Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1900 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

The census shows that there are 1,400,’ 000 more farmers in the United States than there were in 1890. The number of manufacturing establishments reported by the present census is 635,000, as against 350,000 in 1890, but this number will have to be cut down about 85,000 because of the excessive zeal of the enumerators. Perhaps they were actuated also bya desire to increase their compensation. An enumerator receives 25 cents for every manufacturing establishment reported, and since the returns came in. a good deal of “padding” has been discovered. For example, when two or more kinds of articles were manufactured by the same person or company under the same roof, some of the thrifty enumerar tors reported two factories and made out two schedules, thus doubling the number of establishments and their own pay. Blacksmith shops and repair shops on big farms and plantations were reported as manufactories, while eagerness to increase their pay and make a favorable report caused many enumerators to exaggerate.

A strong eflfort will be made at the coming "session of Congress to pas® a bill placing the consular department upon a civil service basis, with a longer tenure of office than at present prevails in this much-neglected branch of federal employment. Several bills are pending before the foreign relations and affairs committee of the House and Senate designed to reorganize the consular service, and a majority of the committee members are in favor oi reporting the Senate bill, which combines the best features. Nevertheless there is powerful enmity toward any legislation affecting the consular service. It strikes at the root of what still remains of federal patronage, and politicians of both branches of Congress are not easily convinced that the best interests of the country are preserved abroad by placing consular agents subject to civil service laws, protected thereby as long as they observe their duties and not liable to dismissal at the advent of every new administration.

The ceremonies incident to the. inauguration of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt as President and V icePresident of the United States next March are to be the most imposing of any ever seen in the national capital. The most pronounced and spectacular feature of the inauguration will be, of course, the parade and the ball. Those who have ah ready interested themselves in the subject say that efforts will be made to make the parade the longest, the biggest and the greatest seen in the United States since the final grand review of the Army of the Potomac. They point to the fact that it will be much easier to provide a .monster military pageant now than at any other time since the close of the Civil W.ar. The railroad managers will see to it, it is said, that the lowest farfes on record will be made in order that the greatest number possible will be induced to witness the spectacle.

At the time this is written President McKinley has practically completed his annual message. The message defends at length the policy of the administration in the Philippines. It calls attention to the progress made in establishing order and good government in the islands, emphasizing the fact that military rule has been superseded by the civil authority of the Taft commission. The message announces the administration’s purpose of holding the islands as permanent United' States territory and governing them on the same plan as that adopted in Cuba. China comes in for lengthy consideration in the message, and the policy of the administration expressed iu the note to the powers of. July 3 is reiterated. This note opposed all schemes v of territorial conquest in China. Reference is also made to the trust question with recommendation that Congress take suitable action on the subject.

The exact vote for McKinley, Bryan and other presidential candidates cannot be ascertained until the Governors of all' the States have sent to the Secretary of State at Washington the results of the official count, as required by law. In order that there may be no errors in the returns Secretary Hay prepared a circular of instructions setting forth exactly how the compilation should be made and the form in which it should be recorded. These returns must be made out in duplicate. One set is sent by mail to the State Department, the other set by messenger to the Vice-President of the United States. The latter will be opened in the presence of the two houses of Congress and formally recorded and promulgated' by tellers appointed for that purpose. Statements furnished by the Treasury 'Department show that in the period from June 12, 1898, to June 30, 1900, the war revenue act produced $311,144,288. The largest income'was from items in schedule“A,” being in round numbers over $75,000,000. In this class were included the tax on telegrams, express receipts, mercantile paper and taxes on transfers of bonds, stocks, etc. Beer paid a tax of $66,548,107; tobacco, $31,333,256, with additional faxes on those articles of $976,104. Legacies paid $4,119,926, cigars $6,017,883 and cigarettes $2,762,313. Schedule “B,” which includes patent medicines and proprietary articles, brought in $9,888,364. Col. Bingham, superintendent of public buildings arid grounds, is getting ready to submit to Congrres plans, for the improvement of the White House, and an attempt will be made to secure an appropriation of $1,000,000 to enlarge the present building. It is proposed to enlarge the present building by the addition of two wings on either side, inclosing a court, with a conservatory and palm garden at the southern end. The present building Is to remain very much as It is, and the wings are to sorreepond with IL ‘ it'-'** 'V J . J