Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1878-10-31
Our Washington Letter

opectdt Correspondence OF theOBsERyRR
WAsEINGToN,D.C. Oct. %, rs
The latest rumor asto the Cab
inet changes sends Attorney
General Devens to the Bench,
makes Secretary Thompson At
qorney-General, and gives 10
Eugene Hale the Navy Depart
ment. MIR. Hale has represent
ed in Congress for many years
a district once second to only
one or two in the number Of
vessels yearly built. BY legis-
lation in which he participated,
and which was entirely the work
of the party to which he be-
longed, the -hip-building indus
try in that District, and in all
others, was practically annihi-
lated. 1t is, so to speak, a wreck.
Mr.. Hale, also, by the vote of
his District at the late election,
is a wreck. 1t is emi.4ently
proper that this wrecker, now
himself a wreck, should be put
in charge of a Navy which is a
wreck--while ii has cost many
hundreds of millions since the
war closed, has hardly any ships
left for service. Perhaps no
more vivid idea Of what the Re-
publican party has cost US can
be given than by thus mention
ing few Of the ideas this pro-
posed change suggests. BY
all means Mr.. Hayes should, if
any change is TO be made in his
unique Cabinet, put Mr.. Hale in
charge Of the Navy Department.
Secretary Schurz is making
the mistake that weaker men
have made through all history.
He violates all the rules he has
so strenuously insisted on, and
of which he is popularity sup
posed TO be the inspirer, by go
ing into the political campaign
at the dictation Of the man to
whom he owes position. Not
only is this inconsistent and IN
decent, being a violation of his
own rules, but it leaves his De-
partmeni, which he probably IN
tended at first TO run honestly
and intelligently, in the hands
of his Bureau officers. If he
knew all that he ought to know
of the details of business in his
Department, would he allow
himself to be overruled, as be
is every day, by those under
him? If he remained at his
desk would he not know more?
/ am afraid that Mr.. Schurz,
like the rest, is not a real, but a
fair weather, reiormer, ard that
what most Democrats have said
of him, and not what your cor
respondent thought and said, is
true. Ife is a German silver
reformer and not the genuine
article.
The Yrodigious expense Of
Indian Wars is shown, in part,
by the late report of a Bureau
officer who says the cost Of
Government transportation Of
troops and war munitions, on
one of the Pacific railroads, has
been over nine millions of dol
lars. The same transportation
by wagons, if there had been
no railroad, would have been
three times as much, or twenty
seven millions. Thus, though
the road charges enormous pri-
ces 10 the Government, as, un-
der the RECONSTRUCTED laws gov
erning it can do,it has yet saved
the Government some eighteen
millions besides, no doubt,
greatly facilitating military OPP
erations and enabling the army
10 give TO border settlers a pro-
lection otherwise impossible.
If, TO all the unquestioned adj
vantages given us by such rail-
roads, we could add the assu-
rance that the Government was
not constantly being swindled
by the roads in other directions,
subsidies would be freely grant
ed to ali who would lay tracks
through the public domain.
But no way has heretofore been
found to guard the governments
interest in all respects. Col.
Tom Scott, President of the
Texas Pacific Railway Compa-
nv, thinks he has made the dis
covery and will at the next SEES
sion ask Congress to pass upon
his plan for safely giving Gov
ernment aid to his road. He
asks for no land and no money,
but gives the Government 3d.
100000 acres already belong
ing TO the Texas Pacific Rail-
way, in consideration of the
Governments guarantee of in
terest on the construction bonds,
and he thinks the Government
will gain more by the railroad
than the total amount of inter-
est to beguaranteed. AUSTIN.
B Russian Journals urge
the Gar to aid the Amer of
A fohanistan with arms. men