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About The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936 | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1907)
I - I It 1 R A X i Lhicoln Letter Current Gossip from the STATE CAPITAL Legislative and Otherwise H R 2G4 by McMulIen of Gage ap propriating 180000 from the general fund of the state for the erection of a womans building a horticultural building and other structures at the agricultural farm was placed on gen sral file Inasmuch as the committee z not favorable to the appropriation if 100000 for the erection of a wing at the Kearney normal school there Is liable to be a big fight on the approp riation for the university It is said there will be less than 350 pupils en- rolled at the agricultural farm next years while there Is liable to be 1300 ai the Kearney normal school Inas much as there is over 1000000 to be appropriated for the Lincoln institu tion there issome feeling that an even distribution Is not being made Some contend that no appropriation for the university should be made out of the general fund as the one mill levy will be sufficient untar proper management to meet all the uirements of the in stitution The house on Friday recommended for passage the -joint committee prk mary bill rushed it through committee of the whole and then passed S F No 5 by Gibson the employers liability bill Indefinitely postponed Harveys legislative annexation and recommend ed the Lee annexation bill for passage while the senate side tracked the joint committee anti pass bill and recom mended the King anti pass bill with amendments for passage The also amendments for passage They also submit to a vote the question of a constitutional convention After devoting two sessions of the committee of the whole to it the sen ate in committee recommended for passage Kings anti pass bill as a sub stitute for the joint committee bill recently passed by the house As fin ally amended the bill is not quite as stringent as the house bill but is much more severe than the King bill fwas originally As it was introduced It was modeled after the national law on the subject but as the senate fin ally recommended it it is more strin gent than the national law The house measure was not considered The state conventions of next year probably will be confronted with the proposition of indorsing or turning flown amendments to the constitution enlarging the membership of the su preme court to seven members fixing the salaries at 4500 and of district Judges at 3000 and to permit the leg islature to designate methods of ap peal b the supreme court Since the aeclsion of the supreme court that amendments may be voted on by Straight party ballot the greatest diffi culty of amending the constitution has been done away with Some objections have been raised to H R 432 a bill to impose a license fee on all corporations doing business In this state which- are organized un- der the laws of Nebraska or under the laws of any other state The an nual license ranges from 5 to 200 and it is believed by the friends of the bill that it will raise 150000 annually to help pay the expenses of the state The fee is based on capital stock of the corporation to be taxed The bill was introduced in the senate by the senate judiciary committee and a du plicate was Introduced in the house In the suit of the state against The State Journal company to recover 85 000 alleged to represent the price of court reports which the defendant is charged with selling the supreme court denied the motion of the state to amend its petition Two former de cisions were against the state in this suit the court holding that the court reports were not the property of the state that the reporter of the court sells copies of the opinions to various publications and that anyone is priv ileged to publish them -After two hours of strenuous dis cussion the senate in committee of the whole recommended for passage the judiciary committee substitute for the Burns pure food bill The only attack on the measure was in the interests of the druggists who were represented on the floor of the senate by Senator Luce of Harlan who is in the business The principal difficulty came in amend ing section 9 which originally required all patent and proprietary medicines containing poisonous substances to be labeled poison in large red letters y Governor Sheldon has signed S F 114 by Thomas of Douglas known as the bulk sales bill an act to prevent merchants from selling their stocks of goods without notice to creditors The bill has no emergency clause The emplyoyers liability bill as in troduced in the senate by Gibson and passed by that branch of the- legisla ture was passed in the- house and is ready for the governors signature There were three bills of almost iden tical wording on this subject in the legislature They were by Gibson in the senate and by McMulIen and Cone In the house The Gibson bill departs from the provisions of the other two In that it applies only to railroad men engaged in the operation of trains it Is the fellow servant act almost the same as passed by congress sAxfL - T The 2 cent fare bill signed by thq