The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1895-07-27
NATIONAL AFFAIRS.
That Mysterious Cabinet Meeting. The
POpuliStS Chagrined. Comptroller
Bowler Takes a Stand.
Regular Correspondence of the WING.

regular correspondence OF the WING.
WAsHINGToN, July "a, 1895.
Caesar, Cromwell and Napoleon were in
their day considered powerful, but the power
exercised by them over the expenditures OF
their respective nations was not greater than
that now claimed for IA subordinate official
| the L. 5. Treasury. According to this claim. the
comptroller has the authority to refuse pay
ment of appropriations made 10y Congress an,.
approved by the President, whenever he be-
lieves or makes n pretense Of believing that sal
payment would be unconstitutional, and tn
claimant has no redress or appeal, except t.
enter suit for the amount claimed in the Cour
| of claims. The first notice of this Remarkable
claim of authority was given several days az
when IA voucher for about Sl2, 900, in favor o
the OXnard Company, of Nebraska. mlnu-
facturers Of beet su%ar, was held up by tn
| Comptroller, and the COMPANY notified tina
the Comptroller would hear argument as
the constitutionalitl of the Act Of Congrrs-
appropriating 923S 600 to pay the bounty %
! beet sugar manufactured before the repeal &
the bounty clause of the Mckinley law The
| Comptroller says he believes the sugar bouut>
| law W have bttn which l.
little queer, in view of his having Above,
| sl2 600 900 or thereabouts, to be paid out
under that law during the fiscal year endn
June 30, 1894, without prot st. The rca
| facts i'll this business are well known Conn
troller Bowler is merely Il figure head, VIII
! repeats his lesson Just as it is taught to hin
In addition to the money appropriated f.
the beet sugar makers, there was 100000
appropriated by the last Congress to pay de,
| ferred sugar hounties they will he def,rrc,
sure enough, it seems. This money the a,.
ministration doesn't wish to pay out until
Republican Congress shall have put myIr
money i'll the National Treasury. Comp
troller Bowler has been swelec up by pruis
and made the tool of smarter men to carry
ont this idea. The same tactics are, a,corG
ing to current report, to be used to defer pay
ment on the contract made with the INTERIM
tlonal Steamship Company for the Transports
| ZION Of mails to Europe. This contract VIII
made by Mr.. Wanamakcr when he was Post
master General, under an Act of Congress
and includes the use of the steamships own,,
10y the Company as government cruisers II.
time Of war.
That mysterious Cabinet meeting has natu-
ally been the subject of much gossip and &.
| numherless rumofs. That the Spanish nil
lister. who came to Washington about the
sane time that Secretary OIncy did, if he did
not accompany him, was the cause Of thi-
Cabinet meeting is certain. and that it dis
cIssed the Cuban revolution. All else is GO. =
lecture, owingt the air of mystery with which
| those who attended the meeting have since sur
rounded themselves, although it is d fiiruit
to imagine any good reason why there should
be any secrecy rs to the position this govern
ment occupies towards either Spain or the
revolving tubans Rumor says the Spanish
minister went SO far as to ask that tho-c
American editors who are disposed to sympu-
thiZc with the Cubans should be muzzed icy
the secretary of State. The administration
would seen to have about all the muzZling it
can attend to, in trying to shut the mouths
of the Silver democrats, without tackling the
editors of the country, although Secretary
Olney is probably fully in accord with the
idea of Il press censorship.
The Populists are much chagrined over
the latest phase of the reorganization of the
Senate at the beginning of the coming session
Of Congress. They have been confidently
counting upon being asked to join the repul-
Leans in the reorganizati IN ard of course
receiving II liberal share of the Committee
| chairmanships and of the Senate patronage.
| II has lately come out that many of the Re-
| publican Senators would much rather not
| reorganiHe the Senate than to do it with
the assistance of the Populists. This wasn't
| pleasing 10 the democrats who do not wish
| to retain control of the committees without
| the power to control votes enough to carry
anything through, and some of them have
intimated to the Republicans their willingness
| to vote for reorganization that will divide the
chairnanshps and the patronage between the
| Republicans and the Democrats. leaving the
POpulists out altogether. No one has author
ity to accept this or any other proposition
concerning reorganization until it shall have
! been submitted to caucus of Republican
Senators, but all the same its consumation il
probable enough to have destroyed the en-
tensve air castles which the Populists have
been building on the belief that they would
hold the balance of power and could dictate
their own terms for the reorganization of the
! Senate.