Part 27

The Commissioners of Insurance in the states of Kentucky, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Nebraska have requested the Insurance Department of New York State to co-operate with them in an investigation of the Mutual Life Insurance Company.

It is reported from Little Rock, Ark., that Thomas E. Jordan, former Controller of the Equitable Life Insurance Company, and who could not be located during the Armstrong Investigation, is stopping with his wife at Hot Springs, Ark.

The debate in the Senate on the railroad rate question opens today with a speech by Senator Foraker, of Ohio.

Yesterday, before the Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals, Senator Morgan, of Alabama, in his examination of William Nelson Cromwell, produced an agreement between the Panama Canal Commission and William Nelson Cromwell, showing that for a large compensation the Panama Canal Company contracted to pay William Nelson Cromwell a large compensation to Americanize the Panama project. Mr. Cromwell said the enterprise proposed in the document was abortive and died long ago. Senator Morgan tried to learn from Mr. Cromwell how much he had received in fees from the old or new Panama Company and by persistent questioning deduced the fact that the total payments to Mr. Cromwell did not exceed $200,000, extending over a term of years, and giving to him from $10,000 to $15,000 a year. Mr. Cromwell declined to say what service he had performed for these sums, admitting only that his clients were satisfied. The inquiry will be continued.

At a dinner yesterday at Washington the Republican members of Congress from New York proposed as the next nominee of the Republican Party for Governor of New York State, Charles E. Hughes, the inquisitor of the Armstrong Investigation Committee. The platform indicated was based on general reform and municipal ownership.

The Inter-State Commerce Commission at Washington yesterday announced its decision in the cases of the Fred G. Clark Company against the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company and the Waverley Oil Works against the Pennsylvania Company and others. In these cases the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company was the principal defendant. The commission holds that the combination rates on petroleum and its product from Cleveland and Pittsburg to points reached by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad result in unreasonable and unjust rates, and that the refusal of the railroad company to consent to participate in through rates is unjust and the situation is such as to favor greatly the Standard Oil. In its final conclusion the commission holds that the act to regulate commerce does not authorize it to compel the establishment of joint rates or the conditions of interchange in case the connecting carriers fail to agree in respect thereto; and it therefore concludes that notwithstanding that the combination rates are unjust and the general shipping situation is such as to work a practical monopoly in favor of the Standard Oil Company, the Commission is without authority to grant relief in these cases and the petitions are therefore dismissed.

Yesterday at Washington the House Committee of Agriculture decided by a vote of 8 to 7 not to recommend any appropriation to buy seeds for free distribution by the Department of Agriculture.

Special counsel for the State of Missouri will make application before the New York courts to compel Henry H. Rogers to answer questions in the inquiry the State of Missouri has been making into Standard Oil methods.

In the United States Circuit Court at Chicago yesterday, Judge Landis gave a decision that the Interstate Commerce Committee has the power to compel witnesses to answer questions in the hearing of Street’s Western Stable Car Line before the commission.

At Oklahoma City, Okla., yesterday, the assistant attorney-general began to take testimony in the ouster case against the Standard and other oil companies. A wholesale oil dealer testified that he had been instructed to get samples of oil shipped if he had to steal them; and also that there had never been any competition between the Standard Oil and the Waters-Pierce Company in Oklahoma.

At Albany yesterday, Senator Saxe’s bill to impose a tax on personal property wherever found, a measure designed to wipe out tax dodging by rich New Yorkers who establish their legal residence elsewhere, was passed in the Senate and goes to the Governor.

At Aiken, S. C., yesterday, Professor S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, died of paralysis.

March 1.—Senator Foraker in the Senate yesterday made a speech, lasting three hours, in which he attacked the Hepburn railroad rate bill.

For several hours last evening the city of Springfield, Ohio, was in the hands of a mob which burned two houses and partly destroyed a dozen others. All of these houses were inhabited by negroes. Hundreds of negroes have fled from the city.

The annual report of the Pennsylvania Railroad shows a net income for the year 1905 of more than $38,000,000, an increase of about $10,000,000 as compared with 1904. The operating expenses were reduced and traffic increased.

At the annual meeting of the Equitable Life Assurance Society yesterday the directors were informed that counsel of the society were definitely engaged in working out a plan of mutualization.

Richard A. McCurdy, former president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company sails for Europe today for an indefinite stay abroad.

William Nelson Cromwell reappeared yesterday before the Senate Committee of Interoceanic Canals and admitted that he drew the monetary agreement entered into between the Republic of Panama and Secretary of War Taft. This agreement caused criticism in the Senate recently because in fact it was a treaty made without consulting that body.

