Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1904 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and Oeneral Gossip of the National Capitol. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: Imitation is the sincerest flattery. Remembering that Abraham Lincoln was on the south balcony of the White House when he received the announcement of his renomination, President Roosevelt walked out upon the south balcony to receive the news of his nomination at Chicago as the tenth successor of the distinguished rail splitter. There his most intimate friends found him clothed and in his right mind. When, five minutes later, newspaper men crowded round him he said, "Now, boys, remember that this is Executive Session,” meaning of course that the natural and reasonable exhilerations of the occasion were not to be too literally reported. Thereupon he quite laid aside the little Bhow of dignity which he has sometimes found it expedient to assume, gave and took barter and badinage, and became for a short time a boy among the boys. Whatever else may be said about the President, it is conceded that he is a natural man with no trivial affectations. He was much gratified at the assurance that it was the firet time in the country’s history when a candidate for President and Vice President received every vote of a nominating convention. I called yesterday on Congressman Cowherd, running the Democratic National campaign from the Riggs House, to hear what he had to say about the Republican platform. "What has become of the party’s courage?” he asked. “On some of the greatest questions its tongue is paralyzed. Isn’t the labor situation conspicuously before the country? The platform says not a word about it. What is going to be done with the Philippines? The Republican platform does not lisp a syllable. Has the tariff ceased to be an issue? The platform makes no promise about it except that it will be diminished or increased whenever its political guardian thinks fit. Of the gross postoffice corruption it merely says ‘Our administration of the great departments of the goverment has been 'honest.’ The subject of statehood is not mentioned in the platform, although four inchoate states with a million and a half population are knocking loudly at the door. Is that an attractive platform?” t t t The forty Filipinos have come and gone. They have been hailed and lunched by the President, effusively greeted by his subordinates, lifted to the top of the monument and carried through public buildings, and have hastened to other cities. I inquired his impressions from.Major-General Birney, 6on of that James G. Birney who made the free-soil run for President in 1884, and only survivor of four brothers who fought in the Union army. He said "They looked about like the same number of intelligent persons from our states on an excursion to the capital for pleasure and instruction. If they are representatives of their people, we owe more respect t 6 the Filipinos than we have yet shown. If the President of the fair at St. Louis would devise a plan tb make our people acquainted with these men instead of exhibiting a lot of savage Iggorrotes at the Pike, he would acquire much merit. A score of Digger Indians caught in the Bad Lands of the West would

represent our native population as well as those Iggorrotes represent the Filipinos.” I asked: “What did you think of their speeches?” “They were respectable,” he said, “but not remarkable for originality or force. They were what would be expected of guests whose bills were paid by their entertainers and who would naturally avoid unpleasant topics. They were as polite as Spaniards.” “Don’t you suppose their reports will do good in the archipelago?” I asked. “Perhaps,” he answered, “by giving the people there more definite ideas of the exteut, power, wealth, and industrial resources of this country. I don’t know that the reports will make them more friendly „to us. They don’t fight us as they did. Chains don’t hurt so ranch when they are worn smooth. But no subjugated nation loves its masters. The Boers and Hindoos do [not love the British; nor do the Finns love the Russians, or the Filipinos the Americans. Warships and rapid fire guns maintain what is called peace. No Filipino rebels unless he has made his will, but the spirit that demands independence is there-and would blaze up if a favorable occasion offered. Without battleships and Gatlings they are helpless; but if a powerful nation should offer them such facilities of defense and offense, I think they would rise in rebellion from the north end of Luzon to the southern corner of the Sula possessions. If Japan, for instance, shall be victorious over Russia, what will be likely to happen? 1 don’t know; but it is a question worth thinking about, while we are execrating Russia and calling down curses on the head of the Czar.”

t t t Cortelyou’s Department of Commerce and Labor is trying to find out which one of its officials are directly responsible for the General Slocum holocaust in the East River. There is no disguising the fact that the blame rests directly upon some of Cortelyou’s inspectors. But when they are punished, if such a consummation can be hoped for, some blame will still rest upon Congress itself. The most astounding revelations in connection with it is the provision of law which pays inspectors according to the number of steamboats they are able to certify to having examined in a year! Of course this is a direct incentive to carelessness and utter recklessness. It offers a premium for perjury and a prize for neglect of duty. Under this law inspectors who do not inspect are paid three times as much as those who do, on the sole condition that they are ready and expert liars. What kind of Congressmen were they who enacted such a law? t t t At the beginning of the school vacation this week a murmur goes through the city protesting against such a short school year. Allowing for holidays, national and optional, school is held only about one-half of the days in the year. At this there is an indignant remonstrance rising. It is felt that children have their feet in the road altogether too much and that the sympathy for overworked students has been altogether overdone. No other workiiig people in the world have so many holidays in the year with pay as the schoolteachers, and it is strongly felt that the children are running too

much and studying too little. A revolution in this matter is at hand. A great mark down in clothing, shoes, wash dress goods, etc. at Chicago Bargain Store.