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The Commoner
VOL. 13, NO. 32
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"wines of native manufacture. A hearing was
granted to discuss tho proper labeling of cocoa
and chocolate.
During the month, there met in Washington,
tho National Pomological socioty, the associa
tion of state agricultural colleges and experi
ment stations, and the association of ofllcial
agricultural chemists, at all of which repre
sentatives of the department delivered papers
and addresses.
Tho department during the month issued
notices of judgment obtained in twenty-eight
casos against manufacturers of dips and sprays,
household and agricultural insecticides and
fungicides. These prosecutions, many of which
resulted in substantial fines, were based on the
facts that tho manufacturers offered their
products under extravagant claims, failed to
state the amounts of inert materials, overstated
tho strength of their products, or labeled them
as containing a greater quantity than examina
tion of the package proved.
The judgments under the food . nd drugs act
covered misbranding or adulteration of many
beverages, vinegar, egg products, canned
tomatoes, raisins, tomato pulp, catsups, etc.
Tho seizures recommended dealt with egg pro
ducts, grapes, figs, chestnuts, tomato pulp, phos
phate of lime, onion products, oil of birch, oil
of wintergreon, and sundry other food and drug
substances.
The department published order No. 206, of
the bureau of animal industry, which is designed
to secure the proper registration of breeding
animals admitted from foreign countries.
The publications for the month included a
list of all bulletins in stock which are specially
designed to help women in their household and
farm work. This list includes titles dealing with
a wide range of subjects, from the making of
dairy products, the use of food, the arrange
ment of diet, the care of poultry, the raising of
fruits and flowers, canning, boautiflcation of
home and school, to the danger of drugs. Re
quest for specific titles in the list will be filled
without charge as long as the supply lasts.
The following publications were issued during
the month of November:
Report of tho Director of tho Office of Ex
periment Stations, 1913.
Report of the Chief of Biological Survey,
1913.
Roport of the Chief of the Weather Bureau,
1913.
Report of Solicitor, 1913. .
Report or. Entomologist, 1913.
Report of Librarian, 1913.
Report of the Director of the Office of Public
Roads, 1913.
Report of the Chief of the Bureau of Soils,
1913. '
Roport of the Guam Agricultural Experiment
Station, 1913. .';. ; .
Department Bulletins 17, 2.7, 28, 29,- 30, 32,
3G, 38 and 45. ;:
Department Bulletin 47. ' -. s
Journal of Agricultural Research, -Vol, 1,
No. 2. .:- . t '.-..
Notices of Insecticide Act Judgment, i 26 -to.
30; 33. ;- . :
Tho Use Book, 1913, Forest Service.
O. E, S. Record, Vol. 29, No. 5. '
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
foreign commerce through comnlercia'l "agents,
men of training and experience in particular
lines of investigation, during the present fiscal
year was but $60,000, certainly far too small
for accomplishments comparable to the increas
ing magnitude of our foreign trade. From twelve
to sixteen men have been kept constantly em
ployed in these special linos of investigation
with excellent results, but the force is Inade
quate and the plan is to double it and, to this
end, it is desired to increase to $100,000 the
regular appropriation. In addition, a special
appiCpriation of $100,000 is asked for study di
rected to tho development and promotion of our
trade with South America which is most im
portant at this time owing to the approaching
completion of the Panama canal.
A further special sum of $100,000 is wanted
in order that the bureau may carry out powers
already possessed by it in inquiring into the
cost of production at home and abroad.
Also, it is to be hoped that the bureau will
bo empowered to collect the statistics of our
internal commerce and coastwise trade, informa
tion of importance and value which was not
secured in the past fiscal year nor the present
because of the omission of congress to appro
priate therefor.
LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE
In the terrible storm that swept the Great
Lakes region on November 10, the lighthouse
service lost one of its newest and finest lake
light vessels, No. 82. It was moored in about
ten fathoms of water, thirteen miles from the
entrance to Buffalo harbor and half way be
tween Point Abino, Canada, and Sturgeon Point
on the American side. Lake Erie at this point
is about twelve miles wide.
During the past few weeks, the motor boat
Tarragon has been active in the Chesapeake bay
and tributaries in examining into conditions in
tho oyster fleet, supervising the shipment of
crews, their treatment and the quarters and food
furnished, and also noting and reporting viola
tions of the navigation laws. Several minor viola
tions, such as failure to show lights, anchoring
in channels, etc., were reported, in addition to
two or three of special interest.
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Secretary Redfleld is preparing to submit to
congress at its regular session a plan for the
reorganization of the bureau of foreign and
domestic commerce, which plan has already re
ceived the approval of the president.
Our great and rapidly growing foreign. com
merce reached, in the fiscal year ended June 30,
1913, the stupendous total of $4,278,000,000 in
value, dividod into exports of approximately
$2,465,000,000 and imports of about $1,812;
000,000. Of our exports, about sixty-one per
cent were manufactures, and of these, more
than one-half were finished manufactures. Tho
item of finished manufactures is now the largest
item in our export trade and is also that which
is growing most rapidly.
