Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-05-03

s"S SAA ioSi Ahdt mas oeen so Difficult
to Reproduce-Spurious Silver Coins Made
Of Genuine Silver Queer Properties Of
Restamped Coin An Immigration Com
mission on Its Travels The Government
Will at jamestown Engaee in the Public
ity and Promotion of Settlement of Irri-
tated Lands Of the West.
(From Our Special Corresrondent)
WASHINGTON, d. c., April %, '07.
1t is taken as almost as assured
fact in political circles here that VIM.
}. Bryan will be the next Democratic
nominee for the Presidency. OF
course Washington between sessions
is not the best place in the world
to gain political impressions aside
from tie party in power. But that
seems to be the way opinion is now
pointing Mr.. Bryan's last state
ment as to his attitude toward
government control of railroads was
very popular one, largely because
it put him closely in line with Presi-
dent Roosevelt, who is looked upon
90 thO SiCdlCoe GA kOilcut vi wi pOId-
ton curbing. So if Mr.. Bryan is
the nominee, the lines of distinction
between the parties so far as their
attitude toward corporations is con-
cerned will be very slight indeed.
There is another story going the
rounds, so remarkable that it can be
given only under the caption of I'M
portant if true" 1t is that the at
titude of the Administration toward
Mr.. Bryan has changed nightly,
and that he is looked upon by the adj
ministratiOn as the next best thing
to Roosevelt Republican, for it must
be understood that Republicans these
days are chiefly divided into RoOse-
welt and antiROOSevelt factions.
The rumor goes that Mr. Bryan is
being held in reserve as last card,
and that if the choice of the President
for the nomination is beaten and
a confessed corporation man is NOM
mated, that the influence of the
President will be thrown toward Mr..
Bryan, not Obstrusively, but at the
same time effectively, as he will be
considered the lesser of two evils.
Additional reason is assigned for
this report from the fact that it is
not believed that Mr.. Roosevelt will
take the nomination again under any
circumstances and he thinks that the
chances for his winning if nominated
in 1912 would be greater against a
Democrat than against Republican.
Warnings are being sent out from
the Treasury Department as to new
cOunterfeits that are appearing, and
one of the latest is in regard to $40
bill on the Troy National Bank, a
counterfeit done apparently by a
new phOtO-engraving process and
made up on two thin sheets of paper
with the silk threads that distinguish
the real government bill carefully
in between them. 1t is
said to be very clever piece Of work,
and to mark decided step forward
in the line of criminal art.
The Department is having a good
deal of trouble now with counterfeit
coins of genuine silver. OF course
during the time when silver was at
the lowest market price, there was
a good profit in buying the metal in
bulk and working it up into silver
coins of all sorts. Some of these are
excellent pieces of work. and as there
was nothing but pure silver in them
they were rather hard to tell from
the genuine. The principal work
now, however, seems to be recOining
Mexican and South American silver
with the American impress.
sion on them. This is a labor saving
device in way because the silver is
shaped and even milled, and
all that is necessary to do is to stamp
it. A curious fact has developed
however in the study of these count
terfeits and that is that it is almost
to. obliterate the original
impression. 1t may be struck out
with the fresh dies so that it is gone to
all appearances. But if the coin is
picked" in mild acid solution
for 48 hours, the original impression
will come out again, very family it is
true but SO that it may be read with
the glass. 1t is continual race be-
tween the Treasury and the counter
feiters as to which shall circumvent
the other. But so far the Secret
Service has managed to keep ahead
OF the game, and as soon as q new
trick is invented by the criminals,
the government experts find new
one in the protective line that will
cap it.
The new immigration commission
appointed toward the close of the last
Congress, has been in session at Wash
ingtOn this week considering the
best steam lines and most attractive
health resorts from which with their
families to prosecute their inquiries
in Europe. This commission, which
will start upon its arduous health
resort tour between the first and the
twentieth of May, is about the great
est joke that Congress has ever per-
petrated on the Treasury from which
they will draw all their travelling ex-
penses. After oil the investigating
and reporting over immigration that
has been done, it would seem the
government was in possession of all
the facts that could be desired to act
intelligently. But there are few
things that can be so readily made
to conform to the requirements of a
pleasure trip as an immigration in
yestigation. All the time can be
spent in travel, the more diverse the
sections visited the better, and all
the report can be written after one
comes home with the aid of a cheap
stenographer, Baedeker's Guide
and and some back files of the I'm
migration Report. A literary fellow
at twenty dollars q week will do it.
One of the interesting exhibits of
the government at jamestown will
be q sort of publicity and promotion
bureau for attracting settlers to the
newly opened areas in the west where
the government is now establishing
big irrigated farms. Millions of dol
lars have been and are being spent
on each one of these irrigation pro-