Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-06-18
WASHINGTON LETTER.
tFrom our regular Correspondent. C
WASHINGTON, June s, 1891


WASHINGTON, June s, 1891.
Once in while you will find an hon.
est and conscientious republican who
does not believe that the financial pol
icy of the administration is dictated
from Wall Street. Well, perhaps ii
isn't, but appearances certainly give
one that impression. For instance:
Secretary Foster sends out q circular
letter notifying the holders of the Al
per cent. bonds that will mature next
September, that they may be extended
at or Il per cent. interest. AS soon
as that letter is made public, he goes to
New York, where for four days be was
guest of one of the Wall Street mon
ey kings, and now, he thinks that it
will only be justice to the banks, which
already own about half of the $6O,O0O,-
600 of these bonds and which will take
all that are surrendered by other par
ties, to make the interest 2 per cent,
which was the figure mentioned by the
Wall Street men. Doesn't that look
suspicious?
BY the way, Secretary Foster is in
clined to indulge in self glorification
over the fact that he can sell govern
ment bond bearing as low rate of inter-
eat as 2 per cent. He does not tell that
these bonds are absolutely necessary to
the banks which propose to take them
to be used as security for their circula-
ton. His talk in this respect has been
on par with his trying to make the
public believe that the Treasury was
not cramped for ready cash, and then
following up his boasts with a call for
$1,000, 900 from the banks in which the
government funds are deposited.
Secretary Noble will find when he re-
turns to duty, which will probably be
this week, a very much mixed up con-
dition of affairs in his department.. AS
sistant Secretary Bussey has white
washed crooked chief ofa division in
the pension Office, and Assistant Secre-
tary Chandler is gathering facts to
prove Bussey's favoritism and the
crookedness of the aforesaid chief, and
it may end in one or the other of the
Assistant Secretaries having to 60.
Chandler is an honest, straightforward
sort of fellow, who believes that crook
edness ought to be punished no matter
who are the friends of the crook; it was
he who endorsed the papers in the case
of young Raum's immediate dismiss
al,' and he only agreed to let the dis
position of the case made by Bussey
stand, when told that such were the or
ders of Secretary Noble.
Another trouble for Mr.. Noble will
9 to assist Mr.. Harrison in finding
another victim to take Raum's place at
the head of the Pension office, as it
seems to be conceded on all sides that
the head of Raum will soon find its
way into the basket. Somebody has
kepta a record of the time Commissioner
Raum has been absent since he became
the head of the Pension bureau, and it
shows that during the nineteen months
he has been In office, he has been ab-
sent 240 days, or nearly half the time.
He has simply used the office as ten
der to his private business schemes, and
it is not surprising that with such an
example before him, young Raum
should have gone into the business OF
selling appointments to office and pro-
motions.
The republican leaders are badly
frightened at the prospect of having
the knights of Labor solidiy opposed
to the republican ticket in Ohio this
year. 1t is said that the knights OF
Labor through its Executive Board,
which is making fight for the remov-
al of Captain Meredith, chief of the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, has
'-'-"r Mr.. Harrison its ultimatum, and
=, that Meredith must be removed OF
,sesfy Knight ofLabor in the State OF
v..3 will vote against the republicans
..ke rming gubernatorial election,
;'sE9rxy Foster, who Is adept in the
Il f},slnboozling, is relied upon by
EAzfison to help him out Of the
svlape in some way, but he will find II
very difficult.
The talk about immigration which re-
publicans, particularly those connecteo
with, or hoping to be connected witt