Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-03-29
THE PROPER THING.
THURSTON'S RECALL A LONG
NEGLECTED DUTY.
administration Birthday Post.
mastcr-Generai BisscII SIiiI I'm
Charge Republican Row Likely
Between the New and the old
Members The Diplomatic situa.


Between the New and the old
Members The Diplomatic situa-
ton Unchanged.
Regular CORES ponicncc of the Stau.ur,l.
WA>HINGToN, March -, 1855.
Instead of being criticised for hav-
ing asked for the recall oi the present
Hawaiian Minister To the United
States, President Cleveland and
Secretary Gresham ar deserving Of
much credit for their forhear ince in
allowing him to remain here a. long
as they have. 1t is doubtful whether
there is another country in the world
that would have allowed this man to
have remained under the circumstan-
ces. TWAS notorious during the last
session of Congress that Minister
Thurst"n not only furnished the op
ponents Of the administration with
ammunition to fight the Hawaiian
policy of the administration, both in
and out OF Congress, but actually be-
came Il lobbyist against that policy
! himself. These facts are recognized
10y Republicans as well as Democrats
Senator Hale, OF Maine, who has been
from the first a rsbid Hawaiian an
nexationist, said Of the request for
Thurston's recall: al have no inside
or exclusive Information, but the pub
lished reports say that Mr.. Thurston's
recall has been asked because he made
public diplomatic correspondence be-
lore submitting it to Secretary
Gresham. II this is correct he was
clearly in the wrong and could not ex.
pect that the Secretary would do
otherwise than ask for his recall 1t
was clearly 4 breach OF official Ell
quette, and is a practice which this
country cannot afford to encourage.
There might he times when such ~
course would lead to serious conse.
qnences, and if matters of interra-
uonal importance are to he so treated
10y the representatives of foreign gov
ernments we might as well have no
State Department" There are reasons
for the belief that Mr.. Thurston never
would have been received as the Minis
ter of the Hawaiian republic had it not
been that opponents of the admins
tration would have charged refusal
to receive him to prejudice against the
government he represented. He
made himself Objectionable when he
WAS one Of the annexation commits
sioners, before he became Minister.
Administration birthdays fall close
together; at least, four of them do.
President Cleveland was tifty-eight
last Monday, Secretary Gresham sixty
three last Sunday (St. Patrick's day.
Secretary Herbert sixty.one last Tues
day a week ago March l2), and Secre-
tary Morton will be sixty-three April
9th. Secretary Lamont might also
be added to the group, as he cele-
brated his forty-fourth birthday on
the 9th Of February.
Postmaster General Bissell says he
is working now just because he prefers
work to idleness. Everything about
the Postoilice department is in good
shape, and the department could cas-
lily be run by the assistants until Post
master General Wilson gets ready to
take charge, but Mr.. Bissell would
have to remain in Washington for
some time because the lease on his
Washington house does not expire for
more than a month yet and he cannot
get possession Of his Buffalo residence
until about the same time, owing to
its having been leased to friend, so
he prefers to remain in charge of the
department. 1t would seem that Mr..
Bissell never had any idea when he
entered the cabinet of remaining in
Office longer than this spring. The
leases, in Buffalo and Washington,
tell the story.
Another row is developing among
the Republican members of the House
of the Fifty-fOurth Congress. Just
before the adjournment of Congress
the 96 Republican members of the
House who were reelected held u
secret caucus and decided that all OF
the important committee chairman
ships should be given to them; also
that they should control all of the
House patronage. The secret was not
we'll kept, and when the new members
heard about it they were naturally dis
pleased. A count of noses shows that
there are l35 new Republican mem.
bers-elect of the next House, and. ac-
cording to statements made by some
of them, they propose to band them
selves together for the purpose of
thwarting the scheme OF the old men,
bers to monopolize everything in
sight, and it is said that some of them
wish to push their power to the ex-
tent of electing one of their number
speaker, instead of Mr. Reed, because
of his having endorsed the proposed
grab game of the old members. The
new members have the power to do
what they please when it comes to or
ganizing the next House, but it re.
mains to be seen whether they have
nerve enough TO exercise their power.
None of the diplomatic complica.
tons have been entirely settled
things move slowly in the diplomatic
world-but they are all in course OF
settlement on a basis entirely satisfac-
torp to the administration, except
those arising from determinations
against American products by certain
European countries; they are still in
the unclassable stage. Dem.
THE Supreme Court has affirmed
the judgment in the case of Fenton
Goss, appellant, vs. the State Capitol
Commission, respondent. This action
was brought to restrain the commits
sioners from entering into q contract
with MofIatt Bros. for the erection OF
the State capitol foundation. Under
the first call for bids for this contract
the lowest bidder failed to qualify, and
the commissioners called for new bids
and under the second call gave the
contract to Moffatt Bros. Goss
claimed the contract as the second
lowest bidder under the first call
The court holds that the commission.
ers had a perfect right to reject all
bids, and in so doing did not discrimi-
nate against Goss, who, in the opinion
Of the court, utterly failed to state a
case emitting him to relief.
The government is considering two
propositions for the improvement OIL
the Nooksack river for rendering il
navigable for light-draft steamers
The accumulation of logs in booms al