The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1897-01-30
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.

Washington. Jan. 25th, 1897.
IfJohn Bull is really behind that sell
sationai protest against the Nicaragua
Canal Bill, made TO Secretary Olney by
the Minister of the Greater Republic of
Central America, and sent to the Senate
by Secretary Oinev, John Bull has
made break by showing his hand too
soon. OF course the protest, by show
ing that the government of Nicaragua
already regards the Canal company as
having forfeited all the concessions
granted it by that government, will kill
the present Nicaragua Canal bill, but it
will also 20 much further. 1t may kill
! the arbitration treaty recently nego-
Great Britain. 1t has been openly
! charged on the floor of the Senate that
English diplomacy was working through
the combination of those three little
Central American Republics to put
England in a position where it could
either control or have a share in con-
! trolling the Nicaragua ship canal. This
may or may not be true, but SO long as
there are grounds for suspicion, there
will be danger that the arbitration
treaty will be rejected by the Senate.
If there is one policy upon which the
/ Senate is practically a unit, it is that
the Nicaragua Canal shall, if ever com
pleted, be controlled by the United
/ of and no Sbpun that fbIS
ton might have to be submitted to ar
bitration with the casting vote, in the
hands of European monarch, then
goodbye to the arbitration treaty. The
Senators who have openly protested
| against the public clamor for immediate
ratification of the treaty, on the ground
that it was too important a matter to
be hurriedly acted upon, regard this
| Nicaragua Canal incident as yinGica-
ton of their position. Secretary Olney,
! however, doesn't take that view of it,
and would not have been 80 prompt IN
sending that protest to the Senate had
he supposed that it would cause addi-
tional delay in acting on the treaty.
Some of his colleagues are inclined to
poke fun at Senator PETER because of
! the petition from Kansas populists
against increasing the salaries of Sena-
/ tors and representatives. and extending
the term Of the president, he has pres
ented since he was defeated, and an eX
Confederate elected to be his successor.
There isn't the slightest probability that
the bill to increase the salaries Of Sena-
tors and Representatives will ever be
| seriously considered, but Senator PETER
is jocuiarly accused of holding back
those petitions until he knew he would
| have to leave the senate.
vacant $500 clerk ship in the War De-
partment, for which she had passed a
very difficult examination and was the
only one eligible under Civil Service
rules, is likely to be made the subject
of a Congressional investigation. The
examination required that the applicant
should be able to translate into English
military works in French, German, Ital-
ian and Spanish; to do typewriting in
all OF these languages; to do proof-read-
ing and prepare manuscript for the
press, to be familiar with library meth
DDS, cataloeuing, indexing. etc ; also to
be tested i'll the use of the English lang
uase and literary composition. Miss
Maud Stalnaker. of Washington. ID. c.,
was the only one VINO WAS able to pass
the examination, but the War Depart
ment refuses to appoint her to the posi-
ton because she is woman.
So much has been written about the
lack of dignity on the part of ex-Rep-
rcsentative BILLY" Mason, of Ill, who
was last week named by the legislature
AS Senator Primers successor, that his
friends are rightfully beginning to pro-
test. Mr.. Mason is popular in " ash