Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-02-21
WASHINGTON LETTER
Weekly Letter From Our Special
i Correspondent.
Brief Items of Interest to Iowa PeO-
pie, Written by an Iowa
Man.

announce to our readers that we
have engaged the services of
Mr.. Geo. A. Wood, former
Iowa newspaper man, to send us
a weekly letter of news items
from the national capital at
Washington, D. c. Mr.. Wood
is in position to get the facts
first hand, and during this most
important session Of congress,
preceding a national election, .
his letters will be unusually in
teresting.-The Editor.
- = = +
washington, d. c., Feb. 19, 1912.
Ills sad world! The price Of
beer is going up.
Spring is coming, The base ball
schedule Is out
Raising the price of ice just now
looks like a joke on some one.
Knox for Big Navy" reads
newspaper headline. Yes, and more
knocks from the people who pay the
bills.
The proclamation admitting Ari-
IONA to statehood was signed by
President Taft on st. Valentines
Day.
The Potomac river is frozen from
sho' to sho, and Washington has no
oysters.
A bureau has been opened in
Washington for the very laudable
purpose of telling the people what
to do with our ex-presidents.
A German scientist has discovered
way to make corpse transparent.
He ought to be given one of our
politicians for experimentation.
Democrats of the house in caucus
have ratified the new chemical tariff
schedule, which is calculated to in
crease the revenue from chemical i'm
ports more than $3.000,OOO year.
Representative Foss of Illinois has
introduced bill providing for the
erection in Washington of monu-
met to John Ericsson, designer of
the first turreted armorclad warship.
Major General F. C. Ainsworth,
adjutant general of the army, has
been relieved from duty in the War
Department and now faces court
martial for insubordination in con-
nection with insulting letters writ
ten to Secretary of War Stinson.
A Texas woman has increased the
government Conscience Fund" to
the extent of one dollar by sending
to President Taft bill for that
amount with the explanation that
few years ago she used dollar;
worth of cancelled postage stamps.
The Interstate Commerce Commits
sion has under consideration plan
to obviate the possible double pay
ment OF express charges by the send
er and receiver. The scheme con-
templates system of stamps stat
ing plainly the amount of the
charges and whether prepayment has
been made.
The Department of Justice is to
undertake an inquiry into the Ma
tional Horseshoe Manufacturing AS
sociation, which is charged by Rep
resentative Barnhart of Indiana with
refusing further supplies to those re-
stailers who decline to recognize sale
prices fixed by the association.
The Indian races of the United
States are gradually reviving, accord
ing to a report of the census bureau
In 1910 there was a total Indian
population of 265,6S3, as compared
with total population of 237,196
in 1900. Seventy-three per cent of
all the Indians in the United States
are now taxpayers.
The Department of Justice is in
vestigating the American Press AS
sociation of New York and the West
ern Newspaper Union of Omaha, to
determine whether there is any vio-
lation of the Sherman law in con-
nection with the use of electrotype
plates and matrices supplied to news
papers throughout the country.
A constitutional prohibition
against a third presidential term IS
provided for in an amendment intro
duced by Senator Reed of Missouri
The amendment does not change the
length of the presidential term, but
makes any one ineligible who has
served two terms, a full term and
part OF another, or who has served
+ a portion OF two terms.
The old saying, "If had's were
shads, we'd have fish plenty loses
some of its significance when we read
in the report of the Bureau of Fish