Lehigh Leader. (Lehigh, Okla.), Vol. 17, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 20, 1908 Page: 3 of 8
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Round the Capital
Information and Gossip Picked Up Here
Washington
la
u
I” Out of the White House Alphabet
WASHINGTON— Ths question that
has been agitating- the public
mind In Washington for some days has
been:
“Who are wet
No It is not a college yell It Is
the demand for Information concern
ing the president's meaning when he
abandoned his old friend 'T' and
studded his message with refer
ences to ‘"we" "us” and "oar policies"
The Idea that the president meant
himself by “we" and was merely
adopting a royal fashion Is scouted by
those who know the president and
are iware of JUa distaste for getting
into the low and vulgar class to which
mere kings belong It Is generally ac-
cepted that Mr Roosevelt was talking
In the plural -Consequently
there Is much curios-
ity to learn the Identity of the mem-
bers of the “We club" Careful In-
quiry results In establishing the fact
that there are more of them than had
been believed Here Is a practically
“Uncle Ike” Objects to Hotel Bills
4tJ I NCLE IKE” Stephenson the new
U 71-year-old - millionaire United
States senator from Wisconsin Is hav-
ing an awful hard time trying to have
money and be a senator at the rate of
$7500 per annum
“Uncle Ike" Is a brother of Samuel
M Stephenson former representative
from Michigan who entered congress
"during the Fifty-first session Just after
Isaac had retired When the new
senator came to town In December he
brought with him his whole family
even to the third generation and the
davghters-ln-law and the sons-ln-Taw
Senatorsblps don't happen every
day quoth "Uncle Ike” and what's
the use of being stingy about spend-
ing a few extra slmoleons while one
Is getting $7500 a year for running
-department errands and sitting in the
senate and looking wise So he took
a fine suite of rooms at the New Wil-
lard apd -prepared to wear a button
Uncle Sam Tests
iffTHERE” sighed the professor as
1 he placed a drop of what looked
like soup 'but was really dis-
solved paper on a glass slide "three
waves of my wand and we will see
wfcat this rascally jobber has been
-selling to the government”
It was In the paper-testing division
of the United States bureau of stand-
ards that this monologue took place
The government printing office had
sent some samples of paper to be
'tested The samples were warranted
to be "pure poplar pulp paper”
"That’s the ' poplar” murmured the
-professor as he dropped some liquid
from a glass tube upon the small glo-
bule of soup and watched It turn
purple “Now for the spruce"
It required but a moment to pick
up another glass tube and apply anoth-
er drop of colorless liquid Under Its
Camera Pest at the National Capital
Ilj there Is any one thing that Is more
-numerous In Waahin gton than states-
men It Is photographers This fact
Is impressed forcibly upon strangers
Vlplting the city especially If they
happen to be with a party on a sight-
seeing expedition The man with the
camera Is met at every turn He Is
addaclous and irresistible He goes
after his victims In a business-like
way there are no stops and delays
and before the victim hardly has time
to reaUxe what has happened the pho-
tographer -has his order for a picture
tot be delivered that evening at his
hotel-
I The particular deUght of the camera
mkn Is is party of excursionists He
'batches them perhaps as they emerge
from the handsome new union station
or as tfeey come out of the capitol or
y -?
t X ' V
mJk
— Wt I
complete list of "we” obtained with
vast difficulty from high sources:
President Roosevelt who holds the
highest position In the club that of
"I” Secretary Taft who holds the
next highest that of "me too" Her-
bert Knox Smith who is “first as-
sistant me” Milton D Purdy “chief
trust buster 'and second assistant
me" Charles J Bonaparte "assistant
to Mr Purdy and deputy trust bust-
er” James R Garfield who holds
the post of "almost I” Kenesaw Moun-
tain Landis Frank B Kellogg George
Von L Meyer Jonathan Bourne Her-
bert Parsons and Francis J Heney who
serve In the ranks and are known col-
lectively by the title of “us”
George B Cortelyou It is learned
was formerly a component part of
"we” and sometimes even had a look-
in at “our policies" He Is now a
member of the class whom “we" refer
to as “them"
There Is the highest authority for
the statement that Edward H Hard-
man J Plerpont Morgan William D
Haywood Chancellor Day John D
Rockefeller Joseph B Foraker and
Bellamy Storer do not belong to
"we” The allegation that they do
from whatever source It may come
may be safely met with the shorter
and uglier word
hole bouquet every day and put on
all the dog there is
All went well until the bills began
to come In and then “Uncle Ike” went
to one of his colleagues and said:
"Senator got any Idea where a man
could find a good modest priced
boarding house?” -
"Where are you living now?” was
asked
“At the Willard”
"Well senator that’s the best board-
ing house In Washington”
"I know It Is good" answered “Uncle
Ike” “but It costs like biases”
“But you’re the richest man in the
senate so what’s the difficulty?"