governor and now in effect was draft ed by a Joint committee comprising senators and members of the legisla ture Senator Wiltse of Cedar was one who put In a great deal of time looking up the legality of the proposed measure The bill Is merely amend atory of the present statute which fixes the passenger rates at 3 cents a millo The bill changes the word three to two la addition there is Inserted a clause which states that nc railroad shall be required to sell a ticket for less than 5 cents This was put In to apply to Interurban lines and to the sale of tickets on roads where stations are less than one mile apart The bill changes the age at which half fare rates shall apply from children under 10 years to children under 12 years which is now the rule in force on all roads in this state An argument which has been triously circulated to defeat the ter minal taxation bill has been the decla ration that it would impose double taaxtion upon the railroads In counties under township organization and therefore be unlawful or else knock the townships out of their proper share of taxes That statement is effect ively met with a decision of the su preme court of Indiana which will be offered by Clarke of Douglas in his fight for the passage of the terminal taxation bill The court holds there with respect to a similar law that the fact that property is taxed in a town ship cannot release the railroad from paying its just share of taxes for mu nicipal purposes to -the town which may He wholly within the precincts of that township The home insurance companies of the state won their battle in the senate when they succeeedd in Wiling S F No 212 a bill by Aldrich of Butler county providing for an annual ac counting and apportioning of the sur plus of life insurance companies doing business in the state The home com panies contended throughout the insur ance fight that this bill would bar them from competing with eastern companies in other states because of the reciprocal insurance laws which prevent an insurance company writing in any state a policy not permissible in the home state Without giving it a hearing before the committee of the whole the senate killed H R 175 wliich provided for the assessment of real estate mort gages as a part of the real estate and not as personal property and fixed the statuts of the mortgage for taxation purposes as the county within which the mortgage is located and not the residence of the owner The revenue committee reported the bill for indefi nite postponement and McKesson who has a similar bill in the senate made a fight to have the bill placed on gen eral file Efforts to revive the defunct pro- vision of the Gibson anti brewery bill and incorporate it in another measure pending in the senate were promptly sat down upon by a majority of the senators The provision was to limit the number of saloons to one for every 1000 The bill under consideration was S F No 295 by Patrick to pre vent the location of saloons within three miles of military reservations The only amendments adopted were one to include Indian reservations and to exclude Fort Omaha from the pro visions of the act Governor Sheldon permitted H R No 116 to become a law without his signature The bill provides that re porters in district courts shall receive 10 cents a page for making transcripts in criminal cases where the defendant makes an affidavit of poverty The senate in committee of the whole recommended for passage tor Sacketts bill relating to the con fiscation of coal in transit by railroads The bill requires the roads to pay the value of the coal within sixty days The senate indefinitely postponed S F No 403 by Hamer of Cherry an act to permit precincts townships cities or villages to issue bonds in aid of steam railroads A bill by Marsh of Seward to compel Christian scientist healers to report contagious diseases to health author ities was recommended to pass after a sharp contest in the house Patricks bill providing a new trial shall not be granted in criminal cases for error of the court where it is shown there has been no miscarriage of jus lice was recommended for passage in the senate after a lively fight against it led by King of Polk The bill is in tended to prevent the reversal of cases for mere technicalities which do not affect the merits of the case King stoke against it declaring it was pre jrdicialto the interests of thedefend mt in criminal cases and virtually al lowed the judges to saywhether jus tice had been done or not A prohibition amendment to the constitution will not be submitted to the people for ratification at the polls next year The prohibitionists were unsuccessful in their efforts to resus citate SrF No 399 previously post poned Forcible annexation of South Omaha and Omaha died without a struggle in the house At the same time the bill to put the question to a vote of the people of both cities was advanced by the committee of the whole to third reading and will probably pass - ZjXgft tinrgJl CARE OF EMPLOYES RAILROADS 8PEND LARGE SUMS FOR COMFORT OF MEN Considered by Up-to-Date Officials is Most Profitable Investment Immense Clubhouse at West Philadelphia To keep the men who