The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-11-07
WASHINGTON
From our Regular Correspondent.

From our Regular Correspondent.
Washington, d. c., Oct 81, 1907.
On Nov. 10th there will be a new
state added to the sisterhood. That
is the date the President has set
for issuing the Oklahoma proclama-
ton. 1t might have been done
sooner as the document is row III
Washington. but there is good
deal of business waiting to be clean
ed up before The territorial courts
and the date of the proclamation
has been set back as far as it can be
under the law.
1t is interesting to note that
though the new state will be pro
claimed and admitted, there will
not be another star added to the
flag till next fourth of July. Then
there will be a new flag issued with
46 stars in the field instead of the
present 45, This is matter cf
custom. New flags will not be
issued III all cases, but the stars
will be arranged with eight in some
OF the rows instead of six, preserving
the balanced rectangle of the field
and making the change only ap.
preciable to the trained observer.
w,T
Congress is always we'll to the
front with new inventions either
when there is chance to spend
money or to add to the convenience
OF the senator's or representatives or
both. The latest thing proposed is
central debating and type writ
ing bureau for the new House and
Senate Office building at the Capi-
tol and for such of the members as
want to work by the new method
from the rooms in the old Capitol
building. The scheme is device
of the Swedish inventor Poulsen,
he OF wireless telephone fame 1t is
a machine that will take dictation
over telephone wire at a distance.
1t is remarkable and uncanny act
ing piece of mechanism. There are
two big spools carrying a very fine
steel wire. This wire is wound
FROM one spool to the other by a
small motor. The debating is done
into an ordinary telephone trans
mitter that may be located fifty
miles from the machine, but the
conversation or letter or whatever
is to be recorded is printed in invis-
ible waves of magnetism on this
wire as it passes over an electric
needle. All that the Senator has
TO have on his desk is the telephone
transmi.ter hung over a small disk
like little clock face with all indi-
eating needle that tells him wheth-
er his recording wire is running out
on the distant machine. When he
finishes debating, the typewriter in
the central bureau simply reverses
the motor on the recording machine
and puts the letter or speech into
typewriting and sends it to him
completed. There is no clack of a
typewriter in his office, no stenog-
rapher to sit around and listen to
conversations with his visitors and
no dirt and muss from shaving
down wax records. Dictation from
any committee room can thus be
taken in the central bureau and
there all the work of transcribing
is done. The record remains on
the wire indefinitely and withstands
all sorts of hard usage but can be
instantly wiped out by contrary
electric current a fter which the wire
is ready for use again.
*+*
Senator McCumber was at the
White House this week with the
draft of bill that he will introduce
early in the session. 1t provides
for chartering corporations by the
federal government. 1t is aimed
to meet the demands for federal
charters that have been put forth
in many quarters. The books of
the corporations will be open to the
inspection of the Department of
Commerce and Labor and the
amount of stock and bonds issued
will be fixed by the Department,
based on the actual value of the as
sets of the company. Any existing
corporation can apply for and Sc
cure a federal charter without reor-
ganizing. The adoption Of the fed
eral charter is made optional and
not obligatory, but it would act as
such a guarantee of stability and
proper administration that it is
thought it would prove valuable