"Probably I’ve got a little more
saved up than some of the boys" was
the Wisconsin senator’s reply “but
gosh ding it I want to spend It In my
own way Why Just before I came
east I gave $150000 to colleges I
expect to give some more and I’m
blamed if I want all of my substance
eaten up by hotel bills”
“Uncle Ike" pounded his knee
by way of emphasis and proceeded to
give further vent to his indignation by
hunting a newspaper and looking
through the want ads to see If he
could locate a place where good board
could be had for a small section of his
Income per week
All Paper He Buys
magic influence part of the soup
turned pink - -
“Ha” sighed the professor “about
10 per cent of spruce Once more"
A third drop was applied with a
third glass tube and the soup began
to show several points of bright yel-
low “Rags” said the professor "About
five per cent"
The glass slide was slipped under
the end of a microscope and the pro-
fessor took a good look and Jotted
down the areas occupied by the dif-
ferent colors
“That Jobber" said be “either does
not know what is In the paper he Is
selling or he Is a liar But the eye
of the bureau of standards sees it
alL”
And so Indeed It does Even after
the wood rags and other Ingredients
have been ground up Into pulp and
then made into paper the band of
science resolves them again Into
their original Ingredients and the eye
of science sees the relative proportion
of each as certainly as If the pro-
fessor had stood beside the pulp mill
when the paper was made
some other public building He holds
up his hands as a signal for them tc
halt then he admonishes them to look
pleasant please and the next thing
he and his agent are passing through
the crowd taking orders And they
do takg orders and lots of them For
what person would not be happy to
take back home a photograph of him-
self taken with the White House or
the treasury or the congressional li-
brary or some other government or
historical building as a background?
One photographer makes crowds on
seelng-Washington automobiles his
specialty He usually catches them
on Executive avenue at the beginning
of the trip When they get back to
the starting place the pictures print
ed and mounted ready for them
Is Fond of America
Mrs Carl Muck wife of the new
director of the Boston Symphony Or
chestra Is so fond of America that she
says she has no desire to return to
Berlin She contemplates taking sev-
eral courses at Radcllffe In the near
future - and If her husband remains
here may go In for a degree -
STATE CAPITAL LETTER
VIEWS OF PERSONS AND THINGS
POLITICAL AND OTHERWISE
STITI Bill miSTl UK ITTICIE!
Suit Filed that Will Decide Constitu-
tionality of Law— Oklahoma’s Battle
to Retain Her Natural Gas Aban-
doned for Present
Speaking in the vernacular the
new law guaranteeing deposits In
state banks Is to -have a “run for
its money” National bankers as a
class and a number of state bank-
ers In Oklahoma do not like the
law and will depend upon the suit
' filed lately at Guthrie by the Noble
State Bank of Noble Oklahoma to
prove that the law is contrary to the
constitution of Oklahoma and tho
constitution of the United States
The law firm of Flynn ft Ames at
Oklahoma City has been retained to
prosecute the suit C B Ames ap-
pearing for the firm
The state banking board and the
state bank commissioner are made
defendants In the suit
In a general way the petition as-
serts that the levy of 1 per cent Im-
posed on the average dally deposits of
a bank for the preceding year to
create a guaranty fund is taking pri-
vate property for private uses which
Is unconstitutional If however
private property is taken for public
use then It Is taken without com-
pensation and Is unconstitutional In
any Instance the property la taken
without due process of law which is
unconstitutional It Impairs the ob-
ligation of contracts which Is uncon-
stitutional It the levy Is held to be
a tax the state constitution is vio-
lated because the tax Is levied only
on the value of the deposits and not
on the value of the whole property
The levy named exceeds 31 1-2 mills
Ciaxlmum fixed by the state constitu-
tion If the levy Is held to be a tax
the constitution Is violated because
it is levied for private purposes and
no taxes may be levied in a state
except for public purposes -The
lawyers hwve trained against
the new law one of the guns of the
constitution a section of the bill of
rights not found In other state con-
stitutions as It is in Oklahoma's
This section number two reads:
“AH persons have the Inherent right
to life liberty the pursuit of happi-
ness and the enjoyments of the
gains of their own Industry” The
petition alleges that the new law de-
prives the stockholders o( - banks of
the “gains of their own Industry"
and therefore Is unconstitutional
National bankers In the state de-
clare that the new law has placed
them In an embarrassing position
They have been unable to find any
scheme by which they could subscribe
