The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1907-03-22
OUR WASHINGTON LETT 1Es.
WASHINGTON, D. G. MARCH 1G, 1870


touching on the other. The recent furry
in Wall Street came just at the time when
the railroads were co mplaining they were
being most unfa irly treated by the state
and gene ral government, and the rail
road explanation of the occurrence nat
urally is that the panic was preclpltated
by persistent government mallgnlng
There is another side to the situation,
however, and that is that the whole drop
in securities was a carefully planned coup
on the part of the big manipulators who
knew that they could buy back at an i'm
mense profit the stocks whose paper value
they so ruthlessly slaughtered.
Of course the situation was represent
ed to the White House as serious the first
day of the furry. But the President de-
nominated it as a gamblers panic and
took no more interest in it. Still there
was an urgent demand for money from
New ork and to save good many in
nocent persons, Secretary Cortelyou
opened the Treasury Department and
relieved the situation" as has been done
SO many times before by buying bonds
and releasing banks from their obliga-
tons to retire so mu CHI currency month
ly.
Now the crisis is over there is consid-
cradle specula alton as to what the rail
roads are going to do. Especially is it
wondered whether the railroad presidents
who were to have come to the White
House to see the President will persist
in that intenti on. Already one of them,
Mr. McCrea of the Pennsylvania, has an
bounced that he will not come without
special invitation, and as he of course
will not get that, it locks as though the
whole scheme of the visit would fall
through. Whether the officials come to
Washington or whether they do not,
there is certain to be considerable addi
tional railroad legislation at the next
session of Congress, and betor the mag
mates get through, they probably will
wish they had taken counsel with the
Pre- sideut when they had good chance.
One of the most important moves Oh
the part of the government recently was
that of the consular examination held
here this week There were fifteen or
twenty men. mostly young men, who took
he examination. The decisions have
not been published and will not be for
some time, but it marks the beginning of
real reform in the consular service when
tn best man will get the job. And the
pos sibilities of foreign trade for this
country are so immense and heretofore
have been neglected, that anything look
ing to Improvement in this line is to be
| welcomed
The applicants were appointed to take
the examinatio very much as the cadets
are appointed for examination at West
P ONT or Annapolis. One of the first
qualifications Of a candidate was good
working knowledge of French. German,
Spanish or Russian. A section of the
examination was devoted to language,
and beside this were a series of examina-
tons on commercial resources of the
United States, trade and banking laws of
foreign countries, international law and
political economy, and few similar
things. One can imagine an examination
of that sort being put to many of the po-
litical henchmen, retired school teachers
and m inisters and other derelicts, with
whom the service has been loaded in
Dot hos hoe
made, and the appointments will follow
in due time on strictly competitive
basis.
8 peaking of the consular service and
foreign trade calls to mind lecture that
O. P. Austin, chief of the Bureau of Sta
tistics de lived in Washing ton this week.
1t was on the same line of foreign trade
and con tanned good many truths that
were so old and 50 patent that it would
seem needless to impress them on wide
awake American manufacturers except
for the fact that they have been hammer
ed at in government reports for years
past and seem to make absolutely no i'm
preston. Mr. Austin pointed out that
the possibilities of trade between this
country and the Far East were almost
limitless. Of the clothing and household
utensils that were imported into the
Oriental countries, he said that 80 per-
cent came from Europe, and only one
per cent from the United States. In ex
PLANTATION, he said that the trouble was
that too many American manufacturers
relied on foreign agents who would rath-
er push the goods of their own country
than of the United States. But he said
that an equally serious error on the part
of American manufacturers was that they
tried to educate foreigners, especially
Orientals, up to using stock goods of
American manufacturers rather than to
cater to the trade as they found it. For
instance, if certain pattern of cotton or
cloth goods made hit with the people
of the Malay Archipelago, the agents Of
the French, English and German firms
on the ground would hurry samples home
to their own houses and Immediately
goods would be manufactured to suit the |
market and would lie forthcoming in |
quantities. But with the American
houses it was different. They wanted
the natives to accept the latest New York |
styles whether it was in dress goods or