The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-05-24
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Nav Goth.

ministration favor for the VIGOROUSLY dis
reputable Panama Canal, the men who
are manipulating the scheme to make mil
lions by unloading the Panama Canal upon
the United States are now working to
create public sentiment in favor of the
Panama Canal and against the Nicara qua
Canal, and it cannot be denied that they
! are doing it clevcrly. Some high priced
brain work is being put into articles given
to the press, under Washington date lines
and otherwise, in which advantage is
taken to point cut everything that can be
called an obstacle to the Nicaragua Canal,
and specious reasons arc being given for
changes of opinion among Senators and
Representatives who favored that route.
And the most is made of tie opposition
| of England and its right to oppose the
construction of the Nicara qua Canal, eX-
cept upon conditions of which it approves.
| The last reason is also being made use of
| by the administration in an indirect way
Tips are given by prominent officials to
the correspondents of influential republic
| can papers, limiting at the possibility of
political complication with En- gland, max
| ing it necessary to abandon the idea of a
Canal over the Nicaragua route, and, of
| course, those hints are reflected more or
| less in the matter sent from Washin gton
AS yet, neither the Panama press agents
| nor the administration men venture to use
names publicly when speaking of Sena-
tors and Representatives who have
changed their minds and now favor the
purchase and completion of the Panama
Canal, but privately the former are not so
discreet
The news of this change on the part of
the administration towards the Nicara qua
| Canal has reached Nicaragua, and the
Nicaragua Minister to the United States,
who had gone home on leave of absence,
has hurried back to Washington to do
| what he can for the interests of his gov
| eminent. He has notified the State De-
partment that his government and that of
| Costa Rica regard the protocol they signed
last year with Secretary Hay as committin g
the United States to the Nicaragua route
and barring the Panama route from con
sideration. That position is strong one,
| too, but Nicaragua and Costa Rica haven't
the pull with this administration that
England has, and it may not help them
any. If the administration isn't careful
it will make this Canal question one Of
f1,o loo <>f, 49,.
| gressional campaign, as there are men in
| both the Senate and House-they are not
all democrats either-who will do some
| talking that will stir the country durin g
the next session of Congress if the admin
istration uses its influence to prevent Mic
| aragua Canal legislation, as it did at the
last session. Then, it succeeded in keep
ing many quiet by putting up the plea
that it would be violation of international
courtesy to stir the matter up while Eng
land was considering the Hay -Pauncefotc
treaty. There will be no such plea to use
| next winter.
Notwithstanding the failure of the ex-
pertinent of placing the Federal patronage
of the State of South Carolina at the dis
posal of Senator McLaurin, with the hope
of building up a white administration
party in that State, there are reasons for
the belief that the experiment is to be ex-
tended to other Southern States. In fact,
it is known that men, who have formerly
been active in the democratic party in
sounded to ascertain whether they would
be willing to assume the role that Nc
Laurin is playing in South Carolina in
their respective States. The responses
have not, so far. been satisfactory, but the
sounding is still going on, and men will
doubtless be found; but outside of admin
istration circles nobody really expects
any serious inroads to be made upon
Southern democracy by these expel iments,
but they will result in one thing that will
be satisfactory to the white people of the
South, and that will be the abolition of
the "nigger" Federal officials.
Evidently some of the men who have
| grown rich by putting the screws on the
United States government, when they had
| advance knowledge of the intention of
the government to buy something, have
been giving the owners of the land in the
vicinity of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where a
naval station of the first class is to be
established, some pointers. The naval
board which considered the location of
the station on Pearl Harbor has been or
dered to resume its sttings in Washin ton
to consider communication from Capt.
j. F. Merry, Commander of the Naval
Coaling Station at Honolulu. Capt Merry
has informed the Navy Department that
the price of land around Pearl Harbor has
been raised to such an extent that the
$4,000 appropriated by Congress, as the
limit to be paid for the SITE will not buy
| the land originally chosen, and that some
changes will have to be made in the plans
The latest official to discover that an
extensive European trip, at public ex-
pense, was necessary part of his official
duties is Mr.. o. p. ustin, the Hama made
statistician of the United States Treasury.
He says he is going to study the statistics
of European governments, but everybody
knows that he can only get access to the
published Statistics and that they could
be had in Washington as easily as in the
| countries that publish them.
Nearly all of the prominent officials in
Washington attended the funeral of Mrs
Gage, wife of the Secretary of the Treas
ury, which was held this morning at Sec
rotary Cages house. The remains were
taken to Chicago.
Former Representative Charles A. Bou-
telle, of Bangor, Maine, died Tuesday at
the Mclean Asylum, Waverly, Mass,
where he had been confined for a year
with brain trouble. Death was due
primarily to pneumonia, which developed
loct Sunday Mr. RoutalIa uaC 10 ,o,rS