Omaha daily bee., 1909-06-25

Inc nTODOSeu amendment 10 lle NonHAAAh-
tion authorizing the levyins OF an income
tax, which is under consideration in con-
%nectlon with the tariff bill and corporation
tax, calls attention 20 the fact that twenty
seven states have formally petitioned con-
gress to convene a constitutional conven-
tion for the purpose Of changing the
method Of electing United states senator's.
II four more states, or two-thirds Of all,
shall ask for such a convention, It must he
called. as required by article v Of the con-
stitutlon. The twenty-seven states which
have gone on record in favor Of a con-
%vention are as follows:
Arkansas. California, Colorado, Idaho,
Indiai.N, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky.
Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Caro-
lima, Oklahoma, oregon, Pennsylvania,
South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,
Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
THE legislatures Of all Of these states"
says the Brooklyn Eagle correspondent.
have passed resolutions recommending a
change in the present methods of electlng
United States senators and demanding that
the constitution be so amended as to TbrfuE
about the selecting Of these officials by
6irect vote. The twenty-seven resolutions
are now neatly filed away in the office Of
the secretary Of the senate, Charles G.
Bennett. or course. 1t goes without say
ing this Is something which none OF the
members Of the Taft administrator wish.
They realize that there are untold dangers
lurking In suggestions TO tinker with the
constitution by an assembly called to-
gether for that purpose. Nobody would be
- W~A,,T1
look like IL amended along the lines advo-
Gated by the radical politicians Of some Of
the middle western and far western states.
1t is safe to say tina the Taft administra.
ton will make no move in the way Of
encouraging four Of the states not included
in the foregoing list to fall in line"
A few minutes before Y O'Clock noon
every day in the year a young man walks
into a certain room Of the main building at
the Naval observatory, which is set up on
a hill in the northwestern part of the Dis
trict of Columbia. He glances at the vari-
Gus clocks in the room and then goes over
to a table which is covered with electric
apparatus.
He watches the clocks to his left closely
and waits for the hands to reach five
minutes of ~. AS the second hand ap-
proaches the 80 on the dial he prepares to
shift a SWITCH The clock is so finely ad-
justed that when the seond hand points to
60 1t exactly marks the beginning Of a new
minute.
As It touches the GO the switches are
thrown on. That starts a signal that goes
out instantaneously over 100000 miles of
telegraph lines. In Washington, New York,
Buffalo. Cleveland, Newport. Baltimore,
y-z- No. ATA-N.IN- 49,.
Orleans, Key West, Galveston, Chicago
and elsewhere the time balls go up on
their poles. People know that II is five
minutes before noon, Washington time.
The clock which keeps the time in the
observatory ticks on. With each tick there
is a contact Of electric points. A circuit
Is closed and an instrument on the table
similar In appearance to a telegraph
sounder ticks away loudly.
1t goes on to the tw~enty-ninth second.
then skips one tick, then resumes its steady
sounding until the last five seconds, then
there is another gap These gaps are for
the purpose of giving listeners at other
ends of the great system of wires a chance
to know what part of the minute the clock
is on. So It goes up to the last minute.
At the twenty-ninth second there is again
the skipping of one second. Finally the
clock gets around to the fiftieth second.
Then the circuit remains open for ten sec
onds. There is silence all along the tele-
graph wires.
At the other ends, where there are time
balls OF merely train operators, the Ions
pause indicates that noon is almost there.
The second hand makes on toward 80 and
finally reaches the mark. Then there is
another click, in about a second the sounder
is down and that tells hundreds of thou
sands of people that it is noon in Washing
ton, that the Naval observatory says so,
and that the Naval observatory is now one
of the best time keeping institutions in the
United States.