The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-08-01
WASHINGTON
From our Regular Correspondent.

serted by the legislative, executive
and judicial branches OF the govern
ment. Not a Cabiret officer re-
mains, and the Chiefs of Division
and many subordinates are away
OIL summer vacation. Much inn
provement is going on in Washing
ton rendered possible by recent ap
preparations. Five massive, white
marble government buildings are
nearing completion. The new
Union Railroad Station, which ex-
cept in height is bigger than the
Capitol of the United States, will
be finished in few months. Penn
sylvania Avenue is being elevated
and resurfaced, The park which
thirty years ago was swamp reach
ing from the Potomac almost to the
White House and covering nearly
four hundred acres, has now been
filled in and is laid out in wide
gravel boulevards, walks and soft
driveways for equestrians. 1t is
interspersed with lakelets, trees and
lawns. No other city is better en-
dowed with park area, and Wash
ington promises to be in time one
of the worlds most beautiful cities.
***
Things are at deadlock in North
Carolina between the state and fed
eral courts over the railroad rate
question. Judge Pritchard, the Fed
eral Judge in the case, has released
two of the railroad ticket agents
who appealed to him for a writ of
habeas corpus after they had been
sentenced to the chain-gang for sell
ing tickets at more than the state
rate of ~ cents per mile. Judge
Pritchard may or may not have
been right on the law in the case,
but he has succeeded in stirring up
a pretty hornets nest. The Judge
used to be one of the counsel for
the Southern Railway, and natural
ly his decision is looked oil with
distrust by the more radical element
as biased in favor of the road
Gov. Glenn has been taking coun-
sci with the state corporation COM
mission and expresses a firm deter
to uphold the rights of
the state in the matter. The real
aim Of both the state and the feder-
al governments is to get the case
before the Supreme Court of the
United States as soon as possible and
abide by the decision there reuder-
ed. A compromise has been offer
ed by Judge Pritchard to stay the
whole proceedings till the decision
of the higher court is rendered.
But there remains the question of
whether or not the state railroad
law should be allowed to remain in
effect till after the decision is rem
dered. There is but little doubt
that a compromise will be reached
and one that will be satisfactory TO
all parties, that is in so far as a
compromise is ever satisfactory to
anyone.
#f4
1t looks as though the industrial
arbitration commission established
by the President with the money
from the Nobel Peace Prize might
have fine chance to get to work
in the northwest. The strike that
has broken out in the Lake Supe-
rior iron region is more interesting
to the federal government than
anything in that line since the fa-
nous hard coal strike of three years
ago. The men in the Mesabe ore
fields have been very contented for
number OF years past. They are
an immense body, mostly foreign
ers or of foreign extraction, and Oh
them depends in large measure
the success of the iron and steel in
dustry of the country. 1t is claim
ed by the residents of Minnesota
that sthese workmen have been in
Huenced by professional strike or.
ganizers and that many men who
were satisfied and would have pre-
ferred to stay at work have been
driven out by threats of violence.
This is bad enough situation, but
it is further claimed, and it is be,
lieved with truth that the organic
ers have teen the agents of the
Western Federation of Miners. The
Federation has been trying for
years to break into the Superior
field and has never been successful,
principally because the employers
treated their men decenuy and did
not encourage the brand of union
ism that has made the Coeur d
Alone and Cripple Creek notorious.
However, the Federation has now
gotten foothold in Minnesota and
the present strike is the first result.