At Washington the Foreign Relations Committee finished its work on the Santo Domingo treaty and reported it to the Senate. The Republicans voted solidly for the report and the Democrats against it.

The Independence League of New York State has decided to perfect an organization in every assembly district in the State of New York. In William R. Hearst’s address at Albany he said: “The fundamental idea of the Independence League is independence of boss control, of corporate control and of any party subject to boss rule and corporation control.”

Yesterday the Senate in executive session ratified the treaty between the United States and Japan relating to copyrights of works of literature and art.

March 2.—It is reported from Washington that the President has been conferring with Senators, Representatives, members of the Interstate Commerce Commission and members of his Cabinet on the question of the Hepburn railroad rate bill, and he is willing to accept three or four amendments of the bill if they will strengthen it for trial before the courts.

At Springfield, Ohio, the state militia charged the mob and dispersed it. The members of the Commercial Club of that city met to take action for the enforcement of the law, and said in speeches that the present conditions were due to politicians catering to negroes and low whites, and lax police and court methods.

John F. Wallace, formerly chief engineer of the Panama Canal Commission, becomes an employee of the George Westinghouse Company at a salary of $50,000 per year. Mr. Wallace is to assist in building electric railways paralleling steam railways in many parts of the country.

It is reported from Washington that our Government takes a very serious and gloomy view of the situation at Algeciras, and would not be surprised to see the Moroccan conference end in a rupture.

The existence of a Mutual Life policy-holders’ movement of world-wide scope, at the head of which will undoubtedly be Stuyvesant Fish, became known yesterday through the exchange of telegrams between Lord Northcliffe, formerly Sir Alfred Harmsworth, and Mr. Fish. Lord Northcliffe is chairman of the British protection committee of the Mutual Life policy holders.

March 3.—John R. Walsh, president of the Chicago National Bank, which failed December 18, 1905, was arrested yesterday on a Federal warrant charging him with violation of the national banking laws in making false reports to the Controller of Currency and with conversion to his own use of bank funds amounting to $3,000,000. He was released after giving a bond of $50,000.

At Meridian, Miss., a tornado swept through the business centre of the town, destroying $5,000,000 of property and about thirteen lives.

Springfield, Ohio, is quiet after two nights of rioting and incendiary fires. The state militia is still on duty.

At Chicago, executives of all the Eastern railways in session failed to settle the differential rate controversy. On account of the attitude of the Erie Railroad it seems impossible to avert a rate war. Every line except the Erie voted for the arbitration of the question.

The Senate Committee of the Philippines voted to smother the Philippine tariff bill yesterday. It is said that efforts will be made to have the measure reconsidered or called before the Senate.

Commissioner of Public Works, J. M. Patterson, of Chicago, yesterday gave his resignation to Mayor Dunne. Mr. Patterson says he has become a convert to Socialism.

March 4.—A delegation representing practically all life insurance companies doing business in the United States will go to Albany on March 9, the day set for the hearing of the bills that the insurance investigation has presented, to state the case of the companies before the Legislature.

Ex-Governor James Stephen Hogg died yesterday at Houston, Tex. at the age of 55.

March 5.—It is reported that on the evening before his death the late Ex-Governor Hogg said: “I want no monument of stone, but let my children plant at the head of my grave a pecan tree, and at the foot a walnut tree, and when these trees shall bear, let the pecans and walnuts be given out among the plain people of Texas that they may plant them and make Texas a land of trees.”

At St. Augustine, Fla., yesterday, Lieutenant-General John M. Schofield, retired, died of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 75.

March 6.—In the House of Representatives at Washington, John Sharp Williams attacked the President and the Attorney-General and introduced a resolution, which was passed by the House, inquiring whether the Department of Justice had instituted criminal prosecutions against any of the individuals or corporations adjudged by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Northern Securities case to have violated the anti-trust laws.

The Enterprise Transportation Company, carrying freight between New York and Fall River, Mass., appeared before the Interstate Commerce Commission in New York City, complaining that the trunk lines out of New York refused to make through freight rate arrangements with the Enterprise Transportation Company. Lawyers representing nearly all the big railroads were present.

March 7.—Andrew Hamilton, who was legislative agent for the New York Life Insurance Company at Albany, returned yesterday to New York. On the steamship he was registered as “H. A. Milton.”

The suit of the State of Kansas against the Standard Oil Company was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Kansas on March 5th. This ends, so far as present litigation is concerned, the movement begun a year ago by Kansas against the Standard Oil Company and re-establishes that corporation in the position it held previous to the effort made to exclude it from the state.

