Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1898 — Washington Letter. [ARTICLE]

Washington Letter.

(From Our Regular Correspondent) Washington, D. C., May 23, 1898. Had the administration been as successful in bottling up that Spanish fleet, which is flitting around in Cuban waters, as it has been in bottling up every particle of interesting war news, the end of the war would be in sight. Of course every body recognizes the necessity for keeping news of contemplated movements out of the newspapers, lest their publication should aid the enemy, but there is no good reason why this state of affairs should exist. Had every cable for Cuba been cut as soon as war was declared, and the same rigid censorship been put into effect upon European messages that is now exercised, Spain could have derived no benefit from the publication of war news by American papers. If the present censorship be followed by results, there will not be much complaint, but if it be merdly a cloak to hide the blunders of somebody, Congress will not long remain silent. Orders have beefi issued in profusion to our fleets in Cuban waters, and there is, of course, a general hope that they will succeed in finding and fighting the Spanish fleet —no one doubts that we can lick if we can get at them -but Secretary Long seems to take it for‘granted that the Spaniards can avoid a fight just as long as they may desire to.

Those who for one or another reason are desirous of dragging J the war on indefinitely have again j been trying to persuade Mr. Mc- ■ Kinley to postpone the invasion 'of Cuba until fall. They have got ' a new argument now —that it will ■ take four months to make as much j ammunition as they think the army ought to have before being sent to Cuba. They also ring the changes on the old argument that military operations on a large I scale cannot.be carried on in Cuba (luring the rainy season, which usually begins about the tenth of June and continues for six or eight ■ weeks—an argumenfl)4ong agdwsposed of by the active campaigns of the insurgents rainy seasons. If the statement about ammunition be true, which there is reason to doubt, tldh'e is something radically wroiQ? about the War Department. It is supposed from the hurrying of volunteers to the south, that the invasion of Cuba will be pushed at once, but plans have been changed so often that it is difficult to say what will be done. Czar Reed has the Hawaiian annexationists on the anxious bench. The other four members of the committee on Rule are evenly divided and it is for him to decide i whether the committee will report a special rule for the consideration : of the annexation resolution, without which the resolution cannot be i brought to a vote. I As a sori of answer to criticisms : from every direction, it has been 1 semi-officially announced that the Naval War Board, popularly known as the “board of lethargy”, wlych 1 is composed of naval officers, lias ' nothing to do with conducting the ! war, but is merely charged with : the 'duty of advising Secretary 1 Long. This will strike most i sons as an attempt to make a distinction where there is no differ- , ence. If Secretary Long did not ! consider the advice of the Board ■ worth being followed, the Board ! would speedily be abolished. It : would be safe to say that every ’ important order issued by Secre- ' tary Long has been upon the advice of this Board It would be j the most natural thing in the ! world that both Mr. McKinley and : Secretary Long, neither of whom ■ has had any experience in naval i fighting, should seek the assistance i of naval officers in conducting that branch of the war. The unnatural thing is that such a statement should have been allowed to have been made. The Naval War Board has certainly done all the conducting of the war that has been done from the Washington end; if there is any credit, it should not be deprived of it any more than it should be shielded from criticism. Senator Daniels made one of the strongest speeches yet .made against an issue of bonds, and in favor of paying the expenses of the war as we go along, rather than saddling them upon posterity. Replying to the contention that the issue of bonds proposed was intended for effect upon Spain, Senator Daniels said that' if the desired effect could be assured he was ready to vote to issue the bonds. “But”, he impressively continued, “if Spain was not convinced at Manilla that this country was in earnest in this war, then. Sampson and Schley and Miles and their Lieuts. have some arguments to submit to her that will j prove to be even more assured ve- ' nicies of conviction than any issue iof bonds could be.” He declared

the stamp tax to be the most odious and pestiferous tax invented by men.