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The Commoner
12
VOL. 15, Oi 1
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pleted in lino with thfn purpose. This prelim
inary work has rovealed that thoro are approx
imately 0,000 corporations, oxclusivo of thoso
under the Jurisdiction of tho interstate commerce
commission, which have a capital stock or bond,
d and other indebtedness amounting to $1,000,
000 or over, and which are engaged in interstate
commerce, in addition to many smaller corpora
tions which will likowiso como within the juris,
diction of this commission. Over one-third of
these corporations havo voluntarily furnished to
the bureau upon request reports as to their finan
cial condition, organization, and other valuable
facts, to bo at tho disposition of the commission
upon its organization.
Tho full force of special agents, attorneys,
statisticians and other employees are exerting
very effort to comploto tho remaining work of
tho buroau boforo tho organization of the trado
commission. Final reports on tho tobacco in
dustry, on farm machinery associations, on state
corporato taxation, and on competitive condi
tions in tho retail lumber trade, are to bo issued
in tho immediate future. Special reports on the
fertilizer industry and on tho investigation
made under the resolution of tho United States
senate as to certain alleged discriminations in
the Oklahoma oil fields are being rapidly brought
into shape for publication. Tho investigation
which tho bureau has been making Into tho
economic character and facts of tho system of re-
sale price maintenance, 1. e., the practice of
manufacturers and distributors to fix tho price
at which retailers or other dealers in their prod,
ucts shall sell to consumers or other purchasers
is rapidly advancing; and the investigation
being made into the divergence in state laws
relating to foreign corporations, with the pur
pose of securing a more uniform system, with
Us attendant benefit to the business world and
to tho public, is nearing completion.
With . the completion of those reports, the
elovenx years' work of tho bureau of corpora
tions will close. During that time this bureau
has made over forty reports on tho various in
vestigations of tho largest industries of the
country, and in addition has been of constant
assistance to other branches of the government
service and to congress principally in connec
tion with tariff and trust legislation,
BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC
COMMERCE
The appointment of Mr. William O. Downs, of
New York City, to be commercial attache of the
bureau of foreign and domestic commarce at
Melbourne, Australia, has been announced.
Mr. Downs is a graduate of Phillips Exeter
Academy and Harvard college, A. B. 1890. He
has been for a number of years connected with
various export interests and has traveled ex
tensively, especially in South and Central Amer
ica. Since 1908 he has been in charge of the
South American export business of Weasels, Ifcu
lonkampff & Company, and resigned his posi
tion there to take up his work with the bureau.
Mr. Downs has a very intimate knowledge of
American sources of supply and methods of
manufacture, shipping, marine insurance, for
eign exchange and banking methods in addition
to a general knowledge of foreign trade. He
speakB the Spanish, Portuguese and French, lan
guages. Mr. Downs has served as a special lecturer on
"Tho Economic Resources of Central and South
America0 at the Graduate School of Business
Administration of Harvard University,
The bureau has recently issued a pamphlet on
j "Wholesale Prices of Leading Articles in the
United States Markets," which contains a record
,of the price fluctuations of the principal basic
articles of industry, such as iron and Bteol,
I petroleum, cotton, wool, and tin, and of leading
foodstuffs including wheat, corn, sugar, coffee,
tea, rice, pork, and beef, by weeks from January
1, 1913, to October 31, 1914. The record n-
. dlcates a downward trend in wholoRjilo nrinon
of leading articles of factory consumption and
many of tho staple articles of food in 1913 and
1914 down to the period of the European war
and a rapid rise in prices of foodstuffs since that
time.
Unusually large exports of sugar in recent
months lend interest to a compilaton regarding
sugar consumption in tho United States made
by the bureau of foreign and domeaHn nnm-mm.nA
.and published in tho "Statistical Record of the
jrrogresR oi tno unitea states, 1800-1914," re
cently issued. In 25 years thn sue or oiimn.
w w wm mj ww VWA4IQUUAU
tlon of the country has almost trebled and has
increased from 50.44 noun da ner ennita icon
.to 80.85 pounds in 1914. In that period Cuba
has increased its contributions to the domestic
market from 1,032 million to 4,927 million
pounds; and tho noncontiguous territories of
Hawaii, tho Philippines, and Porto Rico has in
creased shipments of sugar into continental
United States from 511 million to 1,873 million
pounds; while Europe, the Dutch East Indies,
and other foreign countries hava decreased their
sales to this country from 1,219 million pounds
of sugar in 1889 to 23.4 million in 1914. Dur
ing the same period the domestic product has
grown from 349 million to 1,841 million pounds..
STEAMBOAT INSPECTION SERVICE
An interesting item illustrating the very high
degreo of safety in travel by water appears in
the annual report of the supervising inspector
general of the steam-boat-inspection service. The
report states that during the past fiscal year,
on vessels subject to inspection by the steamboat-inspection
service, there were 232 accidents
resulting in loss of life and 582 lives were lost,
of whom 105 were passengers and 477 members
ot crews.
There were 318,094,347 passengers carried on
steam vessels that are required by law to report
tho number of passengers carried. Dividing
this number by 105, the total number of pass
engers lost, shows that 3,029,469 passengers
were carried for each passenger lost.
COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY '
Secretary Redfield has especially commended
Mr. John H. Peters, an assistant in the coast
and geodetic survey, for the remarkable record
of 148.3 miles of precise leveling made by him
in October, 1914, whicb exceeded the previous
record by about 24 per cent. The previous
record was also made by Mr. Peters. This ac
complishment was particularly noteworthy be
cause it was due to the efficient organization
and management of the patty and to Mr. Peters'
skill as an observer, and not to excessive hours
of work.
