Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Mr. Roosevelt Make Concerning Nee : .1 * --fy IBE ?II0N PROSPEROUS -'?- ' -i "Ret.uvmmd?ii?jaiis Covering a Wide JBsoge of Subjects- Finances, Com binations, Transportation, Natural Ikscnrrfs and Other. Interesting Topics Brought to thc Attention of .Our iawmaMng Body. The message of President Roosevelt to the second session of the Sixtieth Congress vas read in both houses, and was in- substance as follows : To the Senate and House of Repres entatives; . Finances. The financial standing of the nation at thc present time is excellent, and the financial management of the na tion's interests by the Government during; the last seven years has shown the most satisfactory results. But oar currency system is imperfect, ?nd it is earnestly to be hoped that the Cuneney Commission will be able to propose a thoroughly good system .which will do away with the existing defects. During the period from July 1, .1901, to September 30, 190S, there | tvas an increase in the amount of money in circulation of $902,991,399. The increase in the per capita during this, period was $7.06. Within this time there were ? several occasions ?hen it was necessary for the Treas urer-Department to come to the relief of the money market by purchases of redemptions of United States bonds; hy Increasing deposits in national banks; by stimulating additional is sues of national bank notes, and by faciiiti tating importations from abroad of gold. Our imperfect cur rency system has made these proceed ings^, necessary, and they svere effec tive until the monetary disturbance in the fall of 1907 immensely increas ed, the difficulty of ordinary methods of relief. By the middle of Novem ber the available working balance in tte Treasury had been reduced to ap proximately $5,000,000. Clearing boase associations throughout the country had been obliged to resort to tte ejqpcdicnt of issuing clearing boase certificates, to bc used as money. Ia this emergency it was de termined to iavitc subscriptions for $50,000.000 Panama Canal bonds, and ? $100,000,000 3 per cent certificates of indebtedness authorized by the act of June 13,190S. It was proposed to re deposit in the national banks the pro ceeds o? these issues, and to permit their use as a basis for additional cir ca latin*; notes of national banks The morai effect of this procedure was so great that it was necessary to issue on?y ^4?B35S0 of thc Panama Canal ?onds and $15,436,500 of the certifi cates of indebtedness. Baring- the seven years and three montos there has been a net surplus of near?y one hundred millions of re ceipts over expenditures, a reduction of the interest-bearing-debt by ninety millions, m spite of the extraordinary expense of the Panama Canal, and a saving- of nearly nine millions on the annan! interest charge. This is an .exceedingly satisfactor}' showing, es -pecially in view of the fact that dur :ing tins period the Nation has never hesitated to undertake any expendi ture that it regarded as necessary. 'There have been no new taxes and no -increase ?f taxes; on the contrary .sotae tases have been taken off ; there liras ?mm a reduction of taxation. / " Corporations, c As regards the great corporations engaged in interstate busin?ss, and especially the railroads, I can only repeat what I have already again and again said in my message to the Con gress. 1 believe that under thc inter state classe of the Constitution the " United States has complete and para mount right to control all agencies of interestatc commerce ,and I believe that the National Government r.lcr.e i can exercise this right with wisdom and effectiveness so as both to secure justice from, and to do justice to, the great corporations which are the most important factors in modern business. I believe that it is worst than folly to attempt to . prohibit all combina tions as is done by the Sherman anti trust law, because such a law can be enforced only imperfectly and un eqnally, and its enforcement works almost as .much hardship as good. I strongly advocate that instead of an unwise effort to prohibit all combina tions, there shall be substituted a law ?which shall expressly permit combina tions which are in the interest of the public, bot shall at the same time give to some, agency of the National Government full power of control and supervision over them. One of -the chief features, of this control should ''be securing' entire publicity in all matters whieh the public has a right to know, and furthermore, the power, not "by judicial but by executive action, to prevent or put a stop to every form of improper favoritism or other wrongdoing. The railways of the country should be put completely under the Int er state Commerce Commission and re moved from the domain of the anti trust law. The power of the Commis sion should be made through going, so that it could exercise complete super vision and control over the issue of Snap Shots. A diseased imagination can giv? a mortal anything. Every man must cut his own wis dom teeth. When our distant relatives get rich they sean to grow still further re moved. The kind of woman who cries for nothing; generally manages to get a good deaL A sharper is a keen man with a dull conscience, , s Recommendation! :ded Legislation [securities as well as over the raisir and lowering of, rates. As regan rates, at least, this power should 1 summary. The power to investiga^ the financial operations* and accoun of the railways has been one of tl most valuable features in recent legi laticn. Power to make combinatioi and traffic agreements