The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-05-13
BLAINE AND THE SEALERS.
ouIcRoPINes OF A BIG SCANDAL.
An Explanation that the President May De-
Notwithstanding Fosters Ignorance of
What Has Been Going Qua Coming
Investigation BY Congress.
IL. y. EveninC Post.1

will find himself, on his return from the
West, with serious task on his hands.
1t will be nothing less than a readjust-
ment of the relations of two members of
his cabinet, Secretary Foster and Secre-
tary Blaine.
Mr.. Blaine has got himself into place
now where. when the full truth is known,
the jobbery of his transactions in Little
Rock railway bonds will appear insigniti-
cant by comparison. He has not only
subordinated the interests OF the United
States to the business profit OF small
clique OF citizens, but he has played
rather ignoble trick upon president who
honored him with the chief seat in his
cabinet, and upon an associate secretary
who had a right TO his confidence and
good faith.
Secretary Foster denied without reser-
walton, in his recent interview with your
correspondent, that the new contractors
for the Alaska seal fisheries had inter
fered in our governments negotiations
with Great Britain with respect TO the
adoption of a close season in Boring sea-
30 lar as MT. roster nllllSell % tOit-
cerned, and undoubtedly so far as he per
sonaly is aware, this was entirely true.
But that very fact makes Mr.. Blaine per-
formances the more deserving OF reproba-
ton.
This is the best evidence that can be
produced in court if reed be, that Mr..
Elkins was at the bottom OF Secretary
Blaine's change OF front, and that Mr..
Blaine was willing to put himself into an
absurd attitude automatically for the
sake of furthering friends financial
prospects.
1t can be shown:
|. That Mr.. Elkins did visit Mr. Blaine
Just before the president left for his tour,
and complained of the threatened loss to
his company from the proposed change OF
policy.
p That Mr.. Blaine almost Immediately
thereafter paid special visit TO the presi
dent and induced him to consent TO a
change of program.
3. That the president then gave Secre-
tary Foster orders TO get ready for an open
season, without specifying any reasons be-
yond the fact that the neg tiations with
Great Britain had not come TO ANYTHING
yet, and probably would not.
4. That Secretary Foster proceeded
with his preparations accordingly, IN good
Aith and now has everything IN readl-
ness to begin operations in Boring sea on
the 10Th of May, and, finally,
3. That Sir Julian Pauncefote and the
marquis of Salisbury, by insisting that
the pending negotiations should not be
abruptly broken OF without having the
reasons for the breach spread upon the
record, have placed Mr.. Blaine where he
will be obliged to explain himself IN
letter which will be printed for the Amer
lean public to read next year, and that
the spectacular statesman is already be-
coming very much worried over 1t.
The delicacy of Mr.. Blaine's situation is
enhanced by the fact that he has made
two oral explanations which will not hold
water when they come to be calmly eX-
amined. First, he claimed that the gov
eminent needed the revenue from the
sealing industry and hence could not az
ford to check it even for a season; and
second, he claimed that the natives of the
seal islands would have no means of sub
sistence if the industry were brought 10 a
temporary standstiil.
The obvious answer 10 these arguments
is that Secretary Blaine has known of their
existence all the time, and hence, II they
were of any force whatever, he would
have refused to consider the question OF
close season at all.
This evidently did not occur to the pres
ident when the matter WAS laid before
him, and, as Secretary Foster has always
believed-as he expresses it-that the
government has right to kill its own
seals on its own islands" he did not re-
quire any talking over, but accepted his
orders and prepared TO carry them out.
How Mr.. Foster will feel when it is
fully made plain to him that he has been
placed in false position by being made
an apparent party to a lob which is GER
tain TO have an atmosphere of scandal
surrounding it, may be imagined. He is
man with business training, who knows
how this sort of thing looks 10 honorable
business men outside. and the mere fact
that his colleague has had no such expe-
rience. but only that OF a speculative adj
venturer, will not excuse the act in his
eyes.
And what will President Harrison say
when he finds that he has been made
catspaw, and deluded into issuing orders
to one OF his secretaries for carrying out
the private schemes of another?
Local rumor goes still further with Mr..
Blaine's sudden change of view, and &C
cuses him of having had private motive
even behind his original consent to ne
gotiate with Great Britain. His relations
with certain members OF the Alaska COM
pany are alleged to be such that he was
quick to see in the cessation of seal-killing
on the American islands an increased
profit for the old company from its
catch on the Russian islands over which
it retains control; and the same story
saws that his conversion is due TO the fact
that he saw more profit for himself in
helping his friend Ekins out of a tight
place than in doing anything for the old
company.
1t is significant of the tone which Mr..
Blaine has given to everything about him
that his most devoted admirers here, even
while endeavoring to discredit the report,
do not seem to regard it as being suffi-
GENTLY answered by what the public we'll
know of the secretary's personal char
acter.
A democratic member OF the Fifty-sec-
ond congress assured your correspondent
today that resolutions OF inquiry
would be put through the houses as soon
as practicable after the opening OF the
session next December, designed to bring
out the entire history of Blaine's latest
efforts to "be useful" as far as a draenet
will do it; and that an investigation by
committee will be set on foot TO discover
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