The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-08-21
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular respondent.


WASHINGTON, Aug II, 1894.
The worst enemy of Mr.. Cleveland
could not wish him to occupy more
humiliating position than. he does at
this writing. He has been defeated in
the fight with the -Brice COM
bination, which he himself invited and
he has now to choose between signing,
vetoing or allowing to become law
without his signature, the senate tariff
bill, which he characterized in his let
ter to Mr. Wilson as s'undemocratic,
perfdious and dishonorable.n IF he
followed his personal inclinations he
would veto the bill and try to keep con-
gress in session until he could force
bill through that was nearer free trade.
But there are weighty reasons why he
is not likely to follow his personal in
clinations, the first of which is the uni
versal demand from the business men
of all sections and all parties that the
bill be allowed to become a law, bad as
it is, in order that they may have
chance to do business, even if it be poor
business. The second, and probably the
most weighty reason with Mr.. Cleve-
land, is the knowledge that the senate
would refuse to pass any bill that he
was known to wish passed.
The pop gun tariff bills for free iron,
coal, sugar and barbed wire, which the
house passed and sent to the senate, are
nothing more than excuses to aid free
trade democratic members of the house
to square themselves with their free
trade constituents. The only one of
them that could possibly get through
the senate is that. providing for free
sugar, and that one. the administration
joins the sugar trust in opposing. Sec
retary Carlisle and the agent of the
sugar trust are both working in concert
to prevent the passage of the free sugar
bill, the latter trying to frighten those
controlled by the sugar trust, by repre-
senting that the money to be collected
through the tariff on sugar is absolutely
necessary to save the administration
from another issue of bonds. This ar
gument does not speak well for Mr..
Carlisle's opinion of the intelligence of
the democratic senators, as every intel
ligent reader of the newspapers knows
that the treasury will, not for a long
time to come collect any tariff on sugar,
tor the very simple reason that the
sugar trust has supplied itself with all
the raw sugar it will need for months,
in order to escape the payment of the
duty. The real reason why the admin
istration is opposed to free sugar is that
it would knock the sugar trust out of
the two cents pound which it pro-
poses to add to the price of sugar.
1t is an open secret here that Secreta-
ries Gresham and Carlisle have advised
Mr.. Cleveland to sign the tariff bill and
let congress adjourn, leaving the demo-
Gratis to make the best they can indi-
vidually of the surrender of Mr.. Cleve-
land and the house, when they take the
stump for the congressional campaign.
But SO far Mr.. Cleveland has refused to
accept their advice, because he wants to
'tget even'' with German and his sup
porters by writing message to congress
explaining his position. The more ex-
planning he does the more republicans
will be elected to the next house. For
that reason republicans hope that he
will send a message to congress.
Senator Vest made another savage at
tack on Mr.. Cleveland in a speech on