Middletown transcript., 1895-07-27

y kbolseeHNSxsHi, full, but the powe
70 %E1 exercised b,
- ,kss.s|Ilgss8ss2y4sE them over the ex
y &TSESa penditures O
oei W1S..t } their respective
" nations was no
o greater than thai
now claimed for subordinate oficia
u of the U. S. Treasury. According te
this claim, the Comptroller has the
authority to refuse payment of appro.
priations made by Congress and ap-
proved by the President, whenever he
: believes, or makes a pretense of be-
lieving, that said payment would be
unconstitutional, and the claimant has
no redress or appeal, except to enter
suit for the amount claimed in the
Court of Claims. The first notice of
this remarkable claim of authority
was given several days ago when a
voucher for about $12, 900, in favor of
the Oxnard Company, of Nebraska,
manufacturers of beet sugar, was held
up by the Comptroller, and the COM
pany notified that the Comptroller
would hear argument as to the c0nsti-
tutionality of the Act of Congress
appropriating S23S,O0O to pay the
bounty on beet sugar manufactured
before the repeal of the bounty clause
of the Mckinley law. The Comptroller
says he believes the sugar bounty law
to have been unconstitutional, which
is little queer, in view of his having
allowed $12,OO0,000 or thereabouts, to
be paid out under that law during the
fiscal year ending June 30th, 1894,
without protest. The real facts in
this business are we'll known. Comp
troller Bowler is merely figure head,
who repeats his lesson just as it is
taught to him. In addition to the
money appropriation for the beet sugar
makers, there was $1,000, 900 appropri-
ated by the last Congress to pay defer |
red sugar bounties-they will be de- |
ferred sure enough, it seems. This |
money the administration doesn't wish |
to pay out until Republican Congress
shall have put more money in the
National Treasury. Comptroller Bow
Ter has been swelled up by praise and
made the tool of smarter men to carry
out this idea. The same tactics are,
according to current report, to be used
to defer payment on the contract made
with the International Steamship Com
pany for the transportation of mails to
Europe. This contract was made by
Mr.. Wanamaker, when he was Post
master General, under an Act of Con-
gress, and includes the use of the
steamships owned by the Company as
government cruisers IN time of war.
That mysterious Cabinet meeting
has naturally been the subject of much
gossip and of numberless rumors.
That the Spanish minister, who came
to Washington about the same time
that Secretary Olney did, if he did not
accompany him, was the cause of this
Cabinet meeting is certain, and that
it discussed the Cuban revolution. All ,
else is conjecture, owing to the air of
mystery with which those who attended
the meeting have since surrounded
themselves, although it is difficult to T
imagine any good reason why there Q
should be any secrecy as to the position
Ibis government occupies towards i
either Spain or the revolving Cubans. {
Rumor says the Spanish minister went h
10 far as to ask that those American 1
editors who are disposed to sympathize q
with the Cubans should be muzzled by +,
he Secretary of State. The admins
ration would seem to have about all
he muzzling it can attend to, in trying y
o shut the mouths of the Silver Dem L
'crats, without tackling the editors of -
he country, although Secretary Olney y
s probably fully in accord with the u
dea of press censorship. II
The populists are much chagrinned P
yer the latest phase of the reorgaDiza- h
ion Of the Senate at the beginning of b.
he coming session of Congress. They al
ave been confidently counting upon W
eing asked to join the Republicans in ii
he reorganization and, of course, re- tt
Giving liberal share of the Commit
90 chairmanships and of the Senate
atronage. 1t has lately come out that
lany of the Republican Senators W
vould much rather not reorganize the 10
enate than to do it with the assistance ~ ~
the Populists. This wasn't pleasing -
, the Democrats, who do not wish to co
,tain control of the committees with Is
ut the power to control votes enough in
, carry anything through, and some ce
them have intimated to the Repub- su
cans their willingness to vote for 0y
that will divide the =
lairmanships and the patronage be-
yeen the Republicans and the Demo-
ats, leaving the Populists out alto
sther. No one has authority to ac-
'pt this or any other proposition con-
'rning reorganization until it shall
I'VE been submitted to caucus of
epublican Senators, but all the same
s consumation is probable enough to
I'VE destroyed the extensive air castles
hich the Populists have been building
! the belief that they would hold the
lance of power and could dictate
cir own terms for the reorganization