Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1906 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. From our special correspondent: Unless the unexpected happens, the anti-joint statehood campaign is not only dead but beyond resurrection. The insurrectionary force of the House is broken beyond reconstruction and the insurgent leaders are now devoting their lime to telling how it happened, which is not so important as the fact that it has hajjpened. Of course there is a chance that the Senate may take up the fight and secure an amendment of the House bill but that is not considered probable. The measure is a party measure, as has been previously pointed out, and it is not any more likely that the Senate will break lines on the measure than that the House would, As the, case now stands, the hill will in all liklihood go through the Senate unchanged and there will be an addition of four Democratic Senators to the party ranks. But this is not so bail from the Republican standpoint as though the measure had been passed by h Democratic congress and there had been eight Democratic Senators addtd. The one thing that is sure is that there will be tin immense appreciation of property values in the two new states as soon as they attain statehood as was the case with Nevada So anyone who has money had better get busy in the real estate business, even if they have to sell out to avoid fall in values after the states have been in the Union a little while. There is no liklihood that the territories will be any better or any worse off with statehood than without it. t t T The deatii of Gen. Joe Wheeler was received in Washington with genuine regret, and the decision immediately arrived at to bury him in Arlington with all the honors that could be paid to a deceased Union general is not surprising There was never anything better calculated to show that the Civil War was over than the alacrity with which the old Confederates and the sons of Confederates went into the war with Spain. Of course Gen Wheeler, as one of the most noted cavalry commanders of the south, was watched with particular interest An account may be given by a man who saw him through ail of the Cuban campaign. He says: “Gen. Wheeler was not only a good commander, but he had the experience and the faculty of looking after his men and seeing that bis command was in shape for whatever work it was called on to do. In the climate of Cuba, this was an important factor. The best command in the world could be knocked out in two days by dysentery and malaria if the men were not forced to fake care of themselves, and Gen. Wheeler had just the sort of field experience to drive this principle home on his subaltern officers and man. 1 do not know positively whether the story is true about his calling the Spaniards "Yankees” in the heat of battle, but 1 was up near the front the evening after the first tight and the story was going round then and was being so heartily laughed over by the men that it certainly originated on the spot whether it was true or not. It was just after the American

forces had cleaned out Kettle Hill and Gen. Wheeler’s cavalry command, which never saw a horse after they left Tampa, had come up over the crest that the old General is reported to have shouted so that all heard him, “We’ve got the Yanks going boys. Give ’em hell.” They did. General Wheeler lived at the dront with his command to the surrender of Santiago and fought it out on the spot with the tropical malaria which was a good deal worse than the Spaniards. There is no question at all that he wanted to get killed in the Santiago campaign and die with his boots on. But though he took all sorts of chances on getting shot, there was never a bullet touched him. He remarked resignedly one afternoon that he supposed he was too small to gethit by such damned poor marksmen as they had over there, referring of course to the Spanish lines.” There will be a whole nation to mourn the passing of the good little general, and it will be a fitting mark of affection to pay that he shall rest in the national cemetery. t t t The outcome of the rate bill is still doubtful. The measure has not passed either the House or Senate and there is going to be a fine old row in conference after it does. The House bill, as is generally known, is more radical than the Senate’s, and there has been a suggestion that when the bill goes to conference that the House will stand out for the adoption, in principle, of its measure and force the Senate to the wall. This suggestion is almost untenable. The Senate is not used to giving way to the House and the Elkins and Foraker bills are so much more lenient and have so many more loopholes in them of which the railroad companies might take advantage, that it is not likely the Senate will submit seeing itself shelved and the House measure passed in its entirety. It is said that the House measure is more in accordance with the President’s ideas than is the Senate’s, but then as is known, this is not likely to interfere with the Senate to any great extent.