The times., 1898-11-27
GENERAL poMTIgAL GOSSIP.


him with letters, taegrams and petitions.
and it has been Arranged to have some
Heading" anti-expansionist see the Presi-
dent every day and deliver haransue
on the evils of annexation. Senator Hale
was the man put forward yesterday to
perform this duty. Either he did not have
much to say or he was cut short by the
President, as he did not remain but a
few minutes with Mr.. Mckinley. Senator
Hale was not in a good humor when he
left the White House. He even refused TO
be interviewed, which is an unmistakaDie
sign with Hale that things are not going
his way. The opponents of territorial eN-
pansion expect TO make a dead set on the
President this week. They hope to in
duce him to throw cold water ON 1t in
his forthcoming message to the Congress,
but failing in that, they do not intend TO
give up the fight. They say that they
will camp out in Washington and tight
the ratification of the peace treaty to the
bitter end. Judging from the activity OF
Andrew Carnegie and other eminent phil
anthropists of his type, they must have
some heavy financial interests at stake
They are not in the habit of working
exclusively for the dear public.
asked what effect he thought the ciamor-
ing of few strong-lunged individuals
against expansion would have. He
shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
what is the use of arguing against
fate?' he said, laconically. 1T is a waste
of BREATH he added, land these gentle
men will discover it before long"
Friends of the President are confident
that he will stand firm in the position he
has taken regarding territorial expansion.
Mr.. Mckinley said Republican sena-
tor yesterday "is not the man he was
when he took the oath of office as Presi-
dent Then he was not sure of himself
and gave every indication of lack of
firmness. Indeclsion seemed to be his
chief characteristic. But responsibilities
have changed him completely. He is to-
day self-confident and apparently has LOST
all OF his former indecision. He mas
broadeued and developed In every way
Mr.. Carnegie and other citizens who nave
called at the White House to oppose an
nexation recently have discovered thar
fact to their sorrow"
While 1t Is an open secret that the Adj
ministration is disposed today to avoid
| an extra session of the Fifty-sixth Con-
gress next Spring If possible, 1t Is by no
means thoroughly committed to that idea
| Even under the most favorable circum-
| stances IL Is admitted that 1t Is going TO
! be very difficult to avoid an extra session.
| Congress will have to work under very
| high pressure to dispose of the urSeut
matters that twill come before IL this VIA
| ter. independent of the matter of legs
| lation for the new Ncolonies The pr. d C
| ton IL made IN some quarters close to
the President that events are likely to de-
velop this Winter which will make the
| Administration change about and favor
| an extra session. Senator Hanna be-
! lieves that an extra session is desirable.
as he would Ike to have the eNpanz ion
| question settled and out of the way be-
| fore the Presidential campaign Of 1850 n
started.
Strong pressure will be brought to bar
on Congress this Winter to repeal the
war taxes passed ct the last session. The
brewers. it is understood are particular
| ly anxious to have the additional tax of
dollar barrel on beer removed. They
| are already At work TO accomplish that
| object. They believe that the longer the
| extra tax remains in force the more diff
cult II will be 10 secure its repeaE Sena-
| tor Platt, of New York, and other Re
| publican leaders. it is said. viii op ose
any reduction of the beer tax at this
time. and the New York Senator is tav-
ing a bill drawn Up providing for na-
tional inspection OF beer. It viii be mod
eled it is understood, after the pure
beer" bill which he Is having prepa-el for
! his legislature at Albany this Winter.
| The New York brewers did not support
Mr.. Platt's candidates this Fall and, in
fact they are reported to have contrib
uted literally to the Tammany campaign
fund.
Friends of Secretary AIger and the Ad-
ministration are said to be hustling to
head off any investigation of the War
| Department by either branch of Congress
| this Winter. The scheme is TO keep the
! Alger Relief Commission at work all
| Winter and use this fact as an argument
against any congressional investigation.
| The Relief Commission has a trip 10
| Cuba and Porto Rico blocked out. and
| this will probably consume six weeks or
! two months. The relief workers expect
to be engaged in this country until the
\
paratively easy matter for them to string
out their work and defer their report until
about the ith of March.
1t is known that several senators are
prepared to offer resolutions calling for
an investigation of Algerism as soon as
Congress convenes next week But Sec
retary Alger hopes, through the kindly
offices of Senator Hanna and others, to
| have these resolutions held up and prac-
tically pigeonholed. The cry of the AIger
| sympathiZers will be: Let us wait for
the report of the Alger Relief Commits
| sion 1t would not be polite for Congress
| to take any action before the report of
the Relief Commission is submitted -
This plan may not work. but Mr. Alger,
it is said hopes that it will.
The report that Senator Edward Muir
ply, jr., of New York, intended to retire
permanently from politics at the expira-
| ton of his term on the 4th of March
next, has apparently no foundation. Sem
| ator Murphy declares that he is only just
| beginning his political career. He has
| Il large fortune and as he has practically
retired from active business, he will have
| plenty of leisure time to devote to the
| game OF polftlcs, II he Is so inclined There
is talk among the New York Democrats
of making combination to bring about
the nomination of an Eastern man for
| President in 1860. Mr.. Croker's recent trip
| to Chicago is said to have had this object
| in view. From all accounts, he failed to
make many converts in the West to the
| New York idea There is an impression
| among the leading Democrats of the
| South and West, which amounts to al
most a settled conviction that New York
| will not cut n very large figure in the