Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capitol. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: Washington has been treated to a sensation during the past week, a sensation of such proportions that it will curtail the President’s trip and bring him back to the Capital“a week earlier than he had expected to return. Herbert W. Bowen, United States Minister to Venezuela, and Francis B. Loomis, Assistant Secretary of State, are the chief figures in the affair which promises to end in the dismissal from the public ser. vice of at least one of these officials, possibly although improbably, both. t t t It appears that some time ago Minister Bowen filed, officially, charges against Secretary Loomis, who has at one time been Minister to Venezuela. In brief, these charges are to the effect that as Minister, Mr. Loomis accepted SIO,OOO from the New York and Bermudez Asphalt Company in compensation for his services in their behalf; that Mr. Loomis purchased a claim of 14,000 against the Venezuela government and used his influence to collect it; and that Mr. Loomis undertook to collect a claim for a Mr. Meyers for a commission of one seventh of $1,400,000. Mr. Bowen forwards these charges to Secretary Taft, over his own signature, and Secretary Taft forwarded the communication to- the President who was already in the west. t t t

Not content, however, with having done this, Mr. Bowen grew impatient at hearing no echo of the serious charges he had preferred and he furnished the details of the charges to a certain newspaper correspondent in Caracas. The whole story was then mailed to this country and appeared in large type on the front page of one of the New York dailies. Even were the charges true, Minister Bowen was guilty of a grave indiscretion and violation of courtesy in making them public in advance of some reply to his communication to Secretary Taft and only unpardonably bad judgment or ungovernable spleen against his superior officer could account for this course. t t t When the charges were first made public Mr. Loomis was absent from Washington but immediately on his return he furnished to the newspapers a catagorical denial of each and all of the charges. He explained that he had one financial transaction with the New York and Bermudez Asphalt Company, but only to the extent of changing his check on a Venezuelan bank for the Company’s check on a New York bank when he left Caracas at the conclusion of his service as Minister, this being not trirusual among American Ministers in Caracas and elsewhere, where the rate of exchange is high and sometimes exchange cannot be secured at any price. Of course the transaction was unimportant and could not place either party under obligation to the other, may even have been a mutual accomodation. Every other transaction undertaken by Mr. Loomis as a Minister to./.Venezuela, he declares, he undertook only as a-re-sult of explicit instruction from the Secretary of Btate. Beyond this denial. Mr. Loomis has declined to discuss the charges. t + t That an official statement from one of Secretary Loomis’ superiors will be ultimately made is! generally assumed and it is regarded as probable that the ne-1 cessity of issuing such a statement! has played an important part in I

determining the President to curtail his hunting trip. There are however, other questions of imof importance which await the attention of the President. There are, for instane, some questions connected with the Panama problem which be must consider at an early day. One of these is the disposition that is to be made of John Barrett, now Minister to Panama. Barrett is desirous of securing promotion and in any event it is unlikely that be can retain his present position. Another question which will demand the President’s attention in the near future is the disposition of the engineer members of the Panama Canal Commission to make trouble because they regard themselves as somewhat overslaughted in the present organization of the Commission. t t t Still another question which will compel the attention of the President at no distant date is the constantly increasing Treasury deficit. This has now assumed somewhat alarming proportions, -being, at practically the end of Apr il,s 30,000,000. Treasury experts claim that it will be reduced during the next two months and this is not improbable as many funds appropriated by Congress have been exhausted, but it is frankly admitted that it cannot possibly be reduced to anywhero near Secretary Shaw’s estimate of $18,000,000. t t t Secretary Shaw has made one of his extravagent and thoughtless statements to the press, in which he says that a $30,000,000 deficit is “a mere nothing,” that for a great and prosperous country it should not be regarded as of any importance and that, in fact, “it means no more than sl£to the average sndividual.” The Secretary apparently forgets the fact that so great are the expenses of the Government that once the balance is transferred to the wrong side of the federal ledger it grows with astounding rapidity and has been known to wipe out a large surplus in an astonishinly short time, as was the case in the Harrison administration. t t t Of course Secretary Shaw hopes to belittle the situation because he is an arch “stand-patter” and cannot sleep whenever anyone has suggested revising the precious tariff schedules. Of course a the growing deficit gives increased impetus to demand for tariff revision which everyone but the protected interests appreciates is necessary. It will be remembered that the McKinley tariff bill deprived the country of a large percentage of its revenue because its rates were so high as to be prohibitory and, little being imported, little duty was paid. The same condition of affairs has now been reached with the Dingley bill. Cost of production in many lines has decreased and now the Dingley rates are practically prohibitory.