The Opelousas courier., 1897-08-07
Washington Letter.
From our Regular Correspondent.

From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, d. c., Aug. 3, 1897.
The Republicans have other troubles
than those which will be made by thu
new tariff ahead of them. They art
going to have no end of worry owe
finance in the neal future. 1t is al
open secret that there is Il serious diff
ference of opinion in the Cabinet OF
the advisability of committing the ad'
ministration and the party To the re
tirement of greenbacks and treasury
notes. Sec. Gage, as the persona
representative OF the bankers and ultra
gold men, will mako IL hard fight to
commit the administration and party tt
the retirement OF those notes, although
he knows as well as anybody that nj
| such legislation al be put through dur
ing the life of the present Congress, be-
cause of the silver majority in the Sen
| ate. Proof that Mr.. Mckinley is afraid
| of this question may be found in the
| careful n in which he avoided
| committing himself in his special mes
| sage to Congress asking for authority to
l appoint IL currency commission. Mr..
| Mckinley has been everything on the
| money question. He voted for the free
| coinage of silver in 1877, and as late Us
| 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 doubtful if he knows what he wants
now. He prefers To trim and wait, but
Sec. Gage intends, miles he Is prevent
ed, to submit to Congress in his annual
report the outlines OF IA bill that would
perpetuate the single gold standard, not
--.- a., lt"l-, = ,r,ii ,n,, hnt L.,
cause he wishes to commit the admin
istration 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 o like the shutting down of those
big New England cotton mills and
some of them went as far as to say that
the mill owners should have been will
ing 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, IL prominent Phila-
delphia business man, now in Washing
ton, said 81 hear a general rise in
prices is to take place, and that people
may prepare to pay more for their dry
goods, clothing, boots and shoes, and
all articles Of household necessity. Ii
this is going to be so, | predict trenlen-
dous discomfort and dissatisfaction
among the people. In flush times there
would be no complaint, but when COM
mOdities rise in value and the volume
of money is not increased, the common
people are boama to suffer, especially
utlan 10 tns,Iy iharn Is No alnnnn rf np
advance in wages. The upshot of the
matter will be n revolt against the po-
litical party that passed the law which,
made dearer all things the consumer
is bound to buy, without doing anything
to increase the ability of the consumer to
purchase the necessaries of live. Ii the
Republican party hasn't Il very rough
row to how, then | am utterly without
ability rs a prophet"
Some Of the civil service cranks are
doing SO much shouting over McKin-
ley's extension Of the civil service law
to a few Of the small Custom House
employees, that they have overlooked
his exemption from those rules Of MI
merous important places in the Gus
toms and Internal Revenue Service.
His amendment to the rules, prohibit
ing the discharge of government en-
ployees, except fOrcause and only upon
written charges, has, of course, been
warmly received in Washington, where
so many persons are peculiarly inter-
ested in q life tenure Of Office, but if the
country endorses the idea / will miss
my guess. With a life tenure Of office,
there will necessarily come in a few
years a civil service pension list. Both
ideas are un-Democratic and un-Amer-
lean, creating AS they do a privileged
class. If it had not been for the social
influences OF Washington, there would
never have been any civil service law,
and when the same influences were
broughtto bear on Mr.. Cleveland to So
cure q life tenure for those in office, he
positively refused to make the amend
ment that Mr.. Mckinley has now made.
Senator German seldom talks for pub
but without violating conf
.ence, | a say that he is preparing to
make Il fight for life to restore Mary
land to the Democratic column, and
he is absolutely confident that he
will succeed and be reelected to the
Senate.