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2 Champ Clark's Washington Letter. Hon Chan Clark, member of Congress for the Ninth Missouri district, was born in Kentucky In 1850, and for twenty-two years held the record for being the youngest college president In the United States. In his varied ca reer he worked as a farm hand, clerked in a country store, edited a country weekly and practiced law. He was permanent chairman of the National Democratic Convention at St. Louis In 1904. He is now serving his sixth term as a member of Congress. The Democrats in congress are be ginning to sit up and take notice. Al ready Hon. Robert L. Henry, of Texas, has notified all concerned that he will not be a candidate for re-election as chairman of the Democratic house caucus, though the election in the reg ular course of events will not occur till next December. He has made a most excellent presiding officer, grace ful, courteous, firm, fair and prompt. Had he desired the position for an other term the chances are that he would have met with no opposition whatever. He is recognized as one of tke ablest lawyers and one of the best Democrats in congress. On dit that he will be succeeded by his bosom crony, Hon. Henry D. Clay ton, of Alabama, also one of the ablest lawyers and one of the best Demo crats in congress. No doubt he will 7'nake a tiptop chairman of the caucus, / meh more important position than 1 t people suppose. At the next ses -1 i there will in all human probabil- B be much of political work and talk. i me people may hold up their hands < . holy horror at this statement, but « is true nevertheless, and the politics \ ill be both general and personal. J That’s more, both parties will play h he fascinating game for all it is g mrth; hence the chairmanship of the ** caucus will be of prime importance. An incompetent chairman can do £jmuch to muddle things, whereas a ’incompetent one can accomplish much in the way of harmony and wise ac tion. As brother Clayton has had large experience in both law and poli tics, as well as in legislation, he ought to make an ideal chairman. The friendship between these two splendid young Democrats is one of the closest in the annals of congress, rivaling that of David and Jonathan or that of Damon and Pythias. It may well be doubted whether the three Washburn brothers who sat in the same congress for Maine, Illinois and Wisconsin were really fonder of each other than Bob Henry and Henry Clayton. They are both on the judi ciary committee, one of the most im portant in the house. They fight in pairs and are inseparable companions. To uso an old simile, “they are as thick with each other as the Siamese twins.” To use another expression which some folks will understand, “they are a good pair to draw to.” They are not only well equipped men tally, but are well set up physically, being tall, strapping, big men of com manding presence. Both have served continuously in the house since the be ginning of the fifty-fifth congress, and both have been elected to the sixtieth, so that while still in their prime they are what Col. Charles Fremont Coch ran, of St. Joseph, Mo., was wont to denominate “old and experienced members.” Denatured Alcohol. Alcohol has been making men drunk so long that most people think that that is its only function, when, as a matter of fact, it can be made one of the greatest industrial instruments known among men. For purposes of lighting, heating and driving machin ery it has no competitor except elec- and there is no way to repro duce the coal consumed in generating electricity, while there is no end prac tically to the quantity of alcohol that can be made and used industrially. This is the only civilized country un der the sun which has not for years been using alcohol for the purposes above mentioned. We have waked up at last on the subject, and, overriding the opposition of the wood alcohol and coal oil trusts, congress at the last session passed a law which will enable the American people to catch up with the procession. By a trip to Europe for purposes of investigation Judge John W. Yerkes, internal revenue commis sioner, and Hon. Ebenezer Hill, repre sentative from Connecticut, one of the most industrious men living, discovered several ways in which the original bill could be improved, and they have em bodied their ideas in a new bill which will probably pass the house before this letter is in print, because they made their views so plain to the com mittee on ways and means that there will be no opposition to it on the floor of the house, every feature of the new bill making it easier for farmers to make denatured alcohol. The ordinary alcohol of commerce must in this country be denatured for two reasons —first, because the gov ernment raises a quarter billion dol lars per annum by the internal reve nue tax on alcohol, not one dollar of which the government officials think can be spared; second, because de natured alcohol cannot be used as a beverage, being deadly poison, and congress was unwilling to increase drunkenness by making it easier to procure intoxicants. An amusing feature of the situation is this: When at the last session the bill was considered, the representa tives of the wood alcohol trust made long, learned and tear compelling ar guments—that is, they would ( have been tear compelling if anybody had believed them —to show that the denatured alcohol bill would utterly destroy the wood alcohol industry. Nobody with two ideas above a Hot tentot believed any such stuff, because wood alcohol is simply a by-product of charcoal burning, so they were laugh ed out of court, so to speak. Here’s the sequel: Instead of de stroying the wood alcohol industry, new furnaces have been started in which to burn charcoal, thereby mak ing more wood alcohol and more ace tate of lime, the two by-products of charcoal making. Not only that, but denatured alcohol having been on the market since the first of the year at about 33 cents per gallon the wood alcohol trust reduced the price of wood alcohol from 75 and 70 cents per gallon to 45 and 40, which facts prove beyond all question that their opposi tion to the original denatured alcohol bill at the last session was a bluff— merely that and nothing more. It will be remembered that when Jim McKenzie, of Kentucky, had qui nine placed on the free list, thereby earning the sobriquet of "Quinine Jim,” it was opposed on the ground that it would put American manufac turers of quinine out of business. In stead of that, however, there is ten times as much quinine manufactured in America now as when there was an ' filfe WEEKLY TfeFFkfeSOWtAk. exorbitant t on it, and all of it is furnished 