The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-02-01
WASHINGTON LETTER.
TALK OF EXTRA SESSION FOR
THE BENEFIT OF CUBA.

Defeat Shipping BiII-If Allowed to
Come to n Vote, 1t Will Surely Pass.
Premature Jubilation.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3O.-Talk Of an
extra session, which it was thought
had been abandoned, has been revived,
and some very good reasons are ad-
vanced to show that it may be neces-
sity. The Cuban constitution will not
be in shape to be presented to the
United States until after the adjourn
ment of congress, although by the mid
die of March it is expected that it will
be ready. By some it is considered as
pretty hard upon Cuba to suggest that
her constitution be held up for nearly
a year and that meanwhile the status
of the Cubans and especially their in
dependence has not been established.
-.
The statement is made in private
conferences that there is no real dis
position to give Cuba her full indie
pendence. This is a base aspersiOn on
the honor of the United States. Before
the war with Spain was begun the
pledge was distinctly made that Cuba
should be free, and she will be, just as
quickly as is possible, in an orderly
and dignified manner. In most cases
the suggestion of an American pro-
tectorate over Cuba or of annexing the
island to the United States is made by
those who desire to exploit that rich
country for their own individual bene-
fits.
The presidents illness, while 1t has
at no time been in any way serious, has
greatly weakened him, so much so that
he is yet unable to attend to anything
that is not urgent public necessity.
This has necessitated postponement,
If not an abandonment, of all social
functions, much to the dismay of So
ciety and those on pleasure bent. But
governments exist, not for the enjoy
ment of the fashionable, but for con-
SSINluS Iuc " SlldlS VI tlC lhdSSSos
One after another the appropriation
bills are emerging from senate commit
tees and are being placed upon the
calendar for consideration. The legis-
lative appropriation and the Indian ap-
preparation bills have been disposed of,
and the shipping bill is filling in all
the gaps, so as to bring the measure as
speedily to vote as is possible. Sena-
tors Vest and Depew have spoken, and
Senators Chandler and Mason, it is
said, are ready and may have delivered
their speeches before this reaches the
readers eye. 1t is said that Senators
Berry, Cockrell, Bacon and possibly
Clay again will speak in opposition,
and even Senator Teller is expected to
speak for a few minutes in order to
show why he voted for ship subsidy
bill ten years ago and refuses to vote
for better bill now.
Senators Pettigrew, Butler and one
or two others are said to have careful
ly planned a scheme of filibustering
sure to defeat every attempt to bring
the bill to a vote. 1t is conceded by
everybody that if the bill comes to a
vote it will be passed. 1t is also con-
coded that those senators who nursed
in silence their fears that the bill con-
tanned bad features and who, when
they came into the light with their OBJ
jections, were met with a readiness on
the part of the bills friends to accept
amendments that would set their fears
at rest, are the ones to whom in the
end the defeat of the bill must be laid
if it be defeated, and it cannot be de-
feated by vote, but only by prevent
ing it from reaching vote.
Meanwhile the foreign shipping lob
by is jubilant, protesting to have the
most positive assurances that the bill
cannot come to a vote in the senate.
Considering that these people, or those
they represent, have $175, 100000 a
year at stake in the matter, their con-
Germ can be imagined. That they may
be jubilating prematurely is more than
possible; it is likely, as the real friends
Of the bill-and these include the most
powerful senators-say that the bill
ought to and will pass before adjourn
ment at this session.
-
The free trade and the Democratic
press of the country that is bitterly
hostile to Senator Hanna is beginning
to crow over the defeat Of "his pet
measure" but Senator Hanna only
smiles complacently.
Senator Hanna is target for the
abuse of every free trade newspaper in
the United States, not because of his
connection with the shipping bill,
which they use as their text for attack
ing him, but because he is the most re-
markedly successful man in the Re
publican party today.
-
The shipping bill is not framed to en-
rich anybody; its purpose is to give the
people of the United States substan-
tial assurance that their exports will
20 to their foreign markets, whatever
may happen to the nations of Europe,
and, besides this, to give the United
States a means of defense in the ever
possible emergency Of war.
The shipping bills passage means
the eventual retention in the United
States of the $2OO,O0OOOO now paid an
nually by our people to foreign ship
owners; its defeat means an indefinite
continuance of the FOREIGN mnnnnnlv of