The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1897-08-14
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON. AUa, 6 1897.
From our regular Correspondent.)

- Si4NNAONs AOd, U lCOts
The republicans are far from feeling
:hs confidence they express Of carry
Ing Ohio this year. In fact, thew ieel
so doubtful ct the result that III addi-
ton TO the whole power of the admin.
lstratIon being used to help Boss
Hanna to carry the State, nearly every
republican of national prominence in
the country has been asked to make
! speeches in Ohio during the campaign
and as they know that to decline will
| be 10 incur the iilMill of the admins
tia'ion most Of them will comply with
the request. Mr.. Mckinley, it is said
III ashlngton, is going to 50 far for
get his dignity as TO make speeches
for Hanna, and Gar Reed has prom
ised TO take the stump for him. 1t 10
fnlly recognized that defeat for HaE-
ma, will be defeat for Mr.. Mckiuley,
which would be very hnmiliating in
ms own State dn;ipg the first year Of
bis administration.
Every honest man has a personai
interest in the proceedings against
John Wedderburn g. Co., on the
charge of flaudent practices, now
going on before the U. S Patent OF
ice. The Patent Office has fully
proven a number of its charges OF
fraud against Wedderburn g. Co., any
oae OF Which would furnish ample
ground for their disbarment from
practice before that office. and LAWYERS
who have attended the hearings are
unanimously of the opinion that the
firm will be disbarred. The nature Of
thelr defense has made it clear that
they are relying upon the skill and
shieWdness of their lawyers, rather
than upon disproving the charges of
fraud against. them, in their scant hope
of wriggling out of their bad scrape.
It they are disbarred. their paper, the
National Recorder, will be shut out Of
the mails.
Prot. Henry W. Elliott, Of the
Smithsonian Institute, who claims to
know as much about the sealing aues.
tion as any man living, charges in the
plainest and most emphatic language
that the conference to be held this fall
on that subject will be take pure and
simple. He says that Ambassador
Hay begged Lord Salisbury to allow
the British naturalists who have for
six years been studying the seals ON
our islands to meet our naturalists at
Washington and compare biological
notes, in order to hide ex Secretary
Fosters -hum;liating failure to get the
question leopeued, ard that Salisbury
agreed. He says further that the so.
called conference will have no author.
ity to do anything whatever towards
u settlement of the question. Prof.
ElliOtt's assertions have attracted
much attention, and if what he says
is true they deserve still more Mean
while Prof. Elliott will probably lose
his Smithsonian Job.
Mr.. Mckinley's amendment to the
civil service rules, forbidding the dis
missal of persons from the classified
service except tor cause and upon
written charges, has not prevented
a number of democrats in the Govern
ment's Printing Office getting a rough
deal. True, they were not dismissed,
but some of them were furloughed for
an indefinite period, aud nine Of the
most efficient proof readers in the
olfice-all democrats-were transferr-
ed to the case. "There are more
ways of killing dog than hanging"
When mathematics are brought to
bear Mr.. McKinley's extension of the
civil service rules it doesn't seem to
have been worth the glorification Civ
en- it by the worshippers at the shrine
of civil service cant. He has increas-
cd the exemptions from civil service
rules in the Internal Revenue Service
from 63 to 219 places 10 the Customs
service he has exempted 34S places in
the same service.
If it's anything with money in it,
this administration is ready to be up
and doing even IN midsummer. This
week the State department presented
an ultimatum to Peru, through the
Peruvian Minister, requiring that the
McCord claim of $4,000 shall be at
once paid. A little of that sort OF talk
in behalf of the struggling Cubans
would be well received by the coun-
try. but there is no money.
Officials of the State department
deny that our Minister to Hawaii was
instructed to establish a protectorate
over Hawaii as soon as he learned
that the Senate did not act upon the
annexation treaty ut the extra session
of Congress, but admit that he may
have done so under the general dis
cretion that was given him to act in
certain contingencies. One of these
contingencies is known to have been
any move on the part of the japanese
| towards seizing the isluds.a
McEnery,, of Louisiana, who voted
steadily with the republicans on tie
tariff bill, is the only democratic Sem
ntor likely m h.A reepi-eI xitI, \ hrass