The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1897-03-25
WASHINGTON.
Prom our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, March ro, 1897.

during the present week when an
open rupture between Mr.. Mckinley
and some of the biggest men in his
party seemed inevitable, but by sacri
fcing some OF his personal friends Mr..
Mckinley has so far avoided it. The
bones of contention are the big offices.
1t is the fierce fight over each of them
that accounts for the small number of
nominations sent TO the Senate.
States are no sooner made up than
some objector gets backing enough to
smash them. A number of men who
had Mr.. McKinley's positive promise
that they would get certain positions
have had to give way to the object
ors, among them being ex-Gov. Mer-
ram, of Minn., and ex-Congressman
Storer, Ohio. 1t was not intended to
make any but necessary appointments
until after the tariff bill got through
Congress, but it will require some
very adroit maneuvering to do even
that much without starting bitter
factlonal fight in the republicanparty.
There is a fight now in the Congress
ional delegation of nearly every state,
especially bitter in those having repu-
blican Senators, over the men who
shall get the Offices which are to go
to those states. Still, there are col
umns of rot being printed about the
existing harmony between the admin
istration and Congress.
The honest patent lawyers of Wash
ington are after the fake concerns
who have been bringing discredit
upon their profession in dead earnest
now. They have employed Mr.. Will
lam Small, Attorney-at-Law, McGill
Building, Washington, d. c. to under
take the duty of suppressing and pro-
scouting swindling concerns, and he
invites correspondence from inventors,
newspaper publishers and others who
have been deceived and defrauded by
and through false and fraudulent rep
reservations, specious devices, in
cluding offers and awards of prizes,
medals of honor, certificates of stock,
etc, of alleged procurers and sellers
of patents. Those who have had un-
satisfactory dealings with these fake
patent concerns should accept the
invitation and write to Mr.. Small
Using bill introduced in Congress,
which has no chance to pass, as a
basis to swindle the ignorant is by no
means new dodge, but, according to
the correspondence of many south
erners in Congress, such dodge is
now being successfully worked among
the ignorant negroes of the southern
states by unscrupulous men. During
the first session OF the last Congress,
Senator Thurston, of Nebraska, intro
duced by request bill providing for
the payment of pension to all negroes
who had been slaves. 1t was, well
known in Washington that the bill
would never be seriously considered
in committee, to say nothing of being
passed by either House or Senate, but
that bill is being made the basis of a
swindle upon the poor negroes, who
are being told that upon the paymen,
of IS cents for filling out an Official
looking blank with their name, age
residence, ETC., they will be entitled
to pension when the bill becomes q
law. The worst part of this dirty
swindle is that the men operating il
cannot be prosecuted, as it is printed
upon each blank that sit is to secure
the names and number of persons il
each state entitled to a pension unde
the Thurston pension BILL" and th'
fee is charged for filling the blank.
The nomination of Henry White t.
be Secretary OF Embassy at London
was almost as unpalatable to republi
cans as the Van Allen nomination t.
Italy was to democrats when it wa
made by Mr.. Cleveland about fou
years ago. Some of them are incline'
to be sarcastic about it. For instance
the man who said: "Who says Whit
isn't an American! He has live
abroad for many years, but didn't h
come over from Europe last year, liv
at Newport just long enough to ca:
his first vote and then go back. Whit
is all right. His help Is needed t
make John Hay popular in London
swell society.
The tariff monstrosity known {
the Dingley bill is in many respec
worse than the Mckinley bill, but
is going to be crammed down tn
throats of the democrats of the Hous
with less than two weeks debat
There are also quite number
republicans in the House who al
opposed to this bill, and a few ofthe
have threatened privately to vo
against it, but there will not be enoue
of them to affect the result. III
democratic opinion of the bill w
voiced when X ReDresentatiye Berry,