The St. Johns herald., 1898-02-26
WASHINGTON LETTER.
The Occasion Does Not Always
 Produce the Man.
From Our Regular CorrespondentI

WASHINGTON, February IS, 1898.
 The adage, ''The occasion always pro- duces the man," like some other adages, sometimes lies. The President of the
 United States has been insulted by a Spanish blackguard who held the com mission of his government as minister to the United States, and our depart ment of state has been held up to the ridicule of the world for allowing itself to be gulled by Spanish shams labeled autonomy for Cuba and negotiations for a reciprocity treaty; the insult was in writing, the authorship of which was acknowledged by Senor de Lome, and has been published throughout the civ ilized world. Surely this was an Zoe casion," but no "man" has yet been procured. The natural thing to be ex- pected after de Lome acknowledged hay ing written the published letter, was that MT. Mckinley would at once send de Lome his passports. Instead of that he sent request to Madrid that de Lome be recalled, and before it was presented to the Spanish government, de Lome had resigned and his government had accepted the resignation, and now, Mir
 Mckinley is waiting to see what Spain will say about it all. It has been proven time after time by congress that poll ics cuts no figure in the solid backing al- ways given a president who stands up firmly for any question affecting our honor or our rights, and congress was and is still ready to back Mir Mckinley even to the extent of declaration Of war, but he does nothing. It is now in oI der for congress to make him do some thing, and it's members are in the humor to q #
 Even prominent republicans ignore when discussing anything relating to our foreign relations. Senator Lodge, who takes more cheerful view of the situation than many of his colleagues do, said: ''Spain is evidently practfclng duplcity towards us, and the adminis- tration will be forced to this conclusion if Spain does not express regret for the utterances of her late minister. and no mat CT what Spain may say officially, the general belicf will be that de Lcme told the truth abort the use of autonomy and reciprocity to delude this govern ernment. 1 cannot predict WI at the fu ture will bring. 1 only know that in Judge Day we have secretary who is firm, patriotic and capable, and that he will see that this country does not lose cast among the nations of the world by reason of this incident"
 The House Judiciary committee has hung up Senator Tillman's bill to permit the states to control liquor carried into them in original packages, and it vii! remain so unless some member of the committee who voted against reporting the bill can be induced to get the matter up again. Representative Latimer is working with that end in view, and thinks he will succeed The bill was passed by the senate some time ago and was intended to aid the South Carolina to enforce the liquor dispensary- law, which was weakened by United States supreme court decision. The principal objection to the Tiliman bill by members of the committee who voted against re- porting it was that it would be @ step towards giving states the right Jo con trol interstate commerce.
 Not having the fear ot Czar Reed be- fore its eyes, the senate increased the amount carried by the fortiication ap- propriation bill from $4.144, ,912, appro- priated by the house, to $9,052, ,494. It remains to be seen whether the czar can compel the house to insist upon it's orig inal bill.
 The addresses of the national organI- cations of the democrats, the peoples party and the silver republicans, have been approved by joint caucus and will all be made public this week. The keynote of the addresses is cooperation by the friends of silver in the congress sional campaign.
 Unless all signs fail, as they some times do, the treaty for the annexation of Hawaii will have it's late settled this ! week. The Committee on Foreign Re- lations, acting upon the expressed doubt of Senator Teller, one of the strongest annexationists, as to thelr ability to rat ify the treaty, will get a test vote in the senate. If the vote shows that the two- thirds are for the treaty, its early ratif- cation is certain, as the opposition would not prolong the fight with certain defeat ahead of them; if the vote shows, as it probably will, that the treaty cannot be ratified, it will at once be dropped, and q joint resolution for annexation brought 10 the front.
 Car Reeds latest bit of suppression