The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1897-04-23
prom Our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON LETTER.

WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, ID. c., April 10 ,'97.
The treaty negotiated by the last
administration, with Great Britain,
defining a portion Of the boundary
line between Alaska and Canada,
will never be ratified in its present
shape. BY a protense Of liberality
in giving the U. s. about fourteen
square miles of territory (Which we
already had a legal claim TOY the
willy English diplomats made a trap
which was intended to cost the u.
s. all the territory worth having in
that section. by shutting out our
claims within what is known as our
thirty miles strip" and its inter
section with the 141st meridian, and
it came very near TO succeeding too,
as the treaty would have been rati-
fed some time ago had not Senator
Stewart objected. MI. Stewart OBJ
jected on the general principle that
the matter was too important to be
hastily disposed Of, and now that
the contents of the treaty are under
stood, he is being congratulated for
having prevented the Senate max
ing a blunder.
According to current gossip, ex-
representative Bellamy Storer, OF
Ohio, must be a queer sort of a
duck. The story goes that he took
advantage Of Mr.. McKinley's fnan-
cial obligations to him to force q
promise that he should be appoint
ed Assistant Secretary Of State.
When the promise was made, Mr..
Mckinley did not know that Storer
was not on speaking terms with
Senator Foraker, or with either Of
the Republican Congressman from
Cincinnati, and now Storer insists
on that appointment being made,
although he cannot get the indorse-
ment of either Senator, or any one
lof the congressional delegation.
He has refused to accept a foreign
appointment, because his rich wife
wishes to figure in the official socie-
ty Of Washington. 1t is said that
Mr.. Mckinley has told Senator For
aker that there wa nothing left for
him to do but nominate Storer for
the place, and that he added that
any fight made on the nomination
in the Senate would not be regard
ed by him as a fight on the admin
istration. The nomination will al
most certainly BE- rejected, and
Storer must know it, yet he insists
on being nomi mated.
Certain republican Senators,
among them Mantle, Carter, Shoup,
Warren and Burrows, have demand
ed Of the republicans Of the Senate
, Finance Committee that q duty of
: not less than two cents a pound
shall be placed on hides, and that
the duty on wool shall be raised to
I inject a schedule submitted by them,
> and the demand is accompanied by
: a threat to defeat the tariff bill il
, their wishes are not complied with.
! 1t is clearly within the power OF
: these five Senators to defeat the
tariff bill, but it is not the opinion
of those best informed that they
will make S Of that power to such
an extent. They are simply exer-
/ cising their right to make a big bluff
in the interest of the products of
their states, in order to get as much
of the protection swag for their con-
> stituents as possible, but in the end
they will take what is given them
and vote for the bill.
Having satisfied themselves that
the democratic Senators would make
no further concessions, the republic
cans accepted the last proposition
made by the democratic steering
. committee, and the vacancies in the
Senate Committees, will all be fill
ed in a few days. Politically speak
ing the committees will stand SUBJ
stantial!y as they did at the close Of
the last session. An agreement
might have been reached before,
but the republicans wished to pun
ish the silver republicans for sup
porting Bryan, and the democrats
insisted that it should not be done,
and it was not done.
1 From the stand taken by the
democrats in this committee matter
it is very evident that the democrats
are not to be lead away from the l6
to | issue by any kind of tariff leg
islation, no matter how radical, and
that the issue in 1898 and 1900 will
be the same as that Of last year,
with Bryan probably in the lead.
G. A. s.