Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1906)
- , MARCH 2, 190G The Commoner 7 -tx-V T t CURB6NT TOPICS y n - -i&L-fimsy A .w. '(VZZSS. V" r -r W- ; rfprressgssagEztte ' - A RHODE ISLAND school boy is just now attracting considerable attention in scien uiic circles; A Washington dispatch to the Chi cago Record-Herald says: ''With home made ap paratus Lloyd Manuel, a Newport schoolboj', is able to interfere. with the operation of the naval wireless station at that point. Commander Albert Cleaves thinks the matter sa important that ho has sent to the bureau of equipment of the navy a detailed account of the plant which the boy has built. The meagerness of it may be gathered from the statement of the commander that the young operator receives messages through the medium of an ordinary incandescent electric lamp, the glass on which he had broken and which he uses for a receiver. His induction coil is one taken from an old automobile and throws a half inch spark, while his key is the ordinary Morse instrument. The coil with which he controls the wave length is made of No. 14 copper wire, bare, wound around a wooden cylinder in grooves. His spark gap is made with two common steel nails driven into a pine board one-eighth of an inch apart, and his ground current is accom plished through a connection with water pipes in tho house in which he lives. Two common wooden poles, fifteen feet high, attached to the ridge pole of the house, support the antennae. These are three bare copper wires, stretched be tween the poles, kept apart by spreaders and joined only by a single wire running down to the instruments. According to the reports made to the navy department, the youth, who is not more than Bixteen years old, has given a decided shock to the wireless operators, and it is believed that in his crude apparatus they may find several valuable ideas." if,. A' 'DISPATCH FROM Newport, JEthode Tsland, the Home of- tfie- : young eleqtrlclan,. fol ' lows fv "Lloyd Manuel 1s regarded as. a genius. He began 'his experiments in wireless telegraphy four years ago, and soon had a system that would work across a room. Now a pole forty feet high rises from his cottage home and he has a sending apparatus the power from which is obtained from a set of dry batteries. He getg a spark, about a quarter of an inch long, and this enables him to send a mile and a half. With this he com municates with the torpedo station and the Fall River line boats. 'My arrangement is modeled ac cording to the Massie system,' he said tonight, 'and I am now constructing a special apparatus, such as the government uses. I am sorry if I have given the operators 'at the station any trouble, and will take care not to do it again. ' I know the Morse and continental codes, and now I am learning the naval code.' Experts say he is an expert in their use. Manuel left school two years ago, and has been delying in wireless teleg raphy 'ever since. He hopes to get his living from it. He was found tonight at a children's party. The' festivities stopped while he gave an inter view." THE MISSOURI game warden recently ar rested J. H. Durkee, a Kansas City busi ness man, because he had a collection of game birds. The birds were found in the private car of Gardiner Lathrop, general solicitor for the Santa Fe railway, whose guest Mr. Durkee was. As a result of Durkee's arrest it developed that among other guests of the general solicitor for the Santa Fe on that occasion were Federal Judge John F. Phillips of Kansas City, Federal Judge J. A. Pollock of Kansas, and Federal Judge Smith McPherson of Iowa. The party went on a fishing trip to Tampico, Mexico, as the guests of Mr. Lathrop, general solicitor for the Santa Fe, and Judge O. M. Spencer of St. Joseph, of the law department of the Burlington. JUDGE J. McDOWELL TRIMBLE, speaking at a public meeting in Kansas City, severely criticised the junket made by these federal judges with corporation lawyers. Judge Trimble said: " "The distinguished guests were judges in the dis tricts in which one or all of the three railroads ' represented by the hosts operate. I donot hesi tate to say that I believe that those general so licitors would not have invited the men they, did had not those men been judges. But men of the caliber of the three judges in question ought and must have known that there was dope in the middle of the sugarcoated bait which was held out to them. Whilo the' dope may and probably will not poison .them, tho people believe it will. Such an affair as the Tampico pleas, uro jaunt begets in the people a disregard for judges and a consequent disregard for laws. Tho courts are ours; the laws are ours;, we made them both and can unmake them at will." T UDGE PHILLIPS is very indignant because of Judge Trimble's criticisms, and ho replied, saying: "Responsive to " the intense spirit of demagoguery of tho hour, a pleasure trip of per- sonal friends is sought to be colored with a sin ister purpose on the part of Gardiner Lathrop, as solicitor of the Santa Fo Railway company, to place under obligation three federal judges. In justice to him and the truth, I state that the . fishing excursion to Tampico was entirely of my initiation. For four years I had heard of the rare sport of tarpon fishing at that place. I had en joyed tho recreation of like sport at Aransas Pass anddesired to test Tampico. As both Mr. Lathrop and his law partner, Sam W Moore, had also fished at Arkansas Pass, some months igo, we .dis cussed together our desire to ' go to Tampico whenever conditions made it practicable; We agreed that if we could get away this month, deemed most favorable for the sport, we would go, provided a companionable party could bo or ganized. As this month approached I renowed the suggestion and obtained Mr, Lathrop's con sent ,if he could get away from his work." IN HIS STATEMENT JUdgo Phillips goes into details showing how he urged every member . , of the party to .at'tqifd, and'he-pAys high tribute to the fine personal character and social qualities of various members of the party. Judge' Phillips add: "It is true that' we rode in a. special car, just as I would have gone fishing in tho private . wagon of a friend, standing my proportion of the 'grub and bait.' From its inception to its close the 'outing' was distinctively social