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About The morning Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1899-1930 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1908)
SECOND SECTION SIXTEEN PA6ES-9 TO 12 COVERS THE MORNING FIELD ON THE LOWER COLUMBIA PUIU9HC8 FULL ASSOCIATED PRESS RIPORT 33rd YEAR. NO. 83 ASTORIA, OREGON, SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 1908 PRICE FIVE CENTS THOUSAND A DAY How Defunct Bank's Affairs are Wound Up. RECEIVERS BECOME RICH MEN Huge Sum Paid to Men in Charge of ,, Wrecked Banki Cause Demand for Different System. City to Have j World's Biggest Clock. NFAV YORK, April 4-While real estate and railroads have been the" foundation of most of New pV'orkV greatest fortune in the past a third source seems likely to be ad ded In providing the moneyed aris tocracy of the next generation and atorif may he written in the future of multi-millionaire whose family fortune were started by the holding df a receivership of some wrecked bank or business. The enormous fees allowed to receiver here and the consequent scramble for thee financial plums have several times come dose to causing a scandal and there are plenty or rumori that be fore the present investigation of the operations of the state Attorneys General' office is concluded there may be some startling disclosure. The subject has received renewed discussion this week a a result of the reopening of the Knickerbocker Trust Company after being In the hands of receivers for five month. There were three of these receivers and three lawyers retained a counsel The receivers were allowed $75,000 apiece and the lawyers $25,000 each, making $300,000 paid out on this fcore. , Assuming that the bank for the whole period, they were paid at the rate of about $1,000 a day. This Is not an extreme case and in fact )t was argued by friends of the re ceivers that they should have been paid $600,000 or twice the amount finally agreed upon. Another case that is now under controversy is that of a young lawyer who is trying to collect at the rate of $40,000 a year from a defunct company the stock holder of which arc likely to receive about ten cents on the dollar. The frequent recurrence of affairs of this sort has led to a strong demand for placing state banks and trust com panies on the same basis as national banks in this respect and strictly limiting the compensation allowed to receivers. ha mndc concerning bill pending in Congress to regulate stock exchange trading and other to prohibit deal ing in farm product for future de livery. It is felt here, a well a in all ports, that export of foodstuffs arc menaced by this proposed leg islation, for the reason that the Unit cd States would no longer be on an equal footing in foreign market with other surplus producing coun tries. The deceive stand of Com missioner Smith in favor of existing methods of handling this business is therefore regarded a extremely im portant. His report 'has been made public verbatim, but it i known that he expressed the view that trading in futures is neither harmful in effect nor pernicious in character. On the other hand the system of contracts of future delivery ha grown up out of the necessities of the producer as they relieve the market from in undation after harvest and prevent the wide fluctuation in price which otherwise would result. The export of wheat flour from the United State for the eight month ending with February aggregated 9.882.446 bar rel of a value of $45,512,298, while of wheat they were 82,914,315 bushels of a value of $82,810,912. The flour and wheat are equivalent to 127,085, 322 bushels of wheat. Should leg islation prevent the continuance of the same rate of export during the remainder of the crop year, the total will foot up the equivalent of a little over 191,000,000 bushels of wheat and will be the largest since 1902. wNcw Yorkers are now to have the 1y$efit of the biggest clock in the 'world, a veritable giant, for which the frame work has already been set !p on the Jersey shore of the Ilud aon. It will face the river and be visible for miles. The dial of this .monster time piece will be 28 feet across, with an area of more than jll.14 square fect.or more than many ' city building lot. Thit will give jthc new clock a face containing 544 !squarc feet more than there are in 'Philadelphia which for years has licld the record for size. The new !lock will weigh more than 12,000 'pounds. The minute hand will be a tremendous beam eighteen feet and j three inches in length, weighing with its counterpicce ' nearly seven jliundred pounds. Time will not go I jslowly on the new instrument either, ifor the tip of the minute hand will 'travel twenty-three inches each min ute, or nearly half a mile ever yday, jThe weights necessary to move the hands will tip the scales at an even 2,000 pounds. These hands, as well as the numerals on the dial, will be outlined by incandescent lights, so that it will be possible for people miles away to tell the time at night, j It will be the correct time, too, for ,the big clock will be regulated by , the standard time from Washington. Keen interest is expressed by for- report which Herbert Knox Smith, Commissioner of Corporations in the Department of Commerce and tabor Once more poor old Father Knick erbocker has discovered that the laugh is on him, and this too in con nection with an improvement in which he has taken not a little pride. When the new pay a you cuter car 155 of them in all, were recently put into use there was considerable cheerfulness over what was regarded ac a great advance in the city' trans portation service. But now it ap pears that they also mark a distinct retrogression, for some individual less unobservant than the rest ha discovered that there are neither headlights nor even any provision for them on the dashboards of the new "model" cars. The matter will probably be taken to the Public Ser vice Commission, as considerable criticism has already been expressed at the manner in which this body is apparently permitting the abandon ment of head lights on surface cars. Aside from the numorous aspect of the matter there is a' more serious side in the increased danger of ac cidents, since people who have be come accustomed to the warning headlight do not readily adapt them selves to its absence. Figures from New Jersey are cited in this con nection, where the use of high power headlights has resulted in decreasing accidents nearly 40 per cent. FAMOUS HOSTELRY Fifth Avenue Hotel to be Razed to the Ground. HELD ITS PLACE 49 YEARS While it still remains a mystery where pins go to, some light seems to have been shed on the question of what becomes of hairpins. The answering of