The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1907-07-05
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER..

at the Hague, it begins to be seen that the
the conference is likely to be arbitration.
The proposals of the American deleg ates |
have not yet been all submitted, but it is |
known that they left the State Depart
upon them. This government knew as
well as the others that there was not any
thing practical to be accomplished this
year in the reduction of ornaments. The
to refrain from using them SO far as pos
sible. Thus arbitration is likely to as
sumo the chief place in the deliberations
of the conference with this country tax
thing more practical than the old arbitra
ton treaty can be framed and if it is
there is little doubt that the countries
represented will all sign it. This is GER
tainly step in the right direction. A
man may insist on his liberty to carry
gun, but if he can be trained not to pull
it, the public peace is just as well con-
served. And eventually, be may get in
the habit of leaving his gun at home.
Formal complaint was filed with the
Interstate Commerce Commission this
week against the so called shipping trust
This trust consists of the Hamburg
American, the North German Lloyd, the
Wilson Line, and the Scandinavian
American line. The complaint grew or
| iginally out of the arrangement that these
companies were alleged to have made
with the American railroads for pooling
| their immigrant traffic. 1t was charged
that the steamship companies, that is to
say the Hamburg American Line flor
that was the dominant factor in the tIust)
routed the immigrants as it chose from
the point of tmbal kation to the poiut OF
destination and that the traffic was divld-
| ed up between the railroads without re-
gard to competition in this country and
with little regard even to the wishes of
the immigrants. This was rather bad,
but tn ough the immigrant was many in
the aggregate, he had few friends indi-
| vidually. Beside that there was no law
in the United States against pooling pas
senger traffic. But there is very string
ent law against freight pooling. an d it is
now charged that the Hamburg American
Line extended its jurisdiction to the
freight of this country both going and
coming. A manufacturer heIe if he
wanted to reach a foreign marhe' had to
route his freight as the pool Dictated or
he was crushed Immediately. 1t is point
ed out in the complaint that it is rather
hard for company owned and controll
| ed abroad to have the entire say as to how
| freight shall be carried even on the land
| lines in the United States. 1t Will make
a long, toilsome inquiry to look into the
matter, but it is assuredly coming.
Almost everything is put up to the
Interstate Commerce Commission these
days, and the latest complaint that has
been made is by the banks against the
express companies. There are less than
a dozen express companies and there are
1850 banks represented in the complaint
Their grievance is against the express
companies doing a money transfer bust
ness. Almost everyone has had occa-
sion at some time or other to buy an ex-
press money order, cashable as the adver-
tisement "many one of 10000 offices in
the world" 1t is a convenient and not
very expensive service and is appreciat
ed by the public, especially by travellers
abroad, whatever they may have to say
of practices of express companies as a
rule. But the banks say that the express
companies are taking the business that
legitimately belongs to them and they
ask that the companies be enjoyned
from carrying on the money transfer
any longer. One of the sore points where
it is claimed the express companies add
in suit to injury, is that they do not even
take the trouble to keep a sufficient
amount of cash on hand in their offices
in the smaller towns to cash the ordinary
run of order, but instead they direct the
holder of the order to the nearest bank
which has to cash the order as matter
of policy with it's customers; knowing
that the order is perfectly good but that
it will lose money by the transaction.
The young emperor of China has been
| graciously pleased to send personal
message to the President thanking him
for renting the portion of the Chinese
indemnity that is owed to the Uuited States
in helping to put down the Boxer up
| rising. This message was delivered to
the President this week by Sir Chentung
Liang Cheng, the retiring Chinese Min
| lister who was a guest at luncheon at
Sycamore Hill prior to his sailing for
China. 1t will be remembered that the
Chinese indemnity pledged to the Uuited
States amounted to about $50, 900 900
with interest. This China was paying
off in instruments as she was doing with
the sums awarded the other powers. The
President felt that the payment of the
indemnity was rather piece of interna-
tonal robbery for it much more than
covered the expenses of the United
States due to the Boxer uprising and left
substantial sum for damages to the
families of missionaries and merchants
killed there without then coming within