The Press., 1898-11-24
Washington Letter.
Washington Nov. 21, 1898.

1nSlO6 ln1OI maC1OQ rom Europe con- cerning the back down of the Emperor William from his bluff, intended to make Spain and this country believe that he was about to take hand in the disposi- tion of the Philippines, is the cause of much quiet amusement in diplomatic and official articles. This bluff was the en- peror's announcement of his intention to visit Spain, on his way home from the Holy Land; an announcement that result ed in an unexpected stiffening of the back bones of the Spanish peace commission CTS, but d'd not change the American policy hairsbreadth. The backdown, which has made him the laughing stock in every capital in Europe, except his own, was his announcement that Ion &C., count of the westher' he had abandoned his visit to Spain. The "weather'' in the case was straight tip that his intentions towards Spain were of no more conse- quence to the U. s. than the presence of those German warships in Manila Bay | were to Dewey, and would have no more effect; and that if he was looking for
 
 way with Uncle Sam. It is stated by members of the administration that Spain has been notified that our demand must be accepted or refused in a given time, but the time is not given.
 l Prof. Robt. T. Hill, of the U. s. geo. the subject is unprecedented, said, in a lecture before the National geographic society, on "Cuba and the home life of the people": "The opinion regarding the Cubans, which is now, unfortunately, quite prevalent, is very largely erroneous. They are by no means lot of thieves, al- though, undoubtedly there is large class | of these on the island. The larger part of the population, however, is compos' of intelligent fairly-well educated men, who have property interests to guard and business affairs to superintend, as in any other civilized country. In mechanical lines, the Cubans have not progressed as rapidly as they might, for they are es- sentially an agricultural people. As till CTS of the soil they rank very high, and many of their plantations are models of their kind. While the Cuban army con. tained a large percentage of colored people, there are thousands and thousands of pure white men, thoroughly Cuban in heart and mind. Then, too, the colored Cuban himself is not such bad fellow In fact, Cuba is the only one of the West Indian islands in which have found that the colored people man will work 1T Porto Rico and all the other islands, his wife, like the Indian squaw, is forced to . perform all the drudgery. In Cuba, as you know, the eolored man enjoys socia tpffviieges accorded him in few other Aces, but there is no danger that the is land will ever become Africanized, as tn. negro population is constantly decimatet by disease, while the white thrives anc } increases in number"
 It is regarded as reasonably certain that the fifty-fifth congress will, before thu close of the last session, soon to open appropriate more than two billions O dollars. It has already appropriated al most one billion, and the wal expense
 that must be provided for at the las session leave little doubt that the tw' billion mark will be reached. But ther
 will be no political cry raised against an,
 appropriation made necessary by the war
 Private James s. Sewers, of the 71s } New York, told the war investigation commission that the reason the regular
 fared better than the volunteers in tn | T1,h ole ho
 the regular officers took care of thei
 men, while the volunteer officers took car
 of themselves. He is the first privat who has tod the commission that. bu thousands of them have told the sam
 thing to their friends.
 Those who believe in the dominan
 power of bread and butter argument
 think that all of the democratic and popu list senators will try to prevent an extr session ofcongress, in order to have thei
 friends who hold positions under th' f senate, keep them until the end of nez year. It will be remembered that noon party having a majority in the senate, tn
 patronage of that body is distributed pro q portionately to the voting strength ( each party. However,it is not likely tha the patronage of the senate will be 1 factor in deciding whether there will b s an extra session of congress. It is tru , that if an extra session is held, there wi 3 be re- organization of the senate, whic would give the majority the big positions
 such as secretary and sergeant-at-arms , q lev, ruh@ lax friends holding minor positions, wouI : have no trouble in keeping them in plac' '. The senate has always been more libers in this respect with the minority, than tn {. house. A senate minor officials place 'l usually secure as long as his senate keeps his seat, but not day longer. other words, the senate patronage is COT
 trolled by individuals more than by part, Y To deprive senator of any of his pay ,' regsrdtd as a violation of "senatori; courtesy"
 ,- The talk of Representative Dalzell, y Pa., who is Speaker Reeds right har It man in the house, does not bear out tt U opinion expressed in some quarters that z clash is likely between the speaker an , the administration on the colonial polio F It is generally understood that the a . ministration wishes the colonies to rema B under military role at least year befo
 congress attempts to legislate for ther In reply to a question as to whether . thought immediate legislation would necessary, MT. Dalzell said II do no
 I think it would be just as we'll to let u
 matter lie for a while. We should ha time to study the situation and to dete { mine what sort of legislation is needle , We can run along with military gover
 ment until the conditions are thorough
 understood