In the planned reorganization, an appropria
tion of $150,000 is asked for the employment
In foreign countries of fourteen commercial at
taches who are to be officers of the department
of commerce, who shall bo accredited to our
embassies in the same manner as naval and
military attaches are nbvV accredited, and whbse
sole duty shall be to study the commerce -and
inlustries of the nations where they reside. :
The sum appropriated for the promotion bt
ment, the controversy existing between tho
street . car employes and the street car com.
panies at Indianapolis was amicably adjusted
as was also the ; differences between the employ
ees and the owners of the interurban lines out
of Indianapolis. The good offices of the depart
ment are also being used to adjust the team
sters' strike in the same city While the depart
ment is handicapped by the small appropriation
provided for mediation and conciliation work,
men were detailed from other branches of the
departmental service and are now actively
engaged in an endeavcTr to adjust many in
dustrial controversies and trade disputes in
various parts of the country.
At the time of the organization of the de
partment of labor three of the bureaus trans
ferred to it by the organic act were located in
different parts of the city of Washington. The
policy of the secretary was to have all the
bureaus housed in oneJ)uilding, if practicable,
thereby assuring greater facility in the trans
action of the business between the several
"bureaus and offices of the department. 'I he
bureau of immigration, the bureau of natural
ization and the children's bureau are now
located, together with the secretary's oillce, in
the Willard building on Fourteenth street, re
cently vacated by the department of commerce;
the bureau of labor statistics being the only
bureau apart from the rest of the department.
This bureau is located in the new Commerce
building at Nineteenth street and Pennsylvania
avenue.
During the month of November Secretary Wil
son has been absent on an inspection tour of the
immigration atations along the Canadian border
and on the Pacific coast. The secretary left
Washington on November 1st and at Chicago
took up the matter of the new immigration dis
tribution station in that city, also visiting in
turn Minneapolis, Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle
and San Francisco, making a thorough inspec
tion of the immigration service at those points.
In connection with this official trip he delivered
addresses before the commercial organizations
at Seattle and San Francisco, the university of
the-state of Washington at Seattle, and Mari
time workers in San Francisco and the American
Federation of Labor convention at Seattle.
At San Francisco he was joined by Commissioner-General
of Immigration Caminetti, for
the purpose of taking up some proposed changes
in tho immigration station at that port. A
pleasing incident in connection with Secretary
Wilson's visit to San Francisco was the presenta
tion to the secretary, at a meeting of the mari
time workers of California, of a silver loving
cup. This was presented by the seamen in ap
preciation of Secretary Wilson's efforts in secur
ing the passage of the Wilson ser en's bill while
he was a member of the Sixty-second congress.
This bill, which abolished involuntary servitude,
promoted the safety of travel at sea and im
proved the seamen's conditions generally.
President Taft in the closing days of his ad
ministration having failed to sign the bill, it
did not become a law. But a similar bill has
already passed the senate at the special session.
On his return from his tour of inspection the
secretary was detained in Colorado in connec
tion with the coal strike, where he is bending
every effort to bring about an amicable settle
ment of the trade dispute between the miners
and their employers in the southern Colorado
coal fields. He 1b still engaged in this work.
MEDIATION WORK
The department of labor, under section 8 of
tho organic act, which authorizes the secretary
to act as mediator and to appoint conciliators
in trade disputes, continued its activities along
this line of work during the month of November
- Through the. efforts of men from the depart-
BUT THE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND
The machine politicians don't understand
President Wilson because they can't understand
how a man in public life can be simply honest,
truthful and straightforward or how he can
be. Such a man annoys and irritates them; he
strains and deranges their guessing machines,
and messes up their system of political astrology.
Their old and once reliable political dream
books contain no information in regard to the
Wilson type. He knows a. lobby, for
example, when he sees one. He has an idea of
how to stop a panic before it is begun. He has
a very definite idea of what special privilege is.
His calmness -is exasperating to political bear
baiters. They don't understand him; they never
will understand him and they don't under
stand the American people. But The People
understand Wilson. San Francisco Star.
The interlocking directorate system is to ho
placed under the ban by congress at the present
session, if tho wish of President Wilson is
.carried out. This is the little scheme by which
tho owners of banks .and of steel mills got them
selves named on the boards of the railroads,
whero they could enrich themselves by making
contracts, as directors of the railroad, with
themselves as owners- of the money and supplies
the railroads needed. Taking candy from a
child was a task requiring tremendous acumen
and remarkable physical strength compared to
making money in that way.
THE ROAD TO LAUGHTER TOWN
Oh, show me the way to Laughtertown,
For. I have lost the way!
1 wandered out of the path one- day
When my heart was broke and my hair turned
gray,
And I can't remember how to play;
I've quite forgotten how to 'be gay.
It's all through sighing and" weeping, they say.
Oh, show me the way to Laughtertown,
For I havo lost the way!
I used to belong in Laughtertown
Before I lost the way,
For I danced and laughed the livelong day
Ere my heart was broke and my hair turn
gray;
So it ought to be easy to find the way,
But crying has made me blind, they say,
And still toward Teartown my sad feet straj
Oh, show me the way to Laughtertown,
For I have lost the way!
Would ye learn the road to Laughtertown,
Oh ye who have lost the way? . lr
Would ye have young heart though youi nan
bo gray?
Go, learn from a little child each day;
Go, serve his wants and play his play
And catch the lilt of his laughter gay,
And follow his dancing feet as they stray.
For he knows the road to Laughtertown,
O ye who have lost tho way! an
Katherine P. Blake in Nashville Tennessean.
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