The St. Johns herald., 1897-03-20
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent
 WASHINGTON, D. C., MarcI

From Our Regular Correspondent
 WAsHINGToN, D. O., March 12
 MT. Mckinley is likely to be much
 more intere sted in the senate than in
 the soft speeches the army of office
 seekers are now pouring into his ears,
 If certain plans now being strongly
 urged are carried out. The maj jority of
 the senate IS composed of silver men,
 but they represent three separate par
 tles-Democrats, Populists and Silver
 Republicans. The greediness of the
 Republicans in claiming the right to
 change the complexion of the Commit
 tee on Finance by filling both vacancies
 with gold Republicans, has aroused the silver men, and the proposition has
 been made that they shall combine and
 reorganize the senate by deposing the Republicans from the echairmapships of
 all important committees and by giving
 the silver senators control of all con-
 mittees. In other words, to put the leg
 isIative machinery of the senate into
 the hands Of the silver men. This prop
 osltlon will not be easy to carry into
 effect because of the difficulty of com
 blning men who agree on nothing but
 silver, but 1t has frightened the Repub-
 licans badly.
 Senator Teller was speaking from per
 sonal experience, having himself been
 secretary of the interior from April 17,
 1881, to March 4, 1885, when he told the
 senate that MT. Mckinley had made a
 serious mistake when he nominated
 Cornelius N. Bliss to be secretary of the
 interior. He said that Mir. Elias was 8
 banker and merchant, WItE an expert ence which might have fitted hlm for
 the head of some of the departments, o-l 1nFT fu uIs oi5Alur, tAo uoau ol the ,1o-.o- department ought to be a lawyer. NT. Teller did not speak in : | spirit of autagOnism to MT. Bliss. nor did he vote against his confirmation he merely called attention to what be | believed to be mistake.
 As might be imagined, those senators and representatives who are opposed 10 | Czar Reeds idea or confining the legis. latlon of the extra session of congress to the tariff bill by not appointing the of the house which would have to act upon other bills, are not grieving over the failure of four of the regular appropriation bills-the sundry civil, agricultural. Indian and defcien- cy. Czar Reed already has another scheme to prevent general legislation. It is to authorize, by joint resolution, a of all the regular appro- prIations of the current year up to next December.
 There was more or less interesting rumpus in Washington the day after the heinanguratIUn, about which very little has been beard. A meeting of Republican clubs had been called for that day by Colonel John BowIes for the announced purpose of adopting resolu- tions advising the new administration what it should do to retain the support of these clubs. General Woodmansee, who is chairman of the Executive Com mittee of the National Organization of clubs, and who claimed that the individual clubs represented at this could not properly act upon such resolutions as were to be offered, succeeded in having the convention ad iourn as soon as it was called to order There was some very warm talk about ! thls application of the gag, but the scent of the pie counter made 1t mostly among shose interested:
 Ex-Senator Blackbu will attend the extra session Of the Kentucky Iegisla- ture that has been called to elect sen- ator, and will make strong fight for his own reelection, notwithstanding the Republican majority in that body. Nobody expects the senate to seat Ma for Wood, who has been appointed to l the vacancy by Governor Bradley. and whether the gentlemen appointed by the governors of Florida and Oregon will fare any better remains to be seen.
 King Hanna has got everything he { has reached for up to date, bat certain ; senator's who think he is now reaching i after too much are preparing to give him 2 disappointment, and there are blg I odds in favor of their succeeding. King 1 Hanna is reaching for place on the l Senate Finance committee, on which : there are two vacancies. caused by the i of Sherman and Voorhees, ( n order that he may be properly fixed ( 10 boss the tariff bill, which will go to , that committee as soon as 1t gets ( through the house. No new senator has been given a place on that committee { in the memory of the oldest senator, but that doesn't make any difference to Hanna. He wants it, and has made his want known. It is practically certain that he won't get it. Tom Platt also wants a place on this committee, but as he has been in the senate before, his