The Rathdrum tribune. (Rathdrum, Idaho) 1903-1963, 1913-11-28
At NATIONAL CAPITAL
Paragraphs on Important Coy-
eTnment Affairs.
FREE SEEDS A WASTE
Investigation of Telephone
Methods and Monopoly.
The Tribune Bureau.
BY j. T.. JONES

BY J. +. JONES
Washington, d. C.-Those con-
gressmen who owe their mighty
positions in part to their skill and
artfulness in distributing .free
government seeds" are ever and
again threatened by withdrawal of
this privilege, which during the
past year las been considerably
curtailed. The department of
agriculture has taken a positive
stand against the present modus
eperanda. These seeds cost $3oo,-
900 year, and the government
experts say that the money is
largely dead waste. For many
years the government supply has
been inadequate, and the result
has been that the large seed houses
Of the country have dumped their
old goods upon the government to
meet the shortage at fancy prices,
and these are the seeds that never
grow. In both houses of congress
the seed distribution has been
Tough: for years, and last session
it was only with the greatest diff
Guilty that the appropriation was
kept in the agricultural bill. Sec
retary Houston has been up i'll
New Hampshire talking to the
! national grange and he has empha-
sized his condemnation Of the
| present method Of spending the
| entire appropriation in supplying
| ordinary vegetable and flower
seeds. In his new estimate to
congress the secretary has recon-
merded that the usual appropria'
ton Of 5000, 900 for seeds be made
available for the introduction and
! distribution of new and valuable
seeds and foreign forage crops.
| This idea is in line with the in
| tention Of congress when the tree
seed distribution was first estab-
lished. The main idea at that
time was to secure new and rare
seeds and plants fl ON foreign
countries for introductl on and dis
tribution in this country, bat the
practice gradually degen.Tatcd IN
to a scramble for more seeds ny
the members OF congress.
| What promises to result in Tar
reaching legislation is the inquiry
| into the telephone company OF the
national capital, instituted Ivy
lSenator Norris OF Nebraska. 1t
was not many years ago that the
country was torn asunder by the
fact that public offic ais prohtcd
from free rail, oad transportation
and other sorts of gratulties. IL
now appears tn 1t the telephone
company at Was hington has been
extending speci, j privileges to
senators, represen tatives and other
high officials of be government
which have been { enied to private
subscribers, who in turn have been
compelled to submit to stiff feeu
, lations and inso]ente i.'om telc-
phone officials, who .tssun, tna'
most rights of existence are cen
tered in them. 1t is very lik sS
that the investiga ton instituted b,
the senate will result in some in
teresting informatio being secured
, in reference to business methods
! of telephone management through
|, out the country. Since The tele-
, | phone is practically a monopoly,
! and experience teaches that more
; Than one system in community Is
. 4 nuisance, it is strange that advo-
cares OF government ownership
have not frozen tight to the tele-
phone as a method that is far more
practic ,ble in testing their theories
than wo..ld be railroad and tele-
! era ph management or control.