The Forrest City times., 1900-03-23
NOTES FROM WASHINGTON.
Items of Interest on Important Is. sues for Democratic
 Readers.

f terest the investigation by congress of the Idaho mining troubles. It will be remembered that last spring a mine was blown up near Wardner. and the whole Couer d'Alene district has been under martial law since that time.
 The ostensible reason for the pro- claiming of martial law was that there was state of insurrection and enforce the laws.
 The investigation is being conduct ed by the house committee on military affairs of which Representatives Hull and Dick are members. Representative LentZ, who offered the resolution, is really conducting the case of the com plainants and under considerable diff culty, owing to the desire of the re- publican majority of the committee that the real facts shall not be brought out. Representatives Sulzer. Jett and Hay seem to agree with Rep resentative Lentz that the responsi- bility for the outrages of the bull pen should be placed where it belongs.
 This is one of the eases where the newspaper reports of what has hap pened in Idaho really fell far short of the facts. To escribe the loathsome conditions of the bull pen adequately would be difficult. A few of the facts that are clearly established may be noted. It has been proved beyond question that no state of insurrection existed which justified a declaration of martial law. There had been no resistance to civil authority.
 Gen. Merriam and his colored troops seized hundreds of men in no way connected with the blowing up of the mines and confined them in the bull pen for months.
 The guilty parties were permitted to escape and the atrocities perpe- trated by the military authorities seem to have had another object en- tirely.
 The real reason why martial law was declared and the rights of the citizens of Idaho so taken away, may not transpire in the course of the investigation. But the ex-prisoners of the bull pen, who are giving testi- mony before the congressional com mittee, do not hesitate to say that they believe that the Standard Oil interests control the Couer d'Alene mines and that these interests desired l to so terrorize the miners once and for all that they would never dare to rebel against any sort of servitude | la+ l.. The wage workers throughout the country have their representatives at the hearing and they ueclare that this is the most dangerous infringement of the liberties of the American work man that has happened since the Homestead trouble. If the outrages perpetrated by United States troops under martial law in Idaho are un- .ebuked by this administration, work men expect to see repetition of them elsewhere.
 When congress convened the repub- licans talked with considerable assur- ance about colonial department of l government. It was intimated that congress would keep it's hands pretty we'll off the insular requirements and that President Mckinley would in- stitute his colonial department to carry out his imperial policy when he got ready. A change has come over the spirit of the dream. One l factor had been overlooked in the pro- gramme. The administration forces forgot that there was a possibility that the people of the country would demand a voice in the settlement of so important a question.
 We'll, the people have been heard from. The republicans in Washington are looking at each other in conster- nation and wondering what will hap pen to them when they get home.
 The Porto Rican tariff bill did it. And the attempt to placate the senti- ment by letting President Mckinley have S2, ,000,000 to spend for Porto Rico only made the matter worse
 Washington is usually a dead cen- ter around which the political storms of the country revolve and leave us at peace here" said a republican con- gressman who voted reluctantly for the Porto Rican tariff. Ut is differ ent this time. l am simply delWged with letters from influential republic ans of my district, abusing me for having voted for the bill and promis- ing to remember it at the polls this fall"
 This congressman only voices the experience of his colleagues. The sen- ate is being bombarded with letters of the same sort. The people of the country demand that they, be. consult ed if the constitution is to be set aside. The republicans have tried to keep the constitutional principle involved out of. sight as far as possible, but it comes to the front and dwarfs every consideration of e&pediency which has been urged. The northwestern states especially are clamoring for free trade for their flour and wheat, and asking what their representatives at Wash