Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1907 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Democrat. At last it has been settled that the battle ship squadron is to be sent to the Pacific Coast. This decision has been announced officially by the Navy Department, and it is a little curious to see that on the very day of this announcement in Washington, Secretary Loeb at Oyster Bay was giving out an “authoritative statement” that no such movement was contemplated. Now of course the government would not keep so important a person as Secretary Loeb in ignorance of its intentions and there is but one inference to be drawn from the incident, namely that it was a misstatement that might have been characterized by a “shorter and uglier word.” If Secretary Loeb does not look out he will get himself into the same class with Assistant Secretary of State Robert Bacon, onetime partner in the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., of New York. Assistant Secretary of State Bacon is a very wealthy and fashionable young man and is just the sort of an understudy that Secretary Root wants to take visiting princes and other notables off his hands. But as a source of misinformation as to the things that are going on in the State Department, he has not heretofore been equalled. He it was who gave out the famous statement just after the Jamaica earthquake that there was no friction between Admiral Davis and Gov. Sweetenham. The same issue of the papers that printed his statement had all the correspondence of Admiral Davis and Gov. Sweetenham in an adjoining column. Also the day news was received of the killing of the Japanese seal poachers on the Island of St. Paul, Mr. Bacon announced to all callers that the report was entirely unfounded although the telegram conveying the information had just been sent to him by the Department"of Commerce and Labor where the news was first received. Mr. Bacon also announced three days ago that the story of sending the battle ship squadron to the Pacific was a complete fabrication. If Secretary Loeb is starting in to emulate this record, he is electing to travel in swift company. The journey of the battleships from the Atlantic to the Pacific will be the greatest naval movement ever attempted by this government and only equalled by the ill fated fleet that Russia sent to Japanece waters two years ago. The English squadrons in their war games around the British Isles, sometimes brings into play more ships, but for the size of the ships and the length of the voyage, the movement has never been surpassed. There were actually more ships in Rogesvensky’s squadron when he went from the Baltic to the Sea of Japan, but the squadron went in two sections, took an inordinately long time making the voyage, and was not the equal of the American fleet in fighting power at any time. The question of a route for the squadron has been discussed by the Naval Board at some length and a decision has been made in favor of Cape Horn. The route through the Suez Canal is about 1,000 miles longer than the trip around the Horn and beside this it would bring the squadron almost into Japanese waters and would look a little too much like a studied defiance of the Japanese public. Indeed, speaking guardly, that is what it is and the Japanese government so understands and acquiesces in the wisdom of the move. It is an indication to the people of the Pacific coast what this government can and will do in the way of protecting its interests should it become necessary, and it is an object lesson that the Japanese jingo party can watch from a distance and ponder on. t fl-

For tbe first time in the history of the Navy, there has been a “hunger strike.” This Sounds almost like Russia where the jail prisoners sometimes indulge in this sort of a demonstration. But in the present instance, it is among the cadets of the training ship Enterprise at New London. A lot of the cadets went ashore on liberty and while there they drew up a round robin and sent it to the commander on board complaining of the fare that was served them and of some other minor matters of discipline. There was no notice taken of their protest and they sent two of their number out to the ship in a small boat to see what was being done. The commander curtly sent them word that they could stay on shore or come back to the ship just as they bad a mind, but the most of them seemed to think that com-

ing back would mean their arrest and no good done by the strike, so they stayed on shore all night. It is fairly possible that the Navy Department may look very unfavorably on this breach-of discipline and there may be some more vacancies in the academy before the classes reassemble for their winter studies. It t + The Postoffice Department this week promulgated an order that will be a decided convenience to the country population. It provides simply for the transmission of special delivery letters by paying excesk postage on them without the necessity of a regular special delivery stamp. Frequently small stores and postoffices, especially in the country,. may not have any of the regulation blue special stamps on band. Blit the new order provides that if ten cents worth of stamps of any sort in addition to the regular letter fee are put on the envelope and then marked “special delivery,” the letter will be handled just as though it carried the regulation blue stamp. Those who avail themselves of this, privilege will have to remember however, that the words “Special Delivery” must be .written on the envelope, otherwise the surplus stamps will be wasted and the letter handled in the ordinary mail. t t t An appeal was made to the War Department this week to send troops from the nearest point in Alaska to the railroad camp near Valdez where two rival railroad .outfits are fighting. One of them is a firm by the name of Brunen and the other is a party in the employ of the Guggenheims, they of Smelter Trust fame. The Guggenheims want to cross the line of the Brunen road and they have already had a fight in which two men were killed and nine seriously wounded. If it were in a civilized community the trouble would be quickly put down, but in the wilds of Alaska all the lawless impulses of trust training can have full sway and the chances are that the government will have to step in before a stop can be put to the slaughter.