San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1886-05-20
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 3, 1SSO.

men of Washington propose that
their demand for the eight hour rule
shall go into effect, One of them
said to me: "This is not n strike
The workingmon will simply dis
charge himself and leave rather than
work ten hours. If the bosses do
not choose to employ us at eight
hours day, we will pick mp our
tools and leave We will not pre-
vent other men from working, and
there will be no disorder and vio-
lence, but we will present n solid
unyielding front.
The Secretary of the Treasury,who
has been so near to deaths door for
the past month, is Mt work again. L
do not mean that he is well or at his
desk. He is only able to sit up and
take drive occasionally. But he
interests himself with affairs at his
department and discusses business
questions with such officials as Treas
urer Jordan and Assistant Secretary
Tairchild. There is no truth i'll the
report that he had signiiiol to the
President his intention of retiring
from office" On the contrary, it is
known that he earnestly desires and
: fully intends to remain at the head
of the Treasury, which he has so
ably directed for the plst year. The
apprehension of bis friends now is
that he will undertake to resume his
official duties before he is physically
able.
asked prominent Western Rep
, resentntivo what he thought of the
new Congressional Democratic Cam
paign Executive Committee. He an
swered that the selection of Senator
Kenna as chairman was n most eX-
cellent one. ave had so much faith
in the executive ability of Senator
German" continued he, 'that he was
the choice of most of us, but he has
enough to do as Chairman of the Ma
= tional Executive Committee, and de
clined to servo in this capacity. He
will aid us in other ways, however.
and Senator KenDa is young, active,
vigorous and capable of doing great
deal of hard work. The West Viz
ginia Senator made his mark first in
the House of Representatives, where
he worked hard and spoke we'll His
speech on the currency question was
one of the text books of the party
during the Congressional campaign
OF 1878, and he is in sympathy with
- his party now on nearly every ques-
: ton.
| 1t is not creditablc to the Repnb-
| licans in Congress that it should de-
volve on Southern member to try
to check tho waste of public money
on pension appropriations. This is
a fold of reform into which few Con
gressmen care to venture, and the
action Of Southern nan is particu-
larly liable to misconstruction, in
taking the much-dreaded step. But
the Northern men are afraid it would
mean the loss Of thousands OF votes
for them ut home and donunciaLion
abroad.
There is scarcely a subject which
80 tests the courage and conscience
Of the average Congressman as that
of pension legislation. Every mem
Der has his own scheme to advance,
and feels that he cannot afford to re-
fuse to help the schemes Of his asso-
ciates Consequently, good and bad
schemes are huddled together and
nobody has the hardihood to try to
assert them. Every Friday evening,
in its special pension session, the
House passes from fifty to hundred
pension bills. Last week, you re-
member, the Senate passed four hun
dred in a batch without reading one
of them. The Senators sat talking
and writing while the farce WAS go
ing on, apparently obiivious Of the
fact that the u $. Treasury was not
inexhaustiblo, and that every dollar
taken ont of it had to be put into it
by tax The pension business, as
it is carried On in Congress, is n
swindle of the worst sort, and Mr..
Tillman, Of South Carolina, is the
man who is credited with the intcn-
ton Of exposing it to the country.
The Senators had Il little tariff
talk few days ago 1t was the first
chance they have had this session Of
reproducing their views on the pro
tectiyc tqrifT system, and the occasion
was regarded with all the pleasure Of
a novelty. Senator Beck was max
ing a warm defense Of the course Of
the Postmastcr-GC in bis dis
pute with the Pacific Mail and other
steamship companies. He arose with
the intention Of speaking one hour,
but when he touched upon tariff
topics he was so constantly intorrup-
ted by the Republican Senator's that
IT took him nearly four hours 10 finish
his remarks. He made q bitter de
nunciltiOn Of the policy which for
bids an American to purchase a for
, cign built vessel
The queen isso much pleased with
Tarr,-- rr'r latest uprm that She las