Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-02-05
President Will Recommend No
Additional Legislation For
Present Session
HALT IN NATURE OF A TRUCE
President Handling the Situation With
Care in Order to Secure Successor
Who Will Carry Out Reforms-Ef-
fective Land Bill to Be Pushed
Reason for Recent Attacks.


settled that the president will recon-
mend no additional railroad legislation
at the present short session. This de-
cision of the president is hailed with
a certain amount of relief by many
of the big railroad interests, all of
which have their representatives in
congress, but they recognize 1t dis
tinctively as a reprieve and not par
don. Effective regulation of the rail-
of the presidents policy to be lightly
dropped. He has made up his mind
to see regulations that will regulate in
forc0. before he leaves the White
House, end the various reports of the
interstate commerce commission and
bureau Of corporation have made it
plain enough that such legislation is
badly needed. But the times are del
icate. The president wants to NOM
mate his own successor or at least to
make sure that some man does not
succeed him, who will make all Of his
reforms ineffective by falling to follow
them up. He, therefore, is anxious not
to antagonize some of the powerful
men in congress upon whom he has to
rely in a measure for support. Also
such serious legislation as he contem-
plates cannot in it's very nature be en-
acted hurriedly, and the present short
session gives no chance for delibera-
ton.
Among the matters shown to be urg-
emily in need of reform, are not only
the rates. but the distribution of cars.
the relations between the railroads and
the grain elevators, the safety of pas
sengers, and perhaps more than all,
the intimate and vacious relations be-
tween many of the railroads and the
Standard Oil Company, SO much OF
whose money is invested in the control
of their stock. The report of the inter-
state commerce commission on some of
these matters has already been finished.
It has given the president food for
reflection. He contemplates sending to
the commission a letter fully discuss
ing the railroad problem and asking
their views on remedial legislation.
This letter is likely to become a his
toric document. Several conferences
nave ,UCSA AlCIA Sl1ASddy OSlWSSh SAAS
president and the chairman of the in
terstat,e commerce commission, and 1t
is probable that when legislation final
ly is recommended, it will take more
or less the form of the Newland's res
olution, which. when it was introduced
last spring, was thought to be entirely
too radical This resolution, 1T may
be remembered, provides for federal
control of railroad stock based upon
the actual valuation of the roads ma
terial resources 1t provides, incidental
Nv. for unlimited pooling, if the rail-
roads so elect, but it draws their fangs
completely by restricting the amount OF
interest that may be obtained on their
properly appraised stock, devoting the
residue to equally distributed taxes and
to a sinking fund.
while the question Of railroad legis-
lation may be dropped for the present,
there is another subject somewhat al
lied to it, and of equal Importance from
the presidents point of view, which
probably will be forced to an issue at
this session 1t is the passage of an
effective land bill which will reserve
to the people of the country some
thing like O,0OO,O0 acres of coal and
oil lands; and prevent their absorb
tion by corporations who wish to hold
them merely to restrict the output and
enhance prices. 1t is stated that about
1000. 900 acres of these lands from the
public domain have already been en-
tered upon, and many of them doubt
less are now beyond the reach of the
government. Unquestionably there
have been gross frauds in many of
these coal land cases, and possibly the
government will be able to recover a
part of what it has already lost. The
scheme for withdrawing these lands
contemplates holding them in perpetu-
ity in the name Of the United States.
and leasing them to private parties to
be worked, and their products sold at
a maximum price, which shall be fixed
by the general governm ent. Senator
La Toilette has been much interested
in such a measure. and tried to get
thru a bill covering these points earlier
in the session, but there were certain
objections to his measure, and it has
been side-tracked for the present.
In connection with the mineral land
program, two vindictive attacks were
made upon the president this week,
one by Senator Carter, of Montana, and
the other by Senator Hepburn, of Ida
no. They charged the president with
usurpation of authority in establishing
forest reserves and with withdrawing
coal and mineral lands from entry
without the consent of congess. Sena-
tor Hepburn was particularly bitter and
declared that the people of the west
were guiltless of land frauds in any
shape and that it was an unwarranted
attack upon their integrity to even hint
at crookedness by withdrawing any Of
these lands from entry. All this sound
ed very fine, and it was glowing trib-
ute to the people of the west, but it
NAV be remarked that frauds in land
entries are about equally divided be-
tween western and eastern capitalists,
between whom there seems to be little
differences, except in the matter of
longitude. Senator Hepburn did not
refer to the fact, which must have been
known to him, that within the past
month an investigation has been made
by government experts of land fraud
cases. some of them in his own state
and some in neighboring parts of the
west.
What to Do When Bilious.
The right thing to do when you feel
bilious is to take a dose of Chamber
lain's Stomach and Liver Tablets. They
will cleanse the stomach and regulate