The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-08-26
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, d. c., August 22nd

| w ASH1NGTON, u. u, August >onu.
MR. EDITOR:-"Let Admiral Dewey
dictate our policy towards the Philippine
islands" That is the sum and substance
of the advice that some of his most level
headed friends, who have observed the
fact that Dewey has not made single
mistake from the day he destroyed the
Spanish fleet to the day he forced the sur
render of Manila, have been giving Mr..
Mckinley, who apparently is still without
policy of his own. 1t has been urged
upon him that Dewey during the nearly
| four months he has been i'll Manila bay,
has thoroughly familiarized himself with
the condition ON the islands, and would
be better able than any man who Is not
there, to say what relations we ought to
maintain towards them. 1t has also been
pointed out to him that the public conf
dence in Dewey judgment and patriotism
would cause his decision to be received
without question by the people. All of
these things Mr.. Mckinley has acknowl-
| edged, and he would doubtless be glad to
adopt and act upon the advice were it not
| that some of his political advisers have
! aroused his jealousy Of Admiral Dewey as
| a possible rival in 1900, and told him that
Dewey must be kept in the back ground if
he wanted to keep him out of the White
House.
Not satisfied with reducing the salary
of a man who was at one time considered
competent to fill the position of Chief
Clerk the Civil Service Commission has
dismissed the man for criticism of his
superiors in office-an awful crime, in the
minds of his superiors The aforesaid
criticism consisted of an answer made by
the clerk-E. D. Bailey--to public defama-
ton of himself by the Commission The
Commission has never forgiven Bailey for
having exposed some of its humbuggery
when a witness before Senate Committee
ly paid for by the peoples money, in
scheming how to humble him, or push
him out of Office, without seeming to be
actuated by any other desire than the good
at last. Bailey may lave deserved dis
missal-many think the whole civil ser
vice outfit does-but he should have been
given proper cause for his discharge and
record.
Gen. Blanco is showing disposition to
take advantage of the published disincli
nation of the administration to send an
army of occupation to Cuba before cool
weather, to carry things with a high hand
at Havana, and to prejudice the rabblc
against the United States. Blanco's in
tention to make future trouble for us is so
plain that it is worrying the administra
ton no little, and demands that Blanco be
pre- emptorily called down are reaching
Mr. Mckinley from all sections of the
country.
That there is no limit to Spanish gall
was shown by the unofficial objection
made by the government of Spain to the
selection of Senator Davis of Minnesota,
Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Relations, to be one of the Amcri-
can Peace Commissioners, because his
anti-Spanish views were too strong and
too well-known. Were such an objection
held to be valid Mr.. Mckinley would
have to choose for Peace Commissioners
such men as Senator Wellington, of Mary
land, and Senator Hale, of Maine, about
the only two Senators who made their
friendliness towards Spain conspicuous
during the debate which preceded the war.
1t will be all up with Mr.. Mckinley if
every one of the five Peace Commissioners
chosen by him, are not known to be
strongly anti-Spanish in their views. Al
ready there has been some criticism of the
selection of Secretary Day, for that very
reason, but it has remained within bounds
because it is known that Mr.. Day will ad-
vance the opinions of Mr.. Mckinley, and
not his own, when the Peace Commission
meets. Another exhibition of Spanish
gall, which was probably put out for n
fecler, was the attempt of Sagasta to ap
pear to take it for granted that the Spanish
Ambassador at Paris would be the pre-
siding officer at the deliberations of the
Peace Commission. His talk merely
caused a smile in Washington. As the
victorious power, the United States has
the right, not only to name the presiding
officer, if such be needed, but to insist that
its Commissioners take precedence in
every way over those of Spain, and Mr..
Mckinley is not likely to waive those
rights; he knows too well how such waiv-
ers would be received in this country
Already there is growing impression
that we have been entirely too lenicnt in
all our dealings with the Spaniards, and
the people are apt to call Il speedy halt
before the thing goes much further
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