Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-02-20
LEWIS PHONE BILL
PLAN FOR GOVERNMENT OWNER
SHIP IN DISTRICT NOT LIKE
lY TO CARRY.
MEASURE DESIGNED AS TEST
Efforts to Put City of Washington In
the Prohibition Column Rouses the
Residents to Bitter BattIe--Lower
House Must Decide.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

/
BY GEORGE CLINTON.
Westinghouse many days hear
ings have been conducted before the
house committee of the District of
| Columbia on the Lewis bill for gov
eminent ownership of the telephone
system in the District. The intention
of the promoters of the bill was to
test government ownership of the tele-
phone system in the city of Washing
ton, which is coincident with the Dis
trict of Columbia, with a view pos
sibly to more extensive territorial ac-
| ton in the future.
Representative Lewis of Maryland,
who Is the father of this government
ownership proposition, will leave
congress on March 4. 1t has been his
desire to secure affirmative congress
sional action during his term of Of
fee. This specific government owner
ship proposition probably will come be-
fore congress again, but the word Is
that it has little chance of enactment
| into law at the present session. Inc
| hearings therefore are held by the
proponents of the measure to be at
present valuable merely from the edu-
catiOnal point of view. The opponents
of the measure say that there will be
no chance to pass it at the next con-
! gress because opposition to it will be
strengthened in the new body. The
country must take its choice between
the two sets of opinions on the sub
tect.
The District of Columbia which, as
has been said, means the city of Wash
ington, has been deeply interested ever
since congress came together in two
propositions, either one of which II en-
acted into law would affect material
ly the business interests and the resi-
dents of the district generally. Wheth-
err they would affect them beneticially
or detrimentally is, of course, entirely
according to the viewpoint.
Senate Passes Dry Bill.
| The Lewis bill for government own
ership of the telephone lines in the
district held the center of interest i'll
the house, while prohibition for the
district held the center of interest in
the senate. The upper house has
passed the measure forbidding the
| sale and manufacture of Intoxicating
liquors in the capital city of the coun-
try. The house committee now is con-
sidering the same measure.
The senator's either have cleared
their skirts or besmirched them, ac-
cording as men view the thing, by
their action on prohibition for the dis
trict. Today the upper house men
say, "It is up to the lower house men,"
and so the prohibition bill has been
sent over to the mercies of the repre-
sentatives. 1t perhaps may go without
saying that this prohibition bill has
stirred the city of Washington as few
other things have stirred it for a good
many years.
Prohibition in Washington is a war
! like subject. The advocates of dry
legislation are as militant as any sol
diers in Europe. The same word can
be said concerning the advocates of a
continued wet season in this city of
legislation Words were not minced
In the hearings which the senate COM
mittee gave on this subject nor are
they being minced in the discussion in
the corridors and committee rooms of
the house. 1t is q battle royal, as
someone has put it, between the black
bottle and the water wagon.
Debating Grayson's Promotion
The scenes of the other days
have just been re-enacted in the
United States senate, although this
time there has been more red fire,
to say nothing of thunder and flashes
of lightning. The senators have been
discussing, with more than usual of
| theatrical accomplishments, the NOM
ination by President Wilson of Cary T.
Grayson, United States navy, to be a
medical director and a rear admiral.
AS everybody knows, Doctor Gray
son has been the naval aid and per-
sonal physician to the president ever
since Mr.. Wilson came into Office.
More than this, he was for a time
medical adviser of President Taft.
Doctor Grayson is, comparatively
speaking, a junior officer of the medi-
cal corps of the sea service. The
president promoted him over the heads
Of 115 navy doctors to the post of
medical director and rear admiral.
It is not the intention to enter into
| questions affecting Doctor Grayson's
! 6fnncc hn NIB RI xryhfa oh ha hnC
been promoted, nor the policy which
would jump one man over the heads
Of others of much longer service, but
only to say that whenever promotion
by selection occurs there always is
trouble for the nominee, the nominator
nomination.
Roosevelt Didn't Promote Wood.
There is one curious thing which
has accompanied this case of Doctor
Grayson into the limelight. The in
slant that the young surgeon was
named for high promotion. not only
Washington. bat the entire country
said: "Well, didn't Theodore Roose-
welt do the same thing to Leonard
Wood, who was junior doctor in the
medical corps of the army?"
Years of service as Washington
correspondent teaches men the truth
of the old saying that II is hard to
catch up with falsehood. 1t Is prob
-~-~~~~~--~~-~--~o
How Trees Keep Air Pure.