Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-06-06
WAsHINGToN LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent
WAc1rrNcToN Iune z 100

From our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, June 3, 1901.
Mr.. Mckinley and Secretary Root had a
clash of opinion as to the wording of the
rejection of the action of the Cuban Con-
stitutional Convention in making wholesale
additions to the Platt amendment, before
accepting it, that threatened to be serious
for time. Mr. Root regarded the action
Of the Cubans as violation of pledges
made by the Cuban delegates who visited
Washington and wished to tell them SO in
plain words Mr. Mckinley, while not
doubling the accuracy of Mr.. Roots view,
insisted upon making the rejection con-
ciliatory, and, of course, had his way.
Secretary Root is very sore on the subject,
and has much smaller opinion of the
Cubans than he had, and privately calls
them tricksters and similar names.
Representative Livingston, of Georgia,
said of the action of the Governor of South
Carolina in declining to accept the resigna-
tions of Senators Tillman and McLaurin:-
Governor insolvency did exactly right.
Tillman and McLaurin did wrong in
resigning. A campaign would tear the
State all to pieces and no good would come
to anybody. Such a campaign would have
been full of bitterness. The people of the
State have been torn by politics for eleven
years and hot campaign this year would
undoubtedly have been detrimental The
same sentiment has been expressed in
Washington by many other Democrats.
Representative Bankhead, of Alabama,
who has just returned from visit to the
Constitutional Convention of that State,
now sitting, said 81 am confident that
wisdom will characterize their course and
that they viii solve the suffrage problem
satisfactorily. 1t may be some little time
before form is definitely decided on, but
there is no doubt about proper restrictions
and qualifications for suffrage being pro-
vided. y
Whether intentional or not, it looks as
though there were conspiracy among New
York Republicans who visit Washington,
to make Teddy feel small by booming
somebody else as New York's candidate fol
the Republican Presidential nomination.
First, one of the old Conkling leaders
introduced the Odell boom to Washington
and in addition to telling what fine candi
date he would make, stuck knife into
Teddy by saying of him: ooh, yes he's &
good man, but his name won't figure witt
tHb NEW 1Olh uSlcs5dblOH by tuO Uiult
the Odell boom was sufficiently inflated tt
be seen at any distance, Buffalo Republi
can-Mr. Z. II. Theobald-who happened
to be in Washington, proceeded to swat il
vigorously. He declared that Odell would
have to do lot of growing before hi
reached Presidential size and then pro
ceeded to trot out boom for Secretary
Root and to say that his name would bt
the only one presented to the Convention
by New York. Republicans who favo
candidates from other States, find muci
pleasure in this early scrapping among
New York Republicans, and the Democrats
it's up to them to laugh, and they do.
Attorney General Knox has done his
part toward avoiding decidedly embarras
sing matter, by rendering an opinion tina
claims resulting from the destruction Of thu
battleship Maine, in Havana harbor, are
National and therefore barred by the Treaty
of Paris from consideration by the Spanish
claims Commission. But some lawyers
have doubts as to whether that opinion will
stand legal test, and they are still filing
claims of the Maine victims and their heir,
with the Commission. In order to decid,
those claims either way, it would be neces-
sary to fix the responsibility for the destruc
ton of the Maine.
Has Mr. Mckinley deserted high protee-
ton and become disciple of Blaine reel
procity and Babcock tariff reform? That
interesting question has been more or less
discussed in Washington for some time
and the number of those who take the
affirmative side is steadily increasing. II
will be remembered that Mr. Mckinley
was unusually persistent in his efforts tC
get the Senate to ratIfy the reciprCsity
treaties negotiated by his direction, and he
made no effort to hide his chagrin at the
failure of those efforts. Interest in this
matter was increased by the telegraphed
report of speech made at Montreal by NJ.
Siegfried, French statesman who was a
recent caller at the White House, in which
he quoted Mr.. Mckinley as having said to
him that he was no longer an extreme pro-
tectionist; that the time had come when il
was necessary to obtain new and wider
foreign markets, and that tariff concessions
would have to be made to get them. That
statement is believed to be substantially
correct, although White House officials
decline to either deny or affirm it. Another
witness along the same line is Mr. Charles
A. Moore, President Of the American Pro-
tective Tariff League, who was with Mr.
Mckinley on his trip to the Pacific Coast,
and who has publicly stated that Mr..
Mckinley was no longer an extreme pro.
tectionist, and that he was intent upon
trying to extend our market through com
mercial reciprocity.
Mr. Moore went further and said that
unless we could get more foreign markets,
over production would soon make seriou:
trouble for us. Compare this sort Of talk
with the speeches made when the Mckinley
tariff bill was before Congress, and you get
an idea of the radical change of mind these
high protectionists have undergone. The
original Mckinley tariff bill did not pro-
vide for reciprosity at all, and it was only
by reading the riot act that the late jaime!
G. Blaine, then Secretary of State, sue
ceeded in having reciprosity amendment
added thereto. There is food for the
brains of thoughtful Democrats in this
subject