Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1886-02-04
posrmAsrsn-aENBRAI vILAs.
AnEx- Deiawarean' sRepudiaticn Of
Pacific Wall ISLANDERS.

Pacific Whtt Siamuerhs
Col. John II, knight Of Ashland, spent
the time between trains in the city
recently. The colonel is business man,
lawyer, politician, and en- the top shelf
of all Of these vooations He Is also the
nearest and most intimate friend Post
MASTER General Villas has in the world.
They were classmates together IS years
ago at Albany, and for many years past
have been associated in business ventures,
principally the lumber business. The
colonel was enthusiastic and voluble on
the business outlook. He closed deal
yesterday in Chicago for pine stumpage
to the amount Of 200, 600, 900 feet, and
wants still more. He is the secretary and
treasurer of the Superior Lumber Com
pany. AS to politics, the colonel de-
clared he knew nothing absolutely
nothing. He did not know that anybody
wanted any nomination. He hoped they
did not. There were too many nomina-
tons, too many elections and too much
politics altogether.
But, when shown an article IN the
Chicago Tribune attacking Colonel Villas,
he frightened up and knew something.
Il had not seen that" said he; II don't
read the Tribune. told Medill when he
abused General Grant so that time, /
never would read another copy of his
paper and never have. But" reverting
TO the article, 'this is lie, and the worst
of ii is, ii is paid lie. Some of the
newspapers have teemed for months with
lies Of this kind respecting Postmaster
General Villas, and they are awful, whop-
ping lies, too. But he don't mind them
aud hap No Hania1 off9rt.,al Ahnt,. l,xr
single utterance. tell you, Villas is a
regular Sam Tilden in his political
stoicism. You see, all these newspaper
attacks ON Villas, particularly those
of Washington correspondents, are
parts in the programme OF the
most damnable conspiracy ever dis
covered. A conspiracy to ruin publis
man that has no parallel. / understand
all about this matter, and if you have
have time l will tell you. Villas, you
know, refused to pay over TO the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company $400, 600, which
the last Congress left in his discretion to
pay or not. The Pacific Mail Steamship
Company is one of an aggregation of in
corporations, consisting of the Central,
Union and Southern Pacific railroad COM
panies, the Western Union Telegraph
Company and the Bell Telephone
Company. These six corporations are
owned and controlled by substantially
the same persons, and for years they have
brought their combined power to bear
upon Congress for subsidy to their Pa
citic Mail Steamship Company, and failing
to get it in that form, succeeded in getting
$500, 900 appropriated by the last Con.
gress TO be expended for their benefit,
under the discretion of the postmaster
general. That officer refused to expend
the money in the manner these people de-
sired, and anyone who will take the
trouble to read what the postmaster
general has to say upon the subject in his
report, if he has any sense of fairness al
all, will conclude that not only was he
right, but that he has made it SO clear
that no Congressman, who has the least
| regard for his reputation, will ever vote
| either n subsidy for that company or fol
an appropriation designed for the purpose
which the agents of that combina.
ton secured to be Incorporated in the
post-oftce appropriation act lust year.
This combination also owns the New
York Tribune and other papers, and
have acorps of newspaper correspondents
at Washington, whom they pay for writ
ing such letters and articles for news
papers as they are directed to write b,
the combination. These Washington
letters are to be found almost daily in tn,
New York Tribune, Cincinnati Gasette
Inter Ocean, and in one or more news
papers in all the large cities of the United
States. These people having found tina
it was getting unpopular to defend
by ingeniously- and falls
statements in respect to the action O
the postmaster-general in withholdinl
from them the $400, 900, have for som
months been employing their powers o
invention to belittle him in the estimation
of the people, and if possible to driv
him out of the cabinet, or render hi
position so embarrassing as to eithe
make his life miserable or yield to thei
corrupt demands. In all this, let ne tel
you, they will utterly fail. These me-
do not yet know the man they are dealin
with. Like the ancient Scotch clan, h
will 'bide his time, and will not be reu
dered unhappy meantime by the fictitiou
unpopularity with which these people ar
hemming him in"