The triangulation along the western coast of
Washington from the Strait of Fuca to Grays
harbor, just completed by H. A. Seran, was an
unusual piece of work. Owing to lack of roads,
high timber and unfavorable weather conditions
the work was most difficult. It was necessary
in order to avoid heavy cutting to mount the
instrument on signals built on standing trees at
heights often as great as 185 feet. On one un
occupied station a lamp was shown from a height
of 215 feet.
BUREAU OF NAVIGATION
According to the bureau of navigation, the
American, merchant .marine was increased be
tween September 8 and December 22, 1914, by
the registry of 102 vessels having a gross ton
nage of 365,281, under the ship registry act of
August 18, 1914.
On December 14, 1914, Secretary Redfield sent
a letter to Loren A. Lovejoy, wireless operator
on tho steamship Hanalel which was wrecked
on November 22, commending him for his cool
ness and unselfish courage at tho time of the
wreck and more especially for the ingenuity and
persistence with which he maintained communi
cation with the shore during the day and night
following the wreck. Also, Lovejoy's praise of
the bravery of his assistant, Adolph J. Svenson,
who was lost, received the endorsement and ap
proval of the Secretary.
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT,
With the beginning of its second year of ex
istence, the Home club has gained acceptance
and recognition as one of the institutions of de
partmental life in Washington. This club is
unique in many Tespects. Its president and
founder is the secretary of the interior, Frank
lin K. Lane. Its 1,700 members, who pay fifty
cents a month each in dues, are all employees
of the interior department government clerks.
Its club house, half a block from the White
house in Jackson place, is one of the famous old
historic mansions of the capital, once the resi
dence of a vice-presidentSchuyler Colfax, and
more recently the Brazilian embassy. The nu
merous rooms in this roomy mansion, all com
fortably and even luxuriously furnished, are
fitted up as parlors, lounging and reading looms
game rooms, etc. There is a library, a dining
room and kitchen, toilet and cloak rooms, a
billiard room and private reception Tooms. A
ballroom, the largest private ballroom in the
city. Is the central idea around which the life
of the club revolves.
i itB memlwi and their families, the Home
club, with its rooms open every day and even
ing, provides a down town meeting or' resting
place for the women; a club rendezvous at night.
There is a lecture, a musical, a dance, a moving
pictur show or some Other form of free enter
tainment for the members nearly every night.
Some of the country's best known men and
women have been its guests and entertainers.
The president's daughter, Miss Margaret Wilson,
sang for the Home club members one night last
winter. Sir William Willocks, the famous British
engineer and builder of the Assouan dam, made
the first public speech of his life" at tho Home
club. Several cabinet officers have attended its
functions, and it is one of the gayest places in
town, though those who participate are humble
government employees Whos salaries usually
are $1,500 a year or less.
Although the social and entertainment side
of the Homo club's work is that which gets
oftenest into the newspapers, it is only one
phase, and perhaps the least important, of the
clubs's activities. The purpose of the organization
was stated at the outset to be that of increas
ing efficiency in the department and .adding zest
to the lives of department employees. Here, in
lectures and evening talks, headi; of bureaus tell
the club members, recruited from a half dozen
bureaus, of the fields of work, experiments and
accomplishments in each. Before the Home
club was started, the employees in the patent
office, for instance, knew in a vague way that
there was a reclamation service and a bureau
of mines under the supervision of the same de
partment, and that was probably about all they
did know of it, while the most the average em
ployee in one of. the other bureaus knew of the
patent office was that it. was Choused in a big
building which they passed on the way to work.
Now there are few Home club members who can
not discuss intelligently the varied activities of
the department's many divisions. An esprit du
corps has been created, a sense of personal pride
in departmental achievements brought to the
individual, which Secretary Lane and bureau
heads say makes for better and more intelligent
co-operation and service throughout tlie depart
ment. Nor does the club's work stop here. At the
club- house, every afternoon and evening, are
educational classes, where members, .for a nom
inal fee, co-operatively hire teachers and study
languages, stenography, basketry arid other sub
jects. There is a children's dancing class on
Saturdays, a club's orchestra in the making, a
camera club, a political science club being or
ganized, a current events society planned. Also,
the club has started a monthly newspaper to tell
its members of club activities, which have so
increased as to have outgrown bulletin boards.
A manager has been hired, as the latest in
novation, to organize the members into a pur
chasing group, for the purpose of reducing their
cost of living by enabling them to buy co-operatively.
Just what form this co-operative
buying proposal will eventually take has not
been definitely decided, but it is assured that
the result will oe to increase the purchasing
power of the dollars found by the members in
their bi-monthly pay envelopes.
A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION
No bettor resolution could be made by any one
than to follow the advice given in the following
paragraph printed in the Milwaukee Journal,
under the heading, "Folks' Good Opinion":
"Few persons do not value the good opinion of
others. Pulling down the character of some one
else is not the way to build up your own; the
ruin of another does not mean your building up.
There are some who appear to think another's
possessions something taken from themselves.
This is a mistake. To point out an error in an
other's character it is not to prove a correspond
ing virtue in one's own. If we decry another for
being miserly, ot disagreeable disposition, ex
travagant or stupid, and expect the hearer to see
the corresponding virtue in themselves, we need
to. learn that this is not what the hearer usually
sees. Rather he thinks how unkind such talk is
and attention is called to failings in the speaker .
which would probably otherwise not have been
noticed. Let your chief aim be to make yourself
worthy of the good opinion ot others. Belittling
them is a plain acknowledgement of a conscious
fault of your own. Tho way to win the good
opinion of others is to be worthy of it. If you
are you will not need to call attention to it."
A reader ot The Commoner wishes to know
the address of Mrs. Marjorie Brown, a portrait
artist who formerly lived in Boston, but who
seems to have removed from that city. Any one
knowing Mrs. Brown's present address is kindly
requested to advise The Commoner.
An