Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1901-02-22
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From our Regular Corresponden,


(From our Regular Correspondent
Washington, Feb. 18.-The admins
tratl0n is determined that there shall
be an extra session of the next Con
gress. Mr.. Mckinley is talking up a
settlement of the Cuban question as
the reason, but if the Ship Subsidy job
had been allowed to go through he
would have probably discovered that
an extra session would not be necessary
to deal with Cuba But there are 9th
Ell strings to the extra session bow, and
IL would not be surprising if the Re-
publican leaders in Congress so ma
nlpulated things that one Or more of
the big appropriation bills failed to
get through at this session, and then
tried to raise a howl that it was the
Democrats who were to blame for the
extra session that the failure would
make necessary. Neither would it be
surprising if the River and Harbor
bill, which is to be reported to the Sen
ate this week, also failed to gel through.
That would reduce the total of the
appropriations made by this Congress
"a total that has thoroughly alarmed
the Republican leaders since the press
of the country, regardless of politics,
have opened up on it. Then there Is
the bill for the reduction of war taxes,
which is deadlOcked in conference and
in a fair way to fail, because the House
conferees encouraged by Secretary
Gage, and other members of the ad
mlnIstration, refuse TO accept the cut
in beer and tobacco taxes made by the
Senate. The Senate is now consider
ing the oleOmargarine bill, but wneth-
er that measure is TO be voted ON or
merely be used as club to kill time Is
not yet clear. One thing is very Ger
tain, and that is that the Intelligent
people of the country know that the
Democrats will not be responsible for
the failure of any regular appropria
ton bill. They have at all times as
sisted in dispoSlng OF the appropriation
bills, as fast as they were ready, and
have repeatedly warned the Republic
cans that they were wasting time on
the Ship Subsidy bill that seould have
been devoted to the appropriation bills.
The U. S. Government would have
saved money had Congress appropriat-
ed an amount equal to what would be
received from the sale of tickets to the
inaugural ball, toward the expenses of
Mr.. McKinley's second Inauguration,
as the receipts from the sale of those
tickets will be very much less than
$50, 900, which represents the cost to
the government of allowing the PEN
sion building to be used for the inau-
gural ball, not to mention the delay in
the work of the bureau that will be
caused by the holiday of all of its
employees from Feb. 9th, until March
7th.
Senator Teller destroyed the last
hope of the loOterS in their ability to
push the Ship Subsidy bill through at
this session, when he said: ''1n the in
terests of public business, desire to
give notice that this ship Subsidy bill
cannot PASS Senator Aldrich pre-
tended to Do much surprised and said
that be had not before any positive no.
tice that no vote would be allowed on
the bill. Senator Teller spoke of three
Republican Senators who had gone to
him and expressed hope that the bill
would not be voted upon, and then
said There is strong sentiment
among the Republican Senators, shared
by probably half of them, that this bill
ought not to pass. l am not surprised,
for no bill, ever presented to the Sci.
ate, carried upon its face such evidences
of jobbery as the Shipping BILL" Sena-
tor Hanna got terri bly, worked up
while Mr.. Teller and other Senators
were saying things showing the impos-
slbility of passing the Ship Subsidy
bill, and made speech in which be
virtually took the ground that the re
election of MI. Mckinley was a yer
dict of the people in favor OF the Ship
Subsidy bill and any other measures
be might favor in plain words, that he
alone had right to say what appro-
priations OF public money should be
made. Instead of showing that the
subsidy bill was not lootlng scheme,
Mr.. Hanna declared that the River and
HarDOr bill contained propositions
THAT would make the shipping bill
look pale"
Representative Babcock IS bill to re
peal that section of the Dingley tariff
law, imposing duties on such articles
as are manufactured by the newly
formed Morgan Steel Trust, is not
likely to be allowed to pass by the Re-
publican bosses, more g the pity, but
1t has stirred up the Republicans in
Congress, many of whom are express
ing views worthy of good anti trust
Democrats, for instance, Representa-
tive Lands, of Indiana, said: II AIN
heartily in favor of the bill to remove
the duty from steel and iron and kind
red products. And the commenda-
ton that bill will receive from every
nook and corner of the country, will
surprise some gentlemen, especially
the magnates, VINO boldly and in de-
tiance of public sentiment, have or
ganized the most gigantic industrial
combination in history. The people
will expect this Congress to teach these
ungraJeful beneticlarIes of their bounty
lesson, and II the next session OF
Congress does not do 1t, the people will
send one that Will. An anarchist is
not necessarily a poor man. A trust
that destroys legitimate competition
by brutal arbitrary power, is just AS
much of an anarchist as che fellow
who destroys a builolng with a bomb,
| am against both of them"