The St. Johns herald., 1897-05-01
WASHINGTON LETTER.

WASHINGTON LETTER. | From Our Regular Correspondent
 WASHINGTON, D. C., April 25. There were probably few democrats present at the last session of the house
 who didn't feel little bit ashamed of
 the proceedings. Representative Bailey
 of Texas, rose to question of personal
 privilege, and after having read an edi-
 toral from a Washington paper, that
 claims to be democratic, calling him Tn
 effect tool of Mir. Reed. he denounced
 the writer as an infamous and malicious
 liar, Later, Representative DeArmond
 of Missouri, arose also to question of
 personal privilege, and made a speech explaining his attitude toward the re-
 publican policy of seml-weekly adjourn
 ments, and disclaiming that he and the
 democrats who thought as he did, had
 rebelled against lhe democratic leader ship established in caucus, and virtu-
 ally charging that 1t was the other dem. ocrats who were acting in opposition to
 the caucus. AS that were not enough
 for one short sitting, Representative Burke of Texas, also made a personal explanation, calling the meetings of she "great national farce," and saying that so far as his own action was con- cerned, he bad consulted 10 one, All of thIs was nuts for the republicans, and Mir. Reed took good pains to allow 1 the e- --- >,~E f,'-il1, as they wan-ed to, so long as they talked against other democrats. The majority voted for the thIee-da adjOuInmtHt just the same, and carried 1t.
 The treaty negotiated by the last ad- mInistration with Great Britain, dehn- ing portion of the boundary line be- tween Alaska and Canada, will never be ratified in its present shape. By pretense of liberality in giving the United States about fourteen square miles of territory (which we already had legal claim to) the willy English diplomats made trap which was i'm tended to cost the United States all the territory worth having in that section, by shutting out our claims within What is known as our thirty mile strip" and it's intersection with the 141st meridian, and it came very near to succeeding, too, as the treaty would have been rat flied some time ago had not Senator Stewart objected. Mir Stewart objected on the general principle that the mat ter was too important to be hastily dis posed of and now that the contents of the treaty are understood, be is being congratulated for having prevented the senate from maxim a blunder.
 According to current gossip, ex- Rep sentative Bellsmy Storer, of Ohio, must be a queer sort of duck. The story goes that he took advantage of MT. McKinley's financial obligations to him to force a promise that he should be appointed assistant secretary of state. When the promise was made, MT. Me- Klnley did not know that Storer was not on speaking terms with Senator Foraker, or with either of the repub- lican congressmen from Cincinnati. and HOW Storer insists on that appointment being made. although he cannot get the endorsement of either senator or any one of the congressional delegation. pofntment, becanse his rich wife wishes tc figure in the official society of "as7- ington. it IS said that Mir. Mckinley has told Senator Foraker that there was nothing left for him to do but nominate Storer for the place, and that he acded that any fight made on the nomination. in tra senate would not be regarded by him as a fight on the admlnlStratloh' The nomination will most certainly De raiacted and Storer knowsit, yet he ln- s1sts on the nomination.
 Certain republican senators, among them Mantle, Carter, Shoup, Warren and Burrows, have demanded of the republicans of the Senate Finance com mittee that duty of not less than two cents a pound shall be placed on hides and that the duty on wool shall be raised to meet a schedule submitted nv them, and the demand Is accompan- Ied by threat to defeat the tariff bill if their wishes are not complied with. It is clearly within the power of these five senators to defeat the tariff bill, but it is not the opinion of those best informed that they will make use of that power to such an extent. They are simply exercising tbeil right to make a big bluff in the interest of the nroducts of their states, in order to get as much of the protection swag for their constituents as possible, but in the end they will take what is given them and vote for the bill.
 Having satisfied themselves that