run the rail roads up to the highest efficiency mark transportation officers now con sider that they can make no more profitable Investment than in rest houses pensions insurance and relief funds Y M C As schools and libra ries The welfare of the men behind the throttle is as carefully considered as the man behind the gun of a bat tleship Welfare work among the rail roads began systematically with the establishment of Y M C As Now there are no less than 200 railway as sociation branches representing roads which employ at least 800000 men In the largest railroad Y M C A in the country located at West On the Tampico branch of the Mexi can Central railway a bull wrecked a train resulting in the death of two trainmen and the injury of several passengers- says the New York Herald correspondent at San Antonio Tex It was a clear case of the bull but ting the train off the track The train was of freight cars with a coach in the rear There were only seven cars and all of them went into the ditch The bull a large imported animal of the black Spanish fighting breed was seen on the track ahead and all the whistling and alarms the engine driver could give failed to cause him to move The train came almost to a stop and gently pushed the animal off But be fore the engine driver regained speed the animal was again on the track braced with head lowered and chal lenging the train The engine driver gently jolted the animal off a second time and the per formance was repeated This vexed the engine driver and the animal seeming to desire a collis ion the train was backed up a quarter of a mile and then with a good run ning start struck the bull Instead of being thrown off the track the animal was carried under the pilot of the engine and the entire train went into the ditch The fireman and a brakeman both Mexicans were killed It is reported several of the pas sengers were shaken up very much The bull was killed Gospel on Longest Railway The railway which crosses Siberia is by far the longest in the world The tremendous distances traveled and the religious character of the peo ple have given rise to the chapel rail way carriages for divine service These are fitted up Inside like a church and they serve not only for travelers by rail but for periodical worship by vthe inhabitants of remote villages on the great plains j Holy Land Railroad A small passenger steamer has been launched on the Lake of Galilee in connection with the railway in the Holy Land naJnytL nmmwijira amusements and restaurants are tii equipment of the resthouse The Mj gest of these is the Filbert street haven in Philadelphia which cna more than 30000 and is used ever day by at least 1000 men Increase Efficiency For men who are compelled to lay over between runs the Y M C A or the resthouse is a godsend Like tho associations the resthouses cost a lot of money but nobody can estimate how much they save by keeping train men in good condition for work that requires the clearest minds dnd the soundest of bodies Libraries and reading rooms have been made still another avenue for the profitable in vestment of railway funds A regular chain of libraries 108000 miles long either supported in whole or in part by railroad funds has been estab lished throughout the country and maintained by 48 different roads Pensions and the savings fund add more millions to the railroad disburse ments directly benefiting their men As corporations wake up to the neces sity for a pension system they inves tigate the system adopted by the Pennsylvania to provide for old em ployes From the time the pension i t z 1 Twenty five hundred railroad empl oyes use this building as clubhouse and school It has an auditorium seating 1200 ample facilities for recreation and educational work phia 2500 railroad men are provided with all the comforts- of a first class clubhouse and many advantages that no ordinary club possesses An audi torium where an audience of 1200 can be comfortably seated and facil ities for study make it a great educa tional institution No Cash Dividends Here It is not by accident that there are so many of these rest recreation and educational oases located- along the lines of 125000 miles of American rail roads They represent a policy just as well defined as that which demands the best roadway or the most efficient locomotives The big investment in volved officials believe is a dividend not in cash but in improved morals more regular habits better service fewer suspensions for infractions of rules an all around higher type of men and a better understanding be tween the men and -the railroad Resthouses fill in the gaps between the associations on some of the rail roads Comfortable beds for night use couches where trainmen to use their own picturesque expression can pound an ear for an hour or two lockers books and periodicals games ANGRY BULL DITCHES TRAIN Tossed from Track Enraged Fighting Bred Animal Returns to Attack fund was established appropriations for it have amounted to something more than 2000000 and the annual disbursements average 400000 at the present time Then there is the savings fund con ducted for the employes to whom three and one half per cent