The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-05-10
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, d. c., May 9th.

however, tnal men very CLOSE 10 the du
ministration are doing their best to in
crease the talk about Germanys intention
to grab one or more Of the little republics
on this continent, regardless of the Mon
roe doctrine. This is playing with dyna
mite. 1t is not probable that Germany
wants war with us, and it is absolutely
certain that we don't want war with
Germany, but it is easily possible for fool
peoples so wrought up that some little in
cident which, under ordinary circum-
stances would amount to nothing, might
bring on one of the most costly wars ever
fought.
Senator McLaurin may continue to call
himself democrat if it pleases him to do
So but the fact that the distribution of the
Federal patronage of South Carolina is in
his hands shows what sort of democrat
lie is. The white republican of that State
who have monopolized the Federal offices
for thirty five years except during the two
Cleveland terms, are doing much growl-
ing; but those who are after re appoint
ment are told, when they come to Wash
ington, that it is necessary for them to
have Senator McLaurin' s endorsement be-
fore they can get it. Not little amuse-
ment was caused in Washington when
the news of Senator McLaurin's attempt
to get ex-senator Wade Hampton to throw
his influence TO the administration move
ment in exchange for the Office of post
master at Columbia. Gen. Hampton is
poor man, and one of the reasons therefor
is that he could never be bought. That
was well known in Washington through
Gen. Hampton's long and distinguished
services in the Senate and as railroad COM
missioner. This must have been we'll
known to Senator McLaurin, but, having
changed himself, he doubtless imagined
that Gen. Hampton had also changed. He
was quickly undeceived.
The radical position taken by Repre-
sentative Babcock, of Wisconsin, as to the
| necessity for revision of the Dingley
| tariff so as to put trust controlled products
on the free list, has, in the opinion of the
| hide bound protectionist republicans,
made it impossible for Mr. Babcock to be
Chairman of the Republican COMPRESSION
| al Campaign Committee in the next cam
| paign. Mr.. Babcock's friends say that he
| decided not to continue chairman of that
committee lefore he publicly announced
his attitude on the tariff. Democrats who
] hoy L. !, H.
about Mr. Babcock's proposed tariff re-
form are decidedly pleased with the out
look. They believe that the question will
bring about a war in the republican party,
compared with which the old Stalwart
and anti Stalwart war will seem child's
| play, and that the result is bound to be
beneficial to the democratic party, not
only because it will hold the balance of
power in Congress, but because there is a
strong probability that it will also cause
it to elect the next President. If MI
Babcock can get the republican votes he
claims, tariff reform bill along the lines
he advocates can be put through Congress
| with the assistance of democratic votes,
and Mr.. Mckinley can veto it if he dare
Another row is on over the purchase of
foreign made arms by the War Depart
ment. The department ordered the pur-
chase of one thousand German magazine
pistols, with the understanding that if,
after practical test by the army, they
proved satisfactory, twenty thousand more
would be bought. This brought vigor-
Gus protest from well-known American
fire arm company, which claims to have a
pistol of American design and manufac-
ture in every way as good as the German
pistol ordered to be purchased for the
army, and which the Board of Ordnance
and Fortifications, which recommended
the German purchase, did not even test
The protest will not prevent the purchase
of the one thousand German pistols, but it
is likely to put spoke in the scheme to
purchase twenty thousand more of them.
Every man wishes our army to have the
best equipments to be had, but no man
with the right sort of blood in him believe
that foreign equipments should be bought
when as good can be had in this country.
This purchasing of foreign made arms
has long been Il touchy subject with the
Ordnance Bureau, and one which it has
been almost impossible to secure official
information about. 1t may be necessary
for Congress to do little investigating
this subject.
President Kruger of the Transvaal Re
public, will visit the United States in
October. This announcement was made
by MIR. Montagu White, the Bocr diplo-
matte agent, who has been in Washington
for some days
If the movement that has been started
in Washington to make the Daughters of
the American Revolution an auxiliary to
the machine that is booming Senator Fair
banks, of Indiana, for the republican
Presidential nomination in 1904 is sue
cessful, the d. A. r. will probably have a
split on its hands and will certainly suffer
in the esteem of those who are on princi-
pie opposed to the participation in parti-
san politics Of such organizations. This
movement, which is understood to have
been started with the knowledge of Mrs.
Fairbanks, President General of the ID. A.
R., and wife of the Senator, is to have the
d. A. r. National Board unoffically re-
quest every chapter in the country to use
the influence of its members with fathers,
sons, husbands and friends, to secure sup
port for the Fairbanks boom. 1t was be-
cause they wish to keep the movement
secret that the National Board of the ID.
A. r. recently decided that the press
should be rgidy excluded, not only from
the Board meetings but from future
National Congresses of the organization.
That decision provoked such adverse crlti-
cism that the Board has since announced
that it had been temporarily abandoned
1t has from its organization been plain
that the d. A. r. had nothing to do with
partisan politics, but the same claim has
| been made for organizations of men