The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-03-12

general currency reform. Mr. Reed
friends on the committee do not think the
next congress should g9 that far, but con-
fines itself to a proposition 20 permit ma
tional banks to issue their notes UP to the
amount of the full face value of their
United States bonds, placed in security for
such circulation, and a provision that
greenbacks which have once been redeemed
in gold shall not be issued except in ex-
change for gold.
Gage and Currency Reformcrs
Secretary Gage and the currency REFORM
ers who still have headquarters established
here had urged the last congress to act.
One great difficulty was the fact that the
senate had practically a free silver ma
jority. This was ont the only difficulty.
1t was well understood that the banking
and currency committee was badly divided,
and the speaker differed materially with
the plans of the administration. The idea
of Secretary Gage and others who agltated
the caucus call to settle the matter was
that there should be settlement of diff
ferences and that the next congress should
be in at once the discussion of a general
reform measure. 1t is now learned that
,,lere are as many differences irreeoncil-
liable in the republican general committee
as there were in the committee on bank
ing and currency.
The speakers opposition to the details of
the administra ton programme has opened
up the discussion as to the feasibility of
putting up candidate against him for
the speakership of the next house. 1t is
being talked quietly over by strong sup
MI
friends say that with such narrow ma
jorty in the next house the speaker viii
have it entirely in his power to balk every
plan put forth by the administration The
revolt at the last session of Representative
Hepburn against the rules of Mr.. Reed
and the denunciation of the speaker by
General Grosvenor gave a nucleus for this
fight. 1t is being held over him to drop
whenever there are positive proofs that he
is endorsing the candidacy of Roosevelt
against President Mckinley.
One of the closest friends of the presi-
dent, in speaking of these various contin-
gences, said: 1.-The best way to kill or
Roosevelt wou.>. be to strike down the
speaker
With Reed deposed and friendly speak f
tion will have nothing to fear from Roose-
velt
Sampson's Friends Are Bitter
1t would be difficult to give any concep-
tion of the bitterness felt by the friends
of Admiral Sampson over the refusal of
the senate to confirm his nomination and
promotion over Watson and Schley. Every
attempt to blacken the splendid record of
Schley has failed, and now they sit chewing
their nails in wrath. The further the mat
ter proceeded in the senate the more con-
WINGED the senate became that Sampson
advance was due purely to favoritism and
the action toward Commodore Schley and
Commodore Watson purely a matter of
prejudice.
SIMPSONS friends are now daring
Schley to ask for court of inquiry, for
getting that court of inquiry has been
held and he has been exonorated. The navy
department, through the bureau of naviga-
ton, has uncorked it's innermost secrets in
order to injure Schley, and the senate
weighed all the evidence and found no
harm in him. Instead, however, they dis
covered the greatest duplcity on the part
of Sampson himself. His congratulations
of Schley when the latter was out of reach
of news, and his secret censure of the COM
modore to the navy department, has all
come out. He blamed the commodore for
what he himself had ordered him to do, and
stabbed his fellow officer in the back when
the latter was holding the enemy in San
tiago. Every chapter reveals Sampson as
a man so eaten up with ambition that he
stopped at nothing, scarcely short of open
falsehood. The secretary of the navy has
unwittingly lent himself to SIMPSONS pro-
gramme. When the former entered the de-
partment he found Sampson in command
there where he had spent most of his time,
and from Sampson Secretary Long learned
the B Cs of the navy. With both
fingers In Longs eyes he has whispered
words of insinuation against every man
who could possibly have been put in COM
mand of the navy should war come.
When war was declared, Secretary Long,
with mistrust in his heart of Watson,
Schey and others, which mistrust was i'm
planted there by Sampson, he chose the
only man of whom Sampson had spoken
well of, as the ranking officer. This man
was Sampson himself.
An effort will be made, 1t is said. to have
Sampson made vice-admiral at the next
congress, but it will meet with more oppo-
stion than it has done at the session just
closed. The senate and the country now
know more of Schley's merits and Samp-
sons dement's than it did year ago. The
latter's friends and slackers are now claim
ing that the press was hostile to Sampson
for the reason that he would not give in
terviews. Not more than two or three men
ever had chance to see Sampson, and
none outside of Washington had ever heard
of him before he was discovered at the be-
ginning of the war. The newspapers knew
nothing about the relative merits of the
two men, and accepted the departments
estimate of them until their discriminating
sense became aroused to the claims of the
various men in command
Instead Of snubbing newspaper men, as
some of his friends claim was the cause of
his offense, his reputation here was that
of counting their favor, being part of his
plan to arouse great enthusiasm when he
should deliver his Fourth of July present
to the American people. 1t has been
hot hos hn