The Washington herald. [volume], March 27, 1921, Page FIVE, Image 37

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|What the 1
Broad Program in Senate.
TO facilitate action on the Colombian treaty Senator
Smoot of Utah obtained agreement of the
Senate recently to the printing of 150 additional
copies of the correspondence concerning the agreement
between the United States and Colombia. Senator
Lenroot of Wisconsin, attacked the treaty in a
apeech before the City Club of Washington, March 16,
declaring the payment of ?<5,000,000 to Colombia would
be a confession of fraud by thin country. Ratification
of the treaty as requested by President Harding would
br a blot on the nation's honor, he declared.
Confirmations voted by the Senate before its adjournment
sine die March 15, included that of Cornelio
Vargar, who came to the United States after the Spanish-American
war as mascot of the I-'ourth Ohio regiment,
to be postmaster at Guayama, Porto Rico, his
native country. More than 5,000 army, navy and
Marine Corps appointments or promotions were confirmed.
I'.liol Wadsworth, of Massachusetts, to be
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; J. M. WainriKht,
of New York, to be Assistant Secretary of War; Eugene
Myer, Jr., of New York, to be a director of tin:
War Finance Corporation; Cuno H. Rudolph and James
F. Oyster, to be District Commissioners and Robert
W. Bliss to be Third Assistant Secretary of State also
were confirmed.
The entire edition of the Congressional Record of
March 14, with the exception of a few pages, is devoted
to the speech of Senator Robert M. La Follette
opposing the partial payments of guaranty to the railroads
under the Esch-Cummins law, elaborate diagrams,
and tabulations showing the interlocking interests
of giant corporations throughout the country.
_ Ratification of commercial treaties and agreements
with Argentina, Cretce, Portugal and Hawaii and the
fixing of a definite time in the new session?the eighth
calendar day?f<jr action 00 the Colombian treaty by
which this government would pay $25,000,000 in settlement
of the Panama controversy, featured the Senate
sessions the week following inauguration.
Theodore Roosevelt was confirmed as Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, March 14.
Confirmation of Cuno H. Rudolph and Capt.
James F. Oyster was held up on March 12 because
of opposition and a public demand for a hearing, which
was set by the Senate District Committee for the following
Monday.
"S. Parker Cilbert, Nicholas Kelley, and Ewing
La Port were confirmed on March 9, as Assistant Secretaries
of the Treasury and Charles S. Sawyer was
confirmed as brigadier general in the medical section of
the army.
The nomination of John J. Esch, former Representative
from Wisconsin as a member of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, was held up March 10
by Senator La Follette, who declared that the EschCuinmins
railroad law for which Esch was responsible,
was a detriment to the country.
H. H. Billany, of Delaware, was confirmed March
It as Fourth Assistant Postmaster General. Carl A.
Mapes, reappointed, was confirmed as solicitor of the
Internal Revenue Bureau; Charles C. Madison, of Kansas
City, Mo., was confirmed as United States Attorney
for the Western district of Mississippi; Lars Bladine,
Cedar Falls, la., revenue collector for the Second district
of Iowa; William W. Husband, St. Johnsbury,
Vt., Commissioner General of Immigration; Thomas
W. Marvin, Massachusetts, member of the tariff commission;
Mark W. Potter, New York, member Interstate
Commerce Commission; Clarence C. Chase, NewMexico,
revenue collector at El Paso, Tex.; Edward
Stitt, Surgeon General; Sniedley D. Butler, Logan Feland
and Harry Lee, brigadiers general.
Announcement of Representative Mondell, Republican
House leader, that h* would oppose the emergency
tariff bill which Senate Republicans under Senator
Penrose have bent their efforts to put through at
the new session of Congress, was somewhat; disconcerting
to the new administration, and was forecast as
the forerunner of a serious split, which might result
in defeat of the tariff program.'
All Senate officers, including the president pro Jem,
the sergeant-at-arms, were re-elected at the session following
inauguration.
Henry P. Fletcher was confirmed as L:ndersecretary
of State.
U. S. Supreme Court Cases. '
Constitutionality of the prohibition law was attacked
in the Supreme Court last Monday by J. J.