Yesterday District-Attorney Jerome of New York City appeared before the grand jury and asked that indictments be found against the despoilers of the life insurance companies.

In the 20th annual report of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, published yesterday, it is pointed out that Boston has become re-established as the second port of the country.

March 8.—W. H. Moore, Municipal Ownership candidate for Mayor of Seattle, was elected on a platform pledged to municipal ownership of public utilities.

All over the Dominion of Canada the banks are collecting American silver money and shipping it to Montreal, whence it is shipped to Washington and changed for gold. The removal of American silver from Canada will be a good thing for the banks and profitable for the government. The banks will be paid of ⅜ of one per cent for collecting it and the government will bear all transportation charges. It is estimated that the government will clear at least one-half of a million dollars.

It is reported that Andrew Hamilton, the legislative agent for the New York Life Insurance Company, who has just returned from Paris, consulted with District-Attorney Jerome before his return to find out just what his chances were with the law.

It has been learned that the National City Bank and the Hanover Bank were the only two New York Banks who received yesterday their allotment of a special deposit of $10,000,000 of government funds which Secretary Shaw last week announced. The news has caused much talk and criticism in banking circles.

In a special message to the Senate and the House the President said that the action of both houses in passing the resolution directing the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate the subject of railroad rate discriminations and monopolies in coal and oil was hasty, ill-considered and ineffective.

_Foreign News_

February 9.—Mutiny is said to continue in the Russian Black Sea fleet. Admiral Chouknin is wounded by a woman at Sevastopol. Siberian plague has broken out among the Russian troops in Manchuria.

Professor Cattier, a prominent Belgian, publishes a book stating that King Leopold has received $15,000,000 graft from the rubber trade of the Congo Free State.

Passengers from Venezuela say President Castro is actively preparing for war with France. The people do not agree with the President’s views and a revolution may follow.

The negro inhabitants of the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies, South Africa, are demanding of England all the political rights enjoyed by the whites.

The Colonial Minister of France presents to the Council of Ministers, a plan for the political, administrative and economic reorganization of the French Congo.

Because of recent disorders, King Charles dissolves the Portuguese Parliament.

Fifty-five miners are drowned in a gold mine at Johannesburg, Transvaal.

The foreign representatives unite in demanding that the Shah investigate conditions in the Province of Shiraz, Southern Persia. Reports from other parts of Persia also show strong feeling against the Shah.

February 10.—A bomb kills four gendarmes at Warsaw. Assaults on police continue throughout Russian Poland.

The English garrison at Tibet is reported surrounded by hostile tribes.

The Irish members of Parliament again elect John Redmond chairman of the Irish Parliamentary party.

An armed expedition is sent against the religious fanatics of Natal.

February 12.—The general opinion at Algeciras is that France and Germany will reach an agreement on the Moroccan question.

General fear of another uprising and massacre in China is expressed by despatches from different parts of that country.

A proclamation is issued by the Governor-General at Odessa declaring the Russian Government will put to death any one found with deadly implements.

Ex-Premier Balfour, of England, declares his policy to be one to build up British industries by maintaining a larger foreign market for manufacturers.

The Imperial Protestant Federation sends a petition to King Edward, of England, asking him to refuse consent to the marriage of Princess Ena to King Alfonso of Spain.

The new railroad over the Andes Mountains between Santiago, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, Argentine Republic, begins operations.

February 13.—Another revolution is started in Santo Domingo.

St. Petersburg police save one of the Government banks from a mob of revolutionists. Another armed revolt is frustrated at Kharkoff, Russia. Many political prisoners are being sent to Siberia.

Reforms are being agitated in Persia which may result in that country’s being given a constitution.

Despatches from Algeciras state that the United States will finally settle the dispute between France and Germany over the Moroccan question.

Venezuela offers to arbitrate her differences with France.

The British Parliament meets preliminary to the formal opening on Feb. 19.

February 14.—Balfour and Chamberlain agree on a protective policy for England. This will have no effect at this time, as a new Parliament overwhelmingly in favor of free trade has just been elected.

Despatches from Algeciras indicate that the American delegates to the Moroccan conference are gradually bringing France and Germany to a settlement of their dispute.

The secret has leaked out that America, England and Japan have had a secret agreement concerning China since the close of the Russo-Japanese war.

A monument at El Caney in honor of the Americans who lost their lives during the siege of Santiago is unveiled.

February 15.—Fearing an outbreak in China, two of Admiral Sigsbee’s cruisers are sent to reinforce the American Far Eastern fleet.

St. Petersburg reports show that the Russian Terrorists hire boys to throw bombs.

The situation at Algeciras is unchanged.

