Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-06-23
PRESS COMMENTS.
A Maine Naval Rsssrve-Why Mott

serve corps:
The report of the condition of branches
of the naval militia in ten or dozen
different states is most encouraging
The fact that the secretary of the navy
has received applications for sea service
on United States cruisers from nearly all
the states represented. shows the active
interest that is taken iu the ports where
corps have been organized. The state
showing the smallest number of enlisted
men is Connecticut, with Go. Maine should
be able to do considerably better than this.
Bath would be likely to furnish twenty-five
or thirty men and Portland, probably, near
er fifty, while the other coast towns should
make the number up to a hundred, at least.
1t is needless to point out the potential
value of naval reserve, for we believe
that is admitted. If we had q branch of
the force in this State our ports would be
visited once every season by at least one
of Uncle Sans cruisers to take our anna
teur tars sailing on the briny. Why
shouldn't Maine have naval reserve?
Doesn't Hurt Only Amuses.
(Biddeford Journal.)
Some of the small fry Democratic news
papers of Maine are working themselves
into state of Precipitation over an acciden-
tai temporary omission in the prohibition
plank of the Republican State convention,
which they call "monkeying with the plat
FORM" 1t is an entirely harmless diversion.
1t doesn't hurt the platform and furnishes
employment for the monkeys.
The Auction and the Trust.
New York Tribune.)
The Gray committee has opened the way
for a renewal of The struggle over the
tainted sugar schedule in the Senate. In
their laborious efforts to avoid . thorough
investigation of the scandal and to release
by implication the Democratic senators
from their responsibilities in drawing up
and executing the bill of sale to the sugar
trust, members of the committee have ex-
posed themselves to destructive criticism.
These senators. while admitting individ-
ually that the revised schedule was
repugnant to them in one detail
or another have found shelter be-
hind the plea of political necessity.
Acknow ledging either with frankness or
with cynical Indifference their participation
in various conferences with representatives
of the trust, the leaders have strenuously
denied that they had any personal interest
in the schedule or that they we're influenced
by the lobbying which was conducted by
Mr.. Havemeyer, Mr.. Searles and other re-
fners. Their sole excuse for agreeing to
and voting for a schedule of which they
disapproved was the necessity of putting
the tariff bill into such shape as to secure
the forty three votes required for its pas
rNbic IF which tho "a
publican senators ought to take full ad-
vantage when the tariff bill is brought up
for final action.
When the Democratic caucus was held
and the conservative group" under the
leadership of Senator German convinced
the majority that the finance committee
revised bill could not be passed, the auction
began under the direction of that practical
man of business, Senator Jones. He listen
ed to the bids from senators representing
communities interested in special industries,
such as coal, iron, lead, sugar, collars and
cuffs, or holding peculiarly friendly rela-
tions with various monopolies and trusts,
He found out what every one wanted and
made his series of bargains. When forty
three votes for the bill of sale had been
secured in this way the auction was closed.
The CORN an tariff bill as a whole was re-
pugnant to every Democratic senator who
agreed to vote for it, but political necessity
required, so it is assumed, that measure
of some kind should be enacted, and that
was the only way in which it could be done.
The dickeripg process is plain and intel
lisible except at one point. The sugar
schedule was drawn up, a. Senator Sher-
man has authoritatively asserted, not BY q
legislator nor by lawyer, but by an e1-
perienced manufacturer. This is proved
by internal evidence, since it is wholly in
the interest of the sugar trust; and the per-
nicious activity of the refiners in conferring
with the secretary of the treasury the finance
committee and Democratic senators has been
disclosed by the evidence taken by the Gray
committee. Who were the senators represen-
ting the trust in Senator Jones auction?
Apparently not the Louisiana senators who
were only interested in having . duty i'm
posed upon raw sugar in place of the boun-
ty; and they acted without regard for their
constituents in Louisiana, where the planters
favored the continuance of the bounty sys-
tenn. Those senators have denied most en-
phatically that they were concerned with the
duty on refined sugar and other devices.
which Senator Sherman has laid bare, for
perpetuating and enriching the re6ner's
trust. Ii the two Louisiana votes were
not bought in BY CONCESSIONS to the trust,
then whose support was secured BY this sur
render! Senator Jones, the auctioneer,
ought 10 be compelled to explain why the
bill was in danger of defeat without
these concessions. Otherwise Tire whole plea
| OF political uecesoity falls to the aYound,