THE 
National Capital 
Events of Interest from the Seat of 
Government 
By J. E. Jones 
The Breeze Bureau 
Washington, Feb. 5, 
ALASKA REDISCOVERED. 
The most important thing ever, 
done in reference to Alaska since the 
United States purchased it for a song, 
was a passage by the Senate of the 
bill providing for a railroad in that 
country, The House of Representa- 
tives will undoubtedly concur in the 
Senate measure, which will give to 
that great region a railroad one thou- 
sand miles long. ‘The road in itself 
is important, but the fact that the 
United States has declared that it 
proposes to back the Alaska proposi- 
tion to \tthe extent of $40,000,000, 
means more than simply a streak of 
rust, screeching locomotives, and 
freight cars, traveling through a 
barren waste. In short the isolating 
of Alaska is to be brought to an end, 
and an aggressive policy to develop 
the great resources is to be carried on 
—our greatest storehouses of wealth 
are to be opened. The general im- 
pression is that Alaska is a frigid re- 
gion, whereas the mean annual tem- 
perature of Sitka is about the same 
as that of Washington, D. C.  Like- 
wise it is learned that Alaska has 
numerous deep land-locked, ice-free 
harbors; and the coast line is 26,000 
miles long, while there are six thou- 
sand miles of navigable rivers in the 
country, Of course, portions of Al- 
aska are extremely cold, but it is a 
region of great variety, The sixty- 
five thousand people of that country 
have certainly showed their patience, 
and now that the government has 
joined the boosters’ club there will 
doubtless be a great movement 
toward that rich region. 
1914 
Cuinp Lasor TO BE BARRED FROM 
COMMERCE. 
After many years of efforts to se- 
cure more rigid restrictions with 
1eference to child labor, and in con- 
formity to a public demand that chil- 
dren be saved from the great maw of 
the factories, Representatives Pa!- 
mer of Pennsylvania proposes to bar 
from interstate commerce the out- 
put of any plant employing children 
under fourteen years of age, or which 
works children under sixteen years 
of age more than eight hours a day. 
Representative Palmer is floor leader 
of the House, and holds a place of 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
peculiar importance in the lower 
body of Congress. He is a member 
of that body because he prefers it to 
a place in the President’s Cabinet, 
which was offered him at the begin- 
ning of the Wilson administration. 
At the time of the declination of the 
portfolio it became known that Mr. 
Palmer’s heritage of the Quaker be- 
Hiefs and customs had, in his own 
epinion, disqualified him for manage- 
ment of the instruments of warfare. 
So far as is known he is the original 
and only living Democrat to decline 
so great a place in the government. 
But the same kindly instinct that 
caused him to turn aside from the 
natural path of advancement and 
ambition because of an inborn inter- 
est in humanity, is found in this child 
labor bill. It is no doubt drastic 
legislation, and goes farther than the 
provisions of the Kenyon bill, which 
has attracted attention in the Senate. 
The measure goes before Congress 
with the unanimous endorsement of 
the Child Labor Committee of the 
House. Its friends find in it the 
merit of effectiveness; and with 
Palmer, one of the strongest men in 
Congress, taking the lead. it is rea- 
sonable to anticipate concrete results, 
in spite of the opposition that such a 
bill is sure to encounter. 
In tHe HANDs oF THE LAWYERS. 
Some of the best lawyers of the 
country are engaged in setting up the 
pins for the new anti-trust legislation. 
There have been numerous confer- 
ences of the leaders for the purpose 
of agreeing upon a program that will 
have the solid support of the Demo- 
cratic party. Of the twenty-three 
members of the two committees in 
the House and Senate that will direct 
this legislation all but Senator Smith 
of South Carolina are lawyers. 
SPRIGS OF ACACTAS. 
What those people in the Forest 
Service do not know is hardly worth 
looking into. There are a great many 
of us people who have traveled along 
tiver routes and across hot sands, 
who have an idea that only in Jerusa- 
lem could one find acacias, and our 
knowledge of the trees in those 
parts inclined to the belief that it 
thrived principally in sprigs, Shat- 
tered must be all of those fond and 
cherished beliefs, since Uncle Sam’s 
men who are posted, tell us that 
there are about 450 species of acacias, 
200-0f which are Australian species, 
and the rest scattered over the world, 
principally in Asia, Africa and Amer- 
ica. In California it has been de- 
monstrated that the acacia is well 
adapted to the reclamation of drift- 
ing sand dunes. This has been de- 
monstrated on the California sea- 
coast, clear down to the ocean beach, 
directly exposed to heavy gales and 
dense fogs. In Golden Gate Park, 
San Francisco, the acacia has been 
used in making a magnificent forest 
of a waste of drifting sand. The 
principal use of the tree has been in 
tan bark, and all of the leading tan 
bark acacias come from Australia. 
The acacias’ timber is beautifully 
grained from contact with the 
ground. ‘The larger trees grow more 
than 160 feet high, with a trunk clear 
of branches for fifty or sixty feet, — 
and a diameter of from two to four — 
feet. Those which are most used for 
commercial products, and _ particu- 
larly for tanning, do not need to at- 
tain large size or great age before 
the products are merchantable. 
““PuTTING ON THE Doc” 
The social season is on in Washing- 
ton at the White House, and the new 
Democrats who have come to the 
Capital in consequence of the victory 
of their party have been splendid cus- 
tomers of the merchant tailors and. 
hatters, who have rigged them up in 
spike tails, top coats, and elevated 
hats. A good many of the new- 
comers betray their self-conscious- 
ness,, and they are making a fine 
struggle to play the game according 
to the rules, and in a manner that may 
lead onlookers to believe that they 
have always been accustomed to this 
sort of thing. 
THEYRE Strut CHANGING THE 
INAUGURAL DATE. 
Shortly after George Washington 
became president the suggestion arose 
that the inauguration should be 
changed from March to January, or 
to April or May, or some other old 
date, Senator Shafroth of Colorado 
is the latest Don Quixote to attack 
the inaugural windmill, and he finds 
that political tangles and bad weather 
would be jointly eliminated by cutting 
out the extra short session of Con-— 
gress and having the president come 
into office on the first day of the year. 
SOAKING THE StocK EXCHANGES. 
Some of the Democratic leaders 
are in real earnest in their desires to 
put the screws on stock exchange 
methods. A measure has been intro- 
duced in Congress by Senator Owen, 
which prevents the use of the mails, 
telegraph and telephone, in further- 
ance of fraudulent and harmful trans- 
actions on stock exchanges. 
