The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-12-20

court be retained until objections to the
| findings are presented.
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER..
WAsHINGToN, D. c., December 10th.
MIR. EDIToR:-The first public example
of the dignified and concerted opposition
which will be offered by the democratic
minority in Congress was afforded by the
| dissenting report of the democrats of the
House Committee on Ways and Means on
the Philippine tariff bill, which was pre-
sented to the House OF last Friday. Mr.
Richardson presented the minority report
which denounced the measure as another
step in the we'll marked line of imperial
| ISM" The report goes on to say that
1--WE oppose the whole policy of the ma
jcrity in dealing with the Philippine Arch
| ipelago. We believe that instead of the
effort they are making to set up and hold
permanent colonies, there should long
since have been inauguratcd a policy
| assuring to the people of those islands
stable government and their ultimate in
dependence"
The report goes on to demonstrate how
| thoroughly impracticable, even from
commercial standpoint, is the repu blican
policy and submits that in addition to the
| 20,000,000 paid to Spain for the islands
it has cost the government the past year
| 100000 to maintain the army of occu-
patton, without taking into account the
the appalling number of lives which have
been sacrificed. In return for all this the
United States has received from the islands
| trade amounting, during the past year, to
$5,427, FOG, while foreign nations have re-
ceived Philippine trade amounting to
| $4s, 100000 during the same period.
The minority report will, of course,
| have no effect upon the course of the
| majority and the bill will be discussed
during the next two days and on Wednes-
| day afternoon will be passed by the House.
Mr.. Richardson's report may, however
have the effect of opening the eyes of the
public to the frightful price the country is
paying for the qualification of republican
imperialistic ambitions
There has been no party division on the
question of an isthmian canal and after
full discussion of the provisions of the
| Hay-Pauncefote treaty it will come up to-
| day for ratification by the Senate. 1t will
meet with no serious opposition. The ma
| jority of the Senators who will vote for
ratification believe that under the terms
of the treaty the United States will have
the right to fortify the canal, to grant
concessions in the way Of rates to her
| own coastwise trade and to close the Ca
nal to any enemy in time of war.
The Senate Committee on Isthmian
Canals has reported Senator Morgan's
bill, providing for the construction of the
Nicaraguan Canal and carrying an appro
priation of $lsO,OO0,OOO. The House Com
mittee on Interstate and Foreign Com
MERGE has voted to report favorahly the
Hepburn bill providing for the construc-
| ton of the same canal. The vote in favor
of the bill included all the members of the
Committee with the exception of Mr..
| Fletcher of Minnesota. Chairman Hep
burn was instructed to push the bill for
immediate passage 10 the House, and as
he will have the assistance of both par
ties on the floor of the House it is proba
BILE that it will come up for discussion
Immediately after the holiday recess.
| Senator Frye has come out with de-
fence of his ship subsidy bill which, by
the way, does not defend but which will
be made the most of by the republicans
in favor of the bill. 1t is more than prob
able that in view of his position as plesi-
dent of the Senate he will be able to eX-
ert sufficient influence to carry the meas
ure in that body but it is doubtful if even
the combined efforts of Senators Frye and
Hanna can make it go down with the
House 1t has always been the House
that has stood between the people and
this sort of class legislation and as far
back as 1891 that body defeated a similar
attempt on the part of the Senator from
Maine, to turn into the pockets of private
steamship owners generous share of the
public funds.
! The decision rendered on Friday by the
Schley Court of Inquiry has resulted in IA
bitter disappointment for large majority
of the people of the United States. The
selection of Admiral Dewey as president
of the Court lead the people to believe
that Admiral Schiey would receive the
would practically exonerate him would
be rendered. Some of the more conserv-
alive pointed out that on merely techni-
cal grounds the Court might be obliged to
find that the Admiral had been negligent
| of certain duties and no one believed that
| Admiral Dewey would finch from crti-
| cisng his brother officer if he found
grounds for so doing. AS it is, the people
have, from the minority report SUB nit'ed
| by Admiral Dewey, grounds for believing
| that even from a technical standpoint
there was nothing reprehensibie in the
| Admiral conduct and, at the same time
they have the opinion of the majority of
| the Court that he was guilty Oh every
| count of the ''precept."
Attorney Rayner, W ho worked SO hard
| to clear his friend from every charge, ex-
presses himself as bitterly disappointed
| and believes that Admiral Schley should
appeal to the civil cur is for vindication
Whether Admiral Scl!ey viii feel that
he can atf)rd such a course or not re
mains to be seen. In the mean time it is
believed that Congress will take up the
matter and make thorough investigation
boxing not only to an examination of the
acts of Admiral Schley in the premises
but with further view to fixing the
blame for the Macl " history and, if it
finds Admiral Schley innocent of the
Charges Of the "precept,' to bringing 20
light those persons who are responsible