Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-04-11
RICE TRICKS EXPOSED.
COL. sCREVEN's ARGUMENTS
EFFECTIVE.

pressed, but no Decision vet Rendered
DE la Matyr's SacreIigiOus Spelling
Gresham not so 0uieting Dose,
After All-PrOvOeations of the Big
Count.
WASHINGTON, April 10.-The argument
which Colonel John Screven made Sat,lr-
day before the acting Secretary of the
Treasury was such as will doubtless have
its effect. French told me to-day that he
was impressed, with what was said by
Colonel Screven. The argument was
about the importation of cracked rice or
rice flour, which interferes with the in
terests of the native planters. The noints
in this matter l gave you recently. 1t
was argued yesterday that the inten-
tIon of the present duty on rice is to afford
protection to the growers of that product
in this country. The tariff debate during
the last session had shown that rice
needed protection, and it was certainly
the intention of Congress that il should
be protected. 1t was clearly demonstrated
that to allow cracked rice to come i'm
at the lower rate fixed for rice flour
would be most Instantaneous to
the interests of the rice planter. 1t was
argued that as other industries. Such as
-
past been protected from all attempted
tricks of the tariff, rice should have the
same assistance from the Treasury De-
partment. The case of the rice plant
ers was very well presented. The
Treasury Department officials are
considering the question now. Acting
Secretary French and Mr.. James, Chief
OF the Customs division, are graphing
with the subject. They refuse to say what
their nQRIEInn will hn Tn, f,x
not had time to come to conclusions. They
talk, however, differently from what they
dld 1our or five days ago. They say that
the advocates of the rice interest have
made out strong case. That's as far as
they will talk about it. But certainly in
equity 1T would seem that the Treasury
cannot refuse to give to rice such rulings
as have been given to the iron and other
industries when tricks under the tariff
law were attempted on them.
You recOllect the Rev. De la Matvr. the
Greenback member from Indiana, who
was one of many failures in Congressional
lie VINO nave come into politics from the
pulpit? You have not heard much of him
lately. l heard something about him to-
day from newspaper man. This scribe
USED TO manage paper in Indianapo-
lis. DE la Matyr was then
preaching there. Said my informant: 'In
publishing on Monday what the pulpits
had to say the day before, | handled col
umns upon columns of De la Matvr's
manuscript. He is the worst speller, out
SIDE OF the average intelligent prOof-read-
er, that L ever stumbled across. / remem-
Der one OF his spelling feats, in particular
lie always Spelt Jesus with a 0-and a
small at that" This must be true. 1t
could not be otherwise; for didn't news
paper man tell it to me?
After all it does not seem that the an
polntment of Judge Gresham as Post
master General is to result in such an
overwhelming harmOniZation of the differ
ent Republican elements. 1t was to be
expected that John G. New would not
tackle kindly to Gresham, but he has been
so battered around by all shades of Repub-
lican administrations that he can
hardly be considered an element at ALI.
But everybody else was to be coalesced
together, and the grand old party to move
forward as if the hearts of all the factions
beat as one. You certainly would have
thought so had you heard the expression
of the gushers, who are never wanting.
The principal things claimed as the effects
of the Gresham appointment were the
of the soldier element and the
unity of the followers of O. p.
Morton and Senator Harrison i'm
Indiana. The soldiers are pleased with
Gresham's appointment. He was one of
them. But they talk as if they felt like
the man who was asked to dinner and
found out afterwards that he would not
have received the invitation had not some
one been wanted to fill vacant place
caused by the non-acceptance of an ex
pected guest who had been first asked.
The soldiers say that Gresham's
is good one and
they like it, but think that it is
rather late day for them to be recogniz-
ed. They say they have been passed over
so often that they do not feel very hilari-
Gus at getting IN at the tail end. Indiana
people say that Gresham's appointment
is a compliment to the State, and one
which is appreciated out there. But as
to its uniting the old Morton men and the
Senator Harrison henchmen it will be
found to be of very little practi-
cal use. The differences between
those two wings is so great that the ap-
pOintment of twenty Greshams could not
heal it. After all, the principal cause of
the Republican newspaper jubilee-the
Republican papers regard the appointment
as sort OF a universal panacea for the
party-Over Greshams selection seems to
lie in the fact that, being practically an
unknown man heretofore, nothing could
he alleged against him. ObscuritV has
its political advantages sometimes.
The counting of the cash in the Trea-
sury in connection with the turning over
of the vaults, money and keys from one
Treasurer to another is interesting. But
the most interesting and tantalizing
thing about it is to watch them count the
gold. There are four men at that lob.
They count hundreds of thousands daily
with most stprovoking gnonchalance. They
count by weight. That is, they turn the
of a bag of gold into the scales,
and weigh it against another bag that has
been proved. One man will take up
bag containing thousand dollars in
eagles. He will plump it into the scales.
1t is weighed in half a minute. A
man with funnel-.just like the thing with
which the grocer pours sugar into bag
from the scales-rattles the piasters back
from whence they were taken. They abso-
lutely wallow in wealth, and they think no
more of it than if it were SO many bullets.
And when they count the little gold dol
lars! How the golden metal flies and Jumps
around from bag to scales and from scales
back to bag! To the spectator it is pro-
voking. There are fortunes within foot
of those admitted to see the counting and
no chance of ever touching the golden
showers IF iS inf b,,t x,o,,,