Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: The story of graft in the federal departments here is spreading worse than yellow fever. It is stated that the charges sprung on the Geological Survey will necessitate a thorough probing of that bureau and that the mere connection of some officials with a mining paper in tbe west, while admittedly improper will not be the moat serious thing that will be unearthed. The charges against the weather Bureau are stated in on equally well-founded partisan evidence to be “entirely absurd” and “capable of full substantiation.” It is likely that both bureaus will receive the attention of the Keep Commission and bow much remains bidden, is a matter of the future. ' There remains yet the Navy, War and State Departments to be caught in the drag net and then the round of the departments will be complete. To be sure the State Deparment had a little scandal of its own some time back, but the charges in the Bowen-Loomis case were dismissed as unfounded and it has been considered a rather unsafe thing to criticise high state Department officials since then. It is quite possible, however, that if a investigation of the department were made some queer things might be turned up in the line of “visits to inspect consulates,” and other relics of previous administrations. This is only thrown out as a suggestion. Tbe Army and navy bare been singularly free from serious scandals, that of Capt Carter, being tbe only time an Engineer officer was ever known to go wrong, while tbe chances for graft in the navy are limited so far as tbe actual service is concerned though there are some phases of warship construction that might stand looking into. t t t The investigation in the Agricultural Department has taken a rest for the time being. Ex-Stat-istician Hyde has announced his intention of returning from England and this is taken as an evidence of his ignorance and honesty. He was severely censured by his friends in Washington for running away on the very eve of the investigation, and it was believed to be at tbe personal instigation of tbe Secretary of Agriculture that be decided to return. A clever man would hardly have put himself in such a position for criticism and a knowingly dishonest one would have stayed abroad once he got safely there. Meantime Secretary Wilson has announced bis intention to forego a vacation this summer and to stay at home and clean up tbe investigation business. There is comparatively little of tbe summer left for such a large job. It has apparently been proved by outside evidence that there was nothing wrong in the Bureau of Animal Industry in connection with the meat label business, but there will probably be a number of dieageeable things unearthed when it comes to investigating the whole of the meat subject in the department. It is claimed by some of the smaller competitors of the Beef Trust that they could not get meat inspectors assigned to their plants by the Department and were therefore prevented from

using tbe Department’s certificate label and put at a disadvantage especially in the export trade where such a label is a necessity. At the same time Dr. Salmon, the head of tbe Bureau of Animal Industry, states that he was not given money enough to pay the meat inspectors, that the business of his bureau is now running $6,000 to SB,OOO a month -over its limit and if there is not some radical action taken by Congress he will not be able to carry on the inspection work next year. t t t That is just where tbe hitch has come between tbe executive departments and Congress, and promises to raise considerable trouble at the coming session. The action of the bureau of Animal Industry in running ahead of its appropriation is only a sample of what is going on very largely in all tbe departments. 11 is a practice bitterly resented by tbe legislative branch of tbe government and is one bound to cause trouble when the appropriation bills come up at the impending session. t t t The supporters of the administration are still busily explaining the attitude of the executive toward tbe coming reciprocity conference. This is very sore subject both at the White House, temporarily installed at Oyster Bay, and in the various departments where the members of the cabinet preside. The fact is that the administration while pledged to reciprocity and tariff revision, has been badly snubbed by Congress on the subject of reciprocity treaties and is afraid of getting tangled up with an unofficial deministation that however much it may believe and assert itself to be strictly non-partizan, is likely to develop a strong political bias before tbe last vote of thanks is rendered. The country decidedly needs both a scaling down of the tariff walls and a sensible arrangement with foreign countries on which reciprocity treaties could be negotiated. The matter is being delayed and put off and probably will not be touched till as late as possible in the coming session. But the movements of foreign countries in tbe line of discriminating duties makes it imperative that the situation shall be met in the near future, and it is simply a question of whether tbe highly protected interests will allow congress to make the necessary concessions or whether the country is going to be plunged into a commercial war with the rest of the world that will prove quite as costly in the end as the armed fight in the far east has been. t t t Japan has notified this government, unofficially of course, that she will do her utmost to discourage laborers from going to Panama. The same sort of resistance has been met in Italy and China, the other two countries where it was intended to advertise for laborers, and it looks now as though this country were going to be thrown back on tbe native labor supply for digging tbe big ditch between tbe two oceans.