in its make- .. up and character. Whenever. I shall avoid my friends of long standing, and they me, because they, are lawyers representing railroads and be cause I am a judge, t shall, despise myself and tho office. If any one thinks that such personal friendship and intercourse can not be indulged without judicial corruption, subserviency or sin ister design, I only beg to be allowed to indulge the opinion that such a person judges others by his own conscious lack of virile virtue and in tegrity. From a lifelong acquaintance with Gardiner Lathrop, I entertain such opinion of hJs character and his ideals that I believe him in capable of doing aught to unjluly influence a judge or to pervert injustice." T UDGE 'PHILLIPS was the judge" who recently passed on the Santa Fe dismissing the same and incidentally giving what Paul Morton's friends called judicial confirmation of the clean bill which Mr. Roosevelt gave to his late secretary of the navy. Judge Phillips' explanation that he origi nated the junket and urged the corporation law yers as well as others to take part does not seem to impress Judge Trimble and other critics. Many will also smile at Judge Phillips' statement "it is true that we rode in a special car, just as I would have gone fishing in the private wagon of a friend, standing my proportion of the 'grub and bait.'" Jf that friend had a case pending before Judge . Phillips it is very probable that the judge would have been careful about ' accepting any favors just at that time. The railroads are always in court particularly in the federal court and there is unquestionable and general sympathy with Judge Trimble In the stern criticism he has made concerning the junket participated fn by corpora tion lawyers and federal judged. GOVERNOR GOODIN of Idaho made requisi- tion upon the governor of Colorado for the arrest of President Moyer, Secretary Haywood and G. A. Pettibone of the Western Federation of Miners. These men are charged with conspiracy resulting in tho murder ,of former Governor Frank Stunenborg of Idaho, Tho accused wero taken to Idaho and placed in jail. It Is: claimed that the authorities have a confession, from one Orchard who claims that ho was given a part tu iimy in me assassination. Cy-, VTOW GOMES A FRENGH newspaper writer N who declares that Bonl de Caslellano is a )Ogus count, Several yours ago Bonl challenged the reigning prince of Monaco to a duel. The prince declined the challenge on the ground that Bonl was bearing a name and lillc to 'which he had no right. This writer declares that nono of Ihe 'Castellanes now living has a right to the title they- bear, tills being true, because the old de Castellane family which played an important role in the history of Franco from the timo of the twelfth century became extinct toward' the close -of the eighteenth century through the , death of the last survivor, Marquis do Castellane. This writpr declares that the groat-grandfather of Anna Gould's husband came from a family whoso head was a lawyer of the name of Castellane, and the sons of this lawyer took advantage df the con fusion reigning on tho subject of titles, due to the execution of so many of tho "nobility," to the flight of others, and to the wholesale destruc tion of family archives, to boldly assume any old title -lyingr around loose, -such as marquis and count, belonging to the illustrious family of do Castellane. In this way Boni got his title of count, and by paying out millions of dollars of Jay Gould's money a foolish Amerlcal girl got. Boni, j'WAS RECENTLY announced in Wall Street X that the Standard Oil company is preparing to increase its capital stock from $100,000,000 to $600,000,000 by issuing six shares for each one share now outstanding. It is not designed to raise immediately any money on this new Issue, but simply to divide the present high priced shares into six and glvo them to old stockholders. The New York correspondent for the Chicago Trib une referring to this move, says: "The company has two objects in doing this. One Is to try 'to dispel public criticism that arises every time the Standard declares a 40 or 48 per cent dividend. The other is to bring tho stock among a larger number of holders, so there may be missionaries in every town to help stem the rising tide of opposition to the trust. .Jt Is argued that the sal vation of tho steel trust is its enormous number of small stockholders, and the Standard at last is seeking cover from anti-trust sentlnlent. When the present stock is cut up into sixths the price will drop from 690, which it was today, to about 115, and dividends, Instead of being more than 40 per cent, will become about 7 per cent. No stock holder will be a loser, because ho will hold six times" as many shares as before. On the con trary, he will gain, because when the stock is re duced to figures where people can afford to buy it the price is pretty sure to rise above one-sixth its former value. As "capitalizations go nowadays the Standard with $100,000,000 Is undercapitalized. It claims to have real property worfch more than $500,000,000, so the increase in capital will not be watering tho oil. The lowering of the value of the certificates would permit quicker conver sion of securities and juggling the stock market such as H. H. Rogers, the present ruler of the Standard, has delighted to do with Amalgamated Copper." WALL STREET broker speaking to the Tribune correspondent said that while the great majority of the Standard stock has . been closely held in the past by the Rockefellers and their allies, they realize that they have not many years longer to live, and their sons can not carry on tho business in the old way. Therefore, it is necessary to put the securities In more liquid form and establish a broader foundation under tho business to insure its future success. Few people could or would buy stock selling at 700, but shares at 125 are more attractive. With the greatly increased number of shares, more of them could be let out without disturbing control than is kthe case with tho present limited number. Each death among the present holders means a division of. stock among the heirs, and a rela tively small number falling Into undesirable future control might upset things seriously. 1 a ii-mttii.4&fWt tVmmAjjUUnAfiJ't vt -J-J "-i- -& - .