Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip ot the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: The indictment of the cotton grafters in the Department of Agriculture seems to be an approaching possibility. In view of the fact that it is reported Holmes made half a million out of his crookedness, it would seem that a trial of some sort is in order. It is quite likely that the Secretary of Agriculture would have been satisfied with Holmes’ dismissal from the service, but he has been prodded by the Executive; and the acting Attorney General and the Attorney for the District of Columbia have been in ponderous conference and now “think” they may be able to proceed with a criminal prosecution that may include more people than Holmes. A Washington broker who knows the ins and outs of the cotton market, said in an interview today that if he had had the advance information in Holmes posession, he could have made a million for himself in the market and given another million to his informant. He added with an unctous smile that of course he would not have been guilty of any such crookedness, but the possibilities open to Holmes are patent from his statement and it is probable that public opinion if nothing else will force a criminal prosecution of the case.

One of the results of the cotton leak has been a reorganization of the Agricultural Department as far as the statistics are concerned. The preparation of the crop reports are to be placed in the hands of a board. As soon as the returns from the field come in, they will be locked up in a vault by the Assistant Secretary, who will be the chairman of the board. On a given day he will hand the reports to the other members of the board who will be four division chiefs and let them figure averages. An average will then be taken of their averages and the report issued. The work will be done in an inaide room of the Department and Secretary Wilson is responsible for the assurance that a leak of any sort will be “absolutely impossoble.” The late Statistician Mr. Hyde has been giving that same sort of assurance for at least five years past. Possibly, however, the Secretary’s assurance will be more assuring. t t t

The government is on the point of opening bids for the importation of the Cooly laborers to the Isthmus to work on the Canal that will be built sometime with the permission of the Cbagres River and the trans-continental railways. There will be between 5,000 and 10,000 able bodied coolies, Hindus and the like, landed by the contractors on the Isthmus, The laborers will be selected in their homes and shipped to the Isthmus by the contractor. He is expected to make his profit out of the transportation of the laborers, which ought to assure the laborers of palatial accommodations en route. The deal will be shorn of any semblance of servitude by the comedy of each laborer coming up to the pay shed and asking in a wondering tone whether the builders of the canal can give him a job. The probabilities are that after being brought three or four thousand miles for that particular purpose that a job will be found for him, and he will thereupon make an individual contract with the goverment. After his contract term is over, if he is not dead in the meantime, which is a probability also, he will be returned to China or wherever he came from by the contractor, that is if be does not imigrate to the United States by way of the Texas

border. The chances of Chinese importation over that border are large and the remuneration is fully proportionate to the risks. t t t China has sent an identical note to the powers on the subject of Manchuria. No one cares particularly what China says on tbe subject of Manchuria but the note has arrived in Wahington and has been forwarded to the President at Oyster Bay. China declares she will not be bound by any agreement entered into by Russia and Japan at the coming peace conference that does not recognize her sovereign rights in Manchuria. This is chiefly interesting from the fact that Japan has loudly proclaimed that she did not intend to do anything with Manchuria but return it to China. China’s note seems to indicate a lack of faith in Japan’s assurances and it is just possible that if any result is reached at all by tbe Russian and Japanese envoys at Portsmouth it may be of such a nature as to awaken the fears of all the powers, including the United States that have the territorial integrity of China at heart. Chinese diplomacy is not usually asleep at a critical juncture, and it is just possible that she may have gotten a hint of the proposed Japanese terms before anyone else outside of Japan. t t t The will of the late Secretary Hay has been submitted for probate in tbe District court. It is a short document and with tbe exception of three personal bequests, leaves the whole of the estate to Mrs. Hay. The amount involved is said to be well over a million dollars.

The question of tariff revision at the coming session of Congress is retiring further into the background as the leaders of the two houses intended it should. There must be some legislation to meet the growing deficit of the Treasury, but it probably will be of a makeshift character, such as a reimposition of the Spanish war taxes or an increase of the tax on beer. The threats of the administration seems to have had no other effect on the “stand patters’’ than to make them stand patter. The talk of buying isthmisian canal supplies abroad was intended as a scare for the protected manufacturers but while it showed up plainly enough the need for tariff revision, it was without any other effect and will be used most cheerfully by the opposition as campaign ammunition when the issue of tariff reduction can be postponed no longer by the Republican leaders in Congress.