The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1912-05-09
Washington Whisperings.

VAodAN01ONs IL W. Mdy " 4OAH
President Joseph E. Ransdell of tn
National Rivers and Harbors Congress
Senator-Elect from Louisiana, has re
turned from his plantation along tn
Mississippi with sorrowing tales of los
of life and destruction of property due tt
the awful flood of the mighty rive
which must still further be held in least
that life and property may be saved from
continuation Of these terrible vista
Ransdell with his usual celebrity an(
forcefullness so wrought upon the mem
bers of Congress, with the aid of his
colleagues living along the ''Father Of
Waters" that the Senate has passed ar
emergency joint resolution making i'm
mediately available $1,000, 900 of the
amount that will be carried in the river
and harbor bill for the Mississippi River
levees to the end that the levees
destroyed by the flood may be at once
rebuilt and threatened levees stength-
ened. The House Committee on rivers
and harbors has reported favorably a
similar resolution, but now that the Sem
ate has taken primary action the House
will substitute the Senate resolution for
it's own and before this letter appears in
print million and half dollars will be
made Immediately available for the
Board of Engineers to begin the business
of closing up the crevasses made by the
mad waters. The flood, the greatest in
our history, has swept away houses,
destroyed MILLIONS of dollars worth of
property and hundreds of lives and has
rendered homeless, it is estimated, more
than 100000 people.
One of the striking things that has
been made public since Congress has been
endeavoring to probe the incidents sur
rounding the Titantic disaster is the fact
that as long ago as 1876 an effort was
made to secure an agreement between
foreign steamship lines for ocean-going
vessels to avoid the shorter northern
route at dangerous seasons of the year,
when icebergs were likely to be en-
countered. During meeting of the
House Committee on Merchant Marine
and Fisheries letter was read to the
Committee that was written by Thos.
Ismay, the father of J. Bruce Ismay,
President of the International Mercan-
tile Marine Company which owned the
Titanic, in 1876, in which he urged upon
conference of foreign steamship own
ers that they enter into an agreement
whereby all the lines should send their
ships over the more southern but safer
route at dangerous seasons of the year.
Another letter from Mr.. Thos. 1smay to
the same effect, written in 1889, was
also read to the Committee, to show that
the danger from the shorter northern
route had always been recognized by
steamship companies. The letters in
question were among the files of the
Commissioner Of Navigation, and were
furnished by him to the Chairman of the
Committee. Representative Alexander
of Missouri.
An interesting lecture was presented
recently at the rooms of the National
Press Club by H. D. Slater, of Ell Paso,
Texas, who illustrated his talk with lam
tern slides made from photographs Of
battles in Mexico taken during the recent
engagements there between the rival
Mexican forces. The rumors that have
been current that Intervention by the
United States might become necessary
to protect American property has quick
ened public interest in all Mexican mat
tiers, and these pictures gave a graphic
presentation of many interesting phases
of conditions in the sister Republic on
our southern border.
A criticism on our ideas of national art
was presented to the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the House recently by
Gutzon Borglum, former resident of
Omaha, Nebraska, the well known sculp-
tor, specimens of whose work are to be
seen in the Capitol and in various other
places of public interest in Washington.
Mr. Borglum was speaking in support
of bill providing for the celebration of
the hundredth anniversary of the sign
ing of the treaty of Client.
america has no monuments to ideas,"
declared Mr.. Borglum. "Her monu-
ments are erected to individuals. While
the Greeks, the Italians, and the Indians,
from whom we get our ideas, erect mon
uments to ideas, we erect ours to men
and we have an over-supply of Them
Mr.. Borglum made an exception of the
Goddess of Liberty in New York Harbor,
but remarked that this had been given
to the United States by France, and
could not be attributed to America. He
suggested possible memorial to the
victims of the Titanic disaster, which he
hoped would be truly idealistic and COM
memorative of the event.
THE DEMONS OF THE SWAMP
are MOSQUITOES As they sting they put deadly