Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1904 — WASHINGTON LETTER [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER

[Special Correspondence.] Elliott Woods, the superintendent of the capitol and Mr. Coffin, the manager of the house restaurant, are convinced that there will he no complaints this winter on the restaurant proposition. A great archway has been cut in the wall between what were formerly the two separate dining rooms, and a steam table in the center will afford excellent facilities for promptly feeding the hungry in all parts of the restaurant Besides this, the bill of fare will he much less elaborate, and it is the present Intention to have all the dishes enumerated on the hill of fare ready to serve Immediately, beginning at noon, thus doing away with the long delays incident upon the preparation gs special orders. Members of the house may notice other improvements in their wing of the eapitol building, but it is safe to say they will not be quite so pleased over any of them as they will be with the restaurant improvements. Capitol Powm Plant. Work will not be begun until next fall on the new eapitol power plant, which, when completed, will furnish the power for heating, lighting and ventilating the eapitol building, the Congressional library and the senate' and liou.se office buildings now under course of construction. The appropriation for the power plant, which will probably be the biggest of its kind' in the country, was made at the last session of congress, but work on the office buildings is not sufficiently under way to warrant an immediate beginning of the improvements in the eapitol engine room. Nurses to Erect a Monument. The Spanish-American war nurses, whose annual convention was held recently at St. Louis, decided by unanimous vote to erect a costly and handsome monument in the Arlington National cemetery to the memory of those “humane and patriotic army nurses ■who died as a result of their exposure In the enervating climate of the tropics during the war with Spain and the insurrection in the Philippines.” The design of the monument has not been decided upon, but many members are said to favor a figure representing a nurse in her service uniform rqatly for duty. Civil Service at Panama. President Roosevelt has sighed an order completed by the civil service and Isthmian canal commissions, extending the civil service regulations over the employees of the canal commission. The order embraces all employees except those appointed by the president and laborers. New Treaty With Germany. Negotiations have been initiated for a treaty of arbitration between Germany and the United States. Several days ago President Roosevelt suggested to Baron Sternburg, the German ambassador, that a treaty of arbitration between the United States and Germany would, in his judgment, be very desirable. Ambassador Sternburg coincided in that view and told the president that he would inquire of his government what steps if any it desired to take in the matter. Soon after Ambassador Sternburg called upon President Roosevelt and informed him that the German government had expressed itself as entirely agreeable to the president's proposition and that he had been directed to open formal negotiations for such a treaty. Secretary Hay’a Jolxe.

Diplomats stationed in Washington are gratified with the announcement by President Roosevelt that Secretary Hay will remain In the cabinet for another four years. This is because the diplomats to a man esteem Secretary Hay very highly. For the most part they know his views on leading questions. He is extremely practical, and he is frank. From time to time there has been talk of Secretary Hay retiring because of ill health. As a matter of fact, although he is sixty-live years old, he is In excellent condition physically. He has had his joke about the frequent rumors of his poor health. To a friend who once congratulated him upon his excellent appearance he said with assumM weariness, “Ah, yes, but I am Buffering from an incurable disease.” The friend, surprised, expressed disbelief, but Mr. Hay insisted his malady was hopeless. The friend said perhaps it w as not really so bad, and what was the disease? “Old age,” replied the secretary. The President's Son. Young Theodore Roosevelt, who has been here for some weeks, having left school because of an affliction of his eyes, will not return to Groton, but will remain in Washington for the rest of the session. He has a tutor from Boston, Matthew Lee, a nephew of the first Mrs. Roosevelt, who was Miss Alice Lee of Boston.

Rural Free Delivery. When congress created the rural free delivery branch of the postal service It did not realize that It was establishing the greatest political machine of the United States. The fact has been recently impressing itself in a most serious manner upon senators and representatives, and they have brought it to the attention of the president who has directed the civil service com mission to make an investigation with a view to shearing free delivery carriers of political endeavors. In the recent election the fact was developed that rural free delivery carriers filled certain congressional districts with literature opposing the reelection of certain members of congress. The president is said to realize the danger of such participation in politics by free delivery carriers and will frame additions to the civil service regulations that will prevent them from taking any obnoxiona part in politics. CARL SCHOFIELD.