N
n
6
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Bold a single share of stock In America for tho
French concorn."
ACCORDING to Captain Appleton t, from
A 1880 to 1003, or, in other woids, until the
United States stepped In and declared I that 'a
nama should he a nation, J. P. Morgan & Co. held
aloof from the Canal company. Captain Appleton
adds: "When an attempt was made to put the
concern on Its feet again in 1804 each . dlrec : or of
tho old company was asked to subscribe toiJiO,
000 of stock in the new company, and each of the
financial houses which had been paid for the use
of their names was asked to subscribe to the new
Block. J. P. Morgan & Co. did not subscribe. The
Morgan banking house, as far as 1 can lind out,
was never heard of again in connection with I a
nama until a few months ago, when they appeared
as tho fiscal agents of the new republic of 1 a
nama. Tho congressional committee which was
appointed to investigate what was called the
American end' of the Panama canal stated In
their report that Drexel, Morgan & Co., ,J. A.
Soligman & Co., and Window, Lanier & Co f
received, apparently for the loan of their names
and for nothing else, tho immense sum of 6,00U,UUU
francs, or ?1 00,000."
WHEN in London, England, in 1804, Captain
Appleton wrote to John Harjes the follow
ing letter: "Dear Sir: I write to inquire, first,
if your house has paid -anything to the liquida
tion of tho old Panama Canal company, or sub
scribed anything to tho stock of the new Panama
Canal company in return for the $400,000 which
your New York house received as a member of
the American committee of tho Panama Canal
company. Second, if you personally have paid to
tho liquidation of tho old company or subscribed
to tho stock of the now the 100,000 francs which I
understand all who have at any time been direc
tors of tho old company have been called upon to
pay or subscribe. Third, if your New York house
received, as I have been told by one in a position
likely to know, the sum of $400,000 as commission
for tho sale of the Panama railroad to the old
Panama Canal company. Any answer you can
send to CO Beacon street, Boston, Mass., will great
ly oblige, yours, etc." Not receiving any reply the
captain wrote to Drexel, Morgan & Co. of New
York from Boston Inclosing a copy of his Lon
don letter: "Sirs: I enclose you copy of ,a letter
I wrote to Mr. Harjes, of your Paris house, more
than a month ago. Not having received an an
swer, I would request you to give me any in
formation you can about tho questions contained
in tho letter. Yours, etc." Captain Appleton says
that ho has never received a line concerning this
inquiry.
CONCERNING tho actual work of finishing the
canal itself, Captain Appleton says that no
ono has tho slightest conception of what it will
cost, and adds: "If there was money wasted by
the old concorn whon M. De Lesseps had only
$250,000,000 at. his command, what will tho leak
ago with tho fabulous credit of tho United States
at the back of the new company be? If tho sea
level canal which Do Lesseps plannSd is not fin
ished, and if they build an interior fresh-water
lake with locks, it wfll be simply waste of time,
work and money, and in the next twenty, fifty or
a hundred years it will have to bo undone, for no
lock canal can come up to the demands of great
navigation that is to say, ships of 800 or 1000 feet
long, as doubtless they will be. J. W. Soligman
& Co. recolved the same sum as J P. Morgan &
Co., but thoy subscribed for 36,250 shares in the
now Panama Canal company in 1894, representing
-about $725,000." When a World reporter called
upon J. P. Morgan & Co., ho received this answer
with regard to Captain Appleton's statement:
"These matters, if thoy over happened at all,
took place ton years ago, and I have no recollec
tion of them whatever. It is rather peculiar that
Captain Appleton should talk of them now. I do
not understand his purpose."
