The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-07-05
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

year ending with Saturday exceeded
$50, 100000. This alone is reason
enough, if there were not a score of
others, for the continuation of the
Republican party in power. This is
the first annual Treasury surplus
since 1898, although there would have
been a surplus both last year and the
year before had it not been for the
enormous expenditures made neces-
sary by the war with Spain.
Probably the most important news
from China during the last few days
was that saying that the foreign min
listers were safe in Pekin, having de-
clined to leave that city. There is
some doubt as to the manner in which
they were requested to leave and by
whom, and this government is giving
the Chinese government the benefit of
the doubt, just as it is doing in regard
to the fighting, although it is posi-
lively stated that the allied marines
under the English Admiral Seymour,
were attacked by Imperial Chinese
troops, and is still acting on the
assumption that we are not at war
with China, and that all the trouble
is the result of an instruction which
the Chinese government is unable to
control. No new orders have been
sent to our naval officers in Chinese
waters or to the commander of the
troops sent from the Philippines, the
original orders being considered suffi-
cient.
The mishap to the battleship Ore
gon, which ran aground off the coat of
China and knocked a hole in her
bottom, is deeply regretted in Wash
ington.
Assistant Secretary Meiklejohn,
who was acting Secretary of War
during the absence of Secretary Root,
has gone to his Nebraska home. He
declined to discuss the rumor that he
was candidate to succeed Senator
Thurston, but his friends say he will
be candidate and strong one.
tions of Gov. Allen and Gen. Dayis
Secretary Root has ordered the latter
to discontinue the free issue of rations
to the hurricane sufferers of Porto
Rico on July 18th. Gen. Davis thinks
that all those who are industrious are
beyond the need of charity and that
it is time to begin to teach the lazy
that the free rations were only to help
them until they could help them
selves and not intended to go on
indefinitely to enable them to live in
idleness.
Representative Dick, of Ohio, who
is Secretary of the Republican Nat
ional Committee, and who will prob
ably be reelected to that position at
the coming meeting of the committee
in Cleveland, gave the following out
line of the campaign before leaving
Washington for his home: Active
work will begin about August list,
and will be more vigorous and aggres-
sive if possible, than it was four years
ago. The date for the Cleveland
meeting of the National Committee
has not yet been chosen, but it will
probably be shortly after President
Mckinley is notified of his nomina-
ton, which will be July 18th at his
Canton home where he now is. Head
quarters will be opened in Chicago
after the meeting of the National
Committee, as the heavy work of the
campaign will be directed from there
as it was in 1896, although eastern
headquarters will be opened in New
York City, and the Washington
branch headquarters from which
preliminary work is now being di-
rected and literature sent, will still
be maintained. Although nothing
but good news of the enthusiasm
evoked by the ticket and platform
has been received, the Committee will
work just as hard as though the re-
suits were in doubt. Its members
figure that the best way to insure
the country's prosperity is to give
Mckinley and Roosevelt such an
overwhelming majority that will con-
vince the most skeptical doubters
that no change will be made for years
to come in any of the Republican
policies which have made that pros
perity. Col. Dick said of one effort
the Democrats are making speciality
Of "Our friends, the Democrats, are
trying to make everybody believe
that the German vote this year will
go to the Democratic party, but there
is not the slightest likelihood of this
being the case. In 1896 the Germans
voted for President Mckinley. They
are strong believers in the advantages
of gold standard currency This
the Republican party has given them
and they know it. They know also
that the Democratic party would
gladly take it away from them if it