The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-08-11
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER,
WASHINGTON, ID. c., August 18th.

MIR. EDITOR:-lhcre is to be more
whipping of the devil around the stump.
| That is the sum and substance of the semi
| official leaking as to the intention of the
administration in the Philippines. Gen.
Otis is not to he either recalled or humil-
| ated. Oh no, not for worlds, The adj
! minstration has such absolute confidence
| in him that it intends to let him sit in his
office at Manila and worry over the ten
cent details of the Government of such
portions of the Philippines as recognize
| our authority. But another man is to be
put i'll command of the army which is to
| do the fighting. That would he so thor
| oughly characteristic of the Mckinley adj
ministration that it is generally accepted
to be true of present intentions. Of
course, those intentions, like many others
have been, may be chan ed before being
| carried out. Statements differ as to the
man who is to command the fighting
branch of the Philippine army, some say
| ing that it will be Lawton and others that
| it will be Miles. Gen. Miles has indicated
| to Secretary Root his willingness to take
! command of the Philippine campaign, but
| there are several reasons why he is not
likely to 90. The first and most impor-
| tant of which is the evident intention of
| the administration to leave the supreme
command nominally in the hands OF Gen.
Otis. Gen. Miles could not serve under Il
subordinate officer.
The new Secretary of War has been
| asked to pass upon question of law, but
he has not said that he will do so, notwith-
standing all the talk about that being
| what he was taken into the Cabinet To do
The question involved is whether the Sec
rotary of War has Il right to authorize
| officers, who are his favorites, to draw
specified sums in addition to their salalv
and regular allowances. to he used to
'maintain the dignity OF their positions"
During Ayers recent visit to Cuba, he
authorized Gen. Brooke to draw $500
! year in addition to his pay as major gen
eral: Gen. Ludlow, who made break last
| week by suppressing Cuban newspaper,
| $1,000 Il year in addition to his paw as a
| brigadier general; Col. Bliss, collector at
Havana, $4,000 in addition to his salary
| as colonel, and Maj Davis, sanitary officer
| at Havana So 800 in addition to his salary
as major. Alger directed that these allow
| ances be made from the Cuban revenues.
! Only favorites of Alger were authorized
to draw this extra money, no such author
| hni 70 T
| Leonard Wood and other officers who
would seem to have quite as much dignity
| to maintain as the officers on duty at Ha-
vana. 1t has been pointed out to Secre-
Statutes, which fixes the pay Of Army Off
GERS, contains this positive language: No
| allowances shall be made to officers in ad-
dition to their pay except as hereinaf,c'
provided" The provisions referred l.,
are for the care of officers horses, the pay
ment for quarters and for travel pay. but
| there is nowhere word about any allow
ance to maintain dignity" 1t is very
clear that Alger exceeded his legal author
ity in making these allowances, but
whether Secretary Root will say SO is a
horse of quite another color.
Democrats hereabouts have paid very
little attention to the attempt of 4 few
antiBryan democrats in New Jersey to
start a boom for Hon. Grover Cleveland
as the democratic candidate next year,
simply because they know that it is not
worth any attention. Even if Col. Bryan,
the man whom ninety per cent, of the
democratic party wishes to see nominated
again. were to die before the nominating
convention met Mr.. Clcvelands name
would not be seriously considered. He
has received all the honors he will ever
get from the national democracy, with
which he was never really in sympathy
upon more than two or three of its princi-
pies, and even those he has a way of in
terpreting to suit himself. Mr.. Cleveland
is an able man-one of the ablest who was
ever President,-but so self opinionated
as to be unfit to lead Il party in country
where every man is theoretically, at least,
the peer of every other man. One auto
crat is an ample sufficiency fol the democ-
racy for Il long time to come. The last
time Mr.. Cleveland was nominated it was
not because he was the choice of the ma
jority of the party, but because of the
shrewdness of Hon. W. c. Whitney
Against the advice of experts Secretary
Alg r gave contract last year for twenty
five Brown segmental wirewound guns.
They are now ready for delivery, but will
not be accepted, because, when tested, one
of them blew out the brcech and fractured
its jacket under less than the required
pressure. If they had been ready for de-
livery before Alycr went out they would
have probably been accepted and paid for.
One OF the conundrums of the hour is
why the sending Of Il cablegram to Gen.
Otis, conveying an expression of Mr.. Nc
| kinleys confidence in him and sat ;sf;,cton
| with all he has done, including his press
censoring, should have been kept secret
for ten days after it was sent. Some say
that Mr.. Mckinley wanted to ascertain
how far public sentiment would go in sup
porting the demand for the recall of Otis,
and that if that demand had been little
stronger the cablegram would have been
suppressed entirely. 1t was evidently
kept back for some purpose. And it
wouldn't have been the first time that
official matters have been made public or
suppressed by this administration in defer
encc to the state of public opinion.
| NEWS ITEMS.