Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1901-01-02
Washington, Letter.
From our Regular Correspondent

ment of old soldiers who have at any
time been in the civil service Of the
| government SO as to include the
| Spanish war veterans. The civil ser.
vice commission has always given all
| soldiers, sailors and marines who
| were honorably discharged from the
service on account Of wounds or oil
sickness contracted while in the line
of duty preference of per cent. in
examinations. That is to say, they
have only to make 65 per cent. in the
examinations to get on the eligible
list, while civilians are required to
make 20 per cent.
Following is the official program of
the presidents New Year reception: At
II A. members of the cabinet and
the diplomatic corps; l:15 - the chief
justice and associate Justices of the
United States supreme court, justices
of United States and the District Of
and ex-ministers; 1 1 senators. rep
resentatives and District of Columbia
officers; II :40-Officers of the army,
navy. marine corps and the District OF
Columbia militia; II M--the regents
and secretary of the Smithsonian in
heads of bureaus in the executive de-
partments; 1915 P. Associated
Veterans of Mexican War, Grand Army
of the Republic, Military Order of the
Loyal Legion, Union Veterans Legion,
and the Oldest Inhabitants Association
of District of Columbia, 1885 to 30
citizens.
Secretary Long has gone to Boston.
where he will deliver an address tonight
at the annual banquet of the Com
merical club, of that city. He will
not return to Washington until after
New Years day.
Secretary Hay has received dis
patch from Minister Cenger telling of
the presenting to the representative Of
the Chinese government of the joint
demands signed by all the foreign
ministers at Pekln, but he has express
ed no opinion as to when an answer
was expected nor of what the nature
No official of this government will ex-
press an opinion, but from the tenor
of private conversations it is believed
that most of our officials expect the
answer to be one that will have a
tendency to open negotiation on
several important clauses of the joint
demands, rather than to accept or re-
fuse outright. The Chinese minister
to the United States also expects that
sort of an answer and has gone as far
as to publicly express the hope that
negotiation would result in moderating
several of the demands, which he
thinks too severe.
The absence of the Republican
leaders in congress, most of whom are
spending the holidays away from
Washington, has caused some Of the
! correspondents to send out some very
wild guesses of what congress is going
| to do and to leave undone during the
remainder of the session. If you like
that sort of thing, you can guess for
yourself as we'll as any correspondent
can do it for you.
Three Populist senators -Pettigrew,
of South Dakota; Allen, of Nebraska,
and Butler, of North Carolina who
will permanently retire from public life
on the 3rd of next March, have formed
| a combination, if Pettigrew can be
| believed, for the purpose Of obstruct-
| ing all legislation in the senate and
forcing an extra session of congress,
unless the shipping bill shall be with
| drawn.
Senator Shoup. of Idaho, has not
abandoned either effort or hope of re-
election, although the number of votes
pledged to him is eight short of a
majority of the legislature; and he
thus replied to the report that he had
retired from the race: 1.-The publica-
ton that [ have retired from the race
for the senatorship is utterly without
| foundation. / have had no idea OF
abandoning the contest, and will be in
habit of giving up fights; and am very
well satisfied as to the outlook. ,
| Senator Shoup is naturally not doing
any talking about where he expects to
get the votes to re-elect him, but there
is no doubt of his having substantial
reasons for expecting them.
Senator McLaurin, of South Carolina
| was one of President McKinley's cal
| lers this week. He and the president
are good friends personally, and he
has been one of the few Democrats in
! congress who has supported the ex-
pansion policy all the way through.
! For the latter reason his opponents at
home, who charge him with being
practically a Republican,, have already
begun a fight on him with the inten-
ton of trying to prevent his reelection
to the senate. His term will not ex-
pire until 1908, but he will have to &c
before his people next year and carry
the primary election in order to be re-
elected. He has made no reply to his
| opponents and he says none is neces-
sary, as he believes that the course be
has followed. which has been endorsed
! by some of the prominent papers of his
state, has been in accord with the
sentiments held by majority Of