The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1897-08-12
WASHINGTON.
,.on our Regular Correspondent.

The Republicans are far from feel
inc the confidence they express of
carving Ohio this year. In fact, they
fcel so doubtful of the result that in
addition to the whole power of the
administration being used to help
Ross Hanna to carry the State, nearly
every republican of national prom-
nence 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 administration most OF them will |
comply with the request Mr.. Nc
Kiniey, it is said in Washington, is
going to so far forget his dignity as to
make speeches for Hanna, and Gar
Reed has promised to take the stump
for him. 1t is fully recognized that a
defeat for Hanna will be defeat for
Mr.. Mckinley, which would be very
humiating IN his own State during the
first year of his administration.
Every honest man has personal
interest in the proceedings against
John Wedderburn & Co., on the
charge of fraudulent practices, now
going on before the U. S. Patent
Office. The Patent Office has fully
proven a number of its charges of
fraud against Wedderburn & Co., any
one of which would furnish ample
ground for their disbarment from
practice before that Office, and lawyers
who have attended the hearings are
unanimously of the opinion that the
firm will be disbarred. The nature of
their defense has made it clear that
they are relying upon the skill and
.hrewdness of their lawyers, rather
than upon disproving the charges Of
laud against them, in their scant hope
of wriggling out of their bad scrape.
If they are disbarred, their paper, the
National Recorder, will be shut out
OF the mails.
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
painest and most emphatic language
that the conference to be held this
fall on that subject will be fake pure
and simple. He says that Ambassa-
dor Hay begged Lord Salisbury to
allow the British naturaists who have
for six years been studying the seals
,e1o dc 20 r,ofyra c re
at Washington and compare biologi-
cal notes, in order to hide ex-Secre.
tary Fosters humilating failure to gel
the question reopened, and that Sails
bury agreed He says further that the
socalled conference will have nc
authority to do anything whatever to
wards settlement Of the question
Prof Elliot's assertions have attracted
wide attention, and if what he says i
true they deserve still more. Mean
while Prof. Elliott will probably los
his Smithsonian job.
Mr.. McKinley's amendment to tn
civil service rules, forbidding the dis
mlssal of persons from the classlfle
service except tor cause and upo1
written charges, has not prevented
number of democrats in the Govern
ment Printing Office getting a roug
deal. True, they were not dismissed
but some of them were furloughed fc
an indefinite period, and nine OF tn
most efficient proof readers in tn
office-all democrats-were tram
ferred to the case. "There are MOI
ways of killing dog than hanging.
When mathematics are brought
bear upon Mr.. McKinley's extensic
of the civil service rules 1t doesn
seem to have been worth the glorific
ton given it by the worshipers at II
shrine of civil service cant. He has 1
creased the exemptions from civil Sc
vice rules in the Internal Reven'
Service from 6S to ZIG places, al
while extending the rules to $50 ne
places in the Customs service he h
exempted s4S places in the san
service.
If it's anything with money in
this administration is ready to be
and doing even in midsummer. II
week the State department present
an ultlmatum to Peru, through t
Peruvian Minister, requiring that t
McCord claim of $4,000 shall be
once paid. A little of that sort
talk in behalf of the struggling Cuba
would be well received by the count
but there is no money in it.
Officials of the State departing
deny that our Minister to Hawai-
instructed to establish protector
over Hawaii as soon as he learn
that the Senate did not act upon
annexation treaty at the extra sess
Of fCongress, but admit that he n
have done so under the general
creation that was given him to ac'
certain contingencies. One OF tn
contingencies is known to have b'