Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1904 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and deneral Ooaslp of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: Your correspondent met Gen. Grosvenor, Representative from Ohio, yesterday as he was coming out of the House after adjournment, and asked him where his sympathies were in the Jap-Ruso war. “They are with Japan,” he said, “notwithstanding that she struck the first blow and struck it somewhat below the belt. But she’ll get licked if she doesn’t look out,” he added. “Your faith doesn’t seem to follow your sympathies, General,” I suggested. “Well, this is the way it is,” he explained; “I don’t know whether the Japs are good fighting men. Anybody can fight afloat, where there is not much apparent danger, but to stand up and go forward in the midst of whistling bullets and hurling shells, is another thing altogether. If the yellow men can stand up in front of white men, and fight them equally, man for man —that is, if a Japanese regiment is equal to a Russian regiment—then the.., Japs will win and capture the whole Pacific seaboard. But that’s the conundrum.” This morning I dropped into the War Department and called on Gen. Greeley, of Artie fame, and propounded to him the same question, “I hope Japan will come out ahead,” he said, “but I doubt it. It is very doubtful if the little brown men will stand up in front of the white men’s rifles. They have never proved it. But we may be a little fast in assuming that the Russians are all equal to white men. A good many of them are of mixed blood from the tropics. Not more than a hundred millions are pure Europeans and the Poles, Jews and Finns can hardly be counted on. Even if the Japs should ' conquer, they would not expect to hold even Manchuria, though they might seize Vladivostock. But the Russians are ahead in the betting at the present moment, without regard to sympathies.” t t t While the Agricultural bill was being discussed in the Senate it was apparent that the appropriations recommended by the House would be largely increased, and the number of so-called “divisions” in that department were to be raised to the rank of “bureaus” with a corresponding growth of salaries for all the “chiefs,” assistant “chiefs” and the rest of the big Indians. The misquito-killing division is to become a “bureau,” if the House consents; also the ornithological or English-sparrow and hen-hawk division, which is now called a “biological survey.” Senator Nelson of Minnesota 6ays that this last division has never done anything of practical importance to agriculture, and never will; it is purely ornamental and frightfully “scientific.” Senator Proctor, of the Vermont marble yards, who knows as much about farming as did the late Horace Greeley, has the bill in charge, and whenever a Senator objects to an item he replies: “The Secretary said it was necessary.” Senator Bailey of Texas, a very observing man, said if he had his way he would abolish the whole thing, free seeds, bird-catchers, horse-training, mountain climbing, chrysanthemum-raising and all. The State agriculural colleges can look after the interests of farming in their respective states much better than a central establishment at Washington. ttt

Overcharging the government for supplies and pocketing the profits is likely to be dangerous business hereafter, in the light of the verdict of “guilty” which the jury in the post office frauds and conspiracy case against Macben and his confederates, the Groffs and Lorenz, so prompily rendered on the 26th inst at the conclusion of the trial here. The conspirators have been admitted to bail in $20,000 each, but if the trial holds good it will not be long before they will be behind the bars —a warning to all "grafters” who are in the employ of the government. Even Samuel Gross, against whom the prosecution admitted there was not sufficient evidence to conviot, was included in the verdict, which is said to have fallen in the” court room like a bolt from the blue. There will probably be an appeal to a higher court, but it may not be allowed. t t t The streets of Washington are made lively by thirty-eight carriages kept by the government for its well paid employes. These are driven by men carried on the rolls os watchmen, laborers and messengers. A private secretary, or the “chief’ of a bureau, in a government coach, with a colored

man on the box, is a sight to aiajke one’s mouth water. It is awo a sufficient commentary npon the Civil Service, that such things can be. ttt At the eleventh hour ex-Secre-tary Root has explained the whole matter. 1 To sum it up and boil it down he says: Columbia held the Isthmus of Panama subject to the convenience of the world; and that Panama, as a province, “owned” the isthmus, which ithad never morally alienated. If this had only come before the debate in the Senate it would have saved much time. These two brandnew doctrines of world convenience and moral alienation knock all the text books higher than Gilderoy’s celebrated kite. ttt Those who watched the personal controversy in the senate on Washington’s birthday between Senator Hoar of Mass., and Foraker of Ohio, could not regard it as necessary, or dignified. There is too much hot-headed eagerness on the part of Senators, who should know better, to rush to the rescue, full of words and fury, whenever they imagine the Executive has been criticised. The policing of the White House is not the special province of the Senate, and Senator Foraker need not put himself on the force. Each co-ordinate branch of the government has only to look after its own affairs. There is a silence which is becoming to one’s selfrespect, and the senate is a good place to maintain it. ttt Hitches regarding the construction of the great canal have already appeared. No money can be paid to Panama until the Spooner act is modified; a clear title to the property can hardly be claimed until the suit Colombia has brought against the French Canal company is decided. A vast amount of machinery must be made before a shovel full of dirt can be moved.