this problem was the subject of a bet between two of New York's richest clubmen this week and involved the neat sum of $21,730. The question having arisen in one of the city's most expensive clubs as to where hairpins went to, one member who insisted that the great mapority were dropped in the street offered to prove his claim in a race with any other member for a two hours con test in finding hairpins on the city streets, the loser to pay the rate of one hundred dollars a haidpin for the difference in all those found. At the end of this time the difference was just three haidpins so that the win ning was the mere sum of $300. The significant feature of the wager, how ever, occurs in the fact that as a re sult of two hours work the winning contestant turned in 2173 hairpins and the loser 2170. Based on the average price for this article, it ap pears, as a result of this strange bet that New York women lose every day more than two hundred dollars worth of haidpins, or at the rate of about $75,000 each year. The col lections of these articles which might be made within that time would be sufficient to pave nearly two blocks of Fifth Avenue, with hairpins as a standing monument to women's los ing capacity. The Plush Setters Known at The "Amen Corner" Have Sat Most of The Men Prominent in The Politi cal History of The Nation. NEW YORK, April 4.-Whcn the clocks chime midnight tonight, the Fifth Avenue Hotel will pass into oblivion. For forty nine years it had held its place as one of the most famous hostelrics in America but bigger and more elaborate hotels have taken the patronage it once held and now modern business re quirements have forced out the old building, which in its time has housed thousands of men whose names are household words, to give way to a modern sky scraping office building. The political history of New York and of America i closely identified with the old hotel. On the great plush settees in what has come to be known as the "Amen Corner" have sat most of the men who have been prominent in the political history of the country in the last half century. There have sat Grant, Conkling Arthur, Piatt, Depew, in fact practi cally all of the men whose names are given cn the annals of the repub lican party in New York. On the stairway in the corner James C Blaine heard Dr. Burchard deliver the "rum" Romanism and rebellion speech, which cost him the presidency. F.very corner of the old building, every room is peopled with the ghosts of the famous men who have been known there during the time the hotel has been in existence. The old guests, many of them having spent thirty and forty years under its hospitable roof, have left for new homes and the old servants, dozens of whom have been in tht hotel for more than a quarter of a century, have secured other places or have arranged to retire altogether from labor. For days hundreds of people have visited the hotel to have a last look at the old familiar places.Among them have been white haired couples whose honey moons, many years ago spent in the hotel and others whose daily walks have taken them through its corridor:. Yester day an old woman took her middle aged son to the hotel to show him the room in which he was born. Hundreds of people have asked for souvenirs of the old hotel, the plush covered benches in the cor ridors, the great arm chairs in the bar room, the clocks, the mantels, even the tiles of the floor. A score of offers have been made for the stair step on which Blaine stood to hear the Burchard speech. At the same time Fifth Avenue closes its doors those of the old Sin clair House at Broadway and Eight Street will be locked for the first time since 1840. This hotel also gives place to a modern office build ing. In 1863 the hotel was purchased by A. L. Ashman and is still being conducted by his widow. . In other days it was a favorite resort of "Sam Ward, Horace Greely, Wm. Cullen Bryant, Marion Crawford and many other literary men of the time. , I ING!! There's a wealth of beauty and style in our Women's Oxfords. Ties and Pumps that women of discrimin ating taste will appreciate. Oxfords in Lace and Button styles and in Blucher cut. Handsome Ribbon Ties. New Creations in Pumps. Dainty Leathers- Cuban and Military Heels. Narrow Toes, Short Vamps--hand turned, every size and width that's made. We know that we are safe in saying that we have the finest show ing of Women's Low Cut Footwear that can be found. , : WHERITY, RALSTON CO. Astoria's Best Shoe Store 479 Commercial St. ASTORIA, ORE. with his old-time vigor in the efforts to get Congress to act, it is known that he is exhausting every resource in the efforts to move Congress to action. If the present Congress ex pires without having added to the im portant record of this administration several important reform measures, it will not be the fault of President Roosevelt. While little has been accomplished up to this time, Con gress has been known to do some important things in pretty quick order, when the spirit moved and necessity became the mother of ac tion. Whoever may be the nominee of the Republican party for Presi dent, whether it, be Roosevelt, Taft, Fairbanks, Cannon, Hughes, or any of the others mentioned, the record of the administration must of neces sity be the issue, and in his effort to make his administration more no table for measures of popular relief, President Rosevelt seems to be not only using good statesmanship, but playing good politics. POWER BEHIND CONGRESS President Rosevelt is not only a statesman whose name will figure for all time in American history as the dominant figure of a great epoch, but along with it all he is a politician of consummate skill. He bclives that the adoption by the Congress of the main features of his legislative program as outlined in his several messages is not only essential to the welfare of the country, but that it is well nigh essential to Republican suc cess at the polls in November. While he is not wielding "the big stick" I CLOTHES FOR THE FISHERMEN We have on our counters and shelves the largest and best selected line of Fishermen's Clothing ever shown in Astoria, and those desiring supplies in tnis line will do well to make this store their headquarters. The Celebrated Red Chinook Brand The only first class Oil Clothing on the market. Be sure and call .; on us for your wants. Gum Boots, Mackinaws, Wool Sweaters, Heavy Woolen Under i wear, Socks and Mittens. What are you going to do for Easter Clothes ? We have just received a large shipment of Spring Clothes for Men. Cleverly Tailored Suits made from Fashionable Fabrics at Reasonable Prices. LUURINEN a HARRISON ..1' -: .;y.'f 1 u'lU-.t.. K , ,,. ? Cor. 9th and Commercial ASTORIA. ORE.