Omaha daily bee., 1885-03-02
Ben Butler in the Sweat Box.

Special telegram to The BEE.
WASHINGTON, March 1.-The house com
mittee ON military affairs has been investigat-
ing the accounts of General Ben Butler as one
of the board of managers of the national
soldiers home, S and it has discovered a very
large shortage, which is stated to be as high
as $240, COO. 1t sppears that the cock-eyed
child of destiny has been acting as treasurer,
disbursing officer, auditor, executive commit.
tee and everything else of the board, and has
been doing Just as he pleased, and his col
lea que did not interfere. Last summer the
subcommittee of the military committee made
n tour of the national soldiers homes and in
| vestigated matters thoroughly. TIL result
| was the discovery that the revenues OF the
homes were leaking away badly, and the com
mittee began an Investigation of MIR. Butler,
who appears to have been manager, with the
result above stated. The military committee
will report the facts to the house at the earli'
est snn.o 9pp0rtudR ss|dio w Sna le astion the ne
take. The committee will not ask for an in
| vestigation, believing that their own %investi-
| CATION is sufficient.
The government is paying Butler 81, 0C0 a
| year rent for two of his houses on Capitol hill,
but this property Is ~mertgaged. 1t ID pre-
sumed that Butler has the means of making
| tnS 1uuuJ OF me uOmes BUoui ~ tie ihCt AK
he lately borrowed $4,000 on the houses
leased to the government has given rice to q
rumor that he is financially embarrassed, and
| that all of his expenses during the late presi-
dental campaign were not paid by the repub-
lican national committee. AS the generals
variegated political career has not left him
many political friends, it Ia expected that the
house will not show very much sympathy for
him.
The republicans are teasing the democrats
with
THE CLEVELAND LETTER
as much us they can, and that ia saying a
good deal. Yesterday in the senate Mitchell,
Pennsylvania, offered q resolution favoring
the suspension Of silver coinage and tried to
read Cleveland's letter, but the democratic
senators prevented him by objectmg to the
present consideration of the resolution, and
making the point that nothing relative to the
resolution could be read until it was taken up
for consideration, 80 the unpleasant affair was
put off until Monday, and as soon as this was
accomplished the democratic senators got
their heads together in an effort to devise
some way In which the reading OF the letter
could be prevented on Monday. Tn publ
cation of the letter is very annoying to the
democrats; it puts an end to all hope that in
view of the vote in the house on Thursday and
of the dispatches sent from here to Albany,
since the letter was received that Cleveland
would modify his expressions, II not his
views, before next Wednesday. Worse thar
this the letter was made public in spite of al
the feeling expressed by adyice of the demo
crtts in congress, and it shows that CLEVELAND
has not only taken up a permanent position
on the silver question, but that he is not go
ing to be very amenable to the sdvice from
the democrats in congress. To many of tn
latter, the prospect is extremely gloomy. spC
it is profoundly feared that Clevelond is goinl
, to prove intracable, and that he will not al
low his policy to be regulated by the steering
tcommittee of senators and congressman.