Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1898 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

The delay in the departure of the troops for Manila was not only due to the difficulty of obtaining transports on the Pacific coast, but also to the inability of the quartermaster, commissary and ordnance departments to secure the necessary supplies. Those who have complained about the tardiness of the Government in reenforcing Admiral Dewey should remember that these troops are going to a country where they can obtain nothing except tropical food, which would bring them down with disease and cause the death of many if eaten before they were fully acclimated. It was therefore necessary to provide at least six mouths’ rations for 20,000 men, and a simple calculation will demonstrate what that means. The troops are provided with all the meats, breads, vegetables, tea, coffee, sugar and other groceries, and, in fact, all of the necessaries of life, enough to last them for half a year if they were cast away upon 4 desert island or beyond the reach of re-enforcements. In addition to the commissary stores required the ordnance department was called upon to provide all the arms and ammunition, clothing, tents, etc., which 20,000 soldiers might need under any contingency for the next six months. Under ordinary circumstances supplies purchased for shipment to Manila would have lasted the entire United States army a year. • • • There is no excuse for the advance In the price of food products because of the war. Of course wheat and other breadstuffs have advanced in all the markets of the world because of the short crops in other countries, but in New York, Washington and other cities of the East meats have advanced from 2 to 5 cents a pound and provisions and table vegetables in a corresponding manner. There is no scarcity of either, there is no interruption in the trade, the market gardens in this part of the country never produced, more abundantly than this spring, and there is no unusual demand. The market men have simply taken advantage of the war as an excuse to increase prices and charge 6 cents instead of 5 for a bead of lettuce and 35 cents instead of 25 for a bunch of asparagus. The butchers say they are not to blame for the advance in beef and mutton because they have to pay more to the wholesalers. • • • The lowa delegation contains the prize orators of the House of Representatives. For dramatic effect and impressive eloquence nobody can beat Mr. Cousins; for high flights of oratory and scholarly argument Dolliver is unsurpassed; in a rough and tumble debate David B. Henderson is the equal of any man upon the floor, and for satire, vituperation and malediction Col. Hepburn is superior to any man who has been in Congress for years. The lowa delegation is also distinguished because it furnished more men for the Union army than any other State delegation in Congress. Mr. dark was a private in the Nineteenth infantry; Col. Henderson lost a leg, while colone.l of the 46th regiment; Mr. Lacey was a lieutenant of the 33d Iow«; Mr. Hull was a of the 23d, and, Mr. Hepburn a lieutenant in the 2d low® cavalry, and Mr. Perkins a private in the 31st infantry. .• * •

The second call issued by President McKinley will raise the volunteer army to 200,000 men and the whole army to 279,500 men. The army reorganization bill authorized the increase of the regular army to 62,000 men, and in addition to the 200,000 volunteers there will be three cavalry regiments, with 3,000 rough riders from the West; ten infantry regiments of imniunes, with 10,000 men, and 3,500 in the engineers’ corps, making a grand total of 278,500 men in the United States army. It is the intention to at once send an army of from 75,000 to 100,000 men to Cuba, since there can be no danger to the transports from she Spanish fleet bottled up in the harbor at Santiago de Cuba. There will also be a larger army sent to Manila to hold the Philippine Islands. There will be no experiments made there. • • • The prediction is freely made at the War Department that within two weeks there will be 50,000 troops on Cuban soil. They will land in the east and west of Havana, and possibly on the south coast, in the vicinity of Cienfuegos. The immediate invasion of Porto Rico is not only being seriously considered, but is now almost under way. There are political as well as military reasons for this step. The administration still looks for a sudden collapse of the war by proposals of peace on the part of Spain, made under the thin guise of European intervention. The administration has determined that Porto Rico trust be one of the fruits of victory, bat to bring that about it is deemed necessary that the United States should effect a landing in the island before the treaty of peace.

Admiral Saflipson is a religious man. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in this city, and the Men’s Society, which is a literary club connected with the church. He was always regular in his attendance during the several years that he was stationed in Washington, and took a great deal of interest in philanthropic work. After he was placed in command of the squadron the Men’s Society sent him a telegram of congratulation and confidence, to which he returned quite a touching answer. Commander Washburn Maynard of the cruiser Nashville and Lieutenant Commander McCrea, executive officer of the Machias, are also members of the some society. 4». • • • The first commission in the volunteer army was given to Maj. Gen. Wheeler. His name went in with the first bunch of nominations, and was confirmed the same day. The next morning he was at the War Department before office hours waiting to be sworn in and receive his commission. • « • War news is bulletined throughout the entire United States, and hundreds of amateur strategy boards are in session every day discussing the situation in Cuba and Manila.

The gross earnings of the Chicago Great Western Railway for the second week of May show an increase of $16,861.36 over corresponding week last year. This makes the increase for the first two weeks of May $44,377.33 over last year, $11,435.04 of which increase is from passenger traffic. The increase oa the fiscal year to date Is $608,401.45 over corrMponding period last year.