Middletown transcript., 1900-04-14
WASHINGTON LETTER
Secretary Gage outwits a New
York Newspaper.
DEWEY AND THE PRESIDENCY
General Otis is to Return Home on Ac-
count of Ill HeaIth-The House
VIII Pass the Porto Rico Bill
just as the Senate Did.
WASHINGTON. April 10, 1900.

WASHINGTON, April 10, 1900.
The bill providing a government fol
the territory of Hawaii is now in Con
gress, the House having passed ar
amended ST. bstitute for the Senate bill
While nothing like formal agree.
ment has been entered into or even
proposed, there seems to be sort OF
tacit understanding among Senators
that no attempt will be made to get a
vote on the Nicaragua Canal Treaty at
the present session, and that the Mic
aragua Canal Bill will also be allowed
to go over until the next session.
Several things have contributed to this
understanding, not the least of which
is the desire of Republicans to bring
the present session of Congress 10 a
close before the meeting of the National
Convention.
President MeKinley's order relieving
Gen. Otis of the command of the Philip
pines, whenever Gen. Otis pleases to
start home, and designating MajDr-Gen,
Macarthur to succeed him was issveL
solely in compliance with the wishes of
G n. Otis, and was accompanied by
statement of the Presidents regrets
that Gen. Otis bad asked, on account of
his health, to be allowed to come home.
AS mark of his appreciation of the
good work done by Gen. Otis, the
President has authorized him to select
the route by which be will return, just
as he did for Dewey when he came
home.
The House will this week pass the
Porto Rico Bill, just as it was passed
by the Senate. Tue large number of
Republican absentees prevented this
being done last week, right after the
caucus with only one dissenting vote
decided that it was better to pass the
bill as it came from the Senate than TO
further amend it. Since then every
impaired Republican has been notified
to return to Washington. The Demo-
Gratis have also ordered all of their
absentees to be on hand with the hope
that enough Republicans will vote
against the bill, or purposely absent
themselves when the vote is taken, to
enable them to defeat the bill. The
Republican leaders are not at all
alarmed, only they do not intend to
take any chances. As soon as they
are certain that they have the votes at
hand to pass the bill, it will be reported
from the Ways and Means Committee,
and special rule will be reported from
the Committee on Rules to vote on it
the same day.
Secretary Gage does not pose as a
humol list, but the manner in which he |
outwitted the New York newspaper,
which sought cheap advertising by |
bringing Porto Rican laborer under |
contract to that city, was bit of |
Official humor that was relished in |
Washington. Knowing the only OBJ
ject in bringing the man from Porto
Rico was advertising for the paper,
Secretary Gage exercised his authority |
and ordered that the man be per.
milted to land in New York, and to
work under his contract until further
notice, instead of refusing to allow
him to land and giving the paper the
opportunity to take the case into the
courts. There is already case before
the United States Supreme Court in
volving the question of whether the
Constitution extends 10 Porto Rico,
and if the decision in that case is not
conclusive, others Can easily be made
without advertising any private busi-
ness. Secretary Gage deserves credit
for heading off that advertising scheme. |
The courts are not maintained for
advertising purposes, even though
theatrical stars do sometimes succt ed
in utilizing them for self-advertisement.
The Dewey cat is now out of the
bag and in full sight of everybody.
TIE Admiral has simply allowed him
self to be used by those Democrats
who still have hopes Of keeping Mr..
Bryan out Of the Democratic nomi-
nation. 1t is the Democratic nomi
nation that the Admiral expects to
get. He has declared himself to be a
Democrat, although he has never cast
a vote, and says the only time he ever
desired to vote was when Mr.. Cleve'
land was a candidate for President.
The only effect of his candidacy will oe
for himself. It is now
known that his announcement has fall
len as fat everywhere else as it did in
Washington, and the Democrats in
Congress, who ought TO know the
sentiment of their constituents, say
that Dewey has no more chance of
being nominated by the Kansas City
Convention than Grover Cleveland has.
Among Admiral Dewey's real friends