The Weekly Tallahasseean., 1901-12-06

connected with the commission looks
with any favor on this proposal and
the whole thing would fall verv Aat
If it were not that it furnished a shield
behind which the transcontinentaI rail-
ways of the country can work to delay
or prevent the canal. They do not
dare to come out in the open and op-
pose it, but they are none the less
effective because fighting under cover.
Every year of pOStpOnement means so
much profit to them from freights that
would go by the canal.
Mr.. Roosevelt is hard at work
on his message, which he is preparing
both in his own hand and by dictatibn.
When he dictates it is usually to AS
Sistant Secretary Loeb, who transcribes
his shorthand notes promptly and re-
turns the typewriter copy to the
President, but a large part of the
message as it exists now is in the
handwriting of the President himself.
The various fragments, each repre-
Senting some separate subject, to be
treated in the message, are pasted on
large sheets of paper under head lines
convenient for quick reference. The
result is a trough draft" of the mes
sage as it will be sent to Congress
five weeks from now Many subjects of
course, still require careful elabora-
ton, but, it is said, nevertheless, by
those who know, that the message is
further advanced than those of any of
his predecessors at this interval before
the assembling of Congress. When Mr.
Roosevelt succeeded to the Presidency
he realized that the time for fam
iliarizing himself with matters of
Government was short at the best and
so set to work with will, with the re-
suit that he has made really amazlnZ
progress.
It has been long time since so much
regret has been expressed here, either
privately or officially, over the RECALL
of any foreign minister, as is nOw
heard in respect to Minister WI Ting
Fang. He has been cOnspicuously the
right man in the right place. From the
time that he got through the first news
(Which was generally discredited) in
regard to the safety of the legations in
Pekin to his last speech, he has shown
himself adrOit, sensible and jealous for
his cOuntry'S reputation. 1t safe to
say tht China would stand much lower
in popular estimation today, if it had
not been for Wu'S speeches, which he
never lost an opportunity for deliver
ing. For a year or more he has been
continually on the go and wherever he
went, instead of eXecratiOns he re-
ceived applause. Now he was flashing
to Chicago and back. Now he was max
ing talk to st. Louis or to Cincin-
natl, while in the nearby cities of New
York, Boston and Philadelphia, he was
frequently received. If it was not an af-
ter-dinner speech it was a lecture on
the principles of Confucius. If it was
not lecture it was a debate, but al
ways the propagation went on, and
when the State Department took the
position that there must be no dis
memberment of China they find that
there had grown up a popular reprisal
on the Chinese. If the United States
had not taken this stand, none of the
European allies would have done so;
and the chance are that the United
States would not have taken it (cer-
tainly not so earnestly,) had it not
been for the public sentiment created
by WI.
The report of Commissioner Evans
shows some curious facts. Seven years
after the close of the Civil war, which
lasted four years and was very deadly,
only per cent of the soldiers engaged
had applied for pensions; three years
after the Spanish war, which was short
and almost innocuOus, twenty per cent
of those enlisted (nine-tenths of whom
never saw a battle have applied for
pensions. The Commissioner says that
this is the fault of the system of pen
siOning, win its active army of attor-
neys, solicitors, and drummers, who
are practically licensed by the govern
ment with the promise of $25 for each
claim allowed.