Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-07-28

washington, July 1t--LNOtniiiB mas
occurred or can occur that will make
President Mckinley regret the attitude
taken and maintained by his admins
tration towards the Chinese govern
ment. If, as the Chinese Minister still
claims, Minister Conger and the other
foreign ministers in Pekin are still
alive and unharmed, the wisdom of the
administration in taking the words of
the Chinese government for truth un-
til proved otherwise will be admitted
by all, and even II the worst comes and
the reported massacre of all the for
eigners in Pekin turns out to be true.
nothing will have been lost by the pol
icy of the President. Whether the un-
doubtedly authentic message from
Minister Conger, dated July 4. repre-
senting a state Of anarchy in Pekin
and that the lives Of all the foreigners
were in great danger is confirmatory of
the authenticity of the previous mes
sage from him. received through the
Chinese minister, or of duplicity on the
part of the Chinese is and must remain
a matter of opinion until more definite
news is received. AS the matter now
stands. If the foreigners in Pekin are
rescued it must be by the aid of the
Chinese government, as it is impossible
that they could remain in state OF
imminent peril until the allied forces
now gathering at Taku become strong
enough to march to Pekin. That be-
ing the case, the friendly attitude of
this government toward the Chinese
government is certainly more likely to
produce the desired result than the un-
friendly and openly suspicious attitude
of the European governments. 1t is
hoped in Washington that the report
ed detention OF Ii Hung Chang at
Shanghai as a hostage by the allied
powers is not true. Holding him can
do no possible good and might do much
harm.
Senator Platt, Of Connecticut, was in
Washington this week to get copies OF
the official report made by Fourth AS
sistant Postmaster General Bristow on
the Cuban Postal System and its rob-
berry by Neely, and talk over the de-
tails with Mr.. Bristow, as they will
have a bearing upon the investigation
to be made by the Senate Committee on
Cuban Relations, of which Mr.. Platt is
chairman. OF that investigation Sen
ator Platt said "A searching inves-
tigation into the expenditure of Cuban
funds is being made by the Post Office
and War Department, and when they
are prepared to report to the Senate
Committee their findings, we will have
something upon which to begin work
There Is no reason to doubt that the
auditing of Cuban accounts by these de
hardly be a sensible thing for the Com
mittee to start in to do over what i:
already being done. When the depart
ments in charge of the disbursement o.
Cuban funds are ready to report how
much money they have spent and what
hey have spent 1t for, the Committee
will begin an inquiry to learn whether
he expenditures were legitimate ant
iustifiable. The public can be assured
hat the investigation will be thor
)ugh one, and if the Committee finds
evidence of corruption or extravaganza
its findings will be made public. The
| wrong doing of no one will be covered
up"
Mr.. w. w. Rockhill, Director of thu
Bureau of American Republics, who
has been chosen to go to China as
! special commissioner, because of hi:
| knowledge of the Chinese people ant
language, will sail from San Francisco
1t the earliest possible date. His duty
will lie to report actual conditions tC
the President If Minister Conger i:
alive, Mr.. Rockhill will perform NJ
diplomatic functions in China, but il
Mr.. Conger has been killed or inca
pacitited, he will have full authority
20 represent the United States diplo
| natically.
The making public Of the report o.
| Fourth Assistant Postmaster Genera
Brist,w Of his investigation of the ir-
regularities in the Cuban Postal Sys
EN- shows that the administration ha!
kept its promise to probe the irregular
ties to the bottom and to correct thu
lbuses and to take proper steps for tn,
punishment of the guilty.
There is no denying that there is {
ear among the Republican leader!
hat The same calm confidence in thu
lbility OF the party to win w'thou
heir help which kept mary epubl:
ans from working and voting IN 1S9:
md resulted in a Republican defeat
nay result in the election of a Demo
.ratic majority of the next House
Senator o. H, Platt voiced the opinion
If many when he said of this possibil
ty: II trust such a calamity will no
happen, for it would be a calamity