The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-11-25
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER

| WASHINGTON, Nov. 21.-Mr. Harrison has
| borne his defeat in such Il manly way that ht
has won the respect and admiration of ever
the staunchest democrats. The members o1
his Cabinet have had little to say, although il
was well-known that more than one of then
might have said some very interesting thing,
had they been SO disposed This being the sit
uation, Il sensation was created in high Repub
lcan circles when jovial Secretary kuSk open
ed his ammunition box and fired Il red-hot shot
straight at the head of the man who has beer
privately charged by Mr.. HarrsOn'S close per
sonal friends with having exerted his power
full influence in the Republic party to lesser
the vote for Mr. Harrison. Although Secre
tary Rusk called no name he made it as plain
as though he had spoken through the most
powerful trumpet ever made, that in his opin.
ion James G. Blaine, the ex-head of the Harri
son Cabinet, was the traitor upon whose head
the wrath of the Republican party should be
poured.
II is learned from trustworthy sources that
Mr.. Harrison was averse to such a statement
being made by any member of his Cabinet, not
because he believed it untrue, but because he
tn. ught it undignifed and unnecessary; but
Secretary Rusk, who had it in for Blaine, whom
he once admired SO much that he named his
son after him, ever since last summer when
Blaine tried to deprive him of the credit for
restoring the European privileges OF the Amer
lean hog, and later to use him to defeat Mr..
Harrison's denomination; in his own language
tried to make traitor of me-" He might
have held in until he was out of office but for
his accidental discovery of indiSputable evil
dence that Mr.. Blaine had much to do with the
loss of his own State, which he worked so hard
to keep in the Republican column. That set
tied it he had to have his say, and it was in
pretty close accord with what many members
of his party think without saying.
The question of pensions Is one of the most
important that the coming administration and
Congress will have to deal with it directly af-
fcctS every man, woman and child in the
United States. 1t is now certain that there
will be deficiency of $35, 600 900 for the cur
rent fiscal year, which must be appropriated
at this session of Congress, and those who
ought to know estimate the amount that will
be required for the fiscal year beginning July
!, 1898, which must also be appropriated at
this session, as somewhere in the neighbc rhood
of 100000. 1t is difficult for human in
tellect to comprehend the immensely of the
pile of money represented by those figures. 1t
represents more than SO for each inha bitant of
the country, and Secretary Foster of the Treas
ury predicts that before the close of Clevelands
administration it will take $3.50, 600, 900 year
TO pay the pensions-more than all the other
expenses of the country added together 1t is
scarcely to be wondered at that the old idea
championed in the House some years ago by
Hon. VIM. X. Morrison, OF Illinois, of raising
money to pay pensions by imposing an income
tax should be revived at this time. If pension
expenditures are to keep growing some extra
ordinary method OF raising the money will GER
tainly have to be resorted to.
TEDDY" Roosevelt, the President of one OF
the greatest American humbugs, the Civil Ser
vice Commission, has forgotten all about the
numerous prosecutions he was going to make
for violation of the law by various individuals,
in soliciting campaign contributions from fed
eral employees previous to the election, and is
now lying awake nights to study up schemes to
keep the Democrats out of the patronage to
which they should be entitled after the fourth
of March next, by extending the Civil Service
to branches of the Government to which it
never would have been extended had Harri-
son been reelected. Mr.. Harrison has so far
refused to endorse this scheme to keep Repub-
licans in office under a Democratic admins
tration by issuing the necessary order to carry
it into effect, but he may be worried into il
yet. The people of this country have voted
against perpetual office-holding, and Demo-
cratic Congress might trke n notion to let this
old humbug die for the want of an appropria-
ton. The tears would be few, and they
wouldn't be from Democratic eyes. c. A S.