Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

political and General dosslp of the National Capitol. Special CorreapQudence to The Democrat: The complete domination of Congress by the extreme protectionists has been strikingly illustrated during the past week, when the Ways and Means committee has been conducting hearings on the bill urged by both the President and the Secretary of War, and which provides that but 25 per cent of the Dingley tariff shall be collected on sugar and tobacco imported from the Philippines and that other imports from the Philippines shall be admitted duty free. The President urged this legislation in his message as essential to the welfare of the archipelago and Secretary Taft has haunted the halls of Congress trying to impress their duty in the matter on members of the lower house, but the fact that “hearings” have been held is regarded as indicating the unwillingness of the leaders to permit the passage of the bill. The fear that some protected interest, and particularly the Sugar Trust, may suffer is leading such prominent Republicans as Dalzell, Grosvenor, Payne and others to oppose the measure and its chances in the House are indeed slim, while in the Senate they are nil. t t t

The course of certain members of Congress believed to be controlled by railroads is beidjg watched with extreme interest by those who espouse the cause of the people versus the great common carrier monopolies. The President has made it so plain that no member of Congress can be in doubt as to his duty regarding the railway rate question*. The small shipper needs the protection of the federal goverment against the rebates and discriminations which have built up the great trusts of the country by the methods conceived and first practiced by the Standard Oil Company and since adopted by every successful trust. Despite these facts, however, there seems to be a set determination to prevent adequate legislation and the opposition is developing in most insidious form. Astute members of Congress are resorting to their favorite tactics and less wise members are making their usual blunders. t t t The uninitiated Senator or Representative takes it for granted that the best way to kill a bill, or defeat a policy, is to speak against it and vote against it. Not so the initiated. He appreciates the danger of such a course where the bill or policy commands popular respect and he therefore poses as its friend, but he is too solicitous with a determination to secure “full, and complete and accurate knowledge on the subject” he persists in bringing in witnesses who take up the time of the committee having the measure in charge, until it becomes too late in the session for action. This is called “strangling in committee,” and is the favorite method of Senator Elkins, Representative Dalzell, General Grosvenor and similar “statesmen.” Another favorite practice, especially with measures of national importance and affecting the railroads, is to amend the bill with the professed purpose of strengthening its provisions, with the real purpose of rendering it unconstitutional so that after the government has pressed it in the Courts at great cost of money and time it will fall before the Supreme court of the United States. These are the methods employed by the astute statesman, but they have still another to fall back on. As a last resort, they excite the radicals in Congress to a pitch of enthusiasm which utterly beclouds their better judgement and leads them to insist on such extreme legislation as to insure ultimate defeat for the measure which they have been instrumental in amending. t t t All of these methods will be employed before the opposition will allow the remedial railway legislation urged by the President to be placed ou the statutes. The friends of the administration and the Democrats, will exercise the utmost vigilence to prevent the success of any of these methods without a complete exposure of the perpetrator, whoever he may be. Of course, a majority will rule in any event, bat it is regarded as almost as important that the snakes in Abe grass be exposed to the publicf'gaze as that the legislation itself be enacted, as sneb exposure will insure the ultimate success of the legislative policy. t t t The indications are that the Statehood bill, in which no one is particnlarly interested, other than

Senator Beveridge, who is prompted by motives of personal pride, will fail of enactment at this session. It seems certain that the Democrats in the Senate will vote solidly against it and a considerable number of Republicanns will either vote against it or absent themselves if a day is fixed for a vote. In the opinion of the Democratic leaders the only hope ahead of the measure is that it may be shorn of all provisions referring to Arizona and New Mexico and then passed, so that it will have the effect of creating a single State out of the territories of Oklahoma and Indian Territory. t t t Decency and good order have triumphed in the House of Representatives and articles have been adopted impeaching Judge Charles Sw'ayne of the Northern District of Florida. There is some slight question as to whether the Senate will hear the case this session but the leading lawyers in the upper chamber believe they should do so and their views will probably prevail. This will be the first impeachment case heard by the Senate since the impeachment of Secretary of War Belknap, in 1876. The decision of the House to impeach was a noteworthy triumph for the Democrats, Speaker Cannon and other Republican leaders having exerted their utmost influence to save Swayne from trial, despite the fact that it was unanimously admitted that he had falsified his expense accounts and that it was generally believedthat he bad been guilty of offier and more serious offenses.