Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1904 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and Gen ral Gossip of the National Capitol. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: Political managers at Democratic Congressional headquarters in this city are closely in touch with conditions in Maryland and West Virginia and have no doubt that Parker will carry them both. Republicans, weakened and disgusted by their party quarrels in West Virginia, show signs of surrender. Congressman Dayton, despairing of re-election, is about ready to withdraw from the Congressional race and President Roosevelt talks of appointing him U. S. District judge in place of Judge Jackson who is retiring at the age of eighty-six. »The withdrawal of Dayton is delayed by the fact that he is the strongest candidate the Republicans can name for the House. t T t In Maryland our affairs look even brighter than in West Virginia. We are pretty sure to carry the state by 10,000 and elect four, perhaps five of the six Congressmen. General Agnus, editor of the Baltimore American, (Republican) showed your correspondent the other day a note from the President which ended with the sentence “I really believe we have a chance to carry Maryland. ’’ That can hardly be called an enthusiastic prophecy! t t T Democrats here who have gloomy thoughts about election prospects succeed in painting a magnificent rainbow in the following fashion: The gain in the Republican vote of Maine over that of 1900 is 5 per cent and the gain in the Democratic vote, 24 per cent. Now the Democratic vote of New York for President in 1900‘was 693,733 and the Republican vote for President, for the same year in that state, was 804,850. Add 5 per cent to this Republican vote, and we get 845,000 as the probable Republican vote this year. Add 24 per cent to the Democratic vote of 1900, and that gives us 860,228 as the Democratic vote there this year. This is a Democratic majority in New York state of 15,000. Similarly in New Jersey, where the vote of Republicans and Democrats for President in 1900 was respectively, 178,010 and 164,808, apply the Maine percentages of gain and, presto, change! there is a Democratic majority of 28,000! By similarly adding the Maine percentages of gain in the West, Parker will carry Nebraska by 13,000 and Indiana by 33,000. This shows how far the situation is from being hopeless. t t t The quarrel in New York between Senator Platt and Governor Odell is all that Democrats could wish for. Woodruff’s speech of surrender on Thursday looked like pouring oil on water, but it was really pouring oil on fire. Given a respectable Democratic ticket this week when our party’s conuention assembles at Saratoga, and the defeat of Higgins will be a foregone conclusion. The New York Sun, Republican, declares editorially that he “has neither the character nor the ability to qualify him for the governorship of the state of New York.” Bourke Cockran, returned from reducing

the Republican majority in Maine will be a large factor in the New York campaign. Should Democrats carry the state, he eould realize the ambition of his life by succeeding Depew in the Senate or, perhaps going as Irish ambassador to Great Britain! Republicans admit that the Vanderbilt protege has been a sore disappointment in the Senate, and the transfer of Cockran’s mighty and picturesque forensic efforts from the House to the Senate would be a delight, t t t There are no discouraging indications at these headquarters. Congressman Cowhead is sending off several cartloads of franked documents every day, notably a large postal card bearing upon its back the exciting colloquy between John Sharp Williams and Dalzell in which the latter declared that “there are no hoodlums iu the United States except the foreigners.’’ Some newspaper marplots affirm that the Democratic campaign is dead; that nothing is being done at the Riggs House, that the fat-friers in New York are not giving the Congressional Committee any money; that Judge Parker refuses to take the advice of his political friends, and is hurtfully obstinate in refusing to go upon the stump, etc, etc. But as far as can be perceived by acute observers, everything goes well and a good account, will be rendered on November. 8. t t t Another document which is given wide circulation by the committee is “Report No. i ” of the Parker Constitution Club, replying to Rooevelt’s executive order putting all veterans of sixty-two on the pension roll. It declares the president’s act unconstitutional and “a faithless departure from the law instead of a faithful execution of it.” It charges the President with “the usurpation of legislative power in the creation of a new class of pensioners whom Congress had chosen not to pension,” and defines his conduct as “an intentional departure from the law.” The report of these eminent lawyers coucludes that “the action of President Roosevelt, three months before his nomination, was a bid for the pension vote. If Judge Parker should to-day an- j nounce that his pension Commissioner, when appointed, would give a pension to anybody whoj was sixty years old, and that his Secretary of the Treasury would honor the certificate, the reception of such a pronunciamento by the* people of this courftry may be well imagined. The President’s act in effect appropriated the nation’s money for his own campaign fund. The order was unconstitutional, lawless, and most reprehensible.” t t t A fortnight ago the President issned an order forbidding heads of departments and bureaus to give out their big estimates for next j'ear's appropriations. A few days later he published his letter of acceptance in which he exclaimed, “We have nothing to conceal!” f t f Trains loaded with earth now rattle over the broad plaza on the East Front of the Capitol within ten feet of the steps every few minutes engaged in filling the low ground where the great union depot is to stand and in excavating the basement of the marble palace on the square southeast of the Capitol where Representatives are to have their offices.. So much earth has been turned up in the city and so many sewers have been opened, this summer, that fevers prevail. The Commissioners attribute these to impure water and have ordered the boiling in every schoolhouse of all the water drunk by the children. t t.t Frank Kelley, who is now employed in the Illinois Central offices in Chicago, as a stenographer, was in the city Sunday night, returned to Chicago Monday morning.