Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1898 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

There is no mistaking the fact that sen* timent is growing in Congress against the Morgan proposition to buy the concessions now held by the Maritime Canal Company and build a ship canal across Nicaragua according to the conditions in such concession. A great many sincere friends of the canal cannot bring themselves to believe that it would be the best thing for the Government to go ahead under this particular concession. They contend that to do so would be to commit this Government to the expenditure of anywhere from $40,000,000 to $75,000,000 over and above the actual cost of the canal proper, and they do not see the necessitj' of assuming any such responsibility. They honestly believe that it will not be fatal to the canal project to allow the concession to the 'American company to expire and begin negotiations direct with the Government of Nicaragua for the right to construct a water way across that country. The American peace copimissioners and their assistants have been obliged to pay all their personal expenses out of the compensation allowed them by the President. The expense which the Government defrayed included office rent, stationery and general expense. The hotel bills of the commissioners were not defrayed by the Government. As the personal expenses of the commissioners were very high, a comparatively small amount was left to each commissioner and each’officer of the commission out of the President’s allotment of salaries; Each commissioner will receive about $17,000 for bis services, and out of this he must paj- all personal expenses contracted on his trip abroad. Secretary Moore will receive half the amount paid to each commissioner, and as his personal expenses were as heavy as those, of the members of the commission he willl fare worse than his superiors. , . I Of the 1,700 letters . which President McKinley received one day last week one of the most interesting was from a Chicago man named Dougherty. He offered this suggestion: ‘‘The United States went to war to set Cuba free. Now we have it in our power to liberate another country of far greater importance and interest without going to war. That is Ireland. We have on our hands the Philippine Islands, which we may offer to England as a compensation as well as to relieve ourselves of what may turn out to be a white elephant. McKinley’s ancestors were Irish and his great-granduncle, Francis McKinley, was shot down by the British soldiers as an Irish rebel after a farcical court martial about 100 years ago.” Under the provisions of the bill for the increase of the army the regular force will consist of 3.942 commissioned officers and 96,815 enlisted men, making a total of 100,757 men in all. There will be one lieutenant general, six major generals,, twenty-four brigadier generals, 114 colonels. 156 lieutenant colonels, 447 majors,. 1,053 captains, 1,401 first lieutenants and 740 second lieutenants. The total enlisted strength of each arm will be: Infantry, 53.220 men; light field coast artillery, 20,598 men; cavalry, 15.840 men; medical departments, 3,750; signal corps, 630: ordnance department, 605; engineers, 1,862; subsistence department, 160, and the quartermaster’s department, 150 men. The President says the idea of placing the graves of Confederate soldiers under the eare of the Government first occurred to him twelve years ago, when he visited the city of Fredericksburg, Ya. He found the Confederate cemetery in a deplorable condition, while under the care of the quartermaster's department the graves of the Federal dead were nicely trimmed and kept in perfect order. He resolved then that he would take the first opportunity to bring this matter before the attention of the country, and he thinks the time has now come when the dead of both armies should'be looked after by the Government. The Canadian high joint commission will soon reconvene in Washington. Itis not true, as widely stated, that the conference is a failure and that indications point to a non-agreement upon a treaty between the United States and Canada. Directly contrary is the ease. The Canadian and American commissioners are gradually getting together upon the important points of difference, and there is little doubt of an ultimate agreement.lpBefore the end of January 50,000 volnnteers will be mustered out of the service, the preliminary orders for this having already been drafted. Present plans are that the troo[>s which have seen foreign service will be let out first, but the condition of some of the Southern camps is such as to cause apprehension of an outbreak of typhoid fever, and before the mustering out program is finally arranged it may be deemed necessary to break up those camps. All of the soldiers in the Cuban nrmy will be taken care of. If they want wages they will be given employment upon the public works. If they prwfer to remain in the army they will be organized into rural police, the intention being to keep them together nnd prevent them from scattering idly like tramps throughout the countr>'; / Champions of an extra session of the Fifty-sixth < engross for the enactment of monetary legislation <l<> not hesitate to admit that they are having a hard time converting weak members to their way of thinking. Still, they are keeping everlastingly at it. Robert P. Porter says the customs collections nt the port of Santiago arc already twice as much as they used to be under Spanish control, and that when the internal revenue system is adopted there will be plenty of money to support tbtf> Government and construct much-needed public works. Secretary Wilson has already begun j planning for agricultural schools in the ’ Philippines, and advocates such institutions as B<x>kerT. Washington has founded at Tuskegee.