The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-09-08
The Gentlemen of the Cabinet.

II the working season has really begun
with Labor Day. just passed amid universal
rejoicing because of the good times which
Labor sees ahead, the members of Major
MCK1NLEY's Cabinet are now settling down
to some uncommonly difficult tasks.
The Hon. JOHN SHERMAN has a treaty Of
Hawaiian annexation to put through the
Senate, a little difference with Japan as to
the extent to which that energetic young
Government ought to be consulted with re-
gard to our national boundaries. the recov-
cry of our prestige and rights in Samoa, not
lost but deliberately thrown away by Mr..
CLEVELAND and Mr.. GRESHAM, and an i'm
perativc and urgent duty to perform with
regard to Cuba, a duty also showed upon
the present Administration by it's prede-
cessor. Generally speaking, the Secretary
of State is commits stoned to repair in twelve
months the incalculable damage wrought
in four years by the egotistic and unpa-
t%riotic foreign policy of CLEVELAND.
The Secretary of the Treasury, the Hon.
LYMAN j. GAGE of Chicago, has to pay all of
the bills of the Government out of a revenue
at least temporarily insufficient for the cx-
penditures prescribed by law. At the rate
developed last month, the m deficit
confronting Mr.. GAGE would amount to
about $3.50, 600, 900. 1t will not be so bad as
that, for with prosperity the income is bound
to gain on the outgo; but for the present
the situation eXacts much thought and
no little personal anxiety. We must
remember, also, that the Government has a
considerable payment not far away on nc
count of the Pacific Railroad bonds, that
there is a vast amount of troublesome work
involved in the practical application of the
new tariff schedules, and that MIR. CAGES
own brother, dear to him from the ties of
blood if inconvenient as a political guam
tity, is yet at large with the rest of the In
dianapolitan band of greenback ~retirers.
Acknowledgement MCKENNA has Section
% on his hands; and in addition to that,
his as yet INFESTED powers of endurance
are suffering the strain of n multitude Of
~vexatious questions crowding upon him
from almost every other department.
Mr.. Long of Massachusetts is obliged to
continue to appear truly nautical while his
heart is with BLACKSTONE ratherthan with
Lord NELSON and Admiral FARRAGUT. AS
if that were not enough, it is demanded of
him that he shall 20 on producing armor-
clads while the money required to buy
armor with which to clad the arnlorclads
is withheld by Congress.
Mr.. JAMES ALBERT GARY of Maryland
has u pressing task in the organization of n
postal service adequate to the needs of the
Greater New York. If he succeeds in that,
the achievement will be glory enough for
one Postmaster-General. Evidently Mr..
GARY's spirits are good, for he has also
undertaken to put through n general
scheme of postal savings banks, "A semi,
socialistic enterprise Of Government pater.
nalism which, if adopted, would mark an
important new departure in the evolution
of our national system.
TIL three departments wherein the pres,
ent situation may be regarded as normal
rather than exceptional or critical are those
in the charge of Gen. RUSSELL ALExAN,
DER AIGER, of War. the Hon. CORNELIUS
n. BLISS, of the Interior. and the Hon.
JAMES WILSON of Tama county, Secretary
of Agriculture. Even here there is plenty
: to do. Gen. ALGER can assist much in
, providing the country with the coast de
| fences which are indispensable. He Is q
: busy man, anyway, by temperament and
. habit, and outside of routine is capable Of
making work for himself when he does moi
: find it laid out for hin by events. Mr.
BLISS need not be idle for a moment. Be
sides attending to pensions for common-lav
widows, looking out for the red Indians
supervising the weather, and preventing
Q Yankee geniuscs from getting broad patents
= on such new inventions as cooking stoves
t grindstoncs. and tin dippers, he has abun
0 dant menta! occupation in wondering VIII,
he is in Washington at all, against his per
t sonal inclination, AS to the esteemed Sec
o rotary of Agriculture-but the Secretary o
Agriculture doesn't count.
5 Thus the season of hard work opens 70
the Administration with the golden montl
Of September.
d 1t is a somewhat curious circumstanc
that up to the present time the Cabinet off
h GERS of President MCKINLEY have diferen
o tiatcd themselves less distinctly than ord
nariiy happens during the first six months 0