthrie the State Capital for a
period of 10 years The citizens of
Oklahoma "City," which name ought.
by the way, to kill IL for any purpose,
want the Capital there. and object to
the time limit for Guthrie. and the
starting of q State Capital row, and
want the time cut to two years. 1t
hopes to win the Capital for Oklahoma
City when the people get a chance TO
vote. but know that il the time is made
10 years that there will not then be
much hope of change being made.
Some 90 years ago in the oil-boom
days Of Ohio, w. S. Hammecker was
Postmaster at the town OF Findlay, o.
The sudden Increase in mail made the
facilities inadequate, and the request
for more clerks was not noticed. Mean
time the mali was piling up, and Post
master Hammecker, feeling that the
patrons of the Office were entitled 10
decent treatment, hired more clerks
paying for them himself. with the ex-
pectation that the Post Office Depart
ment would reimburse him. But no
indeedy- The Post Office Department
the Government, is opposed to hurry.
up work" They believe I'm going slow
ly-and surely, and unwinding all the
red tape and rewinding it smoothly and
methodically. For 20 years, now, Ham
mecker has been asking Congress Il
give him what the Post Office Depart
ment has refused to do, his s2,250
which nobody pretends to say was no
properly expended, but just that th'
Post Office Department got offended
because its slow-coach methods weri
not awaited. The House Committee oil
Claims has just ordered a favorable
report on this bill. Hammecker is nov
an old man, and he needs the money
and, what is more, he ought to have IL