Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-10-21
GARNETr, KANSAS, OCTOBER 81, 1898.
SUPPRESSED NEWS FROM WASHINGTON.
GContinucd from last week.

Continued from last week
The President is much concerned over the
forward conduct of his brother Abner Abner
is a person of much business sagacity. He
figured great possibilities in his kinship and has
realized OH nearly all of them. Abner has TAX
en- a brokers' percentage on nearly every ship
sold to tn government. He was party III in
terest to the Wanamaker shoe contract. The
eminent Philadelphian sold to the Government
shoes for the volunteer soldiers. His price is
81. so per pair or some Eh figure He obtains
the shoes at $2.45 from the Massachusetts man
utacturer Why does not the manufacturer fur
nish them direct to the commissary or quarter
master furnish them direct to the commissary or
quartermaser? Abner knows. One of the
FIRST bills to go before the ffty-6hh Congress
was proposition to raise the pay of postal car
riers. The measure was mertorious enough
and would 10 doubt have been successful. Alb
ner Mckinley made it certainty by chaperon-
ing it. He received 100000 for his friend-
ness, whereof S24 900 was as the velvet of
commerce, for he expended but $4,000. Abb
ner's pernicious activity has caused his
brother, the President to sincerely mourn
and has moved him to open remonstrance,
but to no effect.
The ships, auxiliary cruisers, tugs and the
like which go to make up the coast de-
fense fleet have, as | said, paid tribute to
Brother Abner-all but one. The Comanche
was sold on her merits. She was built sixteen
or eighteen yeais ago by Mark Hanna at cost
of $4,000 At the time of the yachts pur-
chase by the navy she was registered as the
property of H. NJ Hanna, the Senator's brother
The Hanna family was able to sell the Conan
che to the Government at the comparatively
small sum of 500, 900, because there was no
mddeman to pay commission.
The Mayhower, owned by the late Ognen
Goelet, was bought for S45o,coo She cost
perhaps $500, 900, but the greater expense was
for the interior fittings, which were torn out
when the yacht was put on war footing.
Mrs. Goelet offered the Maytower to New
York yachtsnan for $4,000. This was three
months before the war. The story Of the Mer-
rimac is an old wife's tale by this time.
She had been once condemned and lay rotting
in her docks A coat of paint and barrel OF
white lead raised her possibilities from ques-
tionable $40, 900 to 100000. The Merrimac
scandal was ready to burst when she was scut
tied in Santiago channel. don't want to de-
tract from the glory and heroism of Hobson
and his vikings; their bravery stands for as
much as if it were effective. It was not the
desire of the men who ordered the Merrimac's
drowning to block the channel They wanted
to submerge the evidences Of their fraud
When Cervera decided that his time had come
for an ocean run the Merrimac wreck did not
obstruct his squadron's passage, nor did it pre-
vent the entrance of the American feet later
under the questionable Sampson and the un
doubted Schley. The Merrimac was sunk to con-
ceal a crime, and Hobson and his men were put
in jeopardy to keep men now in Washington
from public notice. All these things will get
into the newspaper press one day, but to no
purpose The war will be eight months ended
before some uneasy Congressman will demand
papers and renors.