Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1908 — WASHINGTON LETTER [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital.

Special Correspondence to The Democrat. Ex-Senator Blackburn, now Governor of Panama, is in Washington on leave and brings back a radiant account of the progress being made on the Isthmus. "Col. Goethals, the Chief Engineer and the ohairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, is making wonderful progress with the construction of the Canal,” said Senator Blackburn, today. “It is perfectly amazing the rate at which they are digging the big ditch and the satisfaction and contentment of everyone connected with the work. Colonel Goethals is an ideal man to have pharge of a big project. He is always perfectly cool and in an absolute command of the situation. Secretary Taft is a most satisfactory man to have general supervision of the work. He has the capacity of selecting the best men and then allowing them a free hand to push the project, His trips to the Isthmus have done good, for big Bill has a smile that won’t come off and his handshake is an inspiration to everv man on the job.” Asked how living on the Canal Zone compared with living in Kentucky, the Senator said, that apart from the friends he had to leave behind, life on the Isthmus was decidedly pleasant “a delightful climate, a pleasant oirole of peqpie and the satisfaction of knowing that one is connected with one of the greatest undertakings of the age, and an enterprise which is going to benefit the Southern states incalculably.”

Politics are seething in Washington just now but it is chiefly Republican politics, Four years ago there was no certainty whatever as to who was going to be the Democratic candidate while tbeßdpublican selection was all cut and dried. Now the situation is reversed. Mr. Bryan is generally conceded to be the choice of his party, while the question of a presidential candidateTs still in the air, although during the last week the progress has been all one way and Taft looks today like the almost oertain candidate of the Republicans. However, there are plenty of Republicans, especially among the politicians, who have their scalping-knives sharpened for Taft and if they can catch the big Secretary with his back turned they will scalp him as sura as fate.

The President has just precipitated a pretty row in the Navy Department by his order that a naval surgeon shall command the hospital ship Relief. The line officers of the navy are violently opposed to permitting a dootor to command a ship. They say that whenever the navigating officer reports a squall in the offing the captaindoctor will order calomel and consult his anatomical charts. Senator Hale, ohairtnain of the committee on Naval affairs insists that that no doctor should command a ship and threatens to introduce a bill prohibiting it. The army officers are greatly rejoiced because they have bad to stand no end of chaffing over the army surgeons who have received preferment. For instance, major general Ainsworth was a doctor and is said to have received his first promotion because of his skill at keeping the feet of the infantry in good shape. Then there is General Leonard Wood who secured a regiment and special promotion over the heads of hundreds of other officers because he was Mrs. McKinley’s family physician and President McKinley never'

could refuse any favor asked by hia wife. Now the army officers are addressing every naval officers as“ Doctor” and every naval surgeon as “Admiral.” Surgeon General Rexy, who pots his name in the telephone book as“ Admiral” Rixey, although he has been forbidden to use the title of admiral, and who is family physician to the President’s family, is responsible for the president’s deoicion in the present case.

Frank H. Hitchcock, First Assistant Postmaster General, who was the loudest Cortelyou shooter in the Republican oamp less than two weeks ago, is now shooting for Taft and applied recently for the position of Taft oampaign manager. The insignificance into which the Cortelyou presidential boom has shrunken is enough to make the unfortunate Secretary weep. In this connection a story has been going the rounds to the effect that Hitchcock was tosuoceed Vorys, Taft’s Ohio manager. Of course there is no truth in the story. Vorys has done too good work in Ohio to have anyone plaoed over him by the Secretary, but the story served to worry Vorys and thdt is what it was printed for,

The Philippine Government recently sent to Washington an order for the smallest and yet the most expensive shipment thut the Government has ever been called upon to make. Its order was for one thousandth of agram of radium and thjs price paid for it was $3,000. The Insular Bureau, which has oharge of the shipment, is wondering how it can send the tiny fragment of mineral without danger of being lost. The Philippine Bureau of Science wishes to use the radium in a series of experiments it is conducting. And the poor Filipinos pay the shot.

Rep. Hobson, who is always ft hustler and constantly springing some new idea, has nit upon a novel one. It consists of a bill providing for the weekly publication of an official journal which is to give briefly the important events in every department of the government, the important official acts of the President and the proceedings of Congress; not in full, as in the case with the Congiessional Record, but summarized for busy readers. There is grave question if Mr. Hobson’s bill can become a law, but be is in deadly earnest, has published a sample copy of his proposed sheet and believes that great good could be accomplished by its publication and distribution by postmasters throughout the country. His idea is, of course, to circulate it free. Incidentally, he would have the paper contain a guide for the use of people who visit Washington.

The chief Engineer of the Panama Canal has deoided that two locks nearest the Pacific shall be placed four miles further from the the sea than was originally intended. This will save $10,000,000 and incidently will move the locks further away from danger of an enemys fleet.