Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: As long as there is going to be a deficit of ohly about $25,000,000 this year, the advocates of the civil service pension scheme have come strongly to the front and a bill has been prepared for presenta• tion to the present Congress for the creation of a civil pension list. This is not the first time the plan has been urged but the advocates of the bill who would like to be beneficiaries under the scheme have formed an association and are this year working harder than ever to try to force their bill through. It may be said in advance that there is very little probability of the bill even getting to the report stage, but the plan has the very enthusiastic support of the government clerks of whom there are more in Washington of course than in any other city of the country. There are little short of 25,000 people in Washington who draw government salaries. There are about 70,000 in the country at large, and if one includes in that estimate the fourth class postmasters, there are fully a quarter of a million employees on the government rolls. The advocates of the present bill say that they do not propose to put any extra burden on the governmeat but merely want to make it compulsory that a small percentage of each clerk’s wages shall be held out by his department and placed in the hands of the Comptroller of the treasury to form a pension fund that can be drawn on for the superannuated clerks. This sounds very well on the face of it, but when it is remembered that it will take a large amount of clerical machinery to run this fund and the government will be expected to pay for that and almost certainly, too, will be asked for help in “starting the fund,” it will be seen that it is not such a cheap scheme after all. And it is a certainty that this plan is only an opening wedge for a winder scheme of civil service pensions that the government will be asked to father. It may be remarked in passing that since the foundation of the government, 75 per cent of the entire revenues of the government have gone to the support of the army and navy and for military pensions. It is scarcely any wonder in the face of this record that Congress is a little shy of opening the door to civil service pensions at all. The plan has been tried abroad and the results have not been very satisfactory. England has a civil service pension system in addition to her army pension and as the next logical step they are now aggitatiug in England for a general old age pension scheme. That also is the logical outcome of the civil service pension in this country.

There is not the slightest prospect of free trade or anything like it with the Philippines, but Col. Clarence Edwards, chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs has recommended it in his report just issued as one of the crying needs of the islands. Col. Edwards, who knows the islands and their needs thoroughly, says there are three things needed for their material prosperity, namely a market, a bank from which they can borrow on reasonable terms, and transportation lines. The government has already authorized the construction of a thousand miles of railways in the islands, so the latter part of the triple recommendation will not be urged just now. But Col. Edwards says there is great need for the market and the bank. To secure the first, he asks to have the duties removed from all articles except sugar and tobacco, which are to be subject to 25 percent of the Dingley rates. This is practically the recommendation of the so-called Curtis bill which passed the House last session and will be re-introduced with about the same chance of running the gauntlet of the Senate as it had before. The best sugar and the tobacco interests are said to be the only ones seriously opposing the measure. They will be further incensed at Col. Edwards’ additional commendation, that at the end of the ten years period conversed by the treaty of Paris which ended the war with Spain, the Islands should be given absolutely free trade. This measure for the relief of the islanders does not stand much show. But there will be more friends of the proposal to establish an agricultural bank. It is stated that now the farmers who want to borrow mopey on their growing crope, a practice that formerly was general in the south but which now fortunately is dying mt, have to pay from 2 per cent to ten per ceifta month for th * oney. It has to be a pretty

remunerative farm that will stand this sort of usury and leave a living margin to the farmers. Some of the Philippine farms stand it without furnishing the living margin. The bank, if established, will be made under the control of Philippine Commission, though it will be a private undertaking. The concession will be granted and the dividends guaranteed for a term of say 25 years and the commission will have the right to define the nature of securities and limit the amount of interest charged. The bank promises to be a paying institution from the start and it is hoped will enable the farmers to improve their holdings and to buy the necessary fertilizers, animals and agricultural inplements. The report also recommends the extensions of the homestead law with a view to further encouraging settlement.