Dillon, of San Francisco, whose attorney filed a brief
alleging that Section 5 of the Constitution forbids
Congress fixing a time within which the Eighteenth
amendment must be ratified. Dillon is seeking a
writ of habeas corpus. He is charged with violating
the prohibition law.
That the government is entitled to lower gas
rates than private" citizens, was the decision of the
U. S. Supreme Court March 21, in the case of Sam
Goodman and William Hollis, of Takonia Park, against
the District Commissioners to prevent discrimination
by the Washington Gas Light Company in favor of
World
is Dc
(he government. Citizens mutt pay the rate demanded
by the company, which is armed with the authority
of the Public Utilities Commission to fix rates, while
the government may fix its own rates, the ruling held.
First Step in Reorganization.
By co-ordinating the work of the Boundary Commission
with that of the Coast and Geodetic Survey
the government has taken the first step in reorganfzation
of the departments. The salary of the boundary
commissioner, amounting to $5,000 a year, and the
rent of. offices at Fifteenth street and New York
avenue, $3,000 a year, will be saved, Col. Lester Jones,
director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey taking
ouver tlur duties of commissioner and removing the
offices to the building on Capitol Hill. There are
numerous other economics.
Preparations for sending out a field party to
locate the 49th parallel, which marks the boundary
between the I'nited States and Canada, arc being
made at the Boundary Commission's new offices on
Capitol Hill. The party will work in the Rocky
Mountain range between the Pacific Ocean and Lake
of the Woods, Minn. Map work and computations
are duties that keep a large force busy in the offices
at present.
Test Validity of Rail Wage Law.
Validity of the Federal law requiring railroads to
give twenty days' notice of wage reductions, is beinj
tested in the District Court at Atlanta Ga., and Judgfc
William L. Chambers, commissioner of the United
States Board of Mediation and Conciliation, is attending
the hearings to aid in defense of the statute. Because
their wages were reduced 50 per cent of the increase
since January 1, 1917, 1,500 of the railroad employes
struck,, and the road refused the services of the
mediation board because of the requirement that the
reduction be delayed twenty days, the ground being
that this exaction was confiscatory.
Abolishment of the adjustnient board of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, whiclf was recently
announced, will mean additional work for the United
States Board of Mediation and Conciliation or the
Railway Labor Board at Chicago, it was reported here.
Reclassification to Affect Many.
About 200,000 civil employes of the government,
90,000 of them in Washington, including District employes,
will be affected by the reorganization of government
departments for which a committee of Congress
is making preparations. Senator Smoot is the
head of this committee, and by the time the new session
begins, April 11, a form of legislation may be
ready for recommendation.
Senator Mcdill McCormick, of Illinois, is sponsor
for the national budget bill which is to be introduced
early in the new session in connection with the reorganization
and reclassification of the government departments.
Members of Congress are being urged by the Civil
Service Commission to pass as early as possible "some
bill making a real beginning toward reclassification of
duties and positions and providing more adequate salaries
for employes of the government.'' . >.
Elimination of the bonus system, which costs the
government $50,000,000 a year, will be the chief incentive
in the drafting of the reclassification bill.
Ship Board Activities Varied.
The United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet
Corporation announced Thursday that sealed bids will
be received until April 15 for ship-bottom painti required
for six months use from May 15, 1921. Four
bids were rejected on barges for construction at New
- Orleans. ' ?
In a letter to Admiral Benson, chairman of the
Shipping Board, President Harding has requested that
Ihe functions of the board be continued as normally
as possible, and said the letter was prompted by reports
that some embarrassment has resulted from the
temporarily unorganized state of the board.
Expenses of the Investigating division of the
Shipping Board have been cut one-half and more
indictments against persons attempting to defraud the
government secured since Frank Burke has become
chief of the division, it was announced in a bulletin
of the Shipping Board.
All bunker coal bids received by the Shipping
Board as of February 28, were rejected, Chairman
Benson explaining that he did not wish to embarrass
the new board by making any contracts of this magnitude.
In a telegram to the Pacific American Steamship
association Thursday Admiral Benson advised against
arbitrary reduction of operating expenses.
A miniature flour mill and bakery established by
the Department of Agriculture in Washington handles
grist from all over the world in a test of varieties.
