Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1900 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

From Our Regular Correspondent: Democratic Senators and Representatives who have been in Washington since the election have not been disposed to talk for ■ publication on the result, not because they are discouraged or that i they consider the future of the democratic party in either doubt ior danger, but on the general I principle that it is always good policy for the defeated party to let the other fellows do the talking for awhile, just as they will have to do the legislating and administrating of the country for awhile. For the same reason they think the talk about re-organizing the democratic party, which has been indulged in to a limited extent since the election, premature at this time. The best policy for the democrats to adopt for a while is to keep a careful watch on the republicans, show up every blunder they make, and do a whole lot of thinking. It will be two years before there is another Congressional election, and until then, the democrats will have no opportunity to get control of any branch of the National Government. The gentlemen who are talking about holding conventions, etc for a re-organization of the party atthis time, are perhaps perfectly honest and wholly unselfish in their wishes for the future welfare of the party, but if they presist they will surely be suspected by many of being more anxious to get the party reins in their hands than of really helping the party Party reorganizations, so far as leaders and principles are concerned, are things which generally take care of themselves, ns has beeu demonstrated more than once in the history of the democratic party, and doubtless will be again. Party upheavals which are genuine, usually start from the bottom —the rank and file of any party know how to change leaders when they consider it desirable or necessary to do so. Secretary Root has gone to Cuba and for two reasons this going has caused much gossip in Washington, where it is believed to be connected with matters of importance relating to the future of Cuba. The first of these reasons j is that the Cuban Constitutional Convention is now in session in Havana, and the second is that this is considered the unhealthy season in Cuba. Mr. Root’s health haa. not been robust since he had that operation performed on him a month or two ago, and he would hardly have choson thia season for his visit to Cuba, unless his going was important Just $109,000 mote of good?, American money will bo invested I

in the Philippines if the Senate ratifies the treaty signed by Secretary Hay and the Spanish Minister, which binds this country to pay Spain that amount for three small islands located just outside of the boundaries set by the treaty which ceded the Philippine islands to the U. S. The orders sent to Gen. Macj Arthur, from Washington, to take I the field in person in the new | campaign that is to be waged against the Philippine insurgents ns soon as the rainy season ends over there, show that the administration takes no serious stock in the statements constantly made during the campaign that the reelection of Mr. McKinley would be followed by the collapse of the revolution. That was good enough talk for campaign purposes, but now the orders are to fight it to a finish. In ordering General MacArthur to' take the ■ field in person. Gen. Otis, who | was so generally criticized for not doing so, is indirectly given a side swipe. Gossip has mortgaged several Cabinet portfolios in the second McKinley administration. As told in Washington, these stories make Mr. W. W. Gibbs, of Philadelphia, who helped Hanna squeeze the rich men and corporations of that town, just as St. John Wanamaker did previous to liis entrance of the Harrison Cabinet, the holder of one of these mortgages and some go so far as to say that Mr. Gibbs is to become Secretary of the Treasury. If he does, it will be au awful throw down for Secretary Gage, who had understood that he was to remain at the head of the Treasury, or lie would not have fathered those freak interviews given out during the campaign to alarm the business interests of the country. It is now practically admitted by republicans that the talk previous to the election of a repeal of the war taxes was nothing more than a campaign bluff. A call for the Ways and Means Committee of the House to meet on the 20th inst. has been‘issued. The bill the committee will prepare will merely revise the war taxes—some campaign obligations are to be paid that way—and will not repeal all of them. The republicans know very well that with the total appiopriated by the last session of Congress of $574,000,000 and the probability that a larger sura will be appropriated by the coming sesson, all or nearly all of the money produced by the war taxes will be needed. The bill prepared by the committee will probably reduce the war taxes in the interests of favored classes, something like $15,000,000 or $20,000,000 a year, but the bulk of those taxes will have to be paid by the people for an indefinite period. T 1 e royalist republicans, if such a term be allowable, are already talking about making Mr McKinley’s second inauguration an event of regal splendor and and magnificence. Mr L. P. Michener, of Indiana, who practices law in Washington in partnership with Gen. W. W. Dudley, is franker than many of them. He snid in a public interview about the inauguration: “We should strive to excel in the glory of that day, the splendor of the jubilee of England’s Queen.”