Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-05-02
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent
WASHINGTON, April 30, 1901

lfTOm our Regular OOFTcSpOhachb-l
WASHINGTON, April 30, 1901.
Mr.. McKinley's record breaking Presi-
dental free excursion left Washington to-
day on its little jaunt of 1851 miles.
The special train consists of seven Pullman
cars, each selected as the most elegant of its
kind. The trip will cost thousands of
dollars, but it is doubtful whether a cent
of it will come out Of the pocket of any
one of the thirty EIGHT passengers. Secre-
tary Cortenyou was thoroughly alive to the
advertising possibilities of the trip, when
he arranged that more than one-fourth of the
passengers should be newspaper men, and
he took care that there should be artists
among them Also, that good photo
grapher should be on the train, as well as
telegraph operators. There are nine ladies
to keep Mrs. McKinley's company, and DR..
Rixey is on hand to look after her health
and that of the rest of the party.
The members of that Cuban Committee
left Washington hugging the delusion that
Mr. McKinley's promise to appoint Com
missioners to negotiate a reciprocity treaty
with Cuba, as soon as Cuba had govern
ment to negotiate with, meant something
tangible. Unless the Senate should treat
it better than it did the whole bunch of
reciprocity treaties negotiated by the pres
ent administration, the actual negotiation
of such a treaty would be meaningless.
Still, the promise sent the Cubans home in
good humor and that was doubtless all it
was intended to do. The Cubans on their
side promised to do their best to get the
Constitutional Convention to accept the
Platt amendment 1t will soon be apparent
whether their promise was worth any more
than Mr.. McKinley's,
If the movement that has been started in
Washington to make the daughters of the
American Revolution an auxiliary to the
machine that is booming Senator Fairbanks
of Indiana, for the Republican Presidential
nomination in 1904 is successful, the ID. A.
Il. will probably have split on its hands
and will certainly suffer in the esteem of
those who are on principle opposed to the
participation in partisan politics of such
organizations. This movement, which is
understood to have been started with the
knowledge of Mrs Fairbanks, President
General of the ID. A. R., and wife of the
Senator, is to have the d. A. K. National
Board unofiicially request every chapter in
the country to use the influence of its mem
bers with fathers, sons, husbands and
friends to secure support for the Fairbanks
boom. 1t was because they wish to keep
the movement secret that the National
Board of the d. A. II. recently decided
that the press should be rigidly excluded
not only from the Board meetings, but from
future National Congresses of the organize
ton. That decision provoked such adverse
criticism that the Board has since announced
that it has been temporarily Abandoned
1t has from its organization been plain that
the D. A. r. had nothing to do with part
isan politics, but the same claim has been
for organizations of men, which are con-
stantly dabbling in partisanship.
Nothing but praise is heard of the action
of Mr.. Mckinley, taken in response to a
written request Of senator Daniel, of Vir-
ginia, in ordering that the Washington
relics, which have for some years been on
exhibition in the National Museum, be
restored to their proper owner, Gen. G. w.
c. Lee, of Virginia, a son of Gen. r. E.
Lee, from whose house, at Arlington, the
relics were taken at the opening of the Civil
War. While it was action that should
have voluntarily been taken years ago, by
some president, Mr.. Mckinley is entitled
to credit for taking it, even at this late day.
and to more credit for the manly letter to
Senator Daniel, in which he announced his
intention to do so.
All the administration influence will be
used to get Minister E. HI. Conger, nomin-
ated for Governor by the Iowa Republicans
Not because it loves Conger overly well or
desires to see him honored, but it dosen't
wish him to return to China as a United
States Minister, nor to tell him he cannot
In other words, for purely selfish reasons,
the administration wishes Mr.. Conger
nominated for governor of Iowa. He dis
pleased the administration several times
during the negotiations in Pekin, and he
has displeased it again by his published
interviews since he reached the United
States, but his standing with the powerful
missionary element in this country is such
that the administration is afraid to kick
him out of the diplomatic service.
Secretary Hay announced before he left
Washington that he secured a sufficiently
definite statement of Senatorial views, to
inform him just,,what sort of a new Isthmian
Canal treaty with England, would be sure
to receive the support of two thirds of the
Senators. Senators who ought to know
something about the views of their collea-
CUES on this subject, think that this annou-
ncement were like many others made by the
diplomatic world misleading without be-
ing untrue One of them said: "Any
Senator could have told Mr.. Hay offhand
just what sort of tready would be sure of
ratification by the Senate-the amended
Hay Pauncefote treaty was one sort, but
that didn't suit England, and unless there
is some craw fishing in England, it is very
doubtful that any treaty that will suit two
thirds of the Senate will suit England
The radical point of difference is that two
thirds Of the Senate believed in American
control of the Canal, while England doesn't