should be e: plicitly conferred upon the railroad the permission of the Commission bi ing first gained and thc combinatic or agreement being published in a its details. In the interest of the pul lie che representatives of the publ: should have complete power to st that the railroads do their duty b the public, and as a matter of cours this power should also be exercised s as to see that.no injustice is done t the railroads. The share-holders, th employees and thc shippers all hn" interests that must bc guarded. It i to the interest of all of them that h swindling stock speculation should b allowed, and that there should be n improper issuance, of securities. Th guiding intelligences necessary fo the successful building and snccessfi management of railroads should r: ceive ample remuneration; but n man should be allowed to make mono in connection with railroads out o fraudulent over-capitalizations an< kindred stock-gambling performan ces; there must be no defrauding o investors, oppression of the farmer and business men who ship freight, o callous disregard of the rights am ncods of the employees. In additioi to this the interests of the share holders, of the employees, and of thi shippers should all be guarded a? against one another. To give any om of them undue and improper consid eration is to do injustice to thc others Rates must be made as low as is com patible with giving proper returns t< all the employees of the railroad frcm the highest* to the lowest, anc proper returns to the shareholders but they must not, for instance, be re duced in such fashion as to necessi tate a cut in the wages of the employ ees or the abolition of the proper and legitimate profits of honest sharehold ers. ) , . Telegraph and telephone companies engaged in interstate business should be put under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Labor. There are many matters affecting labor and the status of the wage worker to which I should like to draw your attention, but an exhaustive dis cussion of the problem in all its as pects is not now necessary. This ad ministration is nearing its end; and, moreover, under our form of govern ment the solution of the problem de pends upon the action of thc R<-at?s as much as upon' the action of the Nation. Nevertheless, there are cer tain considerations which I wish to set before you, because I hope that our people will more and more keep them in mind. A blind and ignorant resistance to every effort for the re form of abuses and for the readjust ment of society to modern industrial conditions represents not true conser vatism but an, incitement to the wild est radicalism; for wise radicalism and wise conservatism go hand in hand, one bent on progress, the other bent on seeing that no change is made unless in the right direction. I be lieve in a steady effort, or perhaps it would bc more accurate to say in steady efforts in many different direc tions, to bring about a condition of affairs under which the men who work with hand or brain, the laborers, the superintendents, the men who pro duce for the market and the men who find a market for the articles produced, shall own far greater share than at present of the wealth they produce, and be enabled to in vest it in the tools and instruments by which all work is carried on. As far as possible I hope to see a frank rec ognition of the advantages conferred by machinery, organization, and di vision of labor, accompanied by an effort to bring about a larger share in the ownership by wage-workers of railway, mill, and factory. In farm ing, this simply means that we wish to see the farmer own his own land; we do not, wish to sec the farms so large that they become the property cf absentee landlords who farm them by tenants, nor yet so small that the fanner becomes like a European peas ant. Again, the depositors in our saving, banks now number, over one tenth of our entire population. These are all capitalists, who through the savings banks loan their money to the workers-that^ is, in many cases to themselves-tb carry on their var ious industries. The more we increase their number, the more we introduce the principles of cooperation into our industry. Every increase in the num ber of small stockholders in corpora tions is a "good thing, for the same reasons: and where the sraployees are the stockholders the result is particu larly good. Very much of this move ment must be outside of anything that can be accomplished by legislation ; but legislation can do a good deal. Postal savings hanks will make it easy for the poorest to keep their savings in absolute safely. The reg ulation of the national highways must be such that they shall serve all peo ple with equal justice. Corporate finances must be supervised so as to make it far safer than at present for | Humor and Philosophy. There are a lot of good people that are most horribly uninteresting and a lot of interesting people that might associate with the aforesaid good people to the imporveraent of both. There may be women who are lame in imagination, but who ever heard of one that was crippled in the tongue. There probably is a wrong side to everything-except maybe the right woman. th? man of small means to invest his money in stocks. There must be pro hibition of child labor, diminution of woman labor, shortening of hours of all mechanical labor; stock watering should be prohibited, and stock gamb ling so far as is possible discouraged. There should be a progressive inheri tance tax on large fortunes. Indus trial education should be encouraged, As far as possible we should lighten