* * * * * Leslie Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury, says that we have the best banking system on earth. Still in the past few months failures in five national banks have footed up to almost $7,000,000. Now if these banks had had out a flood of asset currency, backed only by the assets of the banks, and no doubt they would have had, the Government would probably have lost as large a sum, and all of this would have had to come out of the people for the benefit of the speculators.—_Lansing (Mich.) Capital City Democrat._ * * * * * The end of old Steve Elkins, the blocks-of-five-election buyer, he, who, with the aid of his father-in-law, Gassaway Davis, got control of most of the coal mines and railroads of West Virginia, is in sight. The extortions of the coal trust and railroad combine that Elkins organized have become so unbearable that the Republican governor of that state has appealed to Senator Tillman to secure an investigation. The Republicans of the Senate dare not deny it. When the truth comes out that will be the end of Elkins, for which all the people will give thanks unto God.—_Omaha (Neb.) Investigator._ * * * * * They don’t seem to be doing much digging on that great canal, but they manage to bury a considerable amount of money there.—_Cresson (Tex.) Courier._ _The Best_ She (_indignantly_)—Stop, sir! You shall not kiss me again! How rude you are! Don’t you know any better? He (_cheerily_)—I haven’t kissed every girl in town, it is true, but as far as I have gone I certainly don’t know any better. [Illustration: _News Record_] FROM FEBRUARY 8 TO MARCH 8, 1906 _Home News_ February 8.—John A. McCall, former President of the New York Life Insurance Co., is seriously ill at Lakewood, N. J. Richard A. McCurdy, former President of the Mutual Life Insurance Co., plans to leave the United States and make his home in Paris. The New York Life Insurance Company’s “house cleaning” committee reveal that Judge Andrew Hamilton has received $1,347,382 from that company since 1892. This is $283,383 in excess of the total payments disclosed by the Armstrong Committee. The committee recommends legal action against John A. McCall for the recovery of the amount. Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin, introduces a bill in the Senate making it an offense for any Government officer, official or employee to accept a railroad pass or franking privilege over telegraph lines. By a vote of 346 to 7 the House of Representatives passes the Hepburn railroad rate regulation bill just as it came from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, and declared by Chairman Hepburn to be exactly in accordance with recommendations of President Roosevelt on the subject.