The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1897-08-13
FROM THE CAPITAL.
Our Correspondent Talks in Sage
Manner of Things in General
About Washington.
Communicated
WASHINGTON, August 8, 1897.

There are many reasons as to why
John Sherman should have returned
to Washington and taken charge of
the State Department at this time.
Some say that old man intends to make
a fight to knock out the Hauna-Mc-
Kinley plan for kicking him out of the
Cabinet after the Ohio election; others
that he has scheme of his own to get
even with the administration for the
treatment he has received by getting
it into some new foreign complication,
but the generally accepted idea is that
he is in Washington solely to enjoy
bossing the State Department, p"ivi-
lege that is denied him when Mr. Nc
Kinley and Assistant Secre tary Day
Mr.. Sherman's virtual acknowledge
ment of his ignorance of the nature of
the instructions given to Minister Sew.
all concerning Hawaii is proof of how
little he knows of the important part
of the foreign policy of the administra-
ton. Mr.. Day has had exclusive charge
of all matters relating to Hawaii and
Cuba
Mr. John w. Foster, the gentleman
who is credited with having written
the instructions to Ambassador Hay
that Were signed by Mr. Sherman, has
returned from his sealing mission to
Europe. He says it was successful;
Prof. Elliott, of the Smithsonian Insti.
tuition, says it was flat failure. Which
of them is right will not be known
until after the international conference
which meets in Washington next Oct0-
Der, shall have been held.
The Spanish Minister has only to tip
the wink to the Secretary of the Treas
ury to put all of the machinery of the
United States Customs Service to work
at tillibuster hunting. His latest was
an allegation that arms were about to
be shipped from Bridgeport, Conn, or
/ thereabouts, to the Cubans. Special
orders were at once sent to all the off
GERS of the Customs Service IN that
vicinity to turn themselves into detec-
tives to please the Spanish Minister.
Of course, every man has a right to
have and express an opinion upon sub
iects before the public, and yet opin-
ions may be expressed in such a way
as t. make man appear 10 be gloating
over the misfortune of something thai
he opposes, which causes them to
strike most people as being in bad
taste, or even worse To the latter
class belongs the publicly expressed
opinion of Mr.. Preston, Director of the
United States Mint, on the decline in
the price of silver. With the usual
gawl of the knOw-it-all Mr. Preston
tells the public not only that lie knew
The decline in price was coming, but
that he knows the decline is going to
keep on until the price gets down to
forty cents an ounce. The belief is
irresistible that Mr.. Preston's talk rep
resents his wishes rather than his
! knowledge on this subjeci.
Patent Office officials have testified
in the diSbarrment proceedings against
| John Wedderburn Il Co., now going
on, that practically one-half of the
nearly $500 applications for patents
filed by Wedderburn Il Co., during the
past two years, have been for what
was unpatentable, and that Il large
| percentage of the remainder, which
contained devices that were patentable,
were of such trifiing nature that it was
practically wasting money for their in
ventors 10 Fay for obtaining the patent
They also testified that either know
ingly, or through lack of knowledge
that should be part of the equipment
of every patent attorney, Wedderburn
" Co., have sought to secure money,
and often secured it, from these would
be inventors as fees for applying for
foreign patents and for advertising for
sale these unpatentable devices
Not little joking has followed the
naming of the submarine torpedo boat,
which small party of officials went
over to Baltimore to see launched from
the Columbian Iron Works. "Teddy''
Roosevelt, who is always trying to d.
something out of the common, chris.
tened the boat "Plunger"
The order just Issued by Commits
sioner of Patents Butterworth, provid.
ing that all attorneys practicing before
the Patent Office shall be registered
and prescribing the rules which must
be complied with in order to get upon
that register, is one of the most impor
tant ever issued by Commissioner ol
Patents, and reflects credit upon Mr.
Butterworth as a lawyer and as an Off
cial His laudable aim is to raise the
tone of the patent bar, which has suf
fered in credit by the liberation on the
part of the Patent Office of loose prac
lices on the part Of few of its mem
bers