The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-01-01

o 4 s4. attorney general.
efAA = % Mr.. Straus had CIV
en- UP all his business connections be-
fore taking office.
americans to Build Canal.
Secretary Taft and the isthmian ca
nal commission have decided to ignore
foreign competition for the Panama
canal contract The opening of bids
has been postponed to Jan. II in view
of certain changes in the form of the
contract. The bond is to be reduced to
100000 and the total liability of the
contractor is to be limited to the loss
of the percentage and premiums other
wise payable, plus $3,000,000, The con-
tractor is also to be relieved Of respon-
sibility for defective material if he has
requested the chief engineer for def
mite approval Of the same. In general
the changes favor the contractor.
To Try Officers of the Twenty fifth.
The war department has ordered the
court martial of Major Charles w. Pen
rose and Captain e. A. MaekHn of the
Twenty-ffth negro regiment, from
which three companies were discharged
on account of the Brownsville riot, be-
lieving that something was wrong with
their conduct on the night of the frOu-
BILE. The failure to inspect the arm
racks and the rifles of the men until
the morning after the riot will be in
vestigated.
For Philippine Bank.
Secretary Of War Taft in his report
on the Philippines asks congress to
support an agricultural bank by au-
thorizing the Philippine government to
guarantee a dividend of per cent on
100000, this being the plan which
proved so successful under Lord Gro
mer in Egypt. He says the business
conditions in the islands, especially in
the sugar and tobacco industries, con-
tinue and that the storm of last year
destroyed 100000 worth of the hemp
crop Work is proceeding on a sys-
TEN of water supply fol Manila and
on the sewerage system. The complete
pacification of the island of Luzon Is
reported with the capture or surren-
der of the Ladrone leaders, the only
disorder now being in Leyte and Sa-
mar.
Uncle Sam In Coal Business.
A plan for holding and developing
coal lands in Indian Territory belong
ing to the government has been made
public by Secretary Hitchcock. A
large corporation is to be formed in
which the Indian tribes and the gov
ernment are to control the stock, the
mines to be operated by employees or
leased on royalty. 1t will be the first
time in our history that the govern
ment becomes a stakeholder in pri-
vate corporation The life of the COM
pany Is to be twenty-five years, with
option of continuance or sale at the
end Of that period, the directors to be
the president of the United States, sec
retaries of the interior, treasury and
commerce and labor, commissioner of
of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes.
Roosevelt on Negro Troops.
The presidents message in reply to
the Penrose- Foraker resolution calling
of the colored battalion went to the
senate, and as soon as 1t was read
Senator Foraker moved that the COM
mittee on military affairs be authorized
to Investigate the entire affair of the
dismissal and its causes.
The president says he ordered the
discharge of these troops because of
the murderous conduct of certain mem
bers and the conspiracy of others to
save the criminals from justice, crimes
for which the Punishment administered
Is inadequate. He insists that white
soldiers would have been treated in ex-
Rctly the same manner. He wanted 1t
understood also that he would refuse
to consider the fact of the birthplace
Of either of the officers concerned, it
having been pointed out that Inspector
General Darlington was southern
man and consequently could not be ex-
pected to treat the accused negroes
fairly. The president takes the ground
that if colored men stand by criminals
of their own race they lay up for them
selves the most dreadful day of reckon
Ing. He speaks of his efforts to break
up peonage and of his hatred of the
crime of lynching and says that in the
same spirit he has now acted toward
these colored men who have been
guilty of black and dastardly crime"
In one policy as in the other he chal-
lenges as right, but does not claim
as favor "the support of every citizen
of this country whatever his color"
Secretary Taft, writing to the presi-
dent, says that the mass of new evil
dence submitted by the Constitutional
League of the United States in an eff
fort TO save the negro troops is $50 gro
tesque in its improbahility and absurd
ity as hardly to call for discussion or
comment He upholds the right of the
president to make the dismissals. The
defense is made that citizens Of
Brownsville disguised themselves as
soldiers and rioted through the streets
at night in order to make case
against the hated negro troops.
Postal Reform Plans.
Some Of the postal improvements adj
vocated in Cortelyou's annual report
are the parcels post, postal savings
bank, postal telegraph and telephone,
abolition OF railway speed subsidies,