the burden of taxation on the small man. We should put a premium upon thrift, hard work, and business ener gy; but these qualities cease to bc the main factors in accumulating a for tune long before that fortune reaches a point where it would be seriously affected by any inheritance tax such as I propose. It is eminently right that the Nation should fix the terms upon which the great fortunes are in herited. They rarely do good and they often do harm to those who in herit them in their entirety. The above is the merest .sketch, hardly even a sketch in outline, of the reforms for which we should work. But there is one matter with which the Congress should deal at this session. There should no longer be any paltering with thc question of taking care of the wage-workers who, under our present industrial system, beccme killed, crippled, or worn out as part cf thc regular incidents of a given business. The majority of wage workers must have their rights se cured for them by State action; but the National Government should leg islate in thoroughgoing and far-reach ing fashion not only for all employees of thc National Government, but for all persons engaged in interestate commerce. The object sought for cuold be achieved to a measurable de gree, as far as those killed or crippled are concerned, by proper employers' liability laws. As far as conecrns those who have been worn out, I yali your attention to the fact that definite slops toward provding old-age pen sions have been taken in many of our private industries. These may be in definitely extended through voluntary association and contributory schemes, or through the agency of savings banks, as under thc recent Massachu setts plan. To strengthen these prac tical measures should be our imrae-j diate duty ; it is not at present neces sary to consider the larger and moie general governmental schemes that most Europena governments have found themselves obliged to adopt. I renew my recommendation made in a previous message that half-holi days be granted during summer to all wage-workers in Government emplqy. I also renew my recommendation that the principle of the eight-hour day should as rapidly and as far as practicable be extended to the entire work being carried on by the Govern ment; the present law should be amended to embrace contracts on those public works which the present wording of the act seems to exclude. The Courts. I most earnestly urgejipon the Con gress the duty of increasing the to tally inadequate salaries now given to our Judges. On the whole there is no body of public servants who do as valuable work, nor whose moneyed re ward is so inadequate compared to their work. Beginning with the Su preme Court the Judges should have their salaries doubled. It is not be fitting the dignity of the Nation that its most honored public servants should be paid sums so small compar ed to what they would earn in private life that the performance of public service by them implies an exceeding ly heavy pecuniary sacrifice. It is earnestly to be desired that some method should bc devised for doing away with the long delays which now obtain in the administra tion of justice, and which operate with peculiar severitv against persons of small means, and favor only thc very criminals whom it is most de sirable to punish. These long delays in the final decisions of cases make in the aggregate a ciwing evil ; and a remedy should be devised. Much of this intolerable delay is due to im proper regard paid to technicalities which are a mere hindrance to justice. In some noted recent, cases this over regard for technicalities has resulted in a striking denial of justice, and flagrant wrong to the body politic. Forests. If there is any one duty which more than another we owe it to our children and our children's children to per form at once, it is to save the forests of this country, for they constitute the first and most important element in the conservation of the natural re sources of our country. There are of course two kinds of natural resources. One is the kind which can only be used as part of a process of exhaus tion; this is time of mines, natural oil and gas wells, and the like. The. other, and of course ultimately by far the most important, includes the re sources which can be improved in the process of wise use; the soil, the riv ers, and the forests come under this head. Any really civilized nation will so use all of these three great national assets that the nation will have their benefit in the future. Just as n farmer, after all his life making his living from his farra, will, if h'e is ?in expert farmer, leave it as an assit of increased value to his son, so we ?riiould leave our national domain to oir children, increasd in value and not worn out. There are small sec tions of our own country, in thc East and in the West, in the Adirondacks, the White Mountains, and the Appa lachians, and in the Rockv Mountains, where we can alreadv see for oursel ves the damage in thc shape of per manent injury to the soil and the river systems which comes from reck less deforestation. It matters not whether this deforestation is due to the actual cutting of timber, to the Bright Sayings. If everybody knew when he wa's well off, this would be a belter edu cated world. Some girls are so anxious to make names for themselves they misspell thc front and then change the rear one. It is no direct evidence that you are going to have uninvited com pany because you have only scraps for dinner. Still, you would better have your weather eye out. f. _ fires that inevitably "follow such reek