The National tribune., 1910-04-14
NATIONAL wAsHNGroND e. THURSDAY

i
tice Fuller had retired.
Il personally know that in the high
Of the excitement of the campaign lead
ing up to the convention Mr.. Tafts as
pirations were not affected. Mr.. Roose
| welt would, 1 have reason to believe
have acquiesced had the Chief Justice
ship been vacated Practically to tn
eve of his nomination for the Presi
dency Mr.. Taft had his eye focused 0l
the Supreme Bench"
Senator Jefferson Davis, of Arkanss S
is now very busy explaining to the folk
back home that the good fee" testi
mony which he gave to the House Com
mittee on Public Lands did not mear
that at all, and that it was the oificia
stenographer who got things mixed up
Senator Davis is telling his friends il
his letters that the incident related by
the House Committee is all pure rot
that there was an inefficient stenoSraph'
er who caused the trouble, and he as
sures his constituents that it is just &
lot of buncombe to injure him with the
voters at home, and that no gentleman
can afford to be bound to the state
ments taken down by the little stenog-
raphers that they have around the
building. Now, as a matter of fact
Senator Jefferson Davis is going to have
this statement to take back some time
The stenographers to the variohs COM
mittees of Congress, as well as the
stenOgraphers of the two bodies. are
tried and correct takers of testimony
They do not make one mistake in q
thousand words. What they are eX-
pected to do and what they are forced
to do is to take the language of men
like the trust buster from Arkansas
and put it into straight. first-clasS read
able English. If the constituents of the
gentleman from Arkansas, or most any
section of the country, for that matter
could take the speech and read it as II
originally pours from the lips Of q
member of Congress on the floor of the
House. he would be tempted To believe
that DemOsthenes was back again and
had lost his pebbles. The average
speaker in the House shutters like the
veriest school boy, pounds the air, beats
his desk and mumbles around hunting
for words, talks with q squeak. and eth
erwise butchers the English language
in his effort to make speech. The
splendid stenographers, however haV c
to see to it that that speech goes into
the Congressional Record in very excel
lent shape. Indeed. if the constituents
only knew it, it is the stenographcr who
makes the speech of man like Davis
readable.
The little old torpedo boat Winslow
is to be stripped of her fittings. She
was recently surveyed, and it was re-
ported that it would cost so much for
repairs and alterations to make her ur
to date that it was not worth while 10
try it. The Winslow is the boat upon
which Ensign Bagley lost his life during
the Spanish-American War. He was
the only officer of the Nay killed in
action in that war. Consequently con-
sentiment attaches 10 the boat
and it has been proposed to preserve
her as a relic The naval authorities
are not inclined to FAVOR this proposi
tion. however as similar reas3n5 m!Ght
be advanced for preserving many other
old and useless vessels.
Some say that Congress Will finish It's
work and adjourn Nay - !:eprescnta-
tive Tawncy, Chairman 0t the Alrro-
priations Committee, says that he be-
lieves that it can De done. and Repre-
sentative Clark says that u will be .IUiy
l when Congress adjourn&, and Repre-
sentative Payne says 1t will be some
time in June, and this is what most OF
them think.
The Public Lands Com5:littcc of the
House is in all sorts OF a m:X-Up ever
the Administration conservation pro-
gram. The conservative Republicans
on the committee. healed by Chair
favor a land Withdrawals bill
framed and introduced by Senator Nell
son, of Minnesota. The radical Eepub-
licans lean to a bill on the same subject
by Representative Pickett
of Iowa, a member Of the committee
The Democrats favor Il measure offered
Jointly by three minority members OF
the committee. Robinson. Of Arkansas;
Ferris, of Oklahoma, and Craig. of Ala
bama.
incidentally the Democrats say that
both the Nelson and Pickett bill: do nc
more than validate existing withdraw
ais. and are designed to give the Taft
Administration a clean bill of health
on this subject, and to clear Secretary
Ballinger of many of the charges
brought against him.
Gen. Nathaniel Green, of RevoIut'cn-
airy fame al Clifford battlefield, y. c., is
to have a monument to his memory il
the bill which was reported faVorabIy
last week by the Senate committee hap.
pens 20 pass, and probably it will bt
passed. Congress seems 10 be a hear
more Interested in building monument,
TO men who are dead than in. granting
penions to keep veterans slive
DIR. Wiley says that there is not &
grain of ginger in ginger ale, and tina
it consists very largely of air and rec
pepper and likewise there isn't a sigr
of ''yarb" in root beer nor a tintills
of fruit in the various fruit drinks tina
are sold at the soda fountains.
Warren o. Arnold, formerly a mem
Der of the National House of Represen
tatives from the Second Rhode ISLAND
District, died of paralysis last week a
his home in Westerley, II. |. He served
two terms in Congress-in 1887 anC
again in 1894 He began life as an op
orator in the woolen mills, and late
became a manufacturer himself
Eugene Grubb has been selected b,
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson Minis
ter Extraordinary and Envoy Plenipo
tentiary of the United States to Grea
Britain and Ireland, France, Spain, Ger
many and the NetherlanfS on all mat
ters relating to potatoes.
He is one of the picturesque figure
in Washington at the present time. ,Po
tatoes? He knows potatoes frontwards
backwards, sidewise and inside out. II
will talk about them from sunup l.
twilight. He can give even the expert
in the Bureau of Soils and the Bureau
of Chemistry pointers about them.
I'm going to Europe" said Mr.
Grubb, Ito see what ought to be dom
about this matter of the potato. GU
American farmers don't know mucl
about them. That's n fact. We dom
get the right yield per acre, because w
have not learned natures secrets. w