Smyrna times., 1891-06-17
Washington Letter.

WASHINGTON, June, 10, 1891.
Mr.. Harrison is said to be deenIv
concerned on the silver question and
very anxious to acquaint himself with
the sentiment of the people in all sec.
tlons OF the country upon this very
important question. According to nv
information, which is Tnquestionablv
reliable, no man of prominence calls on
MIR. Harrison without having his opin-
ION asked about silver, and the senti
ment of the people in the section from
which he comes. 1t is supposed that
TINS active interest is caused bv
recent statements made by those who
Will have much to do with shaping the
legislation of the next Congress. that a
free coinage bill would be among the
hrst passed after the fifty-second Con.
gress met. Both Republicans and
Democrats would like to get this silver
question decided before the Presiden-
tlal campaign, and it may be although
it is extremely doubtful, that Mr.. Har-
rlson intends springing a surprise on
the country by signing the bill after it
is passed.
If there has been single adverse
criticism upon any one Of the Judges
appointed by Mr.. Harrison to sit upon
the bench of the new private land
claims court it has not been made pub
tic here. They are all lawyers of high
standing in their own state, and every
one of them have been upon the bench
OF their state courts. The fact that
two OF the five are Democrats has also
served to prevent criticism. The new
judges are J. NJ. Reed, Of Iowa, F. w.
Stone, Of Colorado; H. c. Sluss. of
Kansas T. g. Fuller, of North Carroll
ma, and w. w. Murray, of Tennessee.
The way to reform abuses is to put
an end to them. Such was evidently
the opinion of Commissioner of Patents
Mitchell, when he issued his recent
order amending the rules of the patent
Oihce so as to absolutely prohibit any
attorney or agent, who had been an
employee of that office from appear
ing in behalf of any application upon
which he had in any way acted while a
government employee. The full signi-
hcance of his Ieform can be better un-
derstOOd when it is known that for
many years Examiners in the Patent
Ohice have rejected thousands of an
plications, particularly frGm parties
they had reasQa 10 suppose, could not
afford to put up sufficient cash to ap-
peal from the examiners decision,
lor no other reason than, that they
might afterwards as attorneys, yet a fee
for getting the same allowed, thus. not
only robbiug the inventor TO the ex-
tent OF the additional fee, but keeping
him out of his patent until, in many
cases it had become worthless on ac-
count Of later inventions. Hereafter
examiners will have to decide applica.
tlons solely on their merits. and not as
many-iOrtunately not all-have so
long done with view 10 their own fu-
ture profit,
Secretary Foster has by no means
lost interest in Ohio politics since he
entered the Cabinet and he has gone to
Ohio to assist in nominating a Repub.
ican candidate for governor, and he
VIII also take advantage Of tho gather
ing OF men trom I'll sections of the state
at the convention, 10 put in some licks
Tor ~, aud To find out how much
danger there is to the Republican party
IN the formation of third party in
the state.
COl. WV. Dudley, who IL USUALLY
classed as au anti-Harrison man. hasu Il
very high opinion of the anti. Harri.
son gathering at indianapolis. He saws
OF II; They are acting like a lot Of
fools. The idea of their trying TO do
any thing like that eighteen months
before the convention. The thing is
not significant or important. Ii is
simply WQve el some of Gresham's
iFlends % bring him out as oandi-
date. There is always opposition TO
Harrison in Indiana. Whether that
opposition is strong enough at the
time to prevent his getting the dele.
gauOn, no man can tell"
II Is on the cards for Mr.. Gorham's
friends to make open war on Cleve-
land should he show any designs of
crawling out of the soup. where thew
claim he now is.
Representative Mills Ia In town to
remain quite awhile, aud he has saw
agely jumped on the newspaper men
VINO have been printing interviews
with him and says he has not been in
tervieWed for months.