February 17.—The Czar of Russia prevents a disruption of his Cabinet by bringing about peace between Premier Witte and Interior Minister Durnovo. General Linevitch turns over his command of the Russian troops in the far East to Gen. Grodekoff. St. Petersburg police arrest a band of Terrorists and discover enough poisons to kill half the population of St. Petersburg.

It is discovered that China has placed orders with German manufacturers for 1,000,000 small arms and 100 cannon.

Venezuela completes all preparations for war. The Venezuelan Government appoints Guzman Garbiras to succeed M. Veloz-Goiticoa as Minister to the United States.

February 18.—Clement Armand Fallières, recently elected President of the French Republic, assumes his duties.

The Russian Government orders the Governor General of East Siberia to prevent Capt. Einar Mikkelson from hoisting the American flag on any island which he may discover in the Arctic Ocean north of East Siberia and between Wrangel Land and the Parry Islands.

The body of the late King Christian IX of Denmark is entombed in Roskelde’s cathedral, Copenhagen.

A despatch from Shanghai, China, states that nothing is known there of conditions requiring the sending of United States troops to that Country. The Methodist Foreign Missionary Society receives reports from its head missionaries at different Chinese cities stating that there is no danger of disturbances. The Southern Baptist Missionary Board, through its secretary, cables its missionaries to take refuge in the nearest seaports, where they can be under the protection of foreign consulates.

The King of Hungary prepares to dissolve the Diet when it assembles today.

February 19.—The Hungarian Diet is dissolved by armed troops and police.

Another anti-Jewish riot occurs at Vietka, Russia. Most of the city is burned, but no deaths are reported.

The “General Memorandum” issued by Admiral Nelson to his captains at Trafalgar is found at Merton.

The mutineers of the Russian battleships _Kniaz Potemkin_, who were sentenced to death, have had their sentences commuted to imprisonment.

King Edward opens the newly elected English Parliament. In his speech the King expresses a desire that the government of the country shall be carried on in a spirit regardful of the wishes of the Irish people.

February 20.—Germany rejects the final proposal of France for a settlement of the Moroccan controversy. The points in dispute will now come before the delegates of all the Powers.

A company of British mounted infantry and three officers are massacred by fanatics in Sokoto, Northern Nigeria.

A despatch from Ekaterinodar, Ciscaucasia, states that a fight is in progress between a detachment of Russian soldiers and 600 mutinous Kuban Cossacks.

Members of the Hungarian Diet decide to accept the dissolution of that body without protest.

The British House of Commons records its determination to resist any proposals which will create any system of protection.

The Russian Government is trying many prisoners for participating in a movement to overthrow the Government. The political dissatisfaction throughout the Empire seems to be as great as at the beginning of the late revolution.

February 21.—Ambassador White, head of the American delegation to the Algeciras conference, expresses the opinion that France and Germany will reach an agreement on the Moroccan question.

Attacks upon Catholic missions are made by Chinese in several of the southeastern provinces of China.

The British House of Commons pledges a system of intelligent self-government for Ireland.

February 22.—German Reichstag passes a bill to extend reciprocal tariff rates to the United States until June 30, 1907.

Fear that the Algeciras conference will end without France and Germany reaching an agreement on the Moroccan question is expressed by the French press.

People returning from China declare that the situation is very critical and a revolution is feared. The feeling against the present government is strong and the boycott of American goods is rigidly enforced.

Religious fanatics destroy a French post in Sokoto, Central Africa.

February 23.—The American Minister to China states that he sees very little reason for apprehension over China’s affairs. Wu Ting Fang, former Minister to the United States, says China is passing through a crisis. He justifies the boycott of American goods. All missionaries are advised by Assistant Secretary of State Bacon to move to places where they can be protected.

Despatches from Algeciras state that the fear of war over Germany’s rejection of France’s proposals on the Moroccan question is growing less.

Bills providing for general suffrage are introduced in the Lower House of the Austrian Parliament.

Reports from St. Petersburg state that Count Witte has not resigned.

A revolt against the Turkish Government is reported to be spreading in Yemen, Turkish Arabia.

February 24.—W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., is attacked by a mob near Pisa, Italy, after his automobile runs down and injures a boy.

Active preparations are being made at Manila for any trouble with China.

Director General Ivanoff, of the Vistula Railroad, is assassinated at Warsaw, Russia.

The Spanish Government distributes money in the famine stricken provinces to relieve the sufferings of the people and prevent disorders.

The German Foreign Office states that there is little danger of war between Germany and France over the Moroccan question. French despatches say about the same.

February 25.—More riots occur at Warsaw and Odessa, Russia. Six persons are killed and 15 wounded.