Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1897 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

It was not expected that the President Would nominate Attorney General MeKennafor the Supreme Court until after the Pacific Railroad suits were disposed of. That was the understanding before he went to Canton, but he thinks Gov. Griggs of New Jersey will be able to look after the railroad foreclosure with equal zeal and ability, and that perhaps it would be as well to have a new man take hold at this time. The controversy between the Attorney General and the legal representatives of the railway companies has become rather heated. Both sides are stubbornly, fixed to their present position. Somebody must yield before any arrangement can be concluded, and it is believed that Gov. Griggs can make better terms than Attorney General McKenna. The Central Pacific has been a political issue on the Pacific coast for many years, and everybody in California is committed tojar against its interest. Therefore the President thought it would be better that somebody from the East who could not be accused of prejudice of preference should undertake the settlement of its affairs with the Government. By the last census of the executive departments in Washington there were 105 persons over 70 years of age employed as clerks by the Government, and it is probable that the number has nearly doubled since that time. There are sixty superannuated clerks in the Treasury Department alone, and most of them are incapable of performing any important duty. Some of them are drawing salaries as high as SI,BOO a year; others $1,200, sl,400 and $1,600. There is no pension list for civil service employes. In the army and navy a man Is retired on half or twothirds pay when he reaches the age of 62. Secretary* Gage has been studying the question very carefully, and has decided that it is only fair to the Government that clerks who are incapacitated by age should receive only a corresponding amount of their salary. Hence he has issued an order reducing the sixty veterans who have passed three score and ten to S9OO a year. The two committees on Indian affairs are working together in the preparation of a bill to carry out the recommendations of Secretary Bliss with regard to a new form of government in the Indian territory. They are unanimous in the opinion that prompt and radical aytion should l>e taken to dissolve the tribes, abolish the existing tribal governments and'place the inhabitants of the several reservations upon the same footing as the citizens of other territories, with equal rights, privileges and protection. The first step to be taken will be the organization and admission of Indian territory into the United States, the appointment of a governor, a secretary, judges and other officials that compose th«- ordinary territorial organization. The n a census of the territory will be taken and an election ordered for a Legislature to frame a code of laws. Secretary Bliss is congratulating himself that he is to be relieved of all responsibility in connection with the appointment of the officials to take she next census. 'The temper shown by Congress on this subject is very significant. It is . not proiKised to allow the civil sen-ice commission to have anything to do with the appointments, which are temporary, and will last for three or four years only, but it was originally proposed-to-make-the-Secretary of the Interior the appointing power. Mr. Bliss immediately objected. There will be several thousand persons on the staff, and he has trouble enough now. Therefore the superintendent of the census when appointed will distribute the patronage.

The bottle of 45-year-old whisky which Major Barrack G. Thomas gave to Miss Richardson of Lexington, Ky., to send to the secretary to baptize the battleship Kentucky has been totally consumed. It was a perquisite of the last administration, and was partaken of by President Cleveland, Secretary Hoke Smith, J. Sterling orton, Attorney General Harmon, Postmaster General Wilson and the faithful Thurber. Secretary Carlisle and Secretary Lamont were not guilty. The former does not 1 drink, and Col. Lamont abstains from preference. There are bills before the Committee on Public Buildipgs and Grounds for the erection of custom houses and postoffices in more than 200 cities of the United States anti /or the extension or enlargement of existing buildings in fifty other cities. During the last three or four years, while there has been a deficit in the treasury*. Congress has passed very few such bills, but there is going'to be a determined effort this session upon the part of representatives who need buildings in their districts to secure authority for their erect ic-n. Commissioner Powderly finds that during the year 189<i 80,019 of the immigrants arriving in the United States were illiterate, and 90 per cent of them came from Italy, Austria. Hungary, Russia and Poland, (» per cent eame»from France, Norway, Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom. I n 1897, 42,154 illiterates arrived, of which 90.23 per cent came from the group of countries first named, and 0.55 per cent from the group last, named. There is no serious talk of the evacuation of Fort Sheridan, but the‘high officials of the War Department and the army are inclined to recommend such a thing. They take the ground that'it is so near Chicago the men are constantly exposed to temptations from which they should be protected, and that it is always a bad thing to have a military garrison near a large city. Speaker Reed is becoming quite a society man. He has appeared at all important social functions thus far, and has been particularly conspicuous at the opera every night, where he has occupied a box as the guest of his friend. Representative Simkins of Massachusetts. The United States Supreme Court has reversed the sentence of death in the case bf Thomas Bram, who was accused of murdering thd captain, mate and captain’s wife of a vessel bound for South America. The ground is that Beam's testimony should not have been admitted.