Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-08-13
I'm THEIR BONES -"
THEY FEEL THE PROSPECT OF
DISASTROUS DEFEAT.
Mckinley TO ssSwlng Around the
Circle'' - Reed Must Take the
StumP-The Civll Service Hum
bug Again APPARENT.

From Our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9th, 1897.
The Republicans are far from feeling
the confidence they express of carry
ing Ohio this year. In fact, they feel
so doubtful of the result that in addi-
ton to the whole power of the adj
ministratiOn being used to help Boss
Hanna to carry the State, nearly every
Republican of national prominence in
the country has been asked to make
speeches in Ohio during the campaign,
and as they know that to decline will
be to incur the illwill of the admins
tration most of them will comply with
the request. Mr.. Mckinley, it is said
in Washington, is going to so far for
get his dignity as to make speeches
for Hanna, and Gear Reed has promised
to take the stump for him. 1t is fully
recognized that defeat for Hanna
will be defeat for Mr.. Mckinley,
which would be very humiliating in
his own State during the first year of
his administration.
Prof. Henry w. Elliott, Of. the
Smithsonian Institution, who claims to
know as much about the sealing ques.
ton as any man living, charges in the
plainest and most emphatic language
that the conference to be held this
fall on that subject will be a fake,
pure and simple. Hesays that Ambas-
sador Hay begged Lord Salisbury to
allow the British naturalists who have
for years been studying the seals on
our islands to meet our naturalists at
Washington and compare biological
notes, in order to hide ex-Secretary
Fosters humiliating failure to get the
question reopened, and that Salisbury
agreed. He says further that the So
called conference will have no au-
thority to do anything whatever
towards settlement of the question.
Prof. Elliott's assertions have at
tracted wide attention, and if what he
says is true they deserve still more.
Meanwhile Prof. Elliott will probably
lose his Smithonian job.
Mr.. McKinley's amendment to the
civil service rules, forbidding the dis
missal of persons from the classified
service except for cause and upon
written charges, has not prevented a
number of Democrats in the Govern
ment Printing Office getting a rough
deal. True, they were not dismissed,
but some of them were furloughed for
an indefinite period, and nine OF the
most efficient proof-readers in the Of
tice-all DemOcrats-were transferred
to the case. "There are more ways of
killing dog than by hanging"
When mathematics is brought to
bear upon Mr.. McKinley's extension
of the civil service rules it doesn't
seem to have been worth the glorifica-
ton given it by the worshipers at the
shrine of civil service cant. He has
increased the exemptions from civil
service rules in the Internal Revenue
Service from 60 to 2l9 places, and
while extending the rules to $50 new
places in the Customs service he has
, exempted 34S places in the same SER
vice.
If it's anything with money in it,
this administration is ready to be up
and doing even in midsummer. This
week the State department presented
an ultimatum to Peru, through the
Peruvian Minister, requiring that the
McCord claim of $4,000 shall be ut
once paid. A little of that sort of
talk in behalf of the struggling Cubans
would be well received by the country,
but there is generally no money in it.
Officials of the State department
deny that our Minister to Hawaii was
instructed to establish a prOtectorate
over Hawaii as soon as he learned that
the Senate did not act upon the an
nexation treaty at the extra session
Of Congress, but admit that he may
have done so under the general dis
cretion that was given him to act in
certain contingencies. One of these
contingencies is known to have been
any move ON the part of Japanese to-
ward Selling the islands. DEN.