less cutting of timber, or to reckles an? uncontrolled grazing, especiall; by the great migratory bands o: sheep, the unchecked wanderings o which over tho country means de struction of forests and disaster ti the small home makers, the settler of limited means. Inland Waterways. Action should be begun forthwith during the present session of tin Congress, for the improvement of nu inland waterways-action which wi i result in giving us noe onlv navi gable but navigated rivers. We hav spent hundreds of millions of dolla1" upon these waterways, vet the trafli on nearly all of them is steadily de dining. This condition is thc ditec result of thc absence of any comnre hensive and far-seeing plan of waler way improvement. Obviously we ea: not continue thus to expend the rev cnues of the Government without re turn. It is poor business to spen< money for inland navigation unies: we get it. Denatured Alcohol. I had occasion in my message o: May 4, 1900, to urge the passage o: some law putting alcohol, used in tin arts, industries, and manufactures upon the free.list; that is, to providi for the withdrawal free of tax o: alcohol which is to be denatured fo: those purposes. The law'of June 7 1906,' and its amendment of March 2 1907, accomplished what was desiree in that respect, and thc use of de natured alcohol, as intended, is mak ing a fair degree of progress and ii entitled to further encouragement anc support from the. Congress.^ Pure Pood. The pure food legislation has al ready worked a benefit' difficult t( overestimate. Indian Affairs. It has been my purpose from the beginning of my administration tc take the Indian Service completelj out of the atmosphere of political activity, and there has been stead} progress toward that end. The last remaining stronghold of politics ir that service was the agency system, which had seen its best days and was gradually falling to pieces from nat ural or purely evolutionary causes, but, like all such survivals, w?s de caying slowly in its later stages. It seems clear that its extinction had better be made final how, so that thc ground can be cleared for larger con structive work on behalf, of the In dians, preparatory to their induction into the full measures of responsible citizenship. On November 1 only eighteen agencies were left on the roster, with two exceptions, where some legal questions seemed to stand temporarily in the way, these have been changed to superintendencies, and their heads brought ,into . the classified civil service. Secret Service. The law enacted by the last session of Congress to provide that there should be no detail from the Secret Service and no transference there from seems to have been only in the interest of the criminal classes, both large and small, and as a mat ter of common interest should be re pealed and the old system re-enact ed. Corporations are necessary instru ments of modem business. They have been permitted to become a menace largely because the govermental rep resentatives of the people have work ed slowly in providing adequate con trol over them. 'j Control over the great corporations doing interstate business can be ef fective enly when such control is vested in the executive department of the government. Postal Savings Banks. I again renew my recommendation for postal savings banks, for deposit ing savings with the security of thc Government behind them. The object is to encourage thrift and eeonomv in? the wage-earner, and nerson of moderate means. In fourteen States the deposits in savings banks as re ported to the Comptroller of the Currency amount to $3,590,245,402, or 9S.4 per cent of the entire deposits, while in the remaining 32 States there are only $70,308,543, or 1.6 per cent showing conclusively that there are many localities in the United States where sufficient opportunity is not given to the people to deposit their savings. The result is that money is kept in hiding and unemployed. .It is believed that in the aggregate vast sums of money would be brought in to circulation through the insirumenT tality of the postal savings banks. While there are only 1,453 savings banks reporting to the Comptroller there arc more than 61,000 post-offices 40,000 of which are money. .Order of fices. Postal savings banks are now in operation in practically all the great civilized countries with the ex ception of the United States. Parcel Post. . In my last annual message I com mended the Postmaster-General's re commendation for an extension of the parcel post on the. rural routes. Thc establishment of a local parcel post on rural routes would be to the mu tual benefit of thc. farmer and the country storekeeper, and it is de sirable that the routes, serving more than 15,000.000 people, should be utilized to the fullest practicable ex tent. An amendment was proposed in the Senate at the last session, at the suggestion of the Postmaster General, providing that, for the pur pose of ascertaining the practicability of establishing a special local parcel post system on the rural routes throughout the United - States, the Postmaster General be authorized and directed to experiment and report to the Congress the result of such ex periment by establishing a special local parcel post system on rural de Prcvcrbr. and Phrases. Often thc man who has the price of a good coat in his pocket doesn't care how shabby the pocket may bc nor the coat it belong- to. If thc Standard Oil octopus were conversationally inclined it would be .interesting to hear it discourse upon "Some Statesmen I Have Met." Thc boy bom with a silver spoon in its mouth docn't