to the law without exposing them-
selves to an indefinite liability
which Is strictly forbidden by ths
national banking laws The new ?iw
contemplates - that bank deposits
may be taxed to meet all obligations
caused by insolvent banks In other
words If half the banks amenable to
the law should fail the other half
would have to pay the depositors of
the insolvent banks In full This of
course Is an extreme application of
the Jaw but one that cannot be
dodged by the national bankers when
dealing with the comptroller of the
currency
A number of national banks in the
state -have asked to be examined by
the state that they may be approved
as eligible If they should wish to
make an effort to comply with the
law They have the right to expend
funds from their reserve but may
not Impair their capital or surplus
Temporarily cl least they might
get the protection of the law and
then withdraw If times should grow
tempestuous! A national bank could
do this but a state bank could not
withdraw without nationalizing and
would have to stand In front of the
guns The agitation of the national
bankers Is due to the fact that state
banks with depositors Insured
against all loss might be better able
to compete for business than would
national banks without this form of
Insurance
In preparing for the new law
which became operative last Satur-
day the state banking board called
for only one-half of the 1 per cent
levy The latter would produce -a
guaranty fund from state banks of
more than $200000 The board now
has considerably more than $100000
on hand This guaranty fund Is at
the disposition and In the keeping of
the state banking board though the
state treasurer Is primarily Its cus-
todian ' He qualifies In a bond of
$25000 for the safety of the fund
which by numerous persons Is
thought to be Inadequate The
board has not decided where the
fund shall be deposited The state
treasury Is thought by many to be
the best place
C C Worrall state printer has suc-
ceeded finally In classifying the print-
ing to be done for the state under his
supervision He has made three clas-
sifications and Is submitting them to
typographical unions etc" for appro-
val In a technical way The ques-
tion of public printing Is attracting
little attention in the newspapers of
the state but the expenditures In
this department will be heanry In
time Public printing usually Is re-
garded as a political perquisite and
almost Invariably causes trouble
The house bill appropriating about
$150000 for the removal of the
state’s Insane charges from Norman
and their maintenance at Fort Sup-
y has gone to the senate but
probably will be amenued before
final disposition to provide for an
asylum of some kind In the Indian
Territory portion of the state from
which patients may -not be taken to
Fort Supply It looks as if the pa-
tients now at Norman will be moved
to Fort Supply despite objections to
the remoteness of the place and the
difficulty of reaching IL
The battle of Oklahoma In the
higher courts to retain possession cf
her natural gas for the promotion of
home Industries and forbidding its
exportation to other Btates has been
abandoned temporarily to the regret
of citizens Interested In the question
The suit of the state enjoining Owen
ft Connelly of Washington county
from piping natural gas into Kansas
has been compromised without any
final disposition of the main ques-
tion Involved
The day Governor C N Haskell
jwas sworn Into office he sent a tele-
gram to Washington county directing
that Owen & Connelly be enjoined
from piping natural gas from Okla-
homa to Caney Kas He had heard
that the alleged Standard Oil gas
pipe lines In Kansas were preparing
to connect with the Owen & Con-
nelly line and draw upon Oklahoma
for a gas supply In Kansas
While Oklahoma was still a terri-
tory Owen & Connelly obtained from
the secretary of the interior depart-
ment his approval of certain gas
leases with permission to transport
the gas across the line to Cauey
Kan The inception of the pipe line
was a contract under which certain
capitalists agreed to build glass fac-
tories at Caney if they could get nat-
ural gas from Indian Territory The
contract was made and the factories
located
Both Owen ft Connelly and the
glass factories found themselves tied
up by the Injunction An attempt
was made to transfer the case to the
federal court at Vinlta but It failed
The defendants Insisted that they
had acquired rights with which the
state could not lawfully Interfere and
made a showing of some reasonable-
ness Rather than engage In a costly and
Interminable litigation both parties
to the suit finally agreed several
days ago to a compromise the first
condition of which was that the tem-
porary injunction should be made
permanent except In certain partic-
ulars Owen & Connelly were per-
mitted to continue tbelr contract with
the glass factories atCaney but
were forbidden to supply gas to any
other persons Their source of - gas
