The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1900-05-02
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From Our Regular Correspondent

preparation DlllS, neeu De eApecl
ed from this session of Congress
This has been plainly indicated o.
the floor of the Senate. where TIL
power of the minority is not /;
tradition, but an insurmountabl
fact. This is Presidential yea
and the minority scent politics IL
every measure of Importance. Ii
other Presidential years,.the ma
jority has fought for measures, no
to pass them, butCto emphasize poll
teal issues; but this year, the ma
.jority seems to regard fighting un
necessary for that purpose and to bt
anxious to hurry the necessary bust
ness through and adjourn. That /:
! the situation to-day. A single
speech on either side may upset al
calculations and precipitate poll
teal fight, which may lengthen the
session beyond the early June days
in which adjournment Is now conf
IDENTIFY expected.
The House will this week take up
and pass the Nicaragua Canal bill,
and Senate Morgan is confident that
it will pass the Senate, but others
are not so confident. 1t Is an open
secret IN Washington that the ad-
minlstration would, for several rea-
sons prefer that the Senate leave the
bill unacted upon at the present ses-
sion, although it will not go to the
extent of openly antagonizlng a
measure that is SO popular, but
there are tricks in all trades, and 1t
will be an easy matter for experience
ed parllamentarians to so mainpul-
ate Tue Dusiucoo VI tue btudto lual
the Canal bill will not get to vote
in theSSsnate, at the present session,
without seeming to be seeking to
delay that measure.
1t is denied by officials of the De-
partment of State that any lntlma-
ton has been received Of objection
on the part of Russia or of any other
European government, to pressure
being exerted by this government
to compel the Sultan of Turkey TO
pay the claims for American Mis-.
slonary property destroyed by
Turks.
There has been much gossip be-
cause of the nomination of the
President and confirmation by the
Senate of Rev. John j. GlrimOndi,
of Mimi, a Catholic priest, to be
e. S. Consul at Santos, Brazil.
About the only reason for the Cos
sip appears to be that no other
Catholic priest has ever been given
place in our Consular or DiplO-
matte service. An official connect
ed with the Department of State,
said of that phase of the matter:
"a U. s. Consul's only duties are
commercial, and if Father Girl
mondi is the first Catholic priest
to be given the position, it is prob
ably only because he is the first
one who has applied with support
enough to attract the favorable
notice of the appointing powers,
as the selection OF ministers of
other denominations to be Consuls
has been quite common, and no
reason exists to my knowledge for
discriminating against the Catlio-
lie clergy. In this particular case,
it is probable that American mer-
chants doing business with Brazil,
asked for the appointment, belicv-
ing that it would be good policy
to have their commercial interests
represented by a Catholic in a
country where the influential ele-
ments are Catholic" 1t is the
Catholics who are doing the most
talking about this appointment,
and some of them are predicting
that the Church authorities will
in erfere and prevent Father Girl
mondi accepting the position.
The vote of so against and 3 for
the motion of Senator Pettus, of
Ala, to send resolution declaring
Senator Scott, of West Virginia,
entitled to his seat, back to the
Committee on Elections, with in
structions to investigate further,
makes it certain that the Senate
c-.11