cut its wisdom teeth any earlier than thc kids who come without any baggage. livery routes in not to exceed four counties in the United States for packages of fourth-class matter orig inating on a rural route or at the dis tributing post office for delivery by rural carriers. It would seem only proper that such an experiment should be tried in order to demon strate the practicability of the prop osition, especially as the Postmaster General estimates that the revenue derived from the opeation of such a system on all the rural routes would amount to manv million dollars. Education. The share that the National Gov ernment should take in the broad work of education has not received the attention and thc care it rightly deserves. The immediate responsi bility for the support and improve ment of our educational systems and institutions rests and should always rest with the people of the several States acting through their state and local governments, but the Nation has an opportunity in education work which must not be lost and a duty which should no longer be neglected. With the limited means hitherto provided, the Bureau of Education has rendered efficient service, but the Congress has neglected to adequately supply the bureau witt means to meet the educational growth of the coun try. . The appropriations for the? gen eral work of thc bureau, out side edu cation in Alaska, for the year 1909 ?ire but $S7,500-an amount less than they were ten years a<ro, and some of the important items in these appro priations are less than they were thirty years ago. It is an inexcusable waste of public money to appropri ate an amount which is so inade quate as to make it impossible prop erly to do the work authorized, and it is unfair to the great educational interests of the country to deprive them of the value of the results which can be obtained by proper appropri ations. Census. I strongly urge that the request of the Director of the Census in connec tion with the decennial work so soon to be begun, be complied with and that the appointments to the census force be placed under the civil ser vice law, waiving the geographical requirements as requested by the Di rector of the Census. The supervisors and enumerators should not be ap pointed under the civil service law, for the reasons given by the Director. I commend to the Congress the care ful consideration of the admirable re port of thc Director of the Census, and I trust that his reeommedations will be adopted and immediate action thereon taken. Soldiers' Home. All Soldiers' Homes should be plac ed under the complete jurisdiction and control of the War Department. Independent Bureaus and Commis sions. Economy and sound business policy require that all existing independent bureaus and commissions should be placed under the juridiction of ap propriate executive departments. It is unwise from every standpoint, and results only in mischief, to have any executive work done save by the purely executive bodies, under the control of the President: and each such' executive body should be under the immediate supervision of a Cabi net Minister. Statehood.. I advocate the immediate admis sion of New Mexico and Arizona as States. This should be done at the present session of the Congress. The peoDle of the two Territories have made it evident by their votes that they will not come in as ?one State. The only alternative is to admit them as two. and I trust that this will be done without delay. Interstate Fisheries. I call the attention of the Con gress to the importance of the prob lem of the fisheries in the interstate waters. On the Great Lakes we arc now. under the very Arise treaty of April 11th, of this year, endeavoring to come to an international agree ment for the preservation and satis factory lise of the fisheries of these waters can not otherwise be achieved. Lake Erie, for example, has the rich est fresh water fisheries in the world; but it is now controlled bv the statutes of two Nations, four States, and one Province, and in this Prov ince by different ordinances in dif ferent counties. All these political divisions work at cross purposes, and in no case they achieve protection to the fisheries, on the one hand, and justice to the localities and individ uals on thc other. The case is simi lar in Puget Sound. Fisheries and Fur Seals. The federal statute regulating in terstate traffic in game should be ex tended to include fish. New federal fish hatcheries should be estbalislied. The administration of the Alaskan fur-seal service should be vested in the Bureau of Fisheries. Foreign Affairs. This Nation's foreign policy is based 011 fnc theory that right must be done between nations precisely as between individuals, and in our ac tions for the Inst ten years we have in this matter proven our faith by our deeds. We have behaved and are behaving, towards other nations, as in private life an honorable man would behave towards his fellows. Latin-American Republics. The commercial and material pro gress of the twenty Latin-American Republics is worthy of the careful attention of the Congress. No other section of the world has- shown a greater proportionate development of its foreign trade during the last ten years and none other has more sneeial claims on thc interest of the United States. It offers today probably larser opportunities for the lo<riti Pert Paragraphs. You can't always tell how much money a woman spends by mcrclv knowing how much salary her hus band draws, but taking it by and large it's a pretty safe guess. Perhaps you can't help feeling en vious, but at least