supply In Oklahoma was restricted to
the four sections of leased land as
approved by Secretary Hitchcock
The company bound Itself not to at
tempt to get gas from other sources
In the state whenever its own sup-
ply was exhausted Furthermore the
company agreed to Incorporate at
once under the laws of Oklahoma
thereby making Itself amenable to all
the laws of the state
Sooner or later the question of
whether or not a state may prohibit
the exportation cf natural gas - from
within its borders will have to be
carried to the supreme court of the
United States It Is practically cer-
tain that gas operators will not ac-
cept the conditions Imposed by the
state without a desperate fight So
long as gas Is plentiful In Kansas
the question may not be raised but
when the supply diminishes the op-
erators will begin coveting the sup-
ply in Oklahoma
There are many persons who be-
lieve that the state has no more right
to -prevent the exportation of Its
natural gas than It has to lay an em-
bargo on "shipments of corn coal
wheat or lumber and that a man
owns the products of his own land
and should enjoy their value
The democrats of Oklahoma are so
heartily agreed upon a candidate for
the presidential nomination that
tbelr state convention at Muskogee
February 22 for the election of four
delegatea at large to the national
convention will scarcely cause a rip-
ple of excitement" The republicans
on the contrary however are having
a wild and woolly time It seems to
be conceded that the mass of repub-
licans In the state are for the nomin-
ation and election of William H- Taft
believing that he more nearly stands
for the national policies of the
Roosevelt administration than any
other candidate In the field The re-
actionary candidates and the corpo-
rate Interests oposed to the Roosevelt
doctrines are at work Industriously
In every county of the state to pre-
vent the instruction of delegates for
Taft If they should succeed In this
they feel that they might be able to
beat Taft at Chicago as uninstructed
delegates are bound to nobody This
condition has caused the frlendt of
Taft in Oklahoma to feel that Instruc-
tions are imperative and that the
surest way of knowing that a man is
against Tart Is to hear nim say tnat
there should be no Instructed dele-
gates Oklahoma lost two citizens by
death last week that time might well
have spared for a number of years
Captain B F Hegler of Guthrie for
years clerk of the territorial supreme
court was widely known in the state
He was a gentleman of the old school
and he looked at life with the eyes
of a cavalier Florlan H Nash of
Fort Gibson who died at Fort Smith
Ark though not so generally known
as Capt Hegler belonged to the old-
en time For more -than fifty years"
he had been engaged In the mercan-
tile business at Fort Gibson He went
to that place when Fort Gibson was
an army garrison standing on the
edge of that vast wilderness that roll-
ed westward to the Rocky Mountains
and beyond He was there In the
days when steamboats left the levee
at Fort Gibson In Grand river passed
Into the Arkansas thence into the
mighty Mississippi- and without
change discharged their (passengers
and cargoes at New Orleans Young
men who sat and listened to Florlan
Nash recount the adventures of those
early days In Indian Territory felt
themselves carried as far back as
La Salle and Frontenac He left be-
hind no memoirs and the Invaluable
history of men and events which he
possessed to an astonishing degree
was burled with him Fifteen years
will have taken all his companions
and there will be a gap In the history
of Oklahoma that can never be
closed
The Chicago board of education last
week voted unanimously to Increase
the salary of every teacher la the
ms a A e A
AS IN WASHINGTON’S DAY
FrauQcc's Tavern Restored to Its Old-
Time Aspect
WASHINGTON
might recognize
the exterior of
Freunces’ Tavern
ahould he ride
down Broad street
New York In
£ these days but
once Inside there
would be a num-
ber of details
which would be
novel to him As
he entered the
’Colonial” hall he
would -see waiters
In modern bob-
tailed evening coats flitting about
earning honest Ups Instead of being
permitted to climb the stairs to the
“Long Room" where he bade farewell
to his officers after the close of the
revoluUon he might be Invited to go
up in an elevator Passing the “tap
room” on hts way to the elevator pos-
sibly he would be urged to try -a cigar
“best Virginia leaf” His eyes ac-
customed to guttering candles would
be astonished at the steady glow of
ejectrlo lights and doubtless he
would want to know more about the
way In which Franklin’s lightning
could be secured on a clear day for
use in UghUng His quick ear would
detect the click of the typewriter as
he stepped through the passage
toward the “Long Room" although he
might not recognize the origin of the
peculiar noise and he would be mysti-
fied at the spectacle of a man talking
Into a telephone receiver
Fraunces’ Tavern “the oldest land-
