States realize the 
THE 
National Capital 
Events of Interest from the Seat of 
Government 
By J. E. Jones 
The Breeze Bureau 
Washington, Jan. 13, 1914 
_ INTERLOCKING DIRECTORATES. 
There is no man in business who 
does not feel the evils—or benefits 
if he is favored--of the contro: of 
a large variety of interests by local 
capitalists. This may have its head- 
quarters in a local bank and reach 
around the affairs of a small com- 
munity; or in a larger sense it may 
envelope the banking and commercial 
interests of cities. Interlocking di- 
rectors, which have been vigorously 
criticised in the past year or two, as 
the result of the Pujo Congressional 
investigation of the money trust ex- 
tend their influence over national 
affairs through the manipulation of 
the finances of great banks, trust 
companies, and instrrance companies. 
Likewise the great corporations, in- 
cluding the railroads, steamship com- 
panies, telephone and telegraph lines, 
and other industries are within their 
power. Therefore it was of import- 
ance to the country when the part- 
ners of the banking firm of J. P. 
Morgan and company announced its 
members had retired from the di- 
rectorships of some score of corpora- 
tions. ‘The announcement says that 
the retirements are due to “public 
sentiment.” That public sentiment 
was never better expressed than in 
the words attributed to President 
Wilson, who said: “The great busi- 
ness transactions of the country are 
privately controlled by gentlemen 
whom I can name, and whom I will 
name if it is desired; men of great 
dignity and character; men, as I 
believe, of great purity of purpose, 
but men who have concentrated in 
their hands transactions which they 
are not willing to have the rest of 
the country interfere with.” 
Deputy PresipENt TUMULTY. 
How few people in the United 
real governing 
power of the nation. Every one 
knows that President Wilson is in 
Mississippi doing his best to get a 
vacation, but most people seem to 
think he has taken the government 
along with him. On the contrary, 
practically all of the details of the 
exectitive office are carried on in 
Washington, exactly as though the 
president were here. President Wil- 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
son is fortunate in having a private 
secretary of wonderful capacity, and 
he leans heavily upon Mr. Joseph 
Tumulty. .Tumulty appears to be 
able to run the government of the 
United States quite as. effectively as 
if “the old man” were here himself. 
No MINES IN PANAMA. 
A great many people wonder how 
it is possible to attack so many big 
hills on the Panama Canal route 
without striking ore of some kind, 
but it has been determined by the 
official geologists of the Isthmus 
Canal Commission, who have exam- 
ined a number of placer claims in the 
region of the Gatun river and trib- 
utaries lying within and without the 
Canal Zone, that is no instance was 
gold found in paying quantities, and 
that this territory is not one for min- 
ing purposes. 
Younc Ficutinc Broop. 
Young America is ‘showing an 
eager desire to enter the enlisted 
ranks of the army, and army officials 
find that the enlistments for the last 
two months of the old year were 
above the normal. In Washington 
it is declared that this is not a result 
of a fear on the part of young men 
that hard times are ahead, but a de- 
sire to enlist for what the young men 
believe to be real service ahead of 
them. 
EVery BANKER Dorn’ Ir, 
Bankers all over the country are 
falling over one another in the rush 
to get in their applications for par- 
ticipation in the new banking sys- 
tem inaugurated under the currency 
bill. A week from the time the bill 
was passed one-fourth of the na- 
tional banks of the country had their 
applications in the hands of the 
Treasury Department at Washing- 
ton. 
PROSPERITY THE NExtT STATION — 
Art, ABOARD. 
Secretary of Commerce Redfield 
seems to be the official prosperity 
booster for the Administration. Red- 
field is cheerful, even when the stock 
market comes bumping along close 
to the ties. This optimist can 
always see a boom just around the 
corner. However, the distinguished 
cabinet officer admits there has been 
a “normal hesitation” in business, 
which he says was only due to a de- 
sire to find out what the final form 
of the currency bill would be. “Tn 
the same way there has been natural 
hesitation until something was 
known of the policy of the Admin- 
3 
istration toward so-called trust prob- 
lem.” ‘The railroad problem has also 
been a factor in the “hesitation” ac- 
cording to the secretary. Likewise 
he concedes that New England has 
been hard hit by financial troubles of 
the Boston and Maine and New Ha- 
ven railroads, ‘There has been some- 
thing of a monetary debauch up 
there,” he explains, “and this is the 
‘cold, gray dawn of the morning af- 
ter. Few know, however, that the 
problem is being treated in the 
strong thorough way its complexity 
demands, that in the pasing of time 
a normal result for all interested 
shall emerge.” The secretary after 
reviewing the results of the inves- 
tigations of his great branch of the 
government, declares that unexam- 
pled prosperity is in store for the 
country, and hints that the man who 
does not get in on it deserves to be 
blamed for his lack of perspicacity 
and acumen. 
Every Party Wants To WIN. 
The Congressional committees of 
the Democratic, Republican and Pro- 
gressive parties have opened separ- 
ate headquarters in office buildings 
in Washington, and each declare that 
they propose to prosecute vigorous 
campaigns throughout the country to 
secure members of their parties for 
representation in the next Congress. 
Hot air artists are busily engaged 
in each of the three establishments 
in devising ways and means to con- 
vince voters of their duty. 
In One OF THE Iowa DisTRICTs. 
Representative Prouty of Iowa 
will retire from Congress. His act- 
ivities on the District of Columbia 
Committee have made him promin- 
ent among the people of the Nation- 
al Capital, and its citizens will “kiss 
him good-bye” with little reluctance. 
Mr. W. O, Payne, whose newspaper 
carries one of the strongest editor- 
ial pages in Iowa, is a candidate, and 
those who know his writings—as all 
public men of Iowa do, realize that 
in Payne the voters have an oppor- 
tunity to'elect one of the ablest men 
in the middle west. 
Uncie SAm’s Rapium Trust. 
In order to carry out the recom- 
mendations of Secretary Lane of the 
Interior Department, Represenfa- 
tive Ferris of Oklahoma has pre- 
pared a joint resolution providing 
for the withdrawal, settlement, sale 
: aa 
or entry, of public lands in the Unt- 
ted States which might possibly con- 
tribute to the supply of radium. 
~ 
