The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1907-03-15
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER..

tice anent the North Carolina immigra-
ton case. 1t will be remembered That
recently the state appropriated consid-
cradle amount of money to which was
added more by private subscription, and
the state Commissioner of immigration
was sent abroad, bringing back Whele
shipload of imm grants who were landed
at Charleston instead of at some north
ern port and were promptly welcomed
and employed as soon as they landed
There was some question at the time
whether the state had not violated the
alien contract labor law in bringing the
immigrants to this country, for the pas
sage of most of them was prepaid. The
case was referred to the Department of
Justice at the time and it decided that
under tn e law an individual state could
do what private employer could not do,
in the way of assisting foreign immi-
grants to its borders.
But under the new law, a decision has
been rendered that cuts off part of the
states privilege. The Departm ent decid-
ed this week that state might spend
money in advert ising abroad and might
do what it wanted in drumming up immi-
grant traffic, but it could not pay the pas
sage of aliens to this country as had been
done in the North Carolina case. This
will operate as something of a drawback
in getting shiploads of foreigners direct
to the South, but it is not likely to stem
the tide of immigration if it can be once
induced to set that way.
Hearings here continued this week on
what has been known as the Gear stake
case" before the Interstate Commerce
Commission. The railroads all over the
country have been transporting much of
the billions of feet of lumber carried an
nu ally on fiat cars, and to do this it has
been neee IS airy to place stakes along the
sides of the cars to keep the lumber in
place. The railroads have forced the
shippers to thus equip the cars in accord
an with the rules of the Master Car
Builders Association. 1t seems like a
little matter, the cost of quipping car
being only 81. But in the aggregate it
costs the lumbermen of the country about
100000 year. They claim that there
should be properly equipped cars with
permanent stakes furnished by the rail-
road companies and number Of iron
stakes, folding stakes, and the like have
o1ai,
that some of these will serve the purpose,
but the railroads insist that the problem
has not yet been solved, and that it re-
mains for some in ventive genius to per-
feet a stake that will answer the call
when fiat car is loaded with lumber and
will be out of the way when the car is
wanted for something else. The commits
sion has taken the case under advisement,
and it has not yet been decided who shall
foot the bill fer equipping the cars.
Ambassador Bryce called on Secretary
Root this week and went over with him
the general situation between Great Brit
ain and this country where there are
still q number of rough edges to be
smoothed by diplomacy. Some of the
most pressing things however are the
matters between this country and Canada
the Great Lakes Fish cries, the reciprocal
tariff, and the New Foundland Shore
question. These matters it is understood
were not touched on in the conference,
and will be above to 60 over till the ap-
preaching visit of the new ambassador to
Earl Grey in Canada. when the wishes Of
the Canadian government can be express
ed and the ambassador can come back to
w ashington with clear notion of what
basis of settlement will be acceptable to
Great Britain's mos ! important colony.
One of the last things that Congress
failed to do was to include in the Sundry
Civil Appropria ton bill any money for
continuing the work of black sand inves-
tigation that the Geologi cal survey has
had on hand for some years. This has
proved most important work in the
west, and arrangements had been m ade
to bring the bulk of the apparatus east
and establish part of it at the jamestown
Exposition, and the rest at Chapel Hill,
N. c., where the same work was to be
done for the eastern states that had al
ready been done for the west. The stu
dents of the state university at Chapel
Hill were to have done much of the &C
tual work under the direction of the sci
entists of the Survey, and it is believed
yet that an immense amount of good will
be done the country all along the Appal-
achian range by furnishing a method
whereby the gold deposits CT low grade
that undoubtedly exist all through the
foot hills can be worked at profit beside
extracting many other rare and useful
minerals at minimum of expense. AS
the case stands, however, the work will
have to be done by the state of North
Carolina, and residents of the other states
in the south who want samples of miner
al deposits examined will have to send
them to the state university and pay the
state for doing the work.
Just little malicious fun was INDUCED
in at the Navy department this week on
the announcement of the release from c.
tive service of Jas. B. Connolly, the lit
erary friend of the President who shipped
two months ago as yeoman on the bat
tleship Alabama to accumulate "local
color and do for the American navy in