mark” In Now York city comes Into
the public eye now more because on
December 4 1907 the 124th anniver-
sary of Washington's farewell to his
officers In the big dining room of the
old Inn the restored building was for-
mally turned over by the committee
having the restoraUon In charge to
the owners the Sons of the Revolu-
tion and two tablets were unveiled
The reception to the guests was held
In the hall of the Chamber of Com-
merce after the tableta were unveiled
One of the tablets was attached to the
wall of the famous "Long Room” in
which Washington's historic and
touching farewell to his comrades and
assistants occurred and the other
affixed to the exterior -
The history of the building Is con-
cisely told on the tablet placed in the
“Long Room" It reads:
“Fraunces’ Tavern erected 1719
Queen’s Head Tavern 1762 Chamber
of Commerce founded here 1768
headquarters of Committee of Cor-
respondence of 61 1774 this room the
scene of the farewell of Gen Wash-
ington to his officers December 4
1783 Sons of the RevoluUon reor-
ganized here December 4 1883 the
property purchased by the Sons of
the Revolution in -the state of New
York 1904 formal occupation taken
by the Sons of the RevoluUon Decem-
ber 4 1907 "
W H Mersereau the architect who
made the restoraUon after much In-
vestigation of all the evidence drew
the design which has been realised In
the building as it stands to-day It Is
now supposed to look as It appeared
when Washington visited it and all of
the bricks and Umbers remaining of
the building which was known as
Fraunces’ Tavern are still in the
places they then occupied All of the
"Improvements" of after years In-
cluding the “ginmlU” of recent Umes
have been removed
The restoration la based on an ad-
vertisement printed In 1775 in which
Fraunces offered hts Inn for sale and
described It as “three-stories high
Fraunces’ Tavsrn as It Appeared In Washington's Tims — Across ths Btrsot
Aro Shown toJpuis —
with a tile and lead roof has 14 fire-
places a most excellent large kitchen
fine dry cellars with good and con-
venient offices etc" The earliest ple-
ture of It is dated 1854 This showed
the building as It appeared after Its
recovery from the damage caused by
the “great fire" of 1835 In the tame
year It was again visited by fire This
time the “Long Room” was burned
out and the wall on the Pearl street
side above the second story fell out-
ward When the building was restored
this Ume It was made five stories high
with a flat root and barring the sa-
loon on the ground floor looked ns It
did unUl the recent restoraUon Fif-
teen years ago the building was
shored up and with the excepUon of
the corner piers the walls of the first
story were replaced with plate glass
When the building was dismantled
for restoraUon the lines of the old
- Fraunces’ Tavern Restored
roof IndlcaUng the top of the walla
and the slope and height of the roof
were found In the walls The differ-
ence In the bricks In the walls also
helped to determine what porUon waa
old and what modern It will be ob-
served that the wall fronUng on Broad
street Is of thin yellow bricks These
are the same kind aa are found In the
old Dutch church In Tarrytown In
order to secure an additional supply
to fill up the opening on the first floor
they had to be made to order In a
yard in Holland where bricks of the
same size and kind are atlll made The
bricks on the Pearl street side are red
As they are an Inch longer and some-
what thinner than the bricks made
to-day It waa only by searching
through many yards tape measure In
hand and picking up abnormal bricks
that enough could be secured to “piece
out” the original walk By such means
the old building was put back Into a
shape that would probably be recog-
nized by “Black Sam” Fraunces If he
should appear to-day
The property which Is now used
as the headquarters of the Sons of the
RevoluUon In New York represents
an expenditure of nearly $150000 the
restoration alone having cost nearly
$60000 It is looked upon sa n me-
morial of Frederick S Tallmadge who
waa the president of the society and
bequeathed to It a sum sufficient to
pay the cost of restoration The tab-
let on the outside of the building
commemorates his name and contains
his portrait as well aa a history of
the building
Washington ths Friend of Peace
The friends of humanity will depre-
cate war wheresoever It may appear
My first wish Is to see this plague of
mankind banished from the earth and
the sons and daughters of this world
employed In more pleasing and Inno-
cent amusements than In preparing
Implements and exercising them for
the destrucUon of mankind — Washington
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Lehigh Leader. (Lehigh, Okla.), Vol. 17, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 20, 1908, newspaper, February 20, 1908; Lehigh, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1710752/m1/3/?rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.