4 ' consumer at about one-tenth or*-. . price at which It sold before McKenzie got in his work. Folks suffering from chills will pro nounce “Quinine Jim” blessed. Per haps the consumers of denatured alco hol may sometimes think kindly of us who have made it possible for them to have an abundance of cheaper and better light and fuel and who pulled the fangs of the wood alcohol trust and beat the Standard Oil in at least one fight. Even if they forget us we will all our days bear with us the pleasing consciousness of having fought a good fight. Mr. Lamar’s Bill. Representative William Bailey La mar, of Florida, has ideas touching the public weal which he is by no means mealy mouthed about expressing. He was attorney general of his state a long time, and his experience in that office caused him to study much con cerning the proper treatment of public service corporations, and he has re peatedly stated his views on that sub ject in most trenchant English on the floor of the house. The conduct of Mr. Justice Swayne of the Florida district court caused Gen. Lamar to introduce articles of impeachment against Swayne into the house, and he was tried upon them in the senate and ac quitted, though many senators voted for conviction. Lamar’s speeches in the house against Swayne were as vig orous as any heard within those his toric walls for years. Recently he has introduced a joint resolution providing for the election of federal judges and postmasters by the people—that is, the country is to be divided into nine districts to elect nine justices of the supreme court who before going on the bench was a Some high and mighty corporation ridden metropolitan papers refer to it as Lamar’s “freak resolution,” which will probably cause thousands of what Lincoln called “the plain people” and what Bryan denominates “the common people” to favor the resolution. Those who pester their heads about such things will remember that one of Thomas Jefferson’s criticisms of the federal constitution was on the life tenure of federal judges, a criticism which experience proves to have been grounded in wisdom. So that in his resolution touching federal judges Gen. Lamar finds himself in the excel lent company of the great fonder of Democracy. So far as the election of postmasters goes, there is no earthly reason against it except habit and love of power. In passing it may be apropos to state that Gen. Lamar is a close kins man to the late Justice Lamar, of the supreme court of the United States, who before going on the bench was a representative and senator in congress and secretary of the interior. He was universally conceded to be one of the ablest and most brilliant men of his time —scholar, orator, philosopher. With his fine figure, youthful face and abundant hair, prematurely white, Gen. Lamar is one of the most at tractive figures in the house, no doubt destined to a long and eminent ca reer on the national stage. Being a resolute man, he will press his resolution for all it is worth. He may fail to secure its passage, but the chances are that he will expose many abuses pertaining to our judi ciary and postal systems. A Courageous Arkansan. It is said that all the world loves a lover. It might also be truly said that everybody admires a man of courage. Such a one is Joseph Taylor Robinson, representative from Arkansas. He is a handsome, bright young man, only thirty-five years old. He has a fine future unless all signs fail. He does not speak often, but when he takes the floor he challenges the attention of both house and galleries by the earn estness and evident sincerity of his remarks. When the bill to prevent corporations from contributing to cam paign funds was being discussed, he made a splendid speech, from which I make the following extracts, which I am sure will interest my readers: “I would like to see this bill amend ed, if it were possible, so as to become retroactive and provide that both po litical parties should make an account ing to the people of the United States for the money which has been divert ed and misappropriated during the last national campaign. I would like to see my friends of the other side of this chamber come squarely up to the rack and say to the people of the United States that during the last presidential campaign they took sev eral hundred thousand dollars from the widows and orphans of this coun try whose ancestors had contributed in the way of premiums to insurance companies and misused them in ille gitimate political expenditure and that they are now willing to come up to the altar of repentance and not only do right in the future, but do right by paying back what has been taken from them wrongfully in the past. "Mr. Speaker, it is an undisputed fact today that some of the great cor porations of this country, in order to corrupt the electorates of this repub lic, took from their treasuries in the last national campaign many thou sands of dollars. It is a fact that the money had been contributed by men who had desired to provide a means of support and maintenance to their widows and orphans when their strong arms had been paralyzed by the power of death. It is a fact, Mr. Speaker, that evidence has disclosed indisputa bly to the satisfaction of this body that the money was improperly re ceived and improperly expended, and now today, in our desire to do right, let us do the proper thing. Let the secretaries and the chairmen of our national committees make an account ing that will show where we got the money, from whom we received it and how we expended it. "Mr. Williams —‘Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman from Arkansas permit of an interruption?’ "Mr. Robinson, of Arkansas —‘Cheer- fully.’ "Mr. Williams —‘Does the gentleman from Arkansas not believe that with his great power, Influence and popular ity throughout this country one word from the president of the United States to the Republican national ex ecutive committee would cause them to refund to the widows and orphans the money of which the trustees of in surance companies robbed them dur ing the last campaign?’ "Mr. Robinson, of Arkansas—‘Mr. Speaker, I had hoped when I was in terrupted by the reception of the mes sage by the house that the message was from the president of the United States explaining all about this mat? ter. In answer to the question of the gentleman from Mississippi I will say that it is a significant fact that the chairman of the last national Repub lican committee, who received these funds, has been promoted in office, but no accounting and no restitution has yet been made or been asked for. I think, Mr. Speaker, that It is also a significant fact that, while the preei-