Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-08-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondence
WASHINGTON, August 2, 1897.

The Republicans have other troubles than
those which will be made by the new tariff
ahead of them. They are going to have no
end of worry oyer finance in the near
future. It is an open secret that there is
serious difference of opinion in the Cabinet
on the advisability of committing the
administration and the party to the retire
ment of the greenbacks and Treasury notes.
| Sec. Gage, as the personal representative of
| the bankers and ultra gold men, will make
hard fight to commit the administration
and party to the retirement of those notes,
although he knows as well as anybody that
no such legislation can be put through
during the life of the present Congress,
because of the silver majority in the Sem
ate Proof that Mr.. Mckinley is afraid of
| this question may be found in the careful
manner in which he avoided committing
himself in his special message to Congress
asking for authority to appoint currency
commission. Mr.. Mckinley has been every
thing on the money question. He voted
| for the free coinage OF silver in 1877, and as
late as the Fifty first Congress, he voted
and spoke for the Window silver bill and
| the Sherman substitute, therefor he didn't
want the gold standard platform of last
years Republican convention. 1t is doubt
| full if he knows what he wants now. He
prefers to trim and to wait, but Sec. Gage
intends, unless he is prevented, to submit
| to Congress in his annual report the out
| lines of a bill that would perpetuate the
single gold standard, not because he thinks
| it will pass but because he wishes to COM
nit the administration and the Republican
party.
Members of the administration still in
Washington, are somewhat worried over
the results of the new tariff as far as they
have become apparent. They did not like
the shutting down of these big New Eng
| land cotton mills, and some of them went
as far as to say that the mill owners should
have been willing to keep on running their
mills, even if they lost money, to help
along the Republican party. They like
even less the story of increased prices for
almost everything but labor that comes
from every direction. Speaking of this
phase of the matter, a prominent Philadel-
pEia business man, now in Washington,
said +" hear that a general rise in prices
is to take place, and that people may pre-
pare to pay more for their dry goods, cloth
ing, boots and shoes, and all articles of
household necessity. If this is going to
be SO, predict tremendous discomfort and
dissatisfaction among the people. In flush
times there would be no complaint, but
when commodities rise in value. land the
volume of money is not increased, the COM
mon people are bound to suffer, especially
when, as now, there is no chance of an ad-
vance in wages. The upshot of the matter
will be revolt against the political party
that passed the law which made dearer all
things the consumer is bound to buy, with
out doing anything to increase the ability
of the consumer to purchase the necessaries
of life. If the Republican party hasn't
very rough row to hoe, then l am utterly
without ability as prophet"
Some of the civil service cranks are doing
so much shouting over Mr. McKinley's ex-
tension of the civil service law to few of
the small Custom House employees, that
they have overlooked his exemption from
those rules of numerous important places
| in the Customs and International Revenue
service. His amendments to the rules,pro-
hibiting the discharge of government en-
ployees except for cause and only upon
written charges, has, of course, been warmly
received in Washington, where so many
persons are pecuniarily interested in life
tenure of Office, bnt if the country endorses
the idea will miss my guess. With life
tenure of Office, there will necessarily come
| in few years civil pension list. Both
ideas are undemocratic and un-American,
creating as they do privileged class. If
| it had not been for the social influences of
Washington, there would meyer have been
any civil service law, and when the same
influences were brought to bear on Mr..
Cleveland to secure life tenure for those
in Office, he positively refused to make the
amendment that Mr.. Mckinley has now
made.
Senator German seldom talks for publi-
cation, but without violating confidence. /
can say that he is preparing to make the
fight of his life to restore Maryland to the
Democratic column, and that he is abso-
lutely confident that he will succeed and
be re. elected TO the Senate.