6 
— 
THE . 
National Capital 
Events of Interest from the Seat of 
Government 
By J. E. Jones 
The Breeze Bureau 
Washington, Feb. 26, 1914 
How Asout A STATUE For LEE? 
The late Senator Cullom greeted 
eleven presidents of the United 
States when they came to Washing- 
ton. Among these was his friend, 
Abraham Lincoln, The last efforts 
of Senator Cullom were devoted to 
the work of securing a memorial to 
the man whom he loved in life, and 
cherished in memory. Now an ex- 
Confederate soldier, former Gover- 
nor Blackburn of Kentucky, suc- 
ceeds Mr. Cullom as the resident 
Washington commissioner. In Con- 
gress there has been a suggestion 
that a monument be erected in the 
National Capital to Robert E, Lee. 
These circumstances show that the 
north and south are “mixing it up” 
rather energetically, 
“THE POWER OF THE PREss.” 
One cannot pick up any kind of a 
publication without- seeing some- 
thing that has been written from 
Washington. When Charles C, Hart, 
Secretary of the National Press Club, 
announced his candidacy for the 
nomination to Congress from the 
fifth district of Washington, the 
“regular correspondents” sent the 
item to their papers; the “boiler 
plate” people made a feature story of 
it; and. the “ready print’? represen- 
- tatives stuck off pictures of Mr. 
Hart, which were sent out through 
their lists. It is calculated that of 
the 25,000 publications of all kinds 
in the United States that at least 
two-thirds of them published the 
Hart story. The newspaper men of 
the Capital have gone over unani- 
mously for Mr, Hart, and they insist 
that the Washington district should 
heed “the power of the press.” 
TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND Dks- 
VELOPMENT, 
When Secretary William H. Se- 
ward purchased Alaska for this 
country, he carried his proposition 
through Congress with the aid of 
Charles Sumner, the great Massa- 
chusetts statesman, who foretold 
with exact nicety in a_ prophetic 
speech, of the material riches of 
\laska. Along its frozen trails the 
wealth of an empire has already been 
toted into civilization. The United 
States owns the great coal fields of 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Alaska, and to develop and protect 
what is perhaps the greatest deposit 
in the world, the government will 
build a thousand miles of railroad at 
an expense of $35,000,000, A pri- 
vately constructed railroad in Alaska 
would be worthless without coat 
leases from the government; and 
since no administration would care- 
lessly make these leases there is noth- 
ing left to do except for the United 
States to run the double proposition 
of a railroad, and coal mining, on its 
own account. It is a feasibly busi- 
ness proposition which any set of 
large business men would be only too 
glad to take out of the hands of the 
government. There has been a 
storm of protest against expansion 
in Alaska, which is not strange since 
territorial expansion and _ develop- 
ment has always had a rough road. 
The Honorable Josiah Quincy of 
Massachusetts warned Congress of 
the dangers of the Louisiana pur- 
chase, and told his colleagues that 
they had ‘‘no authority or right to 
throw the rights and liberties and 
property of this people into hotch- 
pot with the wild men of Missouri, 
nor with the mixed, though more re- 
spectable race of the Anglo-Hispano- 
Gallo-Americans who bask on the 
sands at the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi.”’ When it came to the Ore- 
gon purchase, the Senate of the 
United States was told by an illustri- 
ous Senator that he would not give 
‘‘a pinch of snuff for the whole terri- 
tory,” which he proceeded to describe 
as a “wild gambling venture.” An- 
other Senator who happened to be 
from New Jersey said that ‘‘Oregon 
can never be one of the United 
States. If we extend-our iaws to it 
Wwe must consider it as a colony.” He 
declared that “the Union is already 
too extensive.” Later on came the 
renowned Daniel Webster, horrified 
by the proposition to attach Texas, 
California and New Mexico to the 
United States. “TI have never heard 
of anything, I cannot conceive of 
anything, that is more absurd or 
more affrontive to all sober judg- 
ment. New Mexico and California 
are not worth one dollar.” 
The Alaska railroad is not a newly 
discovered proposition. Secretary 
of the Interior Fisher of the Taft ad- 
ministration used his best efforts to 
secure a trunk line from the ocean to 
the great interior valleys of the 
Yukon and Tenaha, which he de- 
clared to be necessary in order to 
“open the country so that its future 
development may be made possible.’ 
Prick FIx1nc. 
During the sessions of the Cham- 
ber of Commerce of the United 
States, William H, Ingersoll, of 
“dollar watch” fame, made a presen- 
tation of the subject of price main- 
tenance that brought the assembled 
representatives of the commercial 
organization of the country to their 
feet. Mr. Ingersoll declared that a 
certain mail order house had placed 
their catalogues in one-third of the 
homes of the country, where it was 
“used more than the “Bible.” He 
told how department stores and 
chains stores had brought about con- 
centration of business in the retail 
field, thereby tending to divert trade 
from the local centers to the great 
stores in larger cities, oppressing 
thousands of small merchants in 
cities and small towns, causing con- 
centration of business and.adding to 
the complexity of the trust problem. 
He made a severe attack against ad- 
vertised “sales” in which goods were 
“sold below cost,” and asserted that 
the department stores were the chief 
offenders. He claimed that this class 
of advertising was untrue on its very 
face. The whole argument was a 
powerful plea for the maintenance of 
resale prices ag fixed by the manu- 
facturer. Their prices, he asserted, 
always took into account the many 
items of the cost of distribution, and 
the avenues of trade through which 
goods must pass before finally reach- 
ing the public. Mr. Ingersoll’s ar- 
raignment of the cut-throat practices 
of merchandising, traced many of the 
evils as working to the ultimate in- 
jury of consumers. He advocated a 
law premitting the makers of nation- 
ally advertised goods to regulate the 
price. 
For Tur Dicnrtry oF THE Country. 
There has been a big row over the 
creating of six vice-admirals of the 
navy because of the suspicion in Con- 
gress that this is desired in order to 
furnish social distinction for navy 
officers. On the other hand, the 
legislation appears to have been too 
long delayed since it fixes the official - 
status of the navy itself. Senator 
Lodge points out that in a case of 
concerted action on the part of naval 
powers that the United States would 
have to take a back seat for the Chin- 
ese, Portugese and Danish navies, as 
the vice-admirals of these navies take 
precedence by reason of rank over’ 
the commanders in chief of our great 
Atlantic fleet, notwithstanding the 
fact that they have negligible navies. 
There are approximately four 
million acres of timber land in New 
Hampshire of which about half. is 
in farmers’ woodlots. Tee 