WHAT is known as "tho poison squad" in tho
department, of agriculture at Washington
has disbanded. Dr, Wiley, chief chemist of tho
department of agriculture, persuaded twelve young"
men to try an experience with adulterated food
products. These young men have been eating
nothing but auulterated food since January, 1904
Everything that has been placed before them in
tho food lino has been tinctured with salicylic
sulphuric or benzoic acid. The Washington cor
respondent for the New York World says: "Tho
experiments were a continuation of those begun
a year ago to dotermine exactly the actual effect
The Commoner
of food preservatives on tho human system. Such
acids were used as are employed by domestic and
foreign packers In preparing meats, butter ana
other products for shipment. The acids were at
first placed in the food, but subsequently given
in capsules. The most accurate record was kept
of tho men's condition. It is said some of , tho
men have materially deteriorated in health as a
result of the acids administered to them. All are
said to have been affected by the drugs used as
food preservatives. No details as to results will
be givon out until a formal report is submitted to
congress. An official of the chemistry bureau said:
"What we tried to learn and did learn was the
effect of food preservatives upon the system.
This effect was mildly injurious or deadly, accord
ing to the amount and character of the preserva
tives absorbed. The average person has no idea
of the amount of the acids he is liable to eat. He
is liable to sit down to tinned meat, canned vege
tables, preserved game and fruits and other
things. While there may not be preservative
enough in one dish to work an injury, there is
liable to be enough in the whole dinner to put
him in bed."
THE renomination by the republicans of Con
gressman Young of Ishpening, Mich., directs
attention to the enormous size of Mr. Young's
congressional district, which is known as the
Twelfth. The Nagaunee correspondent for the
New York World, referring to this district, says:
"Embracing the entire upper peninsula of Mich
igan, its length is 340 miles and its greatest width
1C5 miles. Tho coast line, following the sinuosi
ties of the shore, is over 1,000 miles long. Its
area of 16,669 square miles is 70 per cent greater
than that of tho state of Maryland, greater than
that of New Hampshire and New Jersey com
bined, and greater than that of Rhode Island,
Delaware, Connecticut and Massachusetts com
bined. It is twice as great as Saxony, which sup
ports over 4,000,000 of people, and 30 per cent
greater than the Netherlands, which have over
5,000,000 people. It is greater than Denmark,
and 50 per cent greater than Belgium, which sup
ports 7,000,000 of people. In population the dis
trict exceeds 381 of the 385 other congressional
divisions of the United States, being exceeded in
population by four districts only. Its population
is greater than either that of Delaware, Idaho or
Now Mexico, nearly as great as that of Utah and
greater than that of the state of Wyoming, with
Alaska and the Nevadas thrown in."
A CENSUS bureau bulletin recently issued gives
the total number of employes in the execu
tive and civil service of the United States as
150,383. These figures Include only those em
ployes who are required to take an examination.
About 85,000 postmasters and employes of small
postofflces are excluded, as are about 15,000 em
ployes at small salaries in the field branches of the
war department, about 16,000 employes at navy
yards, who are classified, but appointed under
navy yard regulations, and a few thousand in
other parts of the service. Of the 150,383 given,
?ol?I?,.aro emPloyed in the District of Columbia:
JKi5 are males 135-575 aro nativo horn and
102,431 are engaged in clerical work.
THE nation's farm surplus is treated in a
document issued by the department of agri
CS h,is document was prepared by the chief
f R?n ififfi?1 f0reign markets ad states that
$4,500,000,000 is a conservative estimate of value
of the farm products of this country not fed to
live stock in 1903. According to this report the
value of the exported farm products of this coun
try was, in 1903, $878,479,451, and the highest
JS5l 028m 6toWg 1th6 l"ven rsgwas
?Joi,M8,33i, in 1901, due chiefly to cotton Tho
value of the exported farm products of this coun!
try is concentrated mostly in a few nrinoinni
products In 1903 cotton (instituted Z per cent
grain and grain products, 25 per cent- meat Z
meat products and live animals, 24 per cSS th2
products equaling over 85 per cent if tS !
of farm products last year f the exports
entire farm products of 1903 u Q L: ot the
report that within recent year Siwted. Jy tb,s
has boon between 67 ana 7! percent for "a
-': .VOLUME i, NUMBER 21).
