Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-04-17
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Special Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, d. c.. April 10, '95.

Cleveland administration came into
power, and it is going to be more diff
cult than ever. II has been the policy
of the Treasury to raise all sorts of OBJ.
stacles to defer payment on Govern
ment vouchers of all sorts. 1t was this
policy that caused Senator German to
say on the floor of the Senate that if all
proper demands on the Government
were paid there would be a deficit of
not less than 800, 600, 900. At a cabi.
net meeting held after the decision of
the Supreme Court, in the income tax
cases, was fully digested it was decided
that the calling of an extra session of
Congress should be avoided, il possible;
and the possibility of keeping money in
the Treasury by delaying payments
upon appropriations made by Congress
IA considered. 1t is not certain even
then that Congress will have to be
called together.
That the exemption Of incomes from
rents and State and municipal bonds
will cut off at least one half of the
amount that would have been received
from the income tax is admitted by
everybody who knows anything about
the subject. And not o few believe
that the advice of eminent lawyers,
based upon the failure of the Supreme
Court to declare the law either consti.
tutional or unconstitutional, will re
suit In the failure of thousands to pay
the tax. Men who we're loud IN their
praises of the tax are now bitterly op.
posed to it because of the exemptions
made by the court. They say that
these exemptions will defeat the princi-
pie object of those who advocated an
income tax, the compelling of alien
landlords to bear a fair share in sup
porting the Government, and throw
the principal burden of the tax upon
business men, manufacturers and other
large employers of labor, and their
argument appears to be a good one.
The charge, openly made in Wash.
ington, that two of the four Justices of
the Supreme Court who voted to sus-
tain the constitutionality of the income
tax did so on a legal technically and
that in the absence OF that technically
the vote would have stood six to two
against the constitutionality of the
entire law, instead of the clauses ex.
empted, is not calculated to add to the
popularity of the law, nor to the will
lingness of anybody to pay the tax.
Friends of Senator Blackburn, in
Washington, say that Mr.. C~leveland's
action, in appointing a man named
Joplin to succeed Mrs. Helm as post
master at Elizabethtown, Kentucky,
after the Senate had refused to act
upon the nomination of Joplin to that
Office, will greatly aid Senator Black
burn in his campaign for reelection to
the Senate. Mrs. Helm is the youngest
sister of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln and
the widow of a Confederate brigadier
who died in battle, and it was at the
request of ex Confederate soldiers in
Kentucky that Senator Blackburn es.
poused Mrs. Helms cause and succeed.
ed in preventing action upon Joplin
nomination. MIR. Cleveland is opposed
to the reelection of Senator Blackburn,
on account of his views on the silver
question.
Mr.. Cleveland now regrets that his
friends arranged to have him invited
to Chicago to make a gold speech, in
order To counteract the silver element,
which seems to be in a fair way to get
control of the Democratic party in chat
State. The principal cause of his re-
greet is that it has been represented to
him that if he makes that gold speech
it will result in an open rupture be-
tween himself and Vice President
Stevenson, who is stated to be the
beneficiary of the Democratic silver
convention which has been called to
meet 10 that State in June. The off
cial relations between Mr.. Cleveland
aud Mr.. Stevenson have been strained
for q long time, but the former is not
yet ready for an entire break in those
relations. 1t is regarded as certain
that the Illinois Democrats will at that
convention declare in favor of free
silver, regardless of anything that Mr..
Cleveland may say; hence his regret
that anything should have been said
about his making a gold speech in the
State. He is just human enough not
to wish to put himself in a position to
get knocked down by the Illinois Demo.
Gratis.
Senator Dubois, of Idaho, who is now
In Washington, has, all the world
knows, some very positive views on
the subject of the restoration of silver
as a money metal. He says: I'm my
judgment the outlook for silver is
bright. A great majority of the voters
want it restored, and they will find a
way to secure what they want. They
will not be fooled any more with mean
ingless resolutions in national plat
forms or by politicians who talk one
way and vote another. Senator Dubois
believes the restoration of sill liver will
be the work Of the Republican party.
WHTTESB URG.
GakA0l .1z1l - IN. "