AMERICAN LETTER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 30, 5 February 1913, Page 3

AMERICAN LETTER

NOTES AND NEWS ' PAJfAMA CANAL. Signs of pe.ty political jealou% concerning the credit fur building tho Panama Canal bocame apparent a few dajs ago when President Taft announced his puipose of asking the Senate to confirm his choice of Colonel George W. Gcethals as Civil Governor of the Canal Zone. Immediately Democratic leadeis itiai*,ted that the work of establishing the Civil government, should be left over until President Wilson assumes office, on 4th March., The Democrats objected to what they iermed the attempt of the Taft Administration to deprive the incoming party of participation in the construction of the waterway. President Taft becain« convinced that tho opposition of Democratic Senators would provent the confirmation of the appointment of Colonel Goc-thals, and thereupon decided to leave the entire matter as a legacy for tha Wilson Administration. Colonel Goethals is the man to whom credit is due more than to any other for the magnificent work that lias been ' accomplished at Panama. Thi3 is almost universally acknowledged. Whether or not the Democrats will reward him by makins him Civil Governor of the zone is questionable. Personally, he has no great liking for empty > honours. Questioned a fow' days ago as to whether he intended to resign from the Panama Canal Oommi&sion before the opening of the Canal/he said : "Probably I will do nr>. I am an engineer, and not a cavalier, and I do »ot care for the blar© oi trumpets and the tinsel show that will bo connected .with the opening ceremonies. I desire to finish the work, to see it completed, and then I will be ready to let sumc one- else take the part of master of "oerpmonie 1 :." LIBELLER k)F KING DEPORTED. Edouard itylius, the journalist, who was convicted in London of criminally libelling King George, has been refused entrance to the United States as an undesirable • immigrant. Having served a year in gaol upon a felony charge, he cprnes within the provisions of the immigration law defining those who are coi entitled to admission. Mylius, after his liberation from the prison at Wormwood Scrubbs, on the outskirts of London, came over to New York in the crowded steerage of the French steamer La, Provence, hoping to escape the eyes o'i the immigration authorities. According to the statements published in the American papers, the English Government had evidently sent ahead a tip of his approach, and he was detained at Ellis Island, in the New York harbour. A special board of enquiry sat on his case, and ordered that he be deported. Mylius was allowed an appeal to a- higher board, on the ground that "any political act -against the King of England, or against any king, is not a crime involving moral turpitude," which he maintained was the only ground upon which he could be deported. He stated at ilio same time that prejudice and boycott made it difficult for him to make a living, giving that as his reason for leaving England. He said that he had no plans for his future if his' appeal were, granted, but intended to go lo San i'rancisco. The appeal board, however, coiiiirined the original finding, and Mylius was sent 'back on the same steamer upon which he arrived. Before leaving he repeated the libellous story ho had published m a Paris newspaper about King t George's alleged morganatic marriage, and asserted that he was causing evidence to be gathered in proof of the accusation. A "CITY-OWNED KAILWAY. San F,rancisco opens the new year by inaugurating the first municipallyoperated street raiMay system in the United States. It is, needless to say, electrically-equipped. There are still a number of streets 'in this city over which cable cars run, but all . additions to street car facilities pre operated 'by elec-' trie traction. It is the purppse of San Francisco to eventually acquire all the street railways within the municipality. The franchises run Out in the majority of cases in the next twenty years, and the city is empowered to then acquire the properties at a valuation. But even before then tha municipal system started a few days ago will be extended materially. The, line "now is but five miles long, but in the next few moflths will have been so added to that it will run from the Ferry building to the Cliff House, thus completely traversing tho peninsula upon which San Francisco is built* Then cross-lines will be built to I feed the main line. The people of San ' Francisco are ns- enthusiastic about the new line as children with a toy. On the first few days of Hb operation they crowded lo suffocation everj car for the mere novelty of riding upon,thenV> The line bids fair to be profitable to the city from the first. THE COUHTS AND THE PRESS. Theodore Roosevelt has been the Unwitting «i,us3 of involving three journalists of the State of Idaho in serious trouble with the Supreme Court of that State. The Court had during the Presidential campaign barred from the official ballot tho names of progressive candidates fo'" Presidential electors, and by co doing biought down upon itself an avalanche of characteristic criticism from Roosevelt. In elfect, Teddy charged the^ Court with having perpetrated a political job that would havo disgraced n'v/afd heeler. The Capital News,, of Boise, TdaJio,- published the specdh of ltoosevelfc and also indulged in comment of its own, although not so 'severe as that of the ex-President, upon the Couit and its action. ' The editor and manager of the paper, iind a third man alleged to dictate its editorial policy were summoned on a' charge, of contempt, found guilty, and sentenced each to ten days' imprisonment and the payment of a fine of £100. Most of the newspapers of Idaho refused to publish Roosevelt's Sensational speech, but in all other States it received wide publicity. |The Court's .jurisdiction, of* cburse, 'does 'not extend beyond the borders oc Idaho.