The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-07-11

almost all competition and the
mines have 10 sell their ore to the
trust or not sell it all. 1t has not
done so we'll or so i'll in Canada,
for the Canadian government has
not much love for trusts, especially
American trusts, and it mas not
been allowed to get a foothold there.
KY
1t will be interesting to see what
sort of evidence the Bureau of Cor
porations has been able TO produce
against it. The Bureau, by the
way, has the investigation of most
corporate interests that the Gov
ernment wants to prosecute and
has recently appointed number of
field investigators who may or may
not prove the sort of men who are
needed for the work. 1t was rather
amusing when Jimmy" Garfield,
now the Secretary of the Interior,
was the head of the Bureau of Cor
porations to see the sort of men he
selected for the semi detective work
that was required in preparing Gov
ernment cases. There were some
good technical men in the Bureau
who did the most of the work and
got little of the credit. But the
real favorites of the Commissioner
were what was known i'll the De.
partment of Commerce and Labor
as "the Ph. D's." These were
regular doctors of philosophy, good
men in way and graduates from
some Of the best universities of the
country. The Commissioner was
himself college man and he
thought that a man had to be a
college graduate, Of course a num-
Der of these college investigators
proved to be as ignorant and inno-
cent as babies when they were sent
into the field. One of the most in
teresting illustrations was "Ph.
D. who was sent out 10 Kansas
during the investigation of the
Standard Oil Company. He stayed
in the Kansas field for two months
and did not send line of informa-
ton to the Department. Then he
wrote a report and this is what it
was: "The price of axle grease
was raised in this territory today
half a cent a pound. " That was
all. He is still in the service of
the Bureau of Corporations, but
they have him sitting in a nice
padded chair in Washington and
not doing field work.
#*A
There is more interest in the
pending summons of John d.
Rockefeller before Judge Lands in
Chicago than depends Oh the mere
imposition of a fine against the
Standard Oil Company. The Gov
ernment has been interested in the
first place to see whether Judge |
Lands could make good his deter
mination to summon the richest
man in the world. Now it appears
that he can, rather to the discom-
fort of said "richest man." But
there is more back of it. Judge |
Lands will nominally ask certain
questions preparatory to imposing
fine on the Standard. But these !
questions will have great bearing
also on the suit of the Government
to be brought in St. Louis this
month for the dissolution of the
trust. There is little question
that the Government will win this |
suit, but whether the victory will
be of any more practical effect than
any of the other victories of the
Government over the oil trust, is a
serious question.
**Y
This week was the anniversary
of the battle of Santiago. But it
was not celebrated in Washington,
as was the anniversary of Dewey's
victory in Manila Bay. 1t has been
nine years since Cervera's S fleet was
destroyed on the south coast of
Cuba and as Admiral Schley's dis
patch at the time said, there was
GLORY enough to go around"
But there was so much heart burn
ing and bitterness after the battle
and it came so near blasting a lot
of naval regulations as we'll as dis
rupting a lot of naval friendships,
that the day is not kept as holi-
day in Washington.