Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-11-12

@NW2D@jI1
So-o-~~~o-~--~~
President Roosevelt returned to Wash
ington after having made several stops
on his way from the Louisiana cane
brakes, where he had been hunting for
two weeks. From the sportsman's
point of view, his hunt was not very
successful. Up TO the last day of his
outing he had killed one deer. but on
that day brought down good-sized
black bear traEed by the dogs. At
! Nashville, Tenn, where the President
stopped over several hours. after hav-
/ ing made brief visit to NickSburg,
he delivered three addresses and took
part in two parades. Gov. Patterson
and the Mayor of Nashville were ON
hand with other prominent citizens to
receive him, and company of Confed-
crate veterans marched MS a special
escort. In his speeches. referring to
the prevailing panic in Wall street he
| took occasion TO say emphatically that
his policies would be perseyered in, and
he summed them up in one brief sen
tence. saying that 'they represent the
effort to punish successful dishonesty"
He doubted if they had any effect in
bringing about the present trouble, but
if they did, he said it would not alter
in the slightest degree his course. A
temporary commercial depression he
would consider small cost il it were
necessary to arouse civic manhood in
our nation. After his address the pres-
ident and his party visited the Hermit
age,f the home occupied by President
Andrew Jackson. Upon his return to
| the White House the President said
he was delighted With his trip, and
was especially gratifed over the fact
that he got a bear as the result Of
his hunt. During his journey he Ind
visited eleven States, and his main
purpose was to give the weight of his
Office to the movement for a ship canal
in the Mississippi.
80
What's the matter with the navy?
This question Secretary Metcalf has
set himself to answer. The trouble
iii the navy apparently applies both to
personal and fighting machines, Seri-
Gus defects, long pointed out by some
reform officers, are now made plain
and so many more have been shown
that there has resulted a wide differ
ence of opinion as to the practicable
ity of attempting the cruise from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. Now the gen
eral board is divided In its opinion as
to the type and numbers of the battle
Ships that should be bdilt The board
Of construction is divided as to how
they should be built. officers of the
bureau of navigation and other divi-
sious are divided as to how to improve
the personnel. Metcalf is at sea and
where the bureaus differ between them
selves they are coming to the point of
standing together against the secretary.
1t Is said it has remained for the pro-
jected Pacific trip to bring the div-
sion to a focus and possibly crisis.
-
A new step has been taken by the
administration in its war upon Illegal
trusts by invoking Section & of the
Sherman antitrust law to justify the
seizure of about $1,000 worth of to-
bacco goods in Virginia belongi"~ to
corporations allied to the American To-
bacco Company, otherwise known as
the Tobacco Trust Up to this time
Section 6, which specifically authorizes
| the seizure and condemnation of any
property owned under contract or in
combination prohibited by the sherman
law, had remained a dead letter. The
seizure in question was a complete
surprise to the tobacco company, which
is already under prosecution by the
Federal government. 1t is supposed
that this seizure will precipitate an ac-
ton which. under the law of seizure,
would bring to light information other
wise not obtainable, which the govern
ment might use against the trusts
-:
Attorney General Bonaparte has rem
dered an opinion to the effect that the
action of state in furnishing tinan-
cial assistance or giving promise OF
employment to secure immigration is ii
violation of the immigration laws, I'M
der which the State is in precisely the
same standing as an individual. The
occasion of this opinion was the case
Of one Geronimo Garcia, who came TO
New Orleans from Cuba, his passage
money having been paid by the Louis
lana State Board of Agriculture and
Immigration He had also been given
assurance that employment as farm
laboler would be secured for him, and
he had promised to return to the State
the money advanced for his passage.
-
When the government goes into the
labor market as a competitor in search
of men it finds itself handicapped by
pay tables which have not varied appre-
Gladly in the last fifty years, and we're
based on the old idea that anything was
good enough to be food for powder, and
that only the necessitous and ne'er-do-
well were available for enlistments.
Conditions have changed radically,
without pay changing with them, and
standards have been raised without
any accompanying advance in army
wages. Consequently the wonder is not
that the government does not enlist
more men. but that it secures as many
as it does.
-
The Isthmian Canal Commission has
laid before the Secretary OF the Navy
the suggestion that the locks Of the
Panama canal be wider THAI now
planned. owing to the larger size OF
merchant vessels and warships now
coming into vogue. 1t is thought pos
sible that this question may revive the
discussion of a sea-leyel waterway.