you can help show ing it and so making yourself ob noxious. Some women arc such slaves to dress thev are willing to work for their clothes. mate extension of our commerce than any other group of countries. These countries will want our products in greatly increased quantities, and we shall correspondingly need theirs. The International Bureau of the Am erican Republics is doing a useful work in making these nations and their resources better known to us, ?nd in acquainting them not only with us as a people and with our purposes towards them, but with what we have -to exchange for their goods. It is an international insti tution supported by all the govern ments of the two Americas. Panama Canal . The work on the Panama Canal is being done with a speed, efficiency and entire devotion to duty, which make it a model for all work of the kind. No task of such magnitude has ever before been undertaken by any nation; and no task of the kind has ever been better performed. The men on the Isthmus, from Colonel Goe thals and his fellow commissioners through the entire list of employees who are faithfully doing their duty, have won their right to the ungrudg ing respect and gratitude of the Am erican people. Ocean Mail Lines. I again recommend the extension of the ocean mail act of 1891 so that satisfactory American ocean, lines to South America, Asia, the PHilipiries, and Australia may be established. The creation of such steamship lihes should be the natural corollary of the voyage of the battle fleet. It should precede the opening of the Panama Canal. Even under favorable con ditions several years must elapse be fore such lines can be put into opera tion. Accordingly I urge that the Congress act promptly where fore sight already shows that action soon er or later will be inevitable. The Anny. As regards the Army I call atten tion to the fact that while our junior officers and enlisted men stand very high, the present system of promo I tion by seniority results in bringing into the higher grades many men of mediocre capacity who have but a short time to serve. No man should regard it as his vested right to rise to the highest rank in the Army any more than in any other profession. It is a curious and by no means cred itable fact that there should be so often a failure on the part of the public and its representatives to un derstand the great need, from the standpoint of the service and the Na tion, of refusing to promote respect able, elderly incompetents. The higher places should be eiven to the most deserving men without regard to seniority; at least seniority should be treated as onlv one consideration. In the stress of modern industritl competition no business ' firm could succeed if those responsible for its management were chosen simply on the ground that t.<ey were the oldest people in its employment; yet this is the course advocated as regards the army, and required by law for all grcfdes except those of general officer. As a matter of fact, all of thc best officers in the highest ranks of the army are those who have attained their present position whollv or in part by a process of selection. - The Navy. I approve the recommendations of the General Board for the increase of the \Navy, calling especial attention to the need of additional destroyers and colliers, and above all, of the four battleships.' It is desirable to complete as son as possible a squad ron of eight battleshins of the best existing type. The North Dakota, Delev.-are, Florida and Utah will form thc first of this squadron. Thc four vessels p?oposcd will form the second division. It will be an improvement on the first, the ships being of the heavy, single caliber, all big gun type. All the vessels should have the same tactical qualities, that is, speed and turning circle, and as near as possible these tactical qualities should be the same as is in the four vessels before named now being built. Thc American people have cause for profound gratification, both in view of the excellent condition of the fleet as shown by this cruise ,and in view of thc improvement the cruise has worked in this already high con dition. I do not believe that there is any other service in the world in which the average of character 'and' efficiency in the enlisted men is as high as is now the case in our own. I believe that thc same statement can be made as to our officers, taken as a whole; but there must bc a reserva tion made in regard to those in the highest ranks-as to which I have al ready spoken-and in regard to those who have just entered the service; because we do not now get full bene fit from our excellent naval school at Annapolis. It is absurd not to graduate the midshipmen as ensigns; to keep them for two years in such an anomalous position as at present the law requires is detrimental to them-and lo the service. In the aca demy itself, every first classman should be required in turn to serve as petty officer and officer; his abil ity to discharge his duties as such should be a prerequisite to his going into the line, and his success in com manding should largely determine his standing at graduation. The Board of Visitors should bo appointed in January, and each member should be required to give at least six days' service' only from one to three days' to be performed during June week, which is the least desirable time for the board tb be at Annapolis so far as benefiting the navy by their ob servations in concerned. