Middletown transcript., 1897-12-25


&NNNAA sSEkSAR ent conditions in
A%> the civil service,by
sGU'F<S<SSSI5zT issuing an e4ecu
tive order making material modihcations IN
the blanket extensions of the civil service
rules made by Mr.. Cleveland du ring hi
last year IN Office. While the opposition on
the part of Republicans in Congress doubt
less was factor in this matter, it is well
known that the President has had it in
mind ever since his election. 1t will be re-
membered that he said in his annual mes
sage: There are places now in the CLASH
fed service which ought to be exempt and
others not classified, may properly be IN
cluded. shall not hesitate to exempt cases
which think have been improperly includ-
ed in the classified service" Just when tn is
order will be issued or the full extent OF the
modiHcationhas not been fully determined,
but it will not be surprising should the
order be issued before the reassembE ng OF
Congress, Jan. 5.
Senator Hanna has gone to Ohio, to re-
main until the legislature elects his success
sor. Just before leaving Washington, he
said: 1.-THE stories sent from Ohio that a
number of the Republican members of the
general assembly will desert me if am not
successful on the first ballot seem to me
absurd. Every Republican county but
four has instructed its legislators for me; the
party is pledged to me through the action
of the Republican State Convention at
Toledo, and 1 am unable to see what can
stand in the way of my election"
Notwithstanding the numerous reforms
brought about in the practice before the
u. s. Patent Office, as result of the long
investigation conducted by Acting Com
missing Greeley with such striking ability.
there are some abuses connected more or
less directly with that office, and directly
associated with it in the minds of nine out
of every ten persons who know OF them.
which have not yet been reached. But Mr..
Greeley is more than anxious to do SO, and
is now investigating numerous complaints
against patent solicitors. who have obtained
money from inventors under the pretense
of getting foreign patents for them and
selling them, knowing that no valid foreign
patents could be obtained for them, and
that there would therefore be nothing to
sell.
Uncle Sam rubbed it in on John Bull in
the bill dealing with open sea sealing,
which has passed both branches of Congress
and only needs the Presidents signature
to become a law, and that it will probably
get. Canada, backed by England, has played
the hog right through in this sealing busi-
ness, by refusing to join the q. s. in efforts
to prevent the speedy destruction of all the
seals by agreeing to cessa ton of open sea
sealing for even limited time, and the
Canadians doubtless chuckled with joy,
when this bill which prohibits open sea
sealing by the citizens of the U. s. was III
troduced in the Senate, because OF their be-
lief that it would leave them monopoly of
the taking of seals in the open sea. But
they will not chuckle, nor will their En-
glish supporters, when they learn the pur-
port of a section of the bill that was kept
quiet while the measure was pending be-
fore Congress. That section absolutely
prohibits the bringing of seal skins
into the q. s. from any source. When it
is remembered that the U. s. furnishes the
largest and best market in the world for
seal skins and that the business of supply
ing that market has been partially monop-
olized as to raw skins by Canada, and en-
tirely as to dyed skins by England, the
full significance of what Uncle Sam has
done to John Bull becomes apparent.
The act for the relief of those Americans
who are in the Klondike gold regions, and
who, it is believed, will be in pressing need
of food before spring. was as promptly
signed by President Mckinley as it was
passed by Congress, and it now only re-
mains to get the relief to the sufferers in
order to make it effective. This is in the
hands of Secretary Alger, and if success is
possible, he will achieve it, as his sympa-
thy for the Klondikers is of the active kind
so active that he offered weeks ago to adj
vance the money out of his own pocket to
send relief if any practical way of doing so
could be pointed out. Secretary Alger will
go to Ottawa to secure the cooperation Of
the Canadian authorities in relief opera
tions.
The fact that the Senate did net act upon
Attorney General McKenna's nomination
to the bench of the Supreme Court before
the recess hasn't the signifcance some per-
sons are trying to give it; in fact, ithas no
significance. The nomination did not 60
to the Senate until two days before the re-
cess and there was no time for the judic-
iary committee, which never acts hurriedly
upon nominations of the Supreme Court to
consider 1t. The nomination win be con-
frmed, and the smallness Of the vote
against confirmation will be another proof
of how poorly informed some newspapers
are about sentiments entertained By Sena-
tors.
TRANscnRT $1,000 per year.