The Red Cloud chief., 1897-12-03
T

"Nlany men of man minds" just
about fits the conUition of the repre-
sentatives and senators anow pouring
into Washington by every train. Upon
whether these macy minds "a be got
together or a. least II majority Of them
will depend whether this session of
congress will be productive of import.
ant legislation, aside from dlsposing of
somewhere in the neighbour ,od of IA
billion dollars, and always regarded as
"A matter of course legislation. A few
senator's and representatives are ex.
pressing flat.footed opinions As to what
will or will not be done, but the most
Of them, knowing how largely the mat
ter will be determined by circum.
stances arc keeping quiet and trying
To find out what their colleagues think.
President Mckinley is paying special
attention to republican senators, as he
has an idea that II he a get them to
act as a unit, enough other votes can
be secured to pass several measures he
wants. The house will, OF course, do
anything he wishes.
-
While 1t may be true that the admin.
istration desires peace and expects
peace with Spain and all the rest Of
the world, it has been doing n large
number of thingsof late which indicate
both the desire and the intention to DO
prepared for war il IL should come,
One of these things was the placing Of
n contract for war material, in the
shape Of the latest improved armor
piercing ammunition, and light calibre
guns, such rs can he used with advan.
lagc upon auxiliary cruisers. The
contract, which is the largest placed
by the government since the close of
the civil war, was marked urgent"
aud the delivery of the material viii
be rushed, When this contract, aud
Others whirL hIve prcreini,it nave AL
been filled, every gun Ia The Uniicd
States navy Will have about five hun.
drcd rounds of ammunition of The very
highc,, grade, which naval officers SAY
i, more than any navy in Europe has,
and will Toe prepared for aly cmer-
grncy
-
Secretary Longs annual report is an
unusually p.acrib.c.Sort of document
10 emulate from the head of the navy
department, aud iudicatesi.no expec-
tati)n on his part OF war. lie rec
ommends tina; congress restrict the AT
ditionsto the navy, I, be provided for
at this session to one battleship for the
Pacific coast and a few torpedo boats
and torpedo boat ~destroyers, and says
that the policy Of his department will
be 10 gradually tax warships out Of
commission and put them into reserve,
in order to reduce running expenses.
~
II the radical opponents. iof the civil
service law in congress Gamble induced
to stop their agitation for..the repeal Of
the entire law, and To uniteswith thos,
who believe that the law is all right i
it be restricted to covering only ihos,
positions which are purely clerical
there is very little doubt that the.
could win their iighr, nntwith,t tndinj
the opposition OF president MoKinle.
Ia any change. They will he given tn,
opportunity when the committee nov
investigating the subject shall preScn
its report to the senate, which.Senato
Pritchard, chairman of the:commitl,
says Will be done in January. 1t /, al
most certain Pritchard think
certain-that the report of the commi,
tee will be in favor Of exemptiug a
~ 0~l~>ps Cs>~> nakl~~ nn-,An,