)ING
_ BmuiMj. March oy. naiTn "
Sees U. S. Navy Supremacy.
TH1. London Outlook for February 19 is largely
devoted to a discussion of sea power and the
effect on British naval policy of the American
building program. ^
After a resume of the present British and American
programs the writer of the leading article, "The
British Navy and America's Huge Fleet," asks and
answers this question: "Why are the Americans building
the greatest fleet in the world?" Having discussed
American interests in the Far East, the wrker of this
article continues: "We should hug a delusion, however,
if we explained the American building solely by
the tar 1.astern situation. America we know has no
aggressive designs against us; her motives are not
those of Germany; but her pride was severely hurt
six years ago when we laid down the laws of the
oceans outside our territorial waters, and enforced
them upon her commercc, and we must not forget
that at Paris we declined to discuss the historic American
conception of the 'freedom of the seas,* one of
Mr. Wilson's fourteen points. Not much was heard
of the ifiattcr thereafter but we are afraid Washington
drew the inference that America was not likely
to be treated by ourselves as an equal in determining
sea law and procedure in war until her fleet was as
big as ours. These motives then, with one other
that seems a paradox, may be taken to explain the
American building program. The paradox is that
there is a certain element of pacifism mixed up- in
the American big navy movement; a genuine longing
for disarmament, mingled with a determination that
when reduced armaments come, Britain shall not be
abfc to retain still the largest fleet on the plea that
the existing ratio of naval forcTe be perpetuated. If
America has as big a fleet as that of Britain, built or
building, she will be able to come into conference and
claim future equality with us?in gunboats, or whatever
Utopian and expensive sea-weapon may be under
discussion."
As a way to forestall this ruinous competition in
armaments, this proposal is made: "Suppose the premier,
in a public, speech, said to the Americans:
'Your navy is outgrowing ours. This we cannot permit
without a building race. But, being who you are,
we will make a concession we have never offered in alt
our history; wf will accept equality at sea with you,
and save this ruinous expense of armament competition,
and the still worse dangers that may follow in
its train.' To such an offer we firmly believe the
'American people would generously respond. It would
give support to enemies of naval extravagance in the
United States that must overcome all opposition.
Would the offer involve dangers for this country?
We preserve an open mind; but if Admiral Kerr's
thesis is sound, if with a fleet of equal strength it
would be ?f imposible for us to attack America as
for America to attack us, wherein would the danger
lie, and what great ends might not be served by the
courageous word spoken at the right moment by the
right man?" - - "
This thesis referred to in the preceding quotation
is explained in an article in the same periodical entitled
"How an Atlantic Battle Would Be Fought,"
by Vice Admiral Mark Kerr, C. B? M. V. O.
Admiral Kerr's thesis is that in event of a war
between nations situated geographically as are Great
Britain and the United States "it appears to be prac- .
tically impossible that battleships of one country can
be used against the other. It, therefore, follows that
a naval building race fn capital ships between America
and ourselves is an offense against common sens*, as
well as against civilization."
Admiral Kerr arrives at this conclusion by reasoning
along this line. On no occasion in modern history
has it been to'the advantage of both side* to
force a general engagement of battle fleets. It is
always policy for one side to avoid' action. In the
case of Great Britain and the Ignited States the side
which sought action would be obliged to leave its
coaling stations and dockyards and, having proceeded
some 2,500 miles from ||> bases, to engage the enemy
in hi} own waters. The admiral estimates that of the
ships which set forth on such an adventure not more
th?n 5 per cent would ever return to their base. He
contends that thl only occasion under which grand
fleets would engage in a pitched battle would be by
mutual agreement of the two powers to settle the war
by one grand battle to be staged on neutral waters
under prescribed rules. A war between Great Britain
and the United States, or between Japan and the
United States for that matter, would be a commerce
raiding war in which capital ships would play a small
part.
Discuss Fish Conservation.'
The Secretary of Commerce has called a conference
tha^ will tp*et in June at the Fisheries Biological
Station, at Fairport, Iowa, to discuss the conservation
of the resources of the interior 'Waters and
the ways and means of applying science more effectively
to their preservation and increase.
maiwrn