The Press., 1897-01-28
Washington Letter.
Washington, Jan. 18th

Washington, Jan. 18th, 1sy7
 Senator Allen thinks there Is more In the bid which has been made to the govern | ment for the Union Pacific Railroad than appears In the official statement Of AL torney General Harmon concerning the foreclosure proceeding against that road That is why he offered the resolution, which was adopted by the senate. direct ing the Attorney General to inform the senate whether he had made any deal with what Is commonly known as the re- organization committee of the U. r. Railroad, respecting the foreclosure of the government Iein thereon, together with the amount that the said committee is to bid In the event of the foreclosure. He Is further directed to furnish the senate the full text of the agreement, together p-Ith the names of the members of the committee and his authority for entering on he foreclosure proceedings and for making such an agreement. There Is suspicion that the bid made to the govern- ment represents the present UP manage ment. No proceedings can be taken against the Central Pacific road and the branch lines which owe the government money, before next January, and not then unless they default in their payments.
 The senate was sensationally inclined during the past week. In the first place 1t held session every day, something It has not done before at this session. Cyni- cal people say, however, that 1t wasn't on the account of public business, but on account of a fight between two Washing ton electric light companies, and the pro- ceedings during the "morning hour" seemed to bear out what the cynical say. In the next place, senators on the foreign relations committee made public speeches protesting against public pressure being brought to bear upon them to hurry up and ratify the arbitration treaty. But the greatest sensation of all was the reading of & protest against the Nicaragua Canal bill, which Is now before the senate, made | by foreign minister. This was a very unusual thing. The protest was from the recently recognized minister of the Greater Republic Of Central America and was sent to Secretary Olney, who In re- turn sent 1t to Senator Sherman, chairman of the senate committee on foreign rela- tions, who had 1t read in open senate. The 1 protest says in effect that Nicaragua will not recognize any contract made with the canal company, which 1t considers to have forfeited all the concessions 1t ever had and closes by inviting the us. govern. ment to open direct negotiations with Nicaragua for the building of the canal The very nature of this communication Is such that senators believe it to have been inspired by Great Britain. Senator Morgan made red hot speech about 1t and there will be more. but 1t has killed the canal bill, and 1t may be found that il has overshot the mark and also killed the arbitration treaty.
 Civil service reform circles have beer interested in an incident that will probab, be investigated by congress. A $15O' . position as translator was to be filled ir the war department, and the civil service , commission advertised that applicant would be examined and required to trans late into English technical military work In French, German, Italian and Spanish to do typewriting in all these languages
 to do proof-readiDg and prepare manu scripts for the press; to be familiar witl , modern library methods, the classification of books, cataloguing and indexing witt the English language, literary compositlo
 etc. Miss Maud Stalnaker, a young lad
 of Washington D. O., was the only on
 able to pass the remarkably crucial ex
 animation, and was duly certified by tn
 civil service commission as the only on
 eligible, but the war department refuse,
 to appoint her to the vacancy because sh
 Is woman.
 They are telling a good joke on "Uncl
 Joe" Cannon, chairman of the house com
 mittee on appropriations, around tn
 capitol. When his name was first men
 toned as a senatorial possibility, Uncl
 Joe assumed an attitude initiating Aia in his great defying act and said grandi
 loquently: My duty Is here! '" or word
 to that effect, which wore duly telegrape
 and printed in the Springfield papers fo the benefit of the members of the Illinoi legislature. Later, when the Iegislatur appeared to be In & deadlock, "Uucl
 Joe' concluded that duty called him t
 Springfield. He started. He got as ia as Pittsburg, where he saw in a news
 paper that Billy Mason had captured th
 senatorial plum. He went no further but caught the next train for Washington and has ever since been trying to kee
 anybody from finding out that he reall
 started for Springfield.
 The national headquarters of the Amer
 can federation of labor are now peI manently located In Washington, an open for business, with President Com pers and Secretary Morrison in charge } The headquarters are located in an offic
 building near the treasury department
 Mir. Gompers says the federation wa
 never in & more fourishing condition
 that he expects it's growth in 1897 to bea
 all previous records.
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