Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1910-01-06
THURSDAY, JANUARY s, 1910.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(FROM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT
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WASHINGTON, -. u, JAN. /,
The familiar play called THE
Official New Years. Reception" was
again enacted at the White House or
January LIST, 1910. If it could be in.
troduced into the moving picture
shows, it would no doubt attract gooo
houses.
At fixed hour the President and
his wife receive first the Diplomatic
Corps consisting of the ambassadors,
ministers and attaches from foreign
countries. These are quite numerous
now, the more important powers be.
ing represented by six or seven per,
sons. They all .,come in the uniforms
of their several countries with gold
lace and decorations, composing a
bedizened regalia that our army and
our naval officers cannot attain. The
smallest South and Central American
republics display an area of gold lace
and decoration that outshines the
uniforms of the representatives OF
Germany, Austria and Russia, al
though those countries are anything
but simple in their full dress official
clothes.
After the diplomatic corps has wish
ed the President and Mrs. Taft a
happy new year and received their
greeting in kind, the members of the
Cabinet followed by the Justices OF
the Supreme Court in the dark silk
robes in which they sit in court and
the Senators and Representatives in
Congress or those who happen to be
in Washington during the holidays,
pass the President and his wife and
exchange greetings.
Then come those in the Civil Serv-
ice, chiefs of bureaus and the officials
of the District of Columbia, followed
finally by private citizens who have
formed long waiting line.
This scene has been enacted for
fully hundred years, every Presi-
dent of the United States taking part
in it. 1t was Mrs. Cleveland who,
in the midst of the reception, stated
that she wanted to rest moment and
change her smile and many Presi
dent and his wife has had swollen
hand and a stiff arm for week after
the ordeal.
Congress will resume its sessions in
few days and it is expected that
then the political situation will be in
tcresting, for with the determination
OF the insurgents to make themselves
heard and felt and with the Ballinger
investigation and with the imminent
breach between the Speaker of the
House and the President, there is
promise of disclosure and matter of
much interest in the coming months.
The question of the increased cost
of everything that man and woman
used internally, externally and eter-
nally is being investigated by the
venerable Secretary of Agriculture,
the question is vital and widespread.
1t is pretty generally conceded that
the original producer does not get
more for his products than he is en-
titled to and there is strong suspic-
ion that the last retailer has succeed
ed by means of combination, in reap
ing an undue profit The number of
green grocers in city, town and Will
age, it is said, is out of all proportion
to the population and it is argued
that the great and increasing lists of
these middlemen between the pur-
chaser and the consumer indicate the
great extent of rich pickings. Com
binations and trusts are under keen
suspicion nowadays and the food
stuffs trust is doubtless one of the
most intolerable of all. 1t is pro-
posed to organize a league to fight the
high prices in the necessaries of life
which have been increasing from year
to year and have now reached abnor-
NAL rates. DR.. Scharf, a well-known
economist, has suggested the forma-
ton of a league similar to an organi-
zation formed in Germany years ago
for the suppression of the exorbit-
antly high price of coffee. The MEM
beers of this league abstained from
buying coffee for time all oyer the
German Empire with the result that
the price fell to a normal point, COM
petition was resumed and the trust
was hrakpn pum har of 1ictip