San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-05-24
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, May %.

Perhaps it may be true, as has
been constantly reiterated, that
Mr.. Stevenson is not particularly
friendly toward Mr.. Cleveland and
his administration, but his selec-
ton of the Democratic members of
the Senate committee that today
| began star chamber investiga-
ton OF the numerous charges of
crookeaness against Senators and
outsiders, beginning with the cock
and bull story concerning an at
tempt having been made to bribe
Senators Hunton, of Va, and Kyle,
of S. OAK, to vote against the tariff
bill, and including the charges
against Democratic Senators of
having speculated in sugar trust
stock and Of having given the
sugar trust protection in exchange
| for its big contribution to the
Cleveland campaign fund, makes
him appear very friendly indeed
towards the administration.
For instance, Senator Gray,
chairman of the committee, is
known as chief of the Senate
"cuckoos," and a man who would
do more for the administration
than any other senator, while Sen
ator Lindsay, the other Democratic
member of the committee, is, in
addition to being a cuckoo, known
as Carlisle's man. The sig
nificance of these selections
will not be moderated when
it is remembered that Secre-
tary Carlisle, representing Mr..
| Cleveland, has been from the first
to the last mixed up in all the
dealings between the Democratic
Senators and the sugar trust.
Senator Mills, OF Texas, has public
| ly stated that Secretary Carlisle
gave the President Of the sugar
trust a letter of introduction to
him and that he refused to see
him when he called to present it.
| The Democrats ask credit for being
fair because Senator Allon, of Neb.,
was put upon the committee, but
they do not deserve 1t, as Allen
has voted with the Dem ocrats on
| all political questions and is regard
ed as a Democrat, although he
calls himself Populist. 1t is clear
that If anything is shown up by
this committee it will be through
the energy Of its two Republican
members, Lodge, Of Mass, and
Davis, of MINI. But nothing can
be shown up, unless the witnesses
choose to tell what they know, the
Supreme court having some years
ago decided that Congressional
committee could not compel them
either to testify or to produce
books dealing with citizens pri-
vate affairs. That decision is a
| great consolation to more than one
Democratic Senator just now. An
other consoling thing to certain
Democratic Senators, was the
decision arrived at by the COM
mittee to make the investi-
cation secret, giving out from day
to day only such Information as
Senator Gray may see fit. That
means that the newspaper men
will have to hustle to find out
what is going on in that commit
tee room, as Mr.. Gray Is one Of
those non-communicative senators
who regard newspapers as kind
of nuisance.
An amusing tidbit is going the
rounds, recall ing the old coup
let:
"a little nonsense now and then
| Is relished by the wisest men,"
During an executive session the
other day when a discussion was
going on over the confirmation Of
some nominations in which the
Republicans had no interest, a
number of them whiled away the
time writing verses on the exhibit
ton Senator Turpie, Of Ind, made
of himself recently by his uncalled
| for personal attack on Senator
Aldrich. The venerable Senator
Morrill,, affectionately called the
father Of the Senate, started the
amusement and soon half dozen
Senators were cudgeling their
begins for rhymes. Senator Man.
derson's verse was unanimously
voted the best. He wrote:
'Aldrich is a triple liar"
Said Turpie in rage,
But Aldrich, without show OF fire,
SAID: "Turpie is no sage"
And into no abuse he sunk
In stating Turpie sure was drunk.
The Republican Senators having
concluded to hold their ammuni-
ton for big game, considerable
progress has been made and will
continue to be made in disposing
of the unimportant items Of the
tariff bill, but the sugar schedule