The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-06-02

OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.



Mr.. EDIToE:-Thcre is something de-
cidedly suspicious in the news from the
Philippines. Net line of press news can
be cabled from Manila until il has been
approved by the United States Military
Censor and it is not likely that he would
approve anything the administration did
not wish public. Hence the publication
of the statement that il would be impossi-
bic for Gen OTIS to conquer even the en-
tire island of Luzon, not to mention the
remainder of the group, that it would
stay conquered, without large increase
in his army, was allowed to pass the Cen
Sor for Il purpose. Not being in the con-
tidcncc of the administrations per
sons, even among the most prominent re-
publicanS, arc-it cannot be positively
stated what that purpose is, but the infer
encc is that it is intended to pave the way
for one or two things: call for volunteers
to reinforce Otis, or to make the people of
this country satisfied with some dicker
that is about to be made with the Filipinos,
and which they would naturally be in
clined to be dissatisfied with. The pre-
pondcrancc Of opinion in Washington is
that it means more volunteers. Orders
have been sent to the civilian members of
the Philippine Commission that they must
do nothing to interfere with the military
plans of Gen. Otis. which is confirmation
of the reported wrangles in the Commits
sion
After holding ii back for many months
Mr.. Mckinley has issued his much adver
tiscd order modifying the civil service
rules. 1t doesn't appear to please any
body over much 1t excerpts Il total of
somewhere in the ncighborhood of four
thousand places from the operation of the
civil service rule, but as most of these
places are already filled by republicans, it
will make comparatively little new patron
age for the republican leaders. 1t doesn't
touch the Government Printing Office,
which so many republicans have been try
ing SO hard to get thrown open to them.
So far rs the party workers are concerned,
the order is likely to do more harm than
good to the republican party.
Representative DalZell, of PENNSYLVANIA.
who stands rs much show as PAYNE, the
New York anti Platt candidate, dropped
into WaShingt on Il day or two ago and
announced that he was 4 candidate for
Speaker He could not control three votes
in the Pennsylvania delegation, counting
his own, to save his neck Bingham is the
dummy candidate of the Pennsylvania
dele cation. and will remain such until
Quay decides who shall get these votes.
No surprise was caused in Washington
by Senator Platt'S flat-footed declaration
that Mckinley and Hobart would be re-
nominated. So far as Mckinley is con-
cerned, Plat has been mortgaged since
early in the present administration: his
endorsement of Hobart means that if he
ever had any idea of helping to get R"oSe
welt second place on the ticket it has been
abandoned, but whether because he wasn't
pleased with Roosevelt or whether the
latter wasn't pleased with the idea of sec
ond place, is Il matter of conjecture but
the former is more likely to be true. The
declaration Of Senator Penrose, who is
Boss Quav's man and mouth piece, in favor
of Mckinley's denomination Is nothing
more than bid for administration help
for Quay in his contest to get his seat in
the Senate THIS was doubtless pleasing
to Mr. Mckinley. whether he means to
help Quay or not, as ne found Quay de-
cidedlv "uppish" towards the administra,
ton while he was in the Senate
The administration was very particular
to have the widest circulation given to the
report of the Beef Court of Inquiry, but
it has now discovered that all of the $780,
600 set aside to pay for the Inquiry has
been used up, and has ordered work
stopped on the printing of the testimony,
upon which that report was supposed to
be based, after it had all been put in type.
1t has all along been contcnded by many
that the administration never intended to
make the testimony public, and This action
makes it look as though that contention
was correct.
Secretary Algcr has been putting his
foot in it again. Several days ago he
caused an order to be issued by the War
Department, instructing the Military au
thorities in Cuba to give clearances to
Cuban vessels under the Cuban flag, and
at the same time stating that the vessels
flying the Cuban flag would not be under
American protection. As there is no
Cuban governments; there can be no recog
nized Cuban flag; hence the order strikes
| the average man as iudicrous. Somebody
| called Mr.. Mckinlcy's attention to the or
| der and he directed that it be referred to
| the Attorney General for an opinion.
| This opinion, it is expected, will knock
| the order out 1t might answer for Cuban
vessels to 90 from one Cuban port to an
| other, under such Il clearance, but in any
| port outside of Cuba, the masters of such
| vessels would be at anybody's mercy; they
would have no Consul to appeal To in case
| of unjust treatment of any sort, and no
standing in any court of Admiralty
Alger's speciality appears to be doing the
wrong thing.