Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1901 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

President Roosevelt’s first message to Congress will break one of the time-hon-ored traditions of the republic. It will be short. It will not contain a long review of the detailed work of the various departments of the government. For more than a hundred years Presidents have followed the example, first set by George Washington, of making their annual messages a sort of history of the government during the preceding year. In many instances more than half of the space filled by a message has been occupied with a summary of the reports of heads of departments—a repetition in condensed form of the same facts and conclusions those officials had themselves submitted either to Congress or to the President. Mr. Roosevelt sees no necessity for this sort jof thing. He will eschew the review, confining his mention of the reports of the members of his cabinet to those subjects about which he wishes to make recommendations. In this new departure President Roosevelt hopes not only to shorten his message, but to make it what a modern intended for the reading of nearly 80,000,000 Americans should be —a compact, direct, modern document, meaty with thought and suggestion and not incumbered with a dry detailed review, which is read, if read at all, as a matter of duty and not of choice.

Four hundred and ninety-five persons, firms and corporations want $57,000,000 from the United States for damages done to their property in Cuba during the last insurrection against Spain. The last claims have been filed with the Cuban claims commission, and an examination of them shows that most of them think the United States will pay high prices for low commodities. The largest single one is $4,177,698.85, which was presented by a Cuban sugar company incorporated under the laws of the State of New York. From this sum the claims run down to $7,000 or SB,OOO, although such small amounts are the exception, the average claim, not counting those filed on account of the disaster to the bttleship Maine, being between $200,000 and $250,000. Most of the claimants evidently think Uncle "Sam is about the easiest “picking” the world ever knew. The statements they have filed with the commission setting forth the damages they have suffered might well rank as humorous literature. An examination of some of them furnishes more entertainment than “Mark Twain’s” sketches.

The remains of Senator Cushman K. Davis of Minnesota have been interred quietly at the Arlington National cemetery in a lot specially assigned for the purpose by the Acting Secretary of War. Mrs. Davis accompanied the remains from St. Paul. The funeral party was met at the Baltimore and Ohio station by Sergeant-at-Arms Ransdell and representatives of the quartermaster’s department, who superintended the removal of the casket. Senator Davis was a first lieutenant in the volunteer army during the Civil War, and it was that fact that gave him the right of burial in a national cemetery.

During the year the bureau of engraving and printing has turned over to the Postofflce Department 42,350.880 sheets, or 4,235,088,000 postage stamps. The director of the bureau in his annual report states that the total number of sheets delivered to the government was 121,558,291, including, in addition to stamps, 21,072,750 sheets of United States notes, certificates and bonds, 8,230,981 sheets of national bank notes, 52,979,208 sheets of internal revenue stamps, 229,000 sheets of customs stamps and 1,095,412 sheets of checks, drafts, etc. This work cost $2,39”,494.20. . 1

President FTutin of the Panama Canal Co. called on Admiral Walker of the Canal Commission and offered to sell the concession, railway and all rights possessed by the French concern to the United States government for several million dollars less than the valuation heretofore placed on the property, which was $107,000,000. The Panama stockholders are said to be panic stricken at the prospect of the Nicaragua canal being built by the United States, as its construction would destroy forever their chances of realizing anything from the enormous expenditures they have in their ditch. j The robbery of the Chicago postofflce is the largest in the history of the United States postal service. The stamps stolen can easily he disposed of, it is anticipated, as they are of amounts in general use, 1,770,000 being of the 1-eent denomination and 1,602,900 of the 2-eent. All told, the booty weighed 500 pounds. For the loss occasioned, Postmaster Frederick E. Coyne is responsible, until freed by an act of Congress. An unfortunate impression has been created in the South owing to the action of President Roosevelt in recently inviting the negro, Booker T. Washington, to dine with him. The President, however, is indifferent to the matter. His entertainment of Mr. Washington is very distasteful in various parts of the South, and at a theater in Richmond, Va., the President's picture was hissed. The bureau of printing and engraving of the United States printed 4,235,088,000 postage stamps during the past twelve months. And yet it was unable to keep up with the demand, and had to fall back on its reserve stooJj» It was the banner postage stamp yeas. Enlistments in the regular army In the Philippines are beginning to expire. Adjt. Gen. Corbin says that Gen. Chaffee haa a force of about 42,000 effectives on tho Islands and that for the present this force will be kept up. Adjt. Gen. Corbin says the recruiting returns are quite satisfactory, new men enlisting coming In at the rate of about 3,000 monthly, enough to fill all vacancies as they occur. Transports are in readiness to take • sufficient uumber of troops to the Philippines to replace the short term men, of which there may be na many as 10,000.