Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1899 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

fFrom our regular correspondent.) Washington is decked out in Inauguration toggery for the three day Peace Jubilee, which began Tuesday, and the additional beauty given by nature furnishes ! another argumeut in favor of changing Inauguration day from March to about this season of the year, when Washington is at its best, both for looks and for the comfort of visitors. * * * Mr. McKinley is finding the hot water in which he has been ever since he has got back to Washington much more uncomfortable than that in which he bathed at the hot springs. The mess in Cuba, where the Cuban army is almost on the verge of open revolt, is not conducive to his peace of mind, but it is no more than might have I been expected from the policy that ! he has allowed Alger to attempt to | carry out over there. Some go as far as to charge that Alger is trying t-o drive the Cuban army into revolting for purposes of his own, although it is difficult to imagine what purposes he could have that would be served by such a misfortune as that would necessajily prove to be. When Mr. McKinley went away he expressed the opinion that Aguinaldo would surrender and peace be established in the Philippines before his return, but he found things very much as they were when he left Washington.

Aguinaldo is still trying to negotiate and is still being refused by Gen. Otis. * * . Friends of the several candidates for Speaker are trying to force Mr. McKiuley to declare himself and there is a sort of understanding that in order to square himself in both the East and West, he has said that either Sherman or Henderson would be perfectly acceptable to him. This understanding has resulted in the formation of a combine of Henderson and Sherman supporters for the purpose of shutting out all other candidates. Payne is in Washington kicking hard against being left out in the cold, and declaring that he intends to remain in the field until the last, regardless of orders from Boss Platee, Mr. McKinley or anybody else. The friends of Hopkins also declare that he will not allow himself to be froze out. It is all very well for these gentlemen to talk, but the question is how can they help themselves? As soon as it becomes generally known that neither is wanted by the administration, neither will hove any supporters left. * * * The most amusing feature of the Speakership campaign is the frantic efforts of what may be slangly called the “Reed push,” to retain their grip upon the plums in the House organization. Their latest was an appeal to the ex-Czar to defer his resignation until after he is elected Speaker and has named the committees. Whatever else he may be, Mr. Reed is not a fool. He knows that at best his election to be speaker again would have been doubtful—not a few believe that to have been his real reason for retiring; and that neither he nor any other man would stand a ghost of a show to be elected Speaker when it would be known that his only object was to put the organization of the Committees into the hands of his friends and then get out. * * *

Although everybody knew that Senator Kean, of N. J., was a railroad and corporation lawyer, and therefore naturally inclined to favor trusts of all sorts, he surprised many by publicly declaring, while he was in Washington a day or two ago, that the people of New Jersey would not support any party that condemned trusts, because the trusts organized under their state laws paid so much money into their Treasury. Surely it is time to do some hard thinking when a Senator publicly states his belief that his state has been bought by the trusts —to be exact, Mr. Kean’s words were: “The annual revenue from the tax on the capital of all corporations created under our laws now amount to between sßoo,oooand $900,000. You can readily see that the people who benefit from this influx of wealth are not apt to be antagonistic to the corporations that contribute it.”

* * * According to current gossip, Secretary Alger is ungrateful along with his numerous other faults. He has announced himself a candidate for Senator McMillan’s seat, and the latter has announced his candidacy to succeed himself, it is said at request of Mr. McKinley. So the country is likely to see the man who has been kept in the Cabinet against the almost general protest of the country, running for the Senate as an anti-McKinley candidate. This is explained by friends of Mr. McKinley by saying that the President is bound by promises to keep Alger in the Cabinet, unless he will voluntarily resign, but is determined to get even by keeping him out of the Senate.