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!!
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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
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LUURINEN a HARRISON
..1' -: .;y.'f 1 u'lU-.t.. K , ,,. ?
Cor. 9th and Commercial
ASTORIA. ORE.