The Republican journal., 1912-05-02
Washington Whisperings.

Notwithstanding the awfulness of the
disaster to the Titanic, wherein nearly
two thousand lives were blotted out amid
the ice foes off Cape Race, the great
heart of the Nation is rent with sorrow
and pity for the lives lost and in peril
through the floods in the Mississippi val
ley. Almost simultaneously with the
news of the Titanic's frightful end came
the dread intelligence that the Mississip-
pi, higher than ever before in the history
of the weather bureau, was still rising
and that thousands of lives were in i'm
minent peril.
The government, through messages of
the President and the pleas of the Secre-
tary of War, has been rushing relief
trains to the inundated localities, supply
ing food and shelter to the homeless and
aiding, wherever possible, in strengthen
ing the levees along the course of the
mighty river.
Senator elect Joseph E. Ransdel1 of
Louisiana, President of the National
Rivers and Harbors Congress, whose
home is in the food-covered district, near
the Arkansas line, has, for the past two
weeks, been on the scene of the inunda-
ton and has kept the authorities in
Washington advised as to the necessities
of the situation. 1t is expected that just
as soon as possible Mr.. Ransdell will re-
turn to Washington and make an effort
to increase the amount carried in the
river and harbor appropriation bill for
levees and revetment work, the necessity
for such additional appropriations being
universally conceded.
During the hearings the past week on
river improvement prospects the Lakes
to-the-Gulf representatives extended an
invitation to the Commerce Committee
of the Senate to make the trip down the
Mississippi at this time, urging. that the
object lesson would be of incalculable
benefit to the members and would give
them first hand knowledge of the needs
of the Mississippi that would be more
valuable than all the maps and reports in
the world. For time it seemed prob
able that the Senators would make the
trip, but so many are the demands upon
them just now, particularly from sec
tons of the country other than the
watershed of the Mississippi and it's
tributaries desiring hearings before the
committee, that the visit was finally, but
reluctantly, given up.
1t is an interesting side-light on the
Dick-Henry patent case recently decided
in the Supreme Court in favor of the
patentee, that he has the right to safe
guard his patent to the extent of stipu-
lating what material or other essential
shall be used in making his patent use
full and perfect, to know that the British
patent law was the outgrowth of con-
test against monopolies which, in many
of it's features, resembles the contest
going on today. 1t is the customary
statement that Parliament is entitled to
all the credit for having won trade liber-
ty for English-speaking people. In a
sense this is true, but curiously enough
it was Parliament which originally was
itself the representative of monopolies,
because its members were largely re-
cruited from the great town Guilds, that
is the great trade Guilds of England. 1t
was the endeavor of Parliament to main
tain the monopoly of these trade guilds
and to prevent the country people at
large from entering upon any of these
trades except through the restricted
channels of the guild.
Out of the abuse of grants given the
guilds the people rose up and demanded
their rights, with the result that a con-
test ensued between the crown and
Parliament, resulting first in the inter-
esting and remarkable proclamation OF
Elizabeth in.1601, through her secretary,
Lord Cecil, and in her Golden Speech"
to the members of the House of Com
mons in November of the same year.
But after Elizabeth, came, unfortunate
ly, James and Charles I. And the fight
went on, until finally Parliament succeed
ed in wrestling from James in 1923 the
great Statute of Monopolies which pro-
vided for the introduction of new trades
making exception to the first inventors
of new manufactures.
In view of the number of men, whose
names, like that of Abou Ben Adham
t'led all the rest," who went to their
graves in the Atlantic on that awful
night when the Titanic struck the ice
berg, ''as big as mountain, it is inter-
es ting to know that the Chinese in their
maritime regulations insist upon saving
the men first, the children next and the
women last, on the theory that the men
are more useful to the State than the
women, ''for what would women do with
out their husbands?''
EAST SEARSMONT,