The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1897-12-30
WASHINGTON.
From our Regular correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Dec, 24th, 1907.

"W0DDllng Wllne is again Delng
applied to Mr.. Mckinley as nick
name by members of his own party.
The republicans who still call them
selves bimetallists have about decided
that Mr.. Mckinley must either de-
clare himself to be gold monome-
tallist or bimetallist they are tired
of having him coddle them by talking
bimetallism and then allowing Secre-
tary Gage to publicly announce, with
out remonstrance, that the administra-
ton was for any and everything that
was regarded as likely to help perpetu-
ate the single gold standard. These
men have quieted their constituents
by securing them of Mr.. McKinley's
sincere friendship for bimetalliSm, and
his desire to aid in its restoration
when the opportunity offered, and it
was from Mr.. Mckinley himself that
they got the impressions upon which
those assurances were founded. Now
they have doubts, and will demand
that Mr.. Mckinley settle them once
for all.
Mr.. Mckinley has been wobbling
on the civil service rules quite as bad
ly as upon finance, and he is likely to
find himself brought to book on this
subject soon after Congress resumes
business. Just before Congress ad-
journed for the holidays, Mr.. McKin-
ley indicated, if he did not actually
make the promise, to some of the
republicans who had been taking an
active part in the movement to secure
anti-civil service legislature, that
he intended to issue an executive
order that would remove from the
protection of the civil service rules
many OF the offices that were included
in Mr.. Cleveland's extensions of the
rules. This week, with Congress
away, Mr.. Mckinley told his Cabinet
that he was inclined to stand pat on
civil service and that while he might
make some changes he did not expect
to make any extensive modification of
existing rules.
The joint sessions of the House
and Senate Indian Committee, the
object OF which is to agree upon a
single bill covering all the legislation
for the Indian Territory and the five
tribes of civilized Indians that this
Congress will be asked to pass, have
SO far merely served tc show how
many divergent interests there are in
this matter and how difficult it will be
to draw a bill that will not be unjust
to some of these interests.
The nomination of Mr.. Charles
Page Bryan 70 be minister to China,
if persisted in by Mr.. Mckinley, may
be the cause of big fuss in the
Senate. 1t has been represented to
Mr.. Mckinley that the European grab
game which is now being played in
China makes it imperative that the
u. S. minister to that country should
be a man of wide diplomatic expert
ence, and that Mr.. Bryan lacks that
qualification. Such Senators as Teller,
Wollcott and Frye have announced
their intention to fight the conhrma-
ton Of Bryan, if Mr.. Mckinley sends
it to the Senate in spite of the pro-
tests which have been made to him
The republican policy OF cutting
the appropriations regardless of what
is needed, in order to try to help the
Dingley tariff lessen that deficit night
mare, has been shown in striking
manner by the way in which the
House committee on Appropriations
treated the recommendations OF .he
Secretary OF the Interior, who had
himself, under orders from the White
House, cut the estimates of all his
bureau chiefs. Everybody knows that
the work of the Patent Office has
steadily increased with the growth of
the country, and perhaps everybody
doesn't knSS, but it Is true all the
same, that the U. S. Government
makes a profit out of the Patent
Office, the amount to its credit at this
time in the U. S. Treasury being in
excess of $5,ooo,ooo. The Secretary
of the Interior asked Congress to pro-
vide for just one-half OF the additional
help that the Commissioner of
Patents says is needed to get the
business of the Office up to date, and
the House Appropriations Committee
declined to provide any additional
help at all, although the business OF
the Office is now from two to SIX
months behind. If a private business
establishment refused to employ help
enough to promptly handle its bust
ness, it would soon find that rivals
were getting it away from it, but as
the government has no rivals IN this
business those who have dealings with
the Patent office will have to grin ano
bear the delay until better business
sense prevails in the House, unless
the Senate comes to the rescue b)