Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-11-21
PERMANENT HEADQUARTERS
To be Opened in Washington-That
War Scare-ProbabiIities.


friend virtually confirming the rumor
that the Republican National Com
mittee would shortly open permanent
headquarters in Washington, from
which to go right along until the truth
has been argued into the heads Of all
misguided people, shall be directed.
This move would have been generally
commended anyway, but the an
nouncement that the silver commit
tee, the populist committee, and the
democratic committee intended to
maintain permanent Washington
headquarters and to keep up the dis
tribution of silver literature, made it
almost necessary. The silver senti-
ment would not have been half so ex-
tensive if its opponents had met ar
gument with argument, instead OF
wasting time laughing at the silver
men sendiug out campaign literature
several years ahead of the campaign,
and doing nothing themselves. Mr..
Hanna knows how hard it was to un-
do in few weeks the work that the
silver men had been doing for several
years; hence he has from the day the
campaign closed favored continual
ton of the education of the voters on
the silver question.
There is enough work on the bills
already passed by the House to keep
the Senate busy until the close of the
last session of the Fifty-tourth Con.
gress, but how many of those bills
the Senate will act upon, or even de-
vote any time to, is more than any
man can really say. Among the inn
portant bills passed by the House and
left Enacted upon by the Senate are
the Dingley emergency revenue bill,
the bill to protect the gold reserve
and provide for temporary deficiencies
in revenue, the bill to amend the GUS
toms administrative law, the Bank
ruptcy bill, the Immigration bill and
the Pension bill. Doubtless other
bills would have been acted upon by
the House had not the disposition of
the Senate to do nothing been so ap-
parent. How much of that disposi-
ton remains will not be certain until
after Congress meets, rlotwithstand-
ing the opinions pro and con which
some OF the Senators have recently
made public. 1t will be noticed that
men like Senator Morrill,, of VT,
1.-The Father of the Senate" are not
attempting to say what the Senate
will do. Mr.. Morrill, is in Washing
ton for the winter, but he isn't max
ing any prophecies.
Mr.. Cleveland administration al
ways seems to have war scare ready
on the public Having just gotten
rid OF the principal cause of friction
with England by negotiating treaty
providing for the submission of the
Venezuelan Boundary dispute with
England to arbitration, the Spanish
war scare is trotted out in new dress.
While no official statement has been
made to that effect, friends of the adj
ministration say that it has trustwor-
thy information that Spain intends to
force a war with this country If her
present campaign against the Cuban
revolutionists fail, and that the adj
ministration is accordingly preparing
to fight IfSpain really had any such
intention it would be wise to prepare
for war, and in any event it will do no
harm. But it isn't at all likely that
Spain has any such intention. There
has been enough to prove to the world
that the men, or women, who are
running the government OF Spain
during the minority of the king are
not models of wisdom, but that is no
reason why they should be foolish
enough to provoke a war with the
United States. 1t may be that some
Spaniards are ignorant enough to be-
lieve that one-horse nation, like
Spain, is in the same fighting class
with the United States, but it is inn
possible to believe that men of sutfl-
cient education and intelligence to be
entrusted with official positions under
the Spanish Government, share such
an absurd belief At any rate, there
is no reason for anybody to lose any
sleep over the probabilities of a war
with Spain. If the Dons haven't any
better sense than to get up rumpus
with us, they will find that the
thrashing they will receive will be too
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