The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-05-22
FROM THE NATIONS CAPITA
From Our O.cn Correspondent.

WASHINGTON, d. c., May 90, 1901.
Itseems practically certain nowadays
that the chief question which will con-
vnlse Congress and the nation next
winter will be that OF the thrift, both in
its relation to trust made goods and in
cnnnent.ec with Tho reciprocity ireu-
ties which were SO uncerenioniously
buried last winter. The matter will
probably come up in connection with
Cuba, which will negotiate recipro-'
city treaty with the United States as
soon as its government is organized
and capable Of making any treaties ut
all. President Mckinley has promised
to urge the ratification of this upon
Congress by eve.y means in his power,
and will probably keep his word in
view Of his we'll known sentiments on
the subject. Bat the protected inter-
ests are already up in arms, the beet
sugar men of the West taking the lead.
They have threatened to fight the pro-
posed reciprocity to finish. Tho to-
bacco men do not care 60 much, as they
ssy Cuban tobacco dies nut oomo into
competition with the American product
except in an indirect way. Senator
Platt's own State Of Connecticut raises
o great deal of tobacco, and while tho
Senator says that he has not yet heard
of any objections to reciprocity with
Cuba, nevertheless his State would be
false to her record If she did not pro-
test bitterly sooner or later, it being
Connecticut which was chiefly respon-
sibie for the abandonment of .plain
duty" and whose influence prevented
the consideration of the French recip-
roeity treaty. According to Senator
Plattit is not proposed by any one to
give Cuban products free admission to
Gne United States. But the home sugar
growers are not willing to make any
concessions whatever, and they are
already appealing to other interests
Which are not involved in the Cuban
arrangement to stand by them. Their
argument is that an attempt is to be
made to lower all the important tariff
schedules by. means of reciprocity trea-
ties, not only with Cuba, but with most
OF the leading nations; Therefore the
whole protective system ia involved,
they say, and it behooyes all who are
interested to make q test case of the
Cuban treaty and beatit if possible.
Interest in the subject is steadily grow
ing, and both sides are lining up for O
battle royal next winter.
The War Department. has awarded
contracts for the removal Of the Con-
federate dead from the cemetery at the
Soldiers Home and from ether local
graveyards to the National Cemetery
at Arlington, where they will be
grouped on beautiful plot of 81 acres.
The graves will be arranged within o
circle surrounding a mound upon which
will be placed flowers and 'shfuhbery,
the remainder of the plot being planted
with similar growths, including trees
native to Southern coil A bill aDproI
priating the money necessary for the
removal Of tho bodies was passed BY
Congress some time ago, and the work
would have been carried out last fall,
had it not been for some opposition
that was aroused in the South. Ac-
cordinglEs the removal was postponed
for several months. to allow time for
the list OF the dead to be published in
the South with the statement that il
the friends OF any particular person
desired to take their dead elsewhere,
they were at liberty to do go. No re-
sponses have been received and the
Department is therefore now Carrying
out the work.
Judging from an article by Robert
T. Hill, who has made careful study
of the subject Porto Rico. may we'll
shrink from being kept under perma-
nent colonial government, MS tbs
islands Of the West Indies, beautiful
and healthy and fertile as they are,
have been reduced almost to absolute
ruin by that sort of management. AS
Mr.. Hill points out, there are eight
European colonial governments in the
smaller groups of Islands composing
the Lesser Antilles. Each of these
groups, with the average area of an
American county, has an administra-
tive establishment as large as that of
an American State, and each official
draws o salary from two to five times
as great as. that paid tho average
American public servant. The expen-
ses and revenue of Jamaica, for in
stance, are exactly the same as those Of
the State of Texas, which has seventy
times the area and FIVE times the popu-
lation of this Brit.ah dependency. The
population and wealth of the islands
are not sufficient to support more thssn.
one small and efficient administrative