Fair play., 1893-11-18
Washington Letter.

,fran our Regular Cnrresppud~utl
Washington. d C.. Nov. IL. 1898
President Cleveland is hard AT
work upon his annual message to
C"ngrc-- and NIL the members OF the
cabinet upon their annual reports.
i':>r a. they would have been lad the
result "t The elections been more sat
l-iac'ory TO them. About -ix weeks
l. usually devoted by the President ia
the preparation of lis annual message
to Congress, bn, this year, although h
the message will be UNUSUALLY impor
'ant, he viii have only about four
weeks in which TO prepare 1t.
While neither the President nor any
member of the cabinet cares 10 pub
licly discuss the result of the elections
AT this time it can be positively stated
that they do not regard them a in
any sense condemnation of the adj
mInistration and will not swerve n
hairs breadth from the ine of policy
that had been previously marked out
OF course they were disappointed
They had cause to expect that the
democratic state tickets would be de-
feaied in Ohio and New York, but
not by such large pluraliies in
Massachusetts and Iowa they were
both surprised and disappointed, al
though they knew OF the unusual eff
forts that were being made to per-
snade every man who was in any
sense a sufferer from the business de-
preston resulting from past vicious
republican legislation that the demo-
cratic party was responsible for il all.
They did not expect them to succeed
so well that is all.
Few democratic Congressmea are
in Washington now, but those who
are here are unanimously of the
opinion that the result of the elections
will not have the slightest effect to.
wards changing the nature of the
tariff aud other contemplated legisIa-
tion. Representative Mcmillan, a
prominent democratic member of the
House Ways and Means committee,
says: "The tariff question had moth
ing to do with it, as the character of
the bill We will report has not yet
been made public and therefore
could not have been condemcd."
Representative Foreman says: "Yun
can never tell what will happen in an
off year. l believe that the defeat
will make the democrats a little more
cautious and harmonious. We have
been getting too confident and too in.
Judge LOchren, Com
missioner of Pensions, SAYS: 1t Is
natural result OF the hard times. The
people haye charged the
financial troubles to the party in
power" Not a single democrat, has
yet been found here who is even
little bit discouraged oyer the out
look. Ex Congressman Morrison,
who is regarded by many democrats
rs available Presidential timber,
voiced the general democratic senti.
ment when he said {: Il can find no
better expression than that of the
Irishman who after being thrashe,l
said: Il am certainly licked, but
not conquered"
Not few republicans find that the
of victory has spider in
il. Those who have been mamenver-
ing to make either Mr.. Benjamin liar.
rison, Senator Allison or ex-Speaker
Reed their Presidential candidate in
1896 tiud their labor all swept away by
the prominence now enjoyed by Gov
and his phenomenal plu.
rality. Mckinley has never been pop.
ular with the republican leaders be
cause he would never allow himself to
be used by them.
The worst dIsappoint ed people of
all are the popmIisis who were lead 10
believe, or rather led themselves TO
believe. that they would carry Vir
ginia and thus get a substantial foot
hold in the South. Not only did they
fail TO carry Virginia, although they
had the passive If not the active as
sistance OF the republicans, but they
even failed to hold their own in their
western strongholds.
The republican administration left
the Navy department. costly legacy
in the plans upon which several of
the smaller sunboats have been built,
but the costliest of all were those for
the new battle ship Texas. which was
built at the Norfolk navy yard. Ac-
cOriing to the official information re-
ceived at the Navy department this
week it will take about $50 900 in
money and about three months to
make the changes necessary to make
the boiler keelsons strong enough to
support the boilers. The Texas is be.
ing built np"n English plans which
have from the very first been opposed
by many naval officers. because of
various defects which Ia, hay"
from time To time pointed ont. and
not Il few Of them have expressed lhe
opinion lin privai, that il is impos-i