interest is guaranteed Between Pittsburg and Philadelphia there are 1000 agents who are designated savings fund depositories and at a place like Altoona there are often from half a dozen to 20 men in line to make de posits after working hours Since this savings fund was established it has paid out 1225000 in interest Relief Funds To all these provident institutions the name under which they are grouped in railroad bookkeeping add the relief fund Nearly all the older railroads have some such institution as this and on a road like the Long Island with between 5000 and 6000 employes the annual disbursements exceed 20000 a year The Pennsyl vania fund has received 3500000 from the company and disburses every year nearly 1250000 in acci dent sick and death benefits WWWWiiVSAAVWVWlW HOW TRAINS ARE HELD UP Wild Animals and Insects as Well as Men Do the Work The achievements of those robbers and desperadoes who hold up or wreck railway trains are occasionally paralleled by wild animals In Siberia for instance it has hap pened on at least one occasion that a bear has jumped on to the locomotive of a train and attacked the driver and guard In one case of this kind bruin met with so vigorous a rebuff that he fell back on to the line and was caught by the wheels with fatal results In Canada it has more than once been found that the passage of a train has been disputed by a moose deer The moose always got the worst of the encounter Ostriches often cause a stoppage of trains in South Africa They stick their heads in the sand ballasting of the tracks and as they are too valu able to kill the train is stopped till they are captured or driven back to the farm from which they may have escaped Even insects may bring trains to a standstill The white ant or termite accomplishes this feat by destroying the sleepers on which the rails rest That fish should interfere with trains would seem impossible but they do so in India by being sucked into the apparatus for watering loco motives at country stations And once a railway trolley car passing through flooded country was stopped a large fish becoming jammed in one of the wheels Even weeds may hold up a train as in Ecuador where the vegetation along the track grows so rapidly that if it werenot regularly kept down traaffic would be impossible Owl Caught by Locomotive While an early morning express from Glasgow to Aberdeen Scotland was passing Alloa Junction about five a m a bar owl flew across the track and was Jaught by the locomo tive Miles farther on when the train stopped the bird was found clinging in its death grip to the handrail of the smoke box The owl has been stuffed and is now carried as a mas cot by the engine driver up- Round About New York Gossip of People and Thing in the Great Metropolis Brnim mtrrr - QUIET RETIREMENT OF MORGAN FROM WALL ST Wall street has been look THAT ing forward to anxiously and with much speculation for several years has actually come to pass In the House of Morgan The old man as J Plerpont Morgan Is gen erally called In the street has to all intents and purposes gone into retire ment and in his place in the most fa mous banking house in America there reigns J P Morgan Jr or Jack as he is more frequently called and spoken of in the same district No one can cry The King is dead Long live the King for the head of the house is very much alive Only he has handed over the practical ad ministration of his banking concerns to his son while in his magnificent new library on East Thirty sixth street he is spending the evening of his days in the pleasure of the col lector amid his collections Like all the things the elder Morgan does this change in his banking house was accomplished with little flourishing of trumpets So quiet and gradual has been the process that until the last few weeks but little attention has been paid to the important change which has for several years been go ing on In the house of Morgan Of late Morgan Sr has not been in any too good health and for more than a month has not been in the heart of New Yorks China THE town which was wiped out offi cially at a recent meeting of the board of estimate when a new park to occupy the acre and a half block bounded by the Bowery Doyers Pell and Mott streets was authorized is owned largely by Chinese firms and individuals and includes the Chinese theater in which several Chinese re cently were shot to death in a high binder war the joss house and all the other oriental features which have made the locality the most pic turesque plague spot in the city Be fore the year is out most of the in habitants will have moved to Brook lyn where they are establishing a new Chinatown and the narrow crooked streets around Chatham Square are affording their last pic turesque spectacle to the rubber neck tourists in the celebration of NEW YORK A FRUITFUL FIELD FOR LAWYERS thousand lawyers are EIGHTEEN living more or less luxuriously be 2ause of the controversies of indi viduals and the results of crime in the metropolis Ninety two others candidates from the law schools were admitted to the New York bar a few days ago and there is scarcely a week in which a locally prominent legal light from some