Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1881-04-02
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Mar. 81, Is

The chief topic or interest mere TOT
some days past has been the question
of an extra session. A week ago it
was regarded as settled Affirmative
", but during the last week it has
been again involved in doubt. The
politicians are mostly in favor of it.
and no doubt the call would have
been issued on Tuesday had not pro-
tests from business circles, and es-
pecially the banks, come in thick and
fast. OF course the banks don't
want a funding bill passed, and they
exert a greater influence than people
generally understand. Then, too,
business men generally fear that a
session of Congress during the spring
and early summer would do much to
unsettle trade and keep the country
in state of excitement. From New
York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincin-
natl and Chicago strong protests
have poured in upon the President,
and they have had great weight.
Undoubtedly the session, if called,
would extend far into the hot wealth
er, for the two parties are so evenly
balanced in both houses that little
progress could be made in the trans
action of business to which either
side unitedly objected. Political
questions would certainly come to
the surface, for one of the principal
objects of the Republicans in calling
the session is to investigate Southern
elections with view to unseating a
number of members claimed to have
been unfairly elected. These objects
the Democrats would resist even to
the extent of filibustering against
them. Then the funding measure
also is a source of difference between
the two parties, the Democrats ia
voring legislation that is objectiona-
BILE to the banks, such as the fifth
section Of the bill vetoed by Presi-
dent Hayes. Secretary Blaine favors
the extra session chiefly because he
thinks the veto was mistake, or at
least gave an advantage to the Dem
ocrats and Greenbackers, especially
in his State, which he is anxious to
counteract by the prompt passage of
a funding bill through Republican
Congress. These are the considera-
tions, pro and con, relative to an ex-
ira session, to which may be added
the anxiety of aspirants for the Off
ces of the House and Senate. But
the decision against calling it will
probably meet with approval from
the country at large, independent of
parties or political schemes.
Next to the extra session question
the office-seeker has occupied most
attention of late. The town fairly
swarms with them, and the button
holing process can be witnessed al
Hbituna any day or evening in the no.
tel Hobbies. Every one of the De-
partments is overrun with them, and
the President has been beseiged and
worried until he appears worn and
depressed. He commenced a day or
two since to take regular exercise on
horseback to overcome the effects of
the pressure and care. l do not use
the term 'oflice-seeker" in any often.
sive sense, though that is the popular
thing. Any citizen has a right to
seek an Office if he wants it, and there
is nothing more certain than that he
will never get what he wants, in
these times, unless he does seek it.
Every man now in official station.
high or low, has been an office-seeker
at some time, and the majority will
be again, probably. But the trying
feature of it is that so many come at
once, and such large proportion as
pire to places entirely out of their
reach. Fewer changes have been
made by the new administration than
was anticipated, and, of course, there
are many disappointments. 1t is
now in order to ring in that old joke
about the man who came on for an
assistant secretaryship, dropped
gradually down through the grades
to small clerkship, and finally Dor
rowed $40 to get out of town with.
There are undoubtedly many cases
of which this is an Illustration. For
the one hundred and thirty addition
al clerkships voted by Congress for
the Pension Office, there were over
three thousand applications. SO the
distant reader may see that, while
his right to seek an Office is uudis-