Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-15
At THE WHITE HOUSE
Presidents Letter is Expected
Soon.
-
VARIOUS OPINIONS ON IT
According to the Different Sources Of
Information.
TO VISIT THEIR TWO SONS
President and Mrs. Roosevelt Going
to Massachusetts, Next Friday
VIII Make No Stops.
VARIOUS OPINIONS ON IT
D VISIT THEIR TWO SONS

The much-heralded letter of President
Roosevelt to the interstate commerce COM
mission regarding the physical valuation
and Overcapitalization of railroads, together
with other matters connected with the rail-
road rate problem, is believed to be not far
away.
This letter is looked forward to with va
rious emotions. Wall street has received
Information that it will show ''let-up' by
the President on the corporations and will
proclaim that better times are ahead for
them. SO far as the federal government is
concerned. Personal friends and political
admirers of the President assert that it will
show no let-up in the Presidents policy
as to the corporations, but, on the con-
trary, will ask the interstate commerce
commission to procure all the information
possible that will aid in strengthening the
present railroad rate laws.
The various views as to what the letter
will say grow out of various interpreta-
talked with the President. 1t is case
of You pays your money and takes your
choice" The President himself has told
his newspaper friends that he could tell
half dozen of them what was in his
mind and that each one would write a
different story. all because, he asserted, he
had no definite plans himself. The only
clear thing in his own mind is that the
existing rate laws are in need of round
ing out and betterment. and he knows no
better way of finding out how they can
be improved than by asking the commits
sion for that purpose to investigate all 1t
can as to numerous facts connected with
the railroads. When the President has
secured these facts he will submit recon-
mendations to the next Congress. The
questions of the physical value of the roads
and their capitalization. as bearing upon
the making of rates. are the foremost
ones the President desires to know about.
kHo l,~l -
would be able to determine whether the
rates on a road could be decreased or in
creased.
Another important question in the Pres
fdents mind is that of overcapitaliZation
He believes that something should be done
to prevent this in the future. Whether
retroactive legislation can be brought about
that will aid in reform he does not know.
The President Is said to be a stock
holder In number of standard railroads,
although not in large amounts. This, how
ever, has no influence upon his views, which
he is not prepared to lay before Congress
at this time, as he desires light upon many
questions for himself and the country. In
less there is further legislation Of a con-
sentative nature the railroads will IL
subjected to more radical treatment in
the future than they now imagine to be
possible. -,
g.: Appointment for Ohio Negro.
President Roosevelt Is said to be still
a prominent Ohio colored man to a good
| federal office in that state. but he has not
| reached a decision and is awaiting some
advices. For good many reasons he
has had concluded not to make this ap-
pointment In Cincinnati Representative
Longworth. his son-in-law, objected to the
appointment being made in that city
If there Is such appointment at all
the probability is that it will be in To-
| ledo, as Cleveland has made serious OBJ
jections, the same as Cincinnati
To Visit Their Two Sons.
President and Mrs. Roosevelt will leave
Washington next Friday night for visit
| to their two sons in Massachusetts. Theo-
| dore Roosevelt. jr.. is in school at Harvard,
| while Kermit Roosevelt is in the prepara-
| tory school at Groton, Mass. and will later
| enter Harvard Saturday will be spent with
| one son and Sunday with another, the party
returning to Washington Sunday night
Mrs. Longsworth and Miss Ethel Roosevelt
| will accompany their parents
The President has received invitations to
visit Massachusetts towns when he goes
! there, but he has said that his visit is a
personal one and that he cannot make
stops.
South Carolina Marshalship.
| United States Marshal Adams of South
| Carolina is having trouble about getting
| another term. Charges have been made
against him by ambitious republicans who
want his job, and the Department of JUS
tice has spent several months investigating
these charges which do not amount to
much. but are annoying. Judge Brawley of
South Carolina and Ernest Cochran, the
United States district attorney of that
state. have both seen the President and
Attorney General Bonaparte and have
spoken kindly words for Marshal Adams
asserting their belief in his innocence of
the charges against him.