Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1908-07-27
RUSH TO SEND OUT NEWS
Methods Employed in Washington to
Distribute It.
LEAKS THAT REACH WALL STREET
Financiers Have Good Methods to
Ascertain Court Decisions in
Advance-StBndard OIL
Case Tipped on.
1rrnm a staff CorresnondentO

lal. just DeIOTe nOOn On lhtShdg "a
every week two telegraph operators leave
the office of the Western Union company
and boarding an Avenue" car, proceed
to the weather bureau. They take sta
tion in an alley in the rear Of the build
ing and within five minutes have at
tached the keys and saunders to the wires
which are brought down from the top of
the poles. Exactly at noon a messenger
rushes out of the weather bureau Of
flee with the weekly weather crop report
and a minute later that report is being
flashed over tho wires to New York, Chi
cago, Boston, New Orleans and score
of other cities, where members Of boards
of trade, chambers of commerce. corn and
cotton exchanges are awaiting the result
of the Agricultural departments work in
gathering data of value TO all commercial
organizations.
No one is allowed to use the telephones
or telegraph instruments in the bureau
| for sending out information concerning
| these reports. Secretary Wilson and Chief
Moore, of the weather service, have taken
all possible precautions to prevent
| leaks" ever since the sensational cotton
| crop scandals Of a few years ago, which
resulted in the permanent removal OF
| Statistician Hyde to England
The weekly crop report Is put on the
leaves the compiler's room and there is
no possible chance for advance informa-
| tion to circulate although there are bro
| kerage firms represented here whose men
are keenly alive to every possible chance
for news which might have q bearing
| upon market prices.
! While the agricultural department has
succeeded in protecting the secrecy Of its
statistical reports the courts have not
been so fortunate. Scarcely a decision
has been reached in the last twenty
years in which the markets have had an
interest which have not been known to
Wall street twenty-four hours before the
official opinion was made public. The
most recent instance Of this was the ac-
tion of the circuit court of appeals in re-
versing Judge Landis' opinion in the
famous Standard OIL case Twenty-four
hours before that opinion was formally
rendered the morning papers announced
that the court stood two to one in favor
of sustaining the judgment of Judge Lam
dis, wherein he imposed a fine of $29,-
100000 Yet in spite of that publication
the stock market bounded up five or six
points, which was sufficient indication
that Wall street" had better informa-
tion than the reporters Of court proceed
ings for the Illinois newspapers
Wave of soapsuds.
Ten days ago Washington was reported
to have the filthiest hotel and restaurant
kitchens in the country. Then, metaphor
ically speaking. wave of soapsuds and
disinfectants rolled over the city from
Georgetown to Anacosta. There has been a
bull market for window and door screens,
washing and cleaning powders, brooms,
brushes, plumbing supplies nud everything
l In Of ~,
proprietors, eating-house keepers, BARRIERS
and grocers have been summoned to court
by the dozen. Barrels of crabs tons Of
fish and gallons of milk have been seized
and destroyed. This wave of cleanliness
is still rolling. The glass Of dirty water
containing public forks has disappeared
from the free lunch counter ana the
pickles sausage, cheese, slaw and stale
chunks of rye bread are now covered with
mosquito nettipgs. 1t would be difficult to
find a tablecloth stained with a drop Of
coffee in the cheapest "beanery" in this
city today and most of the low grade
walters have changed their collars at least
once this week and some have even donned
clean shirts, or at least "dckes." The
daily newspapers are reaping a harvest irI
advertising. Bakers and dairymen are using
columns of space to call attention to the
sanitary conditions now existing in their
establishments ard retauratuers are liter
ally falling over each other in their eager
ness 10 show the public that cleanliness
is triumphant, where a few days ago armies
of water bugs and swarms of flies ruled
supreme. II this existing spasm continues
and the inspection is permanently main.
tained Washington will soon lead the world
as the best place 10 eat.
Enormous sum 20 DIsburae.
THE United States government will ex-
pend during the current fiscal year S2Ol-
S6s.0O0 in contracts" is the announcement
made in a local publication which is de-
voted exclusively 10 news and advertise
ments OF government work. This enormous
sum presents the amount which will be
expended for all sorts OF supplies. The
needs of the government include nearly
every conceivable article OF commerce from
prunes TO steam shovels; from macaroni
for the navy to motors and fans for the
National museum. The Isthmian Canal
commission is calling for all sorts of fur
nismngs; furniture. dishes, blacksmith
tools dump cars, polishing paste and
porch swings. The Medical department OF
the army asks for 10000 acetphenetidlnum
tablets" a few Thousand "heroini hydro
chlorldum' ana several hundred other
drugs with equally attractive names.
Building material by the tralnloads is
needed by the Treasury department. Flour,
feed and forage by the shipload will be
purchased and sent TO the Philippines
, Nearly ten million pounds of dynamite will
be sent 10 Panama, besides hundreds of
thousands Of barrels Of cement and sew
eral thousand tons OF steel mesh and rods
for reinforcing concrete work. In the way
of food supplies purchases sufficient 70
feed upwards OF 10000 men in the navy
and almost as many more in the army
will be made. Fresh, salted and smoked
meats; beans, potatoes, peas and canned
goods by the carload will be included 10
| say nothing of the entire butter output
OF several creameries and enough evan
GRATED and condensed milk and cream To
flavor the coffee OF a quarter OF a mill
} lion breakfasts. II there is a product OF
the farm or the factory which the United
} States government does not want It would
be difficult to discover what that arti-
Gle Is.
COIOred Man an Architect.
Among the colored population OF Wash
ington are a great many ministers. doctors