Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1898 — Washington Letter. [ARTICLE]

Washington Letter.

From our regular eorrespondent. Washington, D. C., May 30,1898. The administration several days ago announced jts belief that the Spanish fleet was cooped up in the harbor at Santiago de Cuba, and that Commodore Schley with his strong fleet was at the mouth o£ that harbor, and both have been daily reiterated. But the administration has thrown doubts upon its own confidence in its announced I belief by failing to order the inva- ' sion of Cuba. Steamers enough to carry 30,000 men to Cuba are at Key West, Tampa and near by points, under government charter, at an expense something like 830(XX) a day, and the .troops are also ready to embark at an hours notice. But no order has been given although it had been officially stated that the invasion of Cuba wouVl be ordered the hour that it became absolutely certain that the Spanish fleet was where it could not,, interfere. If it is on the inside of Santiago harbor and Schley is on the outside, it could not interfere. But is it there? The man who can answer that question knows more than the whole administration outfit. Everylxxly hopes, but nobody seems to know. Schley spent two days watching the mouth of another Cuban harbor, lask week, under the impression that the Spanish fleet was inside. His mistake has made him cautious about making positive statements. That is why he has not gone further up to this time than to say that he believes, from information that he had received from insurgents and others that the fleet is inside of the harbor at Santiago, before the mouth of which he is now watching. He has been instructed to find out to a certainty. Two more prominent ex-confed-erates have been given generals commission by Mr. McKinley—exSenator Butler, of S. C. major general, and ex-Congressman and ex-governor Oates, of Alabama, Brigadier General—and it is stated at the war Department that several more will be similiarly honored this week.

Senator Cockrell, in a strong speech in favor of coining the seigniorage of the silver bullion owned by the government and of ■ issuing greenbacks instead of I bonds, said: “Sacrifices must be i made .in this war. 200,(XX) men have been taken from the industrial j pursuits of the country, and are ■ engaged in waste and destruction. * War is waste. War creates loss i and destruction. All the people J should bear the burdens alike, i Sacrifices must be made, but we 1 cannot lighten the burdens or pre- ’ vent the losses of the war by an issue of bonds.” After ridiculing | the calling of the proposed issue | of bonds “a popular loan,” andl : characterizing it as a "fraud and ■ a fake on the very face of it," Sen-; ator Cockrell said: “The golden opportunity of the bankers and I the bond holders has come, and I now they rush in for more bonds i in order that they more securely ; fasten the single gold standard on ■ the country. We want the war, carried on, for we believe it to be ■ a humane and just war. We feel' some responsibility for having forced the war upon the country. But we are patriotic. We are not ■ j demanding the substitution of the ’ ■ bimetallic system, but we are ask- i ing that instead of bonds. I shall vote against any bill that contains a provision for interest bearing bonds.” Senator Gorman said in his speech on the proposition to coin the silver seigniorage: “In my judgment it would be unwise—it would be fruitless, to attempt to push that question to the front while the country »has the Spanish army and navy to confront. That is a question we ought to fight out in a time of peace. I have always been a partisan. I have voted for iny party even when some of its candidates did not, quite meet my approval. But in a crisis like this 1 do not know my party. I know only the highest interests of my country. Knowing how sharp is the political division upon this proposition, I cannot vote for it at this time, no matter how just it may be in the abstract, or as a proposition standing alone.” Senator Gorman supported the proposition to issue bonds, because he said no* war had ever been conducted without an issue of bonds, and because he believed that if the bill failed to provide for an issue of bonds, Mr. Me Kinley wouid is4uS Jthem under the law of 1875. just as Mr. Cleveland did. i It begins to look as though Hob. Thomas Brackett Reed, otherwise known as the Czar of the House, had a big dose of humble pie to swallow. He played the autocrat just once too often, when he undertook to go against Mr. McKinley and nine-tenths or more, of his party on the annexation question.

1 He was given more than a week in ' which to escape this dose of humble pie, but he had succeeded s<> I often in having his own way regardless of what others thought, that he neglected to take advantage of it by signifying his willingless. to vote for a special rule from the Committee on Rules setting a time for the House to vote on the annexation resolution. Then Mr. McKinley got mad. and under lijs direction Gen. Grosvenor scented , the signatures of more than threeI fourths of the republican members of the House to a request for a caucus to demand the desired rule. ! Then the ultimatum was served on I the Czar. He was notified that he could eat his humble pie by vot1 ing for that rule at once, or he . could wait to have it crammed down his throat by a party caucus: but eat it he must.