Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-02-21
WASHINGTON LETTER.
from our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON. Feb. Is, 1901.

WASHINGTON. EeD. 10, lJU1.
The administration is determined that
there shall be an extra session of the next
Congress. That is now as plain as the
nose on your face Mr. Mckinley is
talking up a settlement of the Cuban ques-
ton as the reason, but if the Ship Subsidy
Job had been allowed to 60 through he
would have probably discovered that an
extra session would not be necessary to
deal with Cuba. But there are other
strings to the extra session bow, and it
would not be surprising if the Republican
leaders in Congress so manipulated things
that one or more of the big appropriation
bills failed to get through at this session,
and then tried to raise 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 Senate this week, also failed
to get 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 fair way
to fail, because the House conferees en-
couraged by Secretary Gage and other
members of the administration, refuse to
accept the cut in beer and tobacco taxes
made by the Senate. The Senate is now
considering the oleomargarine bill, but
whittier that measure is to be voted on or
merely be used as a club to kill time is not
vet clear One thing is very certain, and
that is that the intelligent people of the
country know that the Democrats will not
be responsible for the failure of any regular
appropriation bill. They have at all times
assisted in disposing of the appropriation
bills. as fast as they were ready, and have
repeatedly warned the Republicans that
they were wasting time on the Ship Subsidy
bill that Should have been devoted to the
appropriation bills.
The United States Government would
have saved money had Congress appro-
priated 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 $4,000, which
represents the cost to the government of
allowing the Pension building to be used
lOI jn6 l4Ob W iudiiolOh ohC
delay in the work of the bereau that will be
caused by the holiday of all of its employees
from Feb. ~, until March 7.
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: SIN the interests of public bust
ness, desire to give notice that this Ship
Subsidy bill cannot pass.n Senator Aid
rich pretended to be much surprised and
said that he had not before any positive
notice that no vote would be allowed on the
bill. Senator Teller spoke of three Repub-
lican Senators who had gone to him and
expressed hope that the bill would not be
voted upon, and then said There is a
strong sentiment among the Republican
Senator'S shared by probably half of them,
that this bill ought not to pass. am not
surprised, for no bill, ever presented to the
Senate, carried upon its face such evidences
of iobbery as the Shipping BILL" Senator
Hanna got terribly worked up while Mr..
Teller and other Senators were saying
things showing the impossibility of pass
ing the Ship Subsidy bill, and made a
speech in which he virtually took the
ground that the reelection of Mr.. McKin-
ley was verdict of the people in favor Of
the Ship Subsidy bill and any other meas
ures he might favor in plain words, that he
alone had right to say what appropria-
tons of public money should be made.
Instead of showing that the Subsidy bill
was not looting scheme, Mr.. Hanna de-
clared that the River and Harbor bill con-
tanned propositions that would make the
Shipping bill look pale"
Representative Babcock's bill to repeal
that section Of the Dingley tariff law, i'm
posing duties ON such articles as are manu-
featured by the newly formed Morgan Steel
Trust, is not likely to be allowed to pass
by the Republican bosses, mores the pity,
but it has stirred up the Republicans in
Congress, many of whom are expressing
views worthy of good antitrust Democrats,
for instance Representative Lads, of Ind,
said: Il am heartily in favor of the bill to
remove the duty from steel and iron and
kindred products And the commentator
that bill will receive from every nook and
corner of the country, will surprise some
gentlemen, especially the magnates who,
boldly and in defiance of public sentiment,
have organized the most gigantic industrial
combination in history The people will
expect this Congress to teach these migrate
full beneficiaries of their bounty lesson,
and if the next session Of Congress does not
do it, the people will send one that will.
An Anarchist is not necessarily poor man.
A trust that destroys legitimate competition
by brutal arbitrary power, is just as much
of an anarchist as the fellow who destroys
building with a bomb. I am against
both of them.