The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-04-23
capital Chat.
Washington Gossip, Political and
Otherwise. for the Readers
OF the Globe.

| Sional campaign. The adoption by the
| house of q bill providing for the election
| of senators at the polls, the same as rep
| resentatives, and the failure Of the SEN
| ate committee on privileges and elections
to report favorably upon such measure
! at this end Of the capitol will. of course,
defeat the measure at this session.
! The action taken by this committee In
| dicates the feeling of the majority of the
members of the United States senate
Those who are In are not anxious to have
such a bill as this enacted into law.
| There are few members of the upper
branch of congress who If given an op.
portunity, would vote for the measure,
but If 1t could be taken up In the open
house it would doubtless be defeated by
a big vote.
1t was an easy matter for the members
of the lower branch to support such a
bill. Whether or not they favored it's
provisions Is something, of course, not
known. They saw an opportunity, at
| least, to put the members of the upper
house into a pocket, SO to speak. The
measure, therefore, went through the
lower house with a whirl. There are hon
est men In the house, however, and these
gentlemen can see the necessity for the
enactment of law of this kind, and
they fully realize also that the voters Of
the country hold similar views. In view
ed the measure, supported by Democrats,
and that 1t was smothered in committee
in the Republican senate, gives little OPP
portuaity for either party to make much
campaign thunder out of 1t this year.
The Republicans, however, are likely to
be criticised by the common voters.
There have been so many scandals with
in recent years over the selection Of sem
ators by the legislatures of several states
that radical reform seems necessary TO
avoid corruption in the future, and 1t Is
believed that reform can only be brought
about by the enactment into law Of d
measure which provides that members Of
the upper house shall be elected at the
polls, under the provisions which apply
for the members of the lower branch Of
congress. 1t Is a well known fact that
bills Of this kind have been frequently IN.
troduced in congress for the past twenty
five years. Few Of them have ever been
reported favorably to either branch from
the committees to which they were re-
ferred. The most favorable action thus
far is the passage, recently, Of bill
of this kind by the house.
The scandals growing out Of the Clark
Investigations, the claim set up by the
enemies of Senator Hanna that he pur-
chased his seat, little DelaWare's failure
upon two occasions to elect senators by
the legislatures of that state, the free
use Of money there, and, in the past,
the trouble which the following states
have had in securing full membership In
the senate, namely, Washington, Mon
tana, Oregon, Utah, California and Penn
sylvania, are all arguments favoring the
election of senators by popular vote.
The advocates of the election Of Sena-
tors at the polls, of course, do not now
anticipate favorable action on the part
Of the Fifty-sixth congress. They have
some hopes, however, that the next
congress may be able to pass such
q measure through both houses, and II
they are successful, the approval of the
president, whoever he may be, is cer>
, tainty.
The efforts Of Consul General Dickin-
son have resulted in supplying Constan-
tinople, Smyrna, and the Grectan and
Black sea ports with direct monthly
steamship communication With New
York, and no student of Levantine trade
movements can have failed to notice the
wonderful stimulus thus given to the
commerce between said ports and the
United States.
Alexandra, Beirut and Alexandretta,
however, do not have this service Each
of these ports had perhaps one or two
direct steamers from the United States
during 1899 Exports to and from the
only a question of time when Egypt and
Syria will be connected with the United
States by direct merchant steamers call
ing here regularly once every six or eight
weeks at least. 1t is of the highest I'M
portancG that these boats should fly the
Stars and Stripes, as the flag is pow
erful commercial missionary, creates
trade and inspires confidence; but, while
awaiting this achievement, foreign steam
ers will be welcomed. For the time be-
ing, we will be satisfied with any regular
direct service.
The exports from the consular district
of Alexandria, Egypt, to the United
States during the year ended June, 1899,
amounted to $7,347, 81. From the Beirut
district were exported l&st year goods
valued at $4,000. Direct steamers would
probably bring about a change in the
method of transporting Syrian raw silk
to the United States. Some 100000 pounds
of this product now finds its way annu-
ally to the American market, WY Lye IS,
France.
Last year the American college at Bel
rut imported from the United States some
700 tons of building materials and sup
plies Two new buildings will be erected
this year, which means additional impo.\
tations from home.
A direct steamship line which could
handle steerage passengers would have
1 annually
emigrants to the United States from Bel
rut and Tripoli. They now emigrate via
| Marseilles and Havre, in French bottoms.
The Barber Steamship company, of New
York, which has already entered the
Eastern Mediterranean waters, Is near
est to take up the question herein dis
cussed But this does not, of course,
exclude other steamship lines from con-
sidering the proposition. If a full out
going cargo cannot be had for Alexandria
and the Syrian coast at once-i. e. for the
first few tripS-some combination plan
might be proftably adopted by which
part of the cargo could be unloaded at
some other Mediterranean port. Home
Ward-bound cargoeS can be supplied on
short notice.
Give u.s. then. regular direct steamers.
A direct steamship service is, for the pur-
pose of building up trade, almost useless
unless 1t is at the same time regular The
intervals between calls in this instance
may be four or six or even eight weeks;
but regularity is absolutely essential for
the business men interested on both sides
of the water, if new fields are to be opens
ed UP and steady development insured.
The prospects are against the admission
of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma as
states at the first session of this con-
gress Early in this session the repre-
sentatives from these territories believed
that they could induce congress to pass
admission bills early in the winter. Later
on they became disappointed because of
evident opposition on the part of Repub-
licans and Democrats in both houses.
About a month ago those gentlemen,
anxious to get these bills through, be-
came a little more cheerful. Tor the reason
that the opposition seemed to be less de-
IN of admission these