other part of the country seeking a wider field and higher fees is not added to the stead ily increasing number New York has a population of approximately 4500 000 and this means that there is one lawyer to every 250 individuals not a very large number from which to draw a clientele it would seem when the lawyers themselves and those who cannot afford the luxury of law are subtracted Yet most of them have an opulent look that speaks elo quently of prosperity and suggests builders are planning to MANSION invest 20000000 within a year along the one mile stretch of Million aires Row in Fifth avenue H C Frick has practically closed a deal for the purchase of the Lennox li brary site in Fifth avenue between Seventieth and Seventy first streets The property is in the midst of the storm center of the 100 and its dimensions are 200x125 feet The library trustees have asked legisla tive permission to sell the ground The price asked is said to be 3000 000 Mr Frick now has a ten year lease of the George Vanderbilt man sion on the Fifty first streeet corner at 50000 a year During the past few months more than 6000000 has been paid for mansion sites in upper Fifth avenue Most of these buyers will erect homes to cost double the price- of the land Others who have been holding costly sites for the past financial district at all Evory tlmo the stock market tumbles disquiotlng reports are circulated from one end of Wall street to the othor that the old man is seriously ill and iu spite of frequent denials from other members of the firm Including Jack the reports persist and corao to the surface at every favorable op portunity But there seems to be nothing Immediately alarming In Mr Morgans condition The affairs of the great house of Morgan are now In the hands of three men J P Morgan Jr George W Perkins and Charles Steele Mr Steele Is tho legal man so that the heavy financial work for merly the joy of the old mans life is in the hands of Jack Morgan and Perkins Not that these are the only members of the firm but they are the active ones The Morgan firm has 11 partners but the members other than those mentioned are littlo more than head clerks J P Morgan Jr is by no means an inexperienced boy He is 40 years old and his training In the intricaries of banking has been long and thorough Whether he will prove the genius in the world of busi ness that his father has been remains to be seen But if genius consists in an excessive devotion to hard work he may compare favorably with his illustrious father CHINATOWN WIPED OUT NEW ONE IN BROOKLYN the Chinese new year which is now on All the business transactions ol the last 12 months have been closed every Chinaman has paid his honest debts all the prayers have been said and the advent of the new year which occurred on the morning of February 12 was celebrated with the explosion of thousands of firecrack ers which a special ordinance of the board of aldermen passed at the in tercession of Little Tim Sullivan who ranks next to Confucius in the Chinese calendar of saints permitted to be hung in ropes and festoons from house to house across the streets Togged out in their brightest native garb the inhabitants of the quarter are making the customary New Year calls and imbibing much rice and liquor So far not a Mongolian has been killed however and in that cir cumstance is read the sad fact that j the glory of Chinatown has departed rzeXBA SmH J0 ATf xmA an inquiry into the methods by which it has been acquired There is the field of politics of course and in New York that takes care of many of the poorer attorneys while practice before the civil and criminal courts of the city and state accounts for a goodly number of pleaders but it is to the enormous volume of business transactions that the majority look for support Many of the great finan cial and commercial institutions have prominent lawyers at their heads and all of them are equipped with one or more salaried employes whose legal advice is indispensable in transac tions involving as they frequently do millions of dollars In addition to these sources of income there were more than 115000 transfers of real estate last year involving about 1345000000 and most of them pro vided handsome fees for lawyers FANCY PRICES FOR SITES ON MILLIONAIRES ROW few years are giving final instructions to their architects As a result of the great wave of prosperity that has swept the country recently it is prob able the last remaining vacant sites along Millionaires Row will be cov ered by mansions Prices are noth ing less than fancy on proud old Fifth avenue At the south end of Millionaires Row land is bringing 12000 a front foot At the far north end beyond Andrew Carnegies man sion it is sought at 5000 a front foot Very little land is to be had at those prices None will be for sale soon because Millionaires Row is fill ing fast and owners are so wealthy that they do not think of selling When the last few sites are taken by mansion builders the entire stretch of the row will be cornered so far as outsiders are concerned It is not difficult to foresee a time when a site on that part of Fifth avenue will bo almost priceless is 5 i i r M t