The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1907-03-28
Washington Letter.
(From our Regular Correspont).
Washington, d. c., March 81, 1907


Tension Yes, some. For once
in a way all the big people in New
York are looking at Washington.
New York has always affected to
despise Washington, referred to it as
nice little provincial village. But
the activities of the White House
and the vagaries of Wall Street for
the past week or more have put the
financial people, the railway mag
mates especially, on edge, and as one
Washingtonian remarked this week
when coming back from business
trip to New York "These days when
| Washington sneezes, the whole mar
ket jumps %
There is no particular reason for
this, aside from the fact that the
| President has announced an inten-
ton to clean up the railroad situa
ton so far as it can be cleaned up
| by the federal government, and
many of the big men in New York
who nave been using stocks as coun
tiers in their gambling game are
afraid something serious may hap
pen to them.
So the situation is tense-decided-
~ so. The President has not yet
taken the public. into his confidence
as to just what legislation he intends
to ask Congress for at the next ses-
sion, and all of the railroad interests
are nervous of the unknown.
President Mellen of the New
York, New Haven and Hartford
Road was here this week, aud had a
long talk with the President. 1t
was reported in some quarters that
he came as the representative OF a
number of roads beside his own,
! whose officials wanted to lay the
case before the President, but who
did not want to appear personally in
Washington. Mr.. Mellen denied
this, however, and said that he rep
esented merely his own road. He
would not say before be went to the
White House what he was going
there to talk about, and after he
came away he said if there was any
thing of the Interview given out, 1t
must come from the President HIM
self. There the matter stands for
the present But this much may be
said quite confidently. The Presi-
pent wants to do nothing to check
the prosperity of the country, but he
| has come to the conclusion as the re-
suit of railroad revelations in the
past year aud half, that many of
the roads, perhaps not all of them,
but number of important ones,
have been used decidedly against
the public welfare. This has been
shown everywhere the probe has
been applied. Most of the coal
roads of the country were engaged
in mining as well as iii Transporting
C al. They were favoring their own
mines and freezing out the indepen-
ent producers Their employee and
officials in many instances were ac-
ceptin stock in coil mines and rail-
roads for illicit favors they could do
in the distribution of cars and the
like. The public, meanwhile, was
suffring from the artifcially high
price of coal. Then came the oil
revelations. Every roal without
| exception was at the feet of the
Standard Oil Company. They were
granting related, Juggling open
rates and granting secret rates, all
to the detriment of the independent
producer and refiner. Again the
public was suffering Then there
were the revelations of the coal land
frauds in the west where millions of
acres of valuable land had been
fraudulently acquired by the rail
roads and the coal companies that
were the railroads creation The
grain elevai or report that has been
called for has never been made, but
the Chances are that h s will show
equally venal and unfair transac-
tons. Finally came the probe of
the Hartman investigation and this
showed that roads had been looted
and over-capitalized in fashion that
made Jay Gould look like an anna
teur because the properties were to
appearances all right but were rot
ten at the core.
These things, this accumulation
of things, determined the President
that there would have TO he heroic
measures taken with the railroads to
bring them back INTO line with pub
lie policy And this is where all the
scare originated. Mr.. Roosevelt
has said specifically that he is after
the ad roads and not the good
ones, but one might Judge from the
anxiety of the railroad world that
the good railroads were in tie same
category with the good Indians, all
dead.
Tho firapaiol c,i+na tiDp b.S l.aap