The St. Johns herald., 1898-03-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Mckinley Is very Sad, Sore
 Disappointment.

Mckinley Is a very Sad, Sore
 Disappointment
 ] From Our Regular Correspondent
 WASHINGTON, February 9, 1898
 How much longer congress can stand
 the strain which has been imposed upon 1 it by the action, or rather non-action of
 the administration upon the destruction
 of the battleship Maine and the killing
 of two hundred and fifty of it's men, in
 Havana harbor, without an explosion, is problematical Mir. Mckinley has
 disappointed many of his supporters,
 and nothing but the unwritten law un- der which congress has always supported
 the president in all questions Of policy affecting foreign nation has prevented
 an outbreak before this Inasmuch as
 there are probably not fifty men in con-
 gress who do not believe that the Maine
 was blown up Intentionally tits difficult
 to understand why Mir Mckinley and
 the secretary of the navy should so per sistently assert their belief that the aw- ful calamity was the result of an acci- dent on board the Maine. The naval
 attache of the Spanish legation has pub
 licly announced the same belief, and
 added that the accident was the result
 of carelessness and lax discipline. Ye
 gods! and this meddlesome fool has not
 been sent after de Lome. It could have
 been understood if Mr. Mckinley and
 his secretary of the navy had said that
 they had no opinion 10 offer in advance of the finding of the naval court of in- quiry, which has been appointed to in-
 vestigate the awful affair, but why they should take position that is a rt fection upon Captain Sigsbee and the other brave officers of the Maine, is only ex- plainable upon the theory that they are afraid of offending Spain, and that in the event of the failure to find direct evidence that the Maine was hoWn up by spanish trCaeuciy, l4plam >.s-uee Is to be made scaiegrat. It was the general opinion iu sgr Era-- tEat Nir. t'.- Kinley should have ordered the entire United States fleet, now of the coast of during the investigation, but so far, not even a single warship has Ueen ordered there-Secretary Long says that one will be. It is not surprising that the. Span iards should think and say that we are afraid to send another warship to Ha vana. Up to this time, Mir. Mckinley has only done one thing that has met the unqualified approval of congress, and the indications point to his having done that under compulsion. That was to refuse to grant the request of the Spanish authorities at Havana, to have a Spanish diver accompany every Amer ican diver who made an examination of the hull of the Maine. Just who is en- titled to credit for his having done that has not yet been ascertained, but it IS certain that somebody is, as Secretary Long stated before the official request reached Washington, but after it was known that it would be made, that it would be granted. Congress doesn't wish the world to know that 1t differs with the president; hence it has so far lone nothing further than to appropriate S2OO. 900 to be used in saving as much of he Maine and her equipment as possi- ole, but the strain is terrible, and it is still on.
 There is a difference of opinion as to whether Senator Mason chose just the fight time to make that red-hot speech # his. and also as to the good taste of tome of his remarks, which were ceI- ainly not such as would be likely to iu- .rease our prestige abroad, but the of the following is fully ap parent. Why should the administra- ion now hesitate? The president hesi- ne not act when the minister has con essed that it is not real, but fraud and sham Autonomy, by the confession )f the Spanish minister, is fraud, lelusion, and a snare-a common conh- lence game of a common thief, confessed put of his own mouth." No one could iouDt the contempt felt by Mir. Mason or Spanish diplomats and Spanish dip omacy, after he said ''I would not sit town at the same table with Span ard unless I had an iron-clad wall be- ,ween his stiletto and my architecture. There is nothing in Spanish diplomacy or hundred years which prove them anything but common scoundrels."
 Nothing yet seriously proposed in the me of paternalism goes further than a oint resolution offered by Represents i've Lowering, of Massachusetts, pro- yiding for an amendment to the consti- ution, authorizing congress to regulate he hours of labor in all the states. The house Judiciary committee has actually been giving hearings on that resolution. A delegation of cotton mill men from ,he south appeared before the commit tee to protest against the resolution, but