Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1906-10-26
From our Regular correspondent.

Washington, d. G, Oct. 20.-For
the first time in the history OF the uni
ted States a President, while in office
will visit foreign country. NoVem-
her 9Th has been set as the date Tor
President Roosevelt's trip to the 18th
mus of Panama. Of course there is
room to question whether the lsthmus
of Panama Is foreign territory, Dut 1t
ia not the sort of question that ls
likely to worry the President when ne
wants to do anything. Secretary Root 8
report on the progress of work on the
Canal has increased the President g de-
sire to have a look at it himself, and
ali arrangements have been made to
give him good trip and show him
pleasant time while be is there.
He will leave the United States on
the giant battleship Louisiana and Will
be conveyed by the new cruisers Wash
ington and Tennessee. He Will prop
ably occupy six days each way IN 60
ing and coming and Will probably
spend a week on the Isthmus. During
his absence from Washington, the Ex-
ecutiye office will be run as usual,
merely being transferred from the
White House to the cabin of the Louis
lana. The President will have his
Congressional message to prepare, and
he will remain in close touch at all
times with Washington by means OF
wireless telegraph. The Navy has de
yeloped the wireless stations along the
coast to such point that a vessel need
never be out of communication with
Washington anywhere between that
CITY and the Isthmus of Panama. The
stations at Cape Henry at Charleston,
st. Augustine. Jupiter Inlet and San
Juan, Porto Rico, can pick up ship,
| equipped with wireless Instruments al
any time, and the President will be III
almost as close touch with the White
House during the whole of bis voyage,
as though he were still at his Oyster
Bay home.
Speaking of wireless communications
| it was close race between the cable ano
the aerial lines as to which got the
first news from Havana to Washing
ton after the recent disastrous storm
| in Cuba. All of the warshlps i'll Ha
vana harbOr are equipped with wire
less instruments and they have beer
sending reports of ship movements tC
the Navy Department daily in prefer
ence to using the cable. When thu
great storm struck Havana this week
Communication was entirely cut off
For two days and nights, neither wire
less nor cable messages were received
and there was the most intense anxlet.
as to the fate of the warships and the
American troops on shore in Cuba
Every land lire south of Jacksonville
went down during the storm, and Their
was race between the telegraph com
panies and the wireless stations as &
which should get the first news out o
the island and to the Navy Department
Wireless messages had to be relayet
from Washington to Cape Henry
thence to Charleston, thence to Pensa
cola, over to Key West, and finally tt
Havana. The wireless messages go
through al practically the same tim
as the cable, and then it was that tn
United States learned for the first tim
of the mishap to the cruiser Brooklyn
which had been driven ashore at Ha
vana.
| Financial circles particularly ar
Hooking both with interest and appre
hensiOn at whatever the President ma,
have to say in bis coming message t.
Congress on the income and inherit
ance tax question. They would not b
so agitated perhaps were it ANYBODY ex
cept President Roosevelt who haC
preached the question, but they hav
found by long experience that it is
very difficult matter TO mix the trail
so that he will not follow them. Hi
faculty for forgetting is not developed
to any appreclatable extent, and thos
who thought that bis ''muck-rate
speech was a passing outbreak ha,
their fears rearoused by bis utterance
at Harrisburg the other day. 1t is no
likely that he will be able to do any
thing definite along the line Of incOm
, tax legislation at the short session o
Congress. The subject is too big an,
the time too limited. But it is prett,
we'll assured that he will say something
in his message, and that something viii
j, set both Congress and the country a
large to thinking and talking and per
haps legislating.
1t will be recOllected that when Con
gress assembled the last time, ther'
were scarcely concealed sneers owe
the Presidents proposal for rate legls
lation. Moneyed circles all over tn,
Country recollect how the talk of RAJ