Omaha daily bee., 1910-05-06
Washin gton Life
some intervening Rhasea
ana Conditions Observed
81 the Netion's Capitol

Two OF three times year some pdttlVNlN
scribe in Washington gives assurance that
the United states treasury is impregnaole.
Locks, bolts, time combinations. network OF
electric alarms, automatic safety devices
and live watchmen together make your
Uncle's strong box secure against direct
attacks Of cracksmen. The news is inter
esting also truthful. But the smooth
worker Is wise enough to shun the direct
road. Experience teaches him that round
about route is the safest and surest way to
the nations vault One OF the newly dis
covered routes to the coin is thus described
by the New York Trlbunes Washington
correspondent:
such quantities OF obsolete and useless
public documents are being shipped into
Virginia under the franks of members of
congress that emphatic protests are begin
ming to reach the members whose franks
this waste paper bears. The reason for
this deluge, which is arousng the ire not
only Of the postmasters, but Of those 20
whom the stuff is addressed, is that the
mails are being weighed in that state.
Once in two years the mails in given
section OF the country are weighed, and the
average struck is made the basis of com
pensation OF the railroads until there Is
another weighing OF course the heavy
public documents ancient volumes of the
Congressional Record and similar valuable
publications greatly increase this average.
1t Is asserted that the railroads employ the
entire time Of man who goes about ask
ing the secretaries OF members OF congress
to mail this, that or the other publication
to addresses furnished in order thus to
cheat the government A thorough nVesti-
cation of this Anticipated and inaccurate
method of compensating the railroads for
carrying the mails would doubtless prove
far more popular and possibly not less
profitable than the increase of the postage
rates on periodicals so theoretically advo-
Gated by the postmaster general"
Without dissent the senate has passed
the resolution of Senator Hepburn of Idaho
calling for an investigation by a special
committee Of three of the methods used by
the police in the ordeal which has come tc
be known the country over as the third
degree"
The investigation promises to be one of
the most interesting in which congress, or
either branch OF 1t, has taken a hand for a
long time, reports the Washington Times
Senator Hepburn was moved to introduce
the resolution in the first place by the re-
ports of gross brutality of the police in the
William Seyler case at Atlantic City some
weeks ago. II half OF the statements made
as to the treatment Seyler received were
true, the injustice dealt out to him was
shocking and revolving, and filter for the
realm of an absolute monarch than for a
free and enlightened republic. Numerous
| other cases can be cited where the police
brutality has been as great as in the Sey-
Ter. case.
| 1t is not only proper that the senate
| should go into the facts as to the admin
isttation of the third degree in this coun-
try, but in view of the alleged cruelties.
| the wonder IL that an investigation has not
been made before.
| Naval officers are laughing at the
| ignorance displayed by the lawmakers in
congress the other day, when someone
! sought to learn the reason why. the bot
| toms Of the trousers of enlisted men in
! the navy are loose. Representative Hob
son, who was educated in the Naval acad-
| cmy and ought to know, gave the follow
| ing explanation,
| Il am inclined to think that the trousers
of the sailor were evolved in the days OF
Noah, and that when the first sailor began
to swim he found IT better to have the
trousers loose at the bottom to get his
stroke more effectively"
When Mr.. Cooper OF Wisconsin, with an
air of inoredulity, asked il he really
thought there we're sailors in Noah's ark
Mr.. HObson replied:
My statement is based on the assump-
ton that the world is a water planet, and
from the very beginning naval affairs have
been of the first importance. Noah and
| his family survived because they recog-
nlzed this inherent pre-emlnence of the
question OF adequate naval preparation
The human race was once saved by a
| ship, and Is going to be saved again by
ships. The sailor could not make himself
web-footed, so from the earliest times he
spread his trousers out at the bottom. His
trousers flared out in the infancy Of man
and they will still probably be flaring out
! when the last trumpet sounds"
Naval officers declare that the reason
why enlisted men wear naring trouser
bottoms is 80 they may be rolled up Ia
permit wading TO and from the beach, II
necessary. and to set them out of the way
when the barefooted men are swabbing
down the decks
The congressman with q red necktie was
entertaining a friend who had formerly
arrived from the "old sod" but had at.
tanned fame as the man who had carried
the Fourteenth precinct in the Twenty.
second ward" relates the National Mag
azine. With such visitor to entertain
the congressman thought the best thing
was to take him to Harvey's Lobster pal
tn. K,,,