Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-06-25
WASHINGTON LETTER.
from onr Regular Correspo' ,dentD

IhSOllJ ulo ONb VIII dTOuuu ~
wards annexation made a diplo
matte break and. gave away a stat
secret. He So id that under ord
nary circumstances he was op
posed to annexation, hat tina
when he learned that scheme
was on foot to put Hawaii'ln pos
session of Japan, he favored an
neXatiOn. Thereby hangs tn
whole story of the hurrylng up o
the treaty Tor the annexation o
Hawaii, which President McKInle,
sent TO the Senate last week. |
would have come in time anyway
bat the administration recently
learned of a plot on the part o
Japanese Oh the island aud til,
friends of the ex q leeU, who is II
Washington, aud who made 81
opera bou6e protest against The
ratification of the treaty, to over
throw the present government o
Hawaii and set up one OF theil
own, with the ultimate design OF
turulng the islands oyer to Japan,
and that caused the treaty to &c
to the Senate much earlier than
it wonld otherwise have gone.
The Japanese government has all
along denied that 1t had any
grabbing intention towards Hawaii
aud its denial may have been per-
fectly honest and it may have been
entirely Ignorant Of the plot TO
OveIturn the Hawaiian Govern.
ment. AS the Information con-
corning that plot was secret ard
was not mentioned in the Presl'
dents message accompany ing the
treaty, diplomats regard 1t as a
bad break on the part OF Secretary
sherman to have publicly NEIL
toned 1t, anu the japanese minis
ter regards his hay ing done so as
almost an insult to his cOantS
and is consequently somewhat
disgruntIed. There isn't Opp0Si
ton enough to the treaty in the
Senate 10 prevent lis rattle alton,
bat there is enough TO make the
debate qOite lengthy, so it is in.
tended to allow 1t to go over 10
the regular session.
No stronger plea for some &C
ton on the part Of tins govern
ment that will restore peace 10
Cuba has been put forth than Is
Contained in an official report
prepared By the Agricultural de
p4rtment, showing our trade with
Cuba for a period OF years. For
the fl seal year 1898, our commerce
with Cuba amounted to SlO2 SOL
POI; Tor the fiscal year 1896 II had
dropped to 1913 slO, aud est
mates for the fiscal year 1891 place
it at less than 100000 0
The administration is moving
very lelsurely towards the In
anguralion Of its Cuban policy.
Gen. WOodford, of n. Y, has been
nominated Minister to Spain, aud
tue official statement made that
Elk G ngreSsman Aldrich, OF Ills,
Will shorlI, be nominated Consul.
General to Cuba. Bat there Is
little probability that either OF
them will be at their post Inside
of month, aud the new policy Is
not to be started until Gen.
Woodford gets to Madrid. Il port
says the policy will be to req hest
Spain to Withdraw its troops and
allow Cuba 10 have home rule un-
der a system similar to that ID
vogue in OIuada, and that Span
Is wi ling, provided that this gov
ernnent Can persuade the rebel
,ious Cubans to accept and to agree
to assume the debt Of Cuba.
StnatOr Morgan called attention
to the failure of the tariff bill TO
provide for the repeal OF the IN
come tax, imposed by the W llsOn
tariff bill aud declared to be uu-
constitutional by the Supreme
court. He said ne w8S glad that
the bill did not provide for its re-
peal, because il it were lett upon
the statute book, change In the
court might cause il to be sustain
ed.
Quite a number of the Senators
who hriped to kuotk out the
Pettigrew anti trust amendment
to the tariff bill, have offered
amendments of their own especially
aimed at the sugar trust, with
bich they appear to have a dread
of beng considered friendly. One
of these, offered by 3 natOr Pettus
prohibits the importation of raw
sugar by the trust, and another,