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. The White House, Tuesday, Decem ber 8, 190S. News Notes. John D. Rockefeller at thc cross examination in the Standard Oil case declined' to state his railroad stock and bond holdings. The Atlantic Guli and West Indies Steamship Lines l?as been incorporat ed in Boston, with a capital of .fJ.0. 000,000, to save the Morse wreck remnant. Several, tests of physical ability arc to bc imposed on naval officers by thc President's order. WWMMRS_ MEEI Second Session of the Sixtieth Congress Begins Its Work SEVERAL?NEW MEMBERS SWORN If the Republican Leaders Retain Present Views There Will Be very Little Else Done by the Con?.-ess Except Appropriate Money Foi Various and Sundry Objects. "Washington, Special.-If Republi can leaders retain their present views the legislation of the session of Con gress which began Monday will in clude very little except the appro priation bills. These bills will carry in the aggregate about $1,000,000,000,, and the general opinion is that in the time that will bc allowed, the two houses will find they can best serve the country by giving proper atten tion to these appropriations. There will bc a general effort to hoi,} the appropriations down to the lowest possible limit. It is generallv understood that there will be a bill for the improvement of rivers and harbors, to carry not less than $25. .000,000 or $30,000,000. Provision must be made this year for the cen sus of 1910, and this will require not less than $10,000,000. There will be other exceptional demands, so that as j it looks now Congress will do well if it succeeds in holding the appro priations for the second session of the Sixitieth Congress to the dimen sions of those of the first session. The House* committee on ?ppropria tions already has begun its work on the sundry hills. The fr rt that the managers desire to restrict legislation will not pre vent other members of the Senate and House from exerting their efforts in behalf of favorite measures. The first effort in this direction will be made in thc Senate by Mr. Foraker, who will renew his attempt to have passed the bill authorizing the re enlistment of the negro soldiers dis charged Avithout honor on account of the Brownsville riot. This measure will be the special order for Decem ber 16th. Senator . Beveridge will . make an effort to obtain early con sideration of his child labor bill, and Senator Carter, of the postal savings bank bill. It is quite certain that the recent agreement between the United States and Japan will receive early consid eration in the Senate. Already i\ .number of Senators have privately expressed disapproval of the fact; that the compact, was entered into without consulting the Senate. Monday at 12 o'clock both houses of Congress convened for the begin ning of the second session of the Six tieth Congress. Practically no busi ness was transacted in either house Monday. In the Senate ex-Governor Cummins, of Iowa, took the oath of office as the successor of Senator Al lison ,as did Carroll S. Page,-of Ver mont, as the successor of Senator / Stewart. In the House the seven members who were elected in Novem ber to succeed members who have died or resigned, arc Henry A. Barn hart, Democrat, who succeeds the lat?! Mr. Brick, Republican, from the thir teenth Indiana district; Albert Esto pi?al, Democrat, who succeeds the late Mr. Meyer from the first Louis iana district; Otto G. Foelker, Re publican, .successor to Mr. Dunwell, Republican, in the third New York district; Frank E. Guernsey. Repub lican, successor to Mr. Powers, Re publican, frcm tho fourth Ma i ne dis trict;; Eben M.'Masters, Republican, successor to Mr. Parker. Republican, from South Dakota at large; O. C. Wiley, Democrat, successor to his brother, A. A. Wiley, Democrat, from the second Alabama district, and John P. Swansay, Republican, suc cessor to Mr. Littlefield, who resigned during the last session from the sec ond Maine district. The two houses appointed commit lees each to notify the other House and the President that the two bodies were organized and .prepared to go forward with the business of the ses sion. The Senate then adjourned for the day, out of respect to the mem ory of Senator Allison, who died dur ing the recess. The House terminat ed its bref session with resolution? commemorative of the lives of Messrs, Parker, Wiley, Dunwell and! Powers, who have died since adjourn ment last May. Brave Engineer Scalded to Death in His Cab. Statesboro, Ga., Special.-Remain ing at his post though danger threatened, A. A. Reppard, a son of the late well-known lumberman, R. D. Reppard, of Savannah, was slowly scalded to death when his engine turned over and pinned him in the wreckage, one mile from Aaron, Ga., on the Savannah, Augusta & North ern Railway. Twenty passengers in a caboose that with the engine made up the train had narrow escapes from injury. Prominent Woman Suicides. Bristol, R. I., Special-Mrs. Em ma Russell Chescbrough, aged 39 years, wife of Allrcd S. Chescbrough, a well-known yacht designer of this city, committed suicide by shooting herself in the head with a revolver. She had been troubled with melan cholia and insomnia for some tims. She was thc daughter of former Lieu tenant Governor Jonathan Russell Bullock. Night-Riders Threaten Col. Taylor. Chattanooga. Tenn., Special.-A ^ special to Thc'Times frcm Trenton/ Tenn., says: It has been reported that Col. R. Z. Taylor, of this pVace, who made such a miraculous, 'escape from thc night-riders the. night that Captain Quentin Rankin was handed at Walnut Leg, has received a note .ontainine notice that / thc night '.idcrs will call at Ins heme and take lils body, dead or live, no date bc .ni* given.