The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1909-04-24

information and evil !
dence, is soon to be. cut of a job. !
Land Grafters and Others.
Roosevelt forced prosecution Of land
grafters and sent a lot of them, in
Guiding a, United States senator, to I
prison. The man who had charge! of !
the land graft cases in the department
of the interior has been removed from
office under the Taft administration.
Speaker Cannon.
The one man who did more than
anybody else in congress to oppose
and Illustrate the Roosevelt legislative
policies during the last administration
was Speaker Cannon. The men who
fought Cannon's reelection and the
Cannon rules in the house were all
friends Of Roosevelt. In the campaign
Taft was declared to stand for carry
ing out the Roosevelt ideas and poll
cies to completion and fruition. Be !
fore the TAFT administration was d
week old, however, Taft had lined up
with the men who had for years fought
Roosevelt policies to finish, and aid
ed In forcing the reelection OF Cannon
and the re- adoption Of the rules. that
give him his arbitrary power to make
or defeat legislation. #
- Railroad Regulation. III -
In the offices of the Interstate COM
merce Commission, invested with pow
ers under the Hepburn act which
Roosevelt believed to be only the first
step towards effective regulation: OF
railroad rates and service, the commits
sioners and the big office staff are
preparing for four: years of quiet and
comfort. =: The word has been. passed
| that there Is to be: a letlup on rail
1.-the powers and duties OF the commits
| sion, plans are being formulated by
Attorney General Wickersham and
others in the Taft cabinet tor decreas-
| ing the powers Of that body by trans
ferring some Of their present work
and duties to other departments. There
| is much secrecy as to just what this
| reorganization of railroad regulation
Is to be, but the general understand
ing Is that the detective work here
tofore done by the commissions agents
is to be done under the direction of
Secretary Nagel, the former Standard
Oil lawyer, and that all railroad prose-
cutions are hereafter to be under the
direction of Wickersham, whose recent
Beet Trust letter, in which he refused
to prosecute the packers for rebating
through generalization of their ship
ments, Is taken as meaning that the
soft pedal is to be applied to all forms
of rebating for which any reasonable
excuse or palliation can be offered.
| Signs of the Times.
In congress, too, the conservatives
are looking forward to peaceful legis-
lative times. They expect q certain
amount of agitation and talk from the
radicals. but believe these can be kept
In the minority, and that they are not
likely to receive much encouragement
or support fro mthe White House. It
is freely volunteered by such conser-
vative party leaders as Aldrich, Elkins,
Lodge and Hale in the senate, and
Cannon, Dalzell and Payne in the
house, that sucn questions as further
regulations Of railroads, antitrust
flaws, labor legislation, postal reforms,
letc., are to occupy but little time and
tattention from the present congress.
Grid Iron Club.
| There is no organization Of men in
1.-THE country who know better what is
going on and what things mean than
the members OF the Grid1ron Club, a
dinner-giving society Of newspaper
correspondents, past, present and fu-
ture, which holds several banquets a
a amlses them by shying jokes and jibes
at them. This club gave one Of ats
most successful banquets last week,
land offered hilarious program. The
burden Of all the songs and Jokes in
tho entertainment was tits all over"
In, a minstrel show given by the men,
bers as a part of the entertainment,
) the end man said: .,.:..r.. 49,.
"I saw Frank Hitchcock, the post
master general, down at the cold
storage warehouse the other day
i What was he doing there?" asked
the interlocutor.; - *.j~z. = &-E
"why," said Bones, che was putting
into storage q lot of big packages
marked .Roosevelt's policies and he
got mad when the clerk asked him to
tell their value" E
Attorney General wickersham, the
new head OF the Federal Law depart
tment, has failed to make himself pop
ular with the newspaper men. Wick
ersi,am mas taken the ground that. the
1public is not to know what is going
on in his office until Ell gets ready 70
tell. The first week he was In office
he sent out invitations for recep-
tion to the newspapermen and shook
hands with about hundred who at
tended. A few days later one OF those
Iwho had been az the reception called
to ask Tor some information. Wicker
I snams private secretary couldn't I'M
derstand whist the correspondent
wanted, and why he was so persistent
in his demand to see the attorney
general. Fl 8 zs
..1'm 9 newspaper man. finally er-
Iplained the scribe sssf3
.'oh. yes, said the secretary, ''but
Mr. Wick ersham saw the nsWspaper
linen last week. $780,
did YOU hsar. shout that nav form
Ithey'rs usins y the sDspa rtnent q