Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capitol. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: The President has scored one in his efforts to bring Congress to terms on the subject of tariff revision and it now remains to be seen how the Senate and House leaders will avoid their “plain duty” whioh has been so forcefully pointed out to them by the Chief Executive. On the day Congress re-convened after the Christmas holidays, the President permitted the announcement to be made that he was “seriously considering” the advisability of calling Congress in extra session to revise the tariff. This information brought the “stand-patters” to their feet and created consternation at the Capitol. Senators and Representatives had returned to their homes for the holidays convinced that the President appreciated the fulitity of asking them to lower any of the “sacred” Dingley schedules and were aghast when they learned that he was still determined to force them to show their hands on the tariff question. The leaders went at once to the White House, singly, in pairs and in gangs, to urge the President not to take so rash a step as to call them to Washington just at the beginning of the heated term. The only consolation they received was an invitation to a conference to consider the subject. What the outcome will be it is impossible to predict but there is no doubt the President will have to face some of the wildest members of Congress and he will do well if they do not get the better of him. t t t When members of Congress came to Washington the first of December they found the President convinced that the promises of lower duties made during the campaign, “for political purposes only,” should be kept, and that the “top rails” of the tariff fence should be removed. He had gone so far on this track, in fact, that his message, as printed, contained the statement, “I will communicate with you on the subject of the tariff later.” The high priests of protection immediatly besieged the White House and finally persuaded him to send out to the press association an order to strike from his message the lines quoted. Some of the newepawers had. however, already printed the line, so the President’s original intention of sending to Congress a special tariff message became known in certain sections. The next step was to persuade the President that a special session could be held late in the fall, say in November, at which all needed changes in the Dingley rates could be made. Finally, the leaders showed their true hands by deprecating all changes in the tariff and their efforts to utilize the press to that end became known to the President during the holiday recess.

The only way in which the President can be prevented from calling Congress in special session, probably this coming Spring, will be by holding up to him the last administration of President Cleveland as a horrible example, and even that will not prevent his sending to Congress a powerful appeal for revision next December if no extraordinary session is held. t t t Another aggravating fact which has been borne in on the President of late is that the Senate leaders have caused the Statehood bill to be taken up with no intention of enacting it but for the sole purpose of its becomiug an obstacle to other legislation; such for instance, as measures calculated to give the goverment full control of railway rates, to check the steady growth of the trusts, to centralize the control of the public forests under a single department, etc. A little later in the session the plea of “no time” will advanced whenever the President asks why this, or the other is not done, and so Mr. Roosevelt is fast awakening to the fact that his Republican friends in Congress are not in earnest when it comes to legislation which would prove of actual service to the majority of the people and would favor no special interest. t t t Senator Hay has sent to the Senate a number of arbitration treaties in which he and the President are deeply interested but which stand little chance of ratification as negotiated. The Democratic Senators see in these treaties a possibility of the Southern States being compelled to pay the repudiated State bonds which were issued by carpet-baggers in the reconstruction days, the proceeds of which went into the hands of Northerners who came south to ex-

ploit that section and from which the South received no benefit whatever. Consequently, the Democrats in the Senate have banded together and unless the conventions are so amended as expressly to omit from possible arbitration the payment of these bonds they will never be ratified. t t t The prospectsare that the President and his Secretary of the Navy are likely to encounter insuperably opposition to their naval programme. They have asked that new vessels, which will cost $42,000,000 be authorized. The Goverment has already authorized ships which, before they ara completed, will cost ( $130,000,000 and there will be a national deficiency of $22,000,000, at least, this year. Congress now declares itself ready to authorize a few of the ships asked for, but positively declines to authorize an additional expense for new ships amounting to nearly $50,000,000. In this connectioDy*attention is called to the fact the naval authorities now declares that the Oregon is obsolete, although it is one of the largest battleships afloat, being of 13,000 tons burthen. Now they demand ships of not less than 16,000 tons, although none of the foreign powers except England are building battleships of such gigantic size. The more conservative members of Congress insist that at least one of the new 16,000 ton ships already authorized should be put into commission and thoroughly tested before more are authorized and in this economical and judicious policy the Republicans will recive the full support of the Democrats in both houses of Confess.