Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1904 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: Work is being crowded along so fast in Congress that it seems as if adjournment might possibly come a week or so before the Ist of May. The appropriation bills that have not already passed are passing, without such opposition as will cause much delay. Several bills in the interest of the labor unions are on the calendar and some are reported from committees. But there is little probability that any will pass this year. The service pension bill will now be withdrawn, for this session at least, in view of the action of the Commissioner of Pensions in so interpreting the law as to grant old age pensions to veterans of 62 without regard to disability. The . Post office appropriation bill has been before the House this week, and has again been the storm centre. The minority leader, John S. Williams, (Miss.,) declared that the Post-Office department was rotten from turret to foundation stone and the Republicans were trying to reorganize it in an appropriation bill. He said that only one division of the department had been investigated, and that only partially, while other divisions were equally corrupt. Mr. Payne, the Republican leader, and General Grover threw such Explanation as they could into the discussion, and Mr. Overstreet, (Rep., Ind.) the unhappy father of the report, declared that nothing in particular was the matter and nobody injured. Mr, Williams came back with the charge that pnblic moneys had been repeatedly diverted to illegal uses in contempt of law, that buildings had been rented, fuel bought, and clerks appointed and promoted in defiance of Civil Service regulations. “These officials,” he declared vehemently, “violate the laws whenever they please and grant favors to their friends whenever they please, and tell you cooly that it was because of a construction pat upon the law by somebody, God only knows who.” Joseph L. Bristow, Fourth Assistant Postmaster General, who has been almost two months sick and confined to his bed, was dragged out Thursday and Friday and given a roasting in the third degree by the McCall Committee appointed to investigate him and his famous report. He explained that he had been disabled from service for several weeks and that he did not make and was not responsible for the report that had been sent to Congress. The most of it was the work of First Assistant Postmaster General Wynne. At the same time he defended the report in general terms, said there bad been improper clerk-hire allowances in offices, and that various measures had been forwarded at the earnest request of Congressmen. He bad cited some cases and said a hundred other similar cases coaid be cited. He was asked whether the report came directly from the hands of the Postmaster General, or whether some other official was consulted. He said he had been told, bnt did not know. He was asked by Mr. Bartlett of Georgia whether any suggestion had come from the president. Before it oonld be answered, Mr. Burton of Ohio interposed an objection to "any such question being asked,” and it was ruled ont by the committee.

The American Bed Cross Society is rent in. twain. Definite

chargee of mismanagement were yeaterdav filed against Clara Barton and her cortene of friends by a large majority of the directors, — an eminent and honorable body of citizens. They found that not less than $715,000 have been collected and that no part of it was ever received or disbursed by the Treasurer, and that the accounts, if aoconnts were kept, have never been audited. There have been no public reports of receipts or expenditures. Money paid in has been used for anything that the President wished to ase it for, without consultation with the directors. It is charged that the charter of the society has been grossly and repeatedly violated. Miss Barton has now to show why reorganization should not take place in the public interest. t t t The “World’s Fair Industry” continues to prosper. Congress has given $5,000,000 to St. Louis and “lent” her $5,000,000 more; it has smiled productively on propositions to celebrate Forefathers’ Day in Massachusetts, Lewis and Clark’s Day in Portland, Oregon, and Daniel Boone’s Day in Louisville, and yesterday Congressmen went to Jamestown, Virginia, to view the site of the proposed Pocahontas Exposition in 1907. The sum of $500,000 has been appropriated to the Portland show, as a starter.

Senator Newland advocates the establisnment of a permanently vacant zone through the Mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, with a width of 800 feet between buildings. On both sides of this space public buildings may be erected. The Senator seems not to know what citizens of Washington know perfectly well, that this central park called the Mall (generally mispronounced Maul) is not fit for public buildings of any kind. Several have been placed there, but the number ought not to be added to, as it recently was in the new Post Office building, merely because real estate owners wanted to sell their lots. In every freshet or season of flood tide the whole Mall is snbmergedT More than once in this decade the water of the Potomac has stood five feet deep on the site of the Post Office department, and boats have been rowed along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capital to Market Space. Government buildings ought always to be erected on high ground on the squares around the Capitol or the White House, or out Sixteenth Street, or on Judiciary Square. The whole movement to cover the depressed Mall with expensive government palaces has its origin and its support in local speculators in real state.

Personal: General Miles has been summoned home; Mrs. Miles i s critically ill * * Representative Thompson of Alabama is down with pneumonia * * Gout has at last released its shackles and the Postmaster General is ont again * * Secretary Moody is making speeches in New England * * The Senate played a mock game of Jai Allai in executive session while considering the conduct of General Wood in Cuba. His Nomination as Major General was confirmed on Friday.