The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-09-20

OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

WAsuINGToN, D. c., September 10Th
MR.. EDIToR:-After the hopeful bulle
| tins of the first few days, the news of
| President Mckinley's death was a shock
| almost as great as the report of his assassi-
nation. 1t is hardly yet possible for the
people of Washington to realize that his
familiar and kindly presence is gone for
ever from the White House. Although
| the emblems of mourning are everywhere
| visible, perhaps only the state funeral
with its solemn and impressible ce1e
monies can wholly cfface the vivid mem
| DRY which almost everyone here has of the
President as he lived, and make it possible
| to think of him as dead.
With the incoming of the new EXecu-
tive there will inevitably be many changes
in the official and social life of the city.
A hundred minor currents are disturbed
and thwarted by the great event which
has just taken place. There will, of
course, be no official gayeties during the
coming season; there may be small army
of office-seekers, but this will depend
largely on the course which President
Roosevelt takes in regard to the appoint
ments not under the civil service law.
There may also lie sweeping changes in
the Cabinet.
There has seldom been SO great a con-
trast in the characters of two men closely
associated in official life as that between
IL i,1, D,~,axn1t t,,to
political prophets are somewhat at sea in
attempting to predict the Executive
actions during the next three years. No
body seems to be quite sure what Roose-
welt, as President, will do about anything
In his past career he has too often been
the apotheos;s of the unexpected to make
it safe to risk too many prophecies on his
conduct now. Many people expect that
he will make radical changes in the policy
of the Administration, but this is by no
means certain.
Mckinley was careful, shrcwd. persua
sive; but lie never made an enemy if he
could help it. Roosevelt is resolute, fear
less, and entirely careless of appearances
or consequences. The anomaly of the
presence Of these two men on the same
ticket, supporting the same policy, is ex-
planned by the fact that starting from OPP
posite points, and with opposite tempera
mcnts, they had reached, for widely differ
| ent reasons, very much the same conclu-
sions. To take one of the many questions
of the day, that of expansion; President
Mckinley favored expansion because he
believed it to be wise from commercial
| point of view; Roosevelt because he saw
| a chance for lot of fighting and strenu
Gus life generally; but they both came out
| at the same end Of the horn. 1t is not
necessary to anticipate that Roosevelt
will depart radically from the course of
| the Administration as now marked out,
but he will probably go over that course
in more of a hurry than some of his ac
| visers think he ought to, and he may take
short cuts which will discommode people.
1t is pretty well known that Senator Hanna
| wanted Roosevelt on the ticket because
he thought it would get the strenuous
young man out of the way; but instead of
being tucked nicely away in the sleepy
retirement of the Senate, Roosevelt is in
the White House 1t will be interesting
to see what Hanna can find to do about it
now.
Another person who may view the new
development with horror is Secretary
Long There was legend, about the time
of the Spanish American war, to the effect
that Mr.. Long tried to take vacation,
but before he had been away week
stories of the way in which his Assistant
Secretary was stirring up things reached
his ears, and he had to come back in a
| hurry. The question whether Long stays
in the Cabinet or not will depend partly
on the result of the Schley- Sampson bust
ness, and partly on Roosevelt's disposition
to play politics. If he starts in to break
up the Navy Department ring he will
probably do it, but some of the leaders of
his party will not be pleased. And all
that sort of thing counts in working for a
reelection.
1t is reported that Secretary Hay is
much broken in health since the death of
his son, and is likely to resign. In that
case the selection of new Secretary of
State would be an interesting subject for
speculation. Wolcott, Lodge and Depew
are all near the President. But Wolcott
is from Colorado, and there are not enough
votes out that way to make his selection
a good one from a geographical point of
view Depew is from New York, as
Roosevelt is, and a New York Cabinet
! would be bad election material, for Root
is also from the Empire State. Moreover,
Depew's reputation as jester would be
fatal to any aspirations he might have to-
| ward the State portfolio. Nobody wants
that honored article turned into Joe
Miller's joke book or Farmers Almanac.
Wilson, coming from the Middle West,
and being Il canny Scott without offensive
political bias, would probably stay, and
so perhaps, would the rest. The general
opinion seems to be that the new EXecu
tive will later on give something's shaking
up, but he may surprise US all 10y being
tame ana gentle.
The only thing which the Schley Court
of Inquiry has done thus far is to replace
Admiral Howison with Admiral Ramsay,
which arrangement is said to be very sat-
isfactory to the former. HowisOn is not
exactly the sort of man to deal with
problem as intricate as this one, especially
when his preiudices are on the side of it
that is snarled up. If he had kept on
talking he might have convicted Sampson
of almost anything. Ramsay, on the con-
trary, is cool, quiet, and deliberate and
seems to be the man for the place.
A little story which is causing some
amusement here just now concerns ex-
Senator Chandler. That peppery gentle
man wrote letter to Secretary Long
about the Bob Evans affair, and part of it
was as follows II am somewhat surprised
al Il