period of years. The wheat crop exported in a
last dozen years has been about 31 to 41 per wn
and exported wheat and wheat flour have vo-lriS
averaged somewhat more than 200,000,000 buffi
since 1897, before which period, for many yS
the quantity was usually 50,000,000 to 100 000 oS
bushels less. Only a small portion of the corn
crop is exported as corn, the highest percental
11 per cent, being for 1898. Notwithstanding thn
small percentage, the exported bushels reach mn
000,000 to 200,000,000. Tho beef exports weieE
385,000,000 pounds; pork exports, 551,000,000 hni
exports, 490,000,000;. oleo oil exports, 126 000 000
pounds, and .tobacco, 368,000,000. ' Butter and
cheese exports have decidedly declined within
two or three years.
THIS same report says that within a few
years the results of an enormous extension
or orchard planting will .begin to appear and some
of these results may be in a much increased fruit
surplus for export. The exports of animal mat
ter are losing ground relatively with a corre
sponding gain by vegetable matter. Taking up
the destination of the surplus the report says tho
United Kingdom takes about one-half, Germany
about one-sixth and France, The Netherlands,
Belgium, Canada and Italy fronr-3 to 5 per cent
each. China in recent years takes $1,000,000 worth
annually and they go to Russian China, Korea
and Greenland and Iceland and other remote por
tions of the earth. From 85 to 90 per cent of tho
total go to Europe, 6 to 7 per cent to North Amer
ica and less than 2 per cent to Asia, South Ameri
ca, Africa and Oceanica. The report also takes
up the competition of this country in foreign
markets, showing that this country furnishes 32
per cent of the United Kingdom's exports of farm
products, thus leading in these imports. Tho
United States has a long lead over its competitors
as a purveyor of meat and meat products and
live animals and is likewise pre-eminently con
spicuous in the "United Kingdom's imports of
cereals and cotton, but is far behind its competi
tors in dairy products. In German imports tho
United States leads with 22 per cent in all farm
products, 58 per cent in cereals, furnishes barely
three-quarters of 1 per cent of dairy products,
contributes the principal portion of imported
maize, two-fifths of the oil cake and oil cake
meal, but is exceeded in wheat flour supply by
Austria-Hungary and makes a bare showing in
barley and only a little over 2 per cent in fruits.
IT IS proposed by representatives of Mr.
Roosevelt that Joseph B. Bishop of New
fork be chosen secretary of the Panama canal
commission. An article recently printed in the
New York American indicates that there will be
vigorous, opposition to Mr. Bishop's appointment.
The American article follows: "I shall light the
proposed appointment' of Joseph B. Bishop for
secretary of the Panama canal commission to tho
bitter end. I have so informed the members of
the commission, and thoy thoroughly understand
my views. I have warned them that it Bishop
is named I shall resign my seat in tho senate."
Senator Piatt thus avowed his determination to
defeat, if he can, the reported choice of President
Roosevelt and Chairman Walker of the Panama
canal commission for secretary of that body. As
he is chairman of the senate committee on the
interoceanlc canal he claims that he will be suc
cessful. When the senator's attontion was called
to a Washington dispatch declaring that tho
president was about to reward Bishop for writing
articles complimentary to him and other articles
attacking the lato Senator Hanna and other re
publican leaders, he angrily exclaimed: "Tho
president is not insisting upon Bishop. I Know
that to be a fact. Ho knows, and so do the mem
bers of the Panama canal commission know, that
I oppose Bishop and that I shall fight him to the
finish. I may add that I have told the Panama
canal commissioners that if Bishop is named I
will resign my seat in tho senate " One of tho
pamphlets at which Senator Piatt has taken um
brage was addressed by Bishop to Wall street
financiers -and described Senator Hanna, several
months before his death, as an unsafe man, be
cause he was too close to indicted men and tho
trusts.
Several years ago most of the republican or
gans were commiserating Kansas because she was
represented in the senate by Mr. Pfeffer. am
doubtless a majority of Kansas voters would pre
fer Pfeffer to Burton. However, tno republican
organs are not animadverting on that fact juat
now.
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