The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1900-01-26


the case under his or her persona
supervision and did not discharge hi
full duty to claimant.
| This would undoubtedly affec
5 quite few pension agents in Yer
mont.
1 may say of the pension bureau
finally, that much of the troub1,
. complained of in connection with i
is very likely caused by clerks who
are not in sympathy with the theory
of pensions, and who, knowing thai
they are c1oaked and shielded by the
mischievous civil service law, run
riot and cut and slash among the old
soldiers as they please. OF course
the commissioner is responsible for
the acts of the office, and even if he
cannot discharge them he might
compel them to do their duty accord
ing to law and justice.
The bill entitled Regulating ap-
point1nents to and removals from
civil offices in outlying dependencies
of the United States" was recently
introduced by Senator Ross-Sen-
ate bill 2000-and as it is of large
Importance give it in full as fol-
lows:
THAT appointments to civil Offices in Alas
ka, in Hawaii, in Guam, in Cuba, in Puerto
Rico, and in the Philippine Islands, shall be
made irrespective of the political affiliations of
! he aud ffa .NHnh m
| present the entire country, and to give to each
| political party, as nearly as practicable, its
| proportionate share thereof.
| Sec. 2. That such appointee shall not be
| removed from office except for incompetency,
misconduct, ineficiency or neglect of duty.
| Before removal the charges shall be made in
writing and a copy thereof furnished to the
accused, who shall be required to make an
swer thereto in writing, under oath, within
| reasonable time named in the order for
answer.
Sec a. That if the accused shall fail to
make answer within the time named the
charges shall be taken as confessed. If the
answer shall deny the charges, the President
may refer the ascertainment of the truth of the
charges to any impartial person, who shall, in
the vicinity of the place where the office is To-
Gated, hear the testimony and report the facts
found thereon to the President"
In line with the above, Senator Ross last
Thursday, introduced a resolution which
reads as follows:
THAT the provisions of the Constitution un-
aided by act of Congress, do not extend over
Puerto Rico and the Philippines; that by the
treaty of Paris, the sovereignty ovey themis to
be exercised for the welfare Of ithe people
oi the United States, unrestraaed by the
provisions of the Constitution; that it is
to be exercised in Cuba for the pacifcaton of
the island and that the successful discharge of
these duties demand the establishment of
separate department of the government to
take charge of all outlying dependencies and
the passage of general law making all
appointments therein onpoitical"
In presenting the resolution the
Senator gave notice that he would
call it up and make some remarks the
next Tuesday-tomorrow. Senator
Ross has given and is giving this
subject a large part of his attention,
and has it we'll in hand. The bill
very likely be warmly supported by
the democratic Senators as it pro-
vides places for democrats who would
otherwise be unrecognized. In fact,
the bill appears to commend itself
by its fairness to everybody, and the
present indications are that it will
meet with little or no opposition in
the Senate. The same may be said
of the resolution, which is likely to |
be adopted
1t will be observed that the govern
ment has officially adopted the spell
ing Puerto Rico instead of Porto |
Rico, the reason given being that
the former is the established Span
ish way. Then why not make "Ha-
bana'' of Havana, and est. Jago' of
This holding on to the
awkward Spanish spelling simply
because Spain did it is unworthy the
country and worthy only of that emf
nent American Spaniard, Senator
Hale of Maine. But then, the gov
ernment is daft on spelling, as wit
ness its recent laborious attempt to
transform white River Junction.
into one word.
The Nicaragua Canal bill is boom
ing through both Houses, and every
body appears to be trying to help it
along. 1t is safe to say that the bill
will pass and become law very
soon, and work will begin imme-
1iately.
A tremendous great national cele-
0ration is booked here some time
the coming summer or fall on
late yet to be fixed. The occasion
IS the centennial anniversary of the
1olding of Congress in the present
capitol building and immense prepa
-ations are already under way. Com
nittees to carry out the work will
De appointed by the citizens, the
President and both Houses of Con-
yress. In fact, the House Committee
1as already been appointed. Gen.
Irout is second on this committee,
which is headed by Cannon of Illi
1ois, chairman of the great appro-
1riation committee on which Gen.
1rout is third.
The social season is now at its +,
height, and those ''in the swim"
seem to be trying to see how many
1ours out of twenty four they can
Keep awake and on the move. A
good minority of the members of F.,
Moth houses entirely ueUlect their ,