The Press., 1901-12-12
washington Letter.
washington. December 9, 1901.


 I Washington, December g, 1901.
 The capital of a nation is always an in. teresting center, and the capital of the greatest nation, even in summer, when congress Is absent, is the center of interest to intelligent people everywhere. How could 1t be otherwise ? It is the seat o1 government of moro than 85, ,OOO, ,O0Q oi people; the home of the president; the cabinet Is always here, either in person ol by assistant secretaries; the government bureaus having supervision of education, of agriculture, of the mails, and of the multitudinous affairs of great nation are here, as one may say, in continuous ses- sion. But when congress convenes, there is vastly added interest, and the congress which is now in session Is doubtless the l most important that has convened for many years. The applicants for office are making the hinges of the White House doors hot, while lobbyists in unwonted numbers are working at the capitol. The present congress will have to deal with may new and important questions. With the close of the Spanish war, the country entered on new historical era, and the legislative body of the United States has been forced to meet many new and perplexing questions. Congress must legislate for the Philippines. It will take up the question of the purchase of the Danish West Indies. It must consider the project of constructing cable from our western coast to the other shore of the Pacific, and it must provide for dig ging canal across the isthmus. A ship subsidy bill for the encouragement of American ship building must be either ap- proved or voted down. and the river and harbor appropriation bill will this session be further complicated by having attached to 1t 8 measure for the irrigation of the arid lands of the west. The question of authorizing great increase in the naval establishment will also be considered. The question of excluding the ''yellow terror'' from our shores has again come up. Three territories, Oklahoma, Ari- zona, and New Mexico will be found knocking at the doors of congress for ad- mission into the sisterhood of states.
 The citizens of Washington take con- gress very much as 8 matter of course. With the old habitues, congress is no great attraction. Distinguished public ! men create no sensation. There are too many of them. But never in the memory living has there been such an interesting parsonage in the White house as President Theodore Roosevelt, and more is hoped from him by optimists' who believe in popular government, than from any pre- vious president. There are thousands who would be willing to give him autocratic power, and If the country backs him to the end, as popular sentiment is backing him now, he will have the equivalent of auto cratic power and be able to test those re- forms in the civil, naval and military es- tablishments for which his name is a synonym. Distinguished as publicist, as soldier, and as statesman, heis even more distinguished as reformer and as a terror to political corruptionists and that horde of conscienceless politicians, who have so long regarded public office as a private perquisite. If he succeeds in l downing this horde he will make firmer and fairer the foundations of the republic, l and the superstructure for thousand years will bear the marks of his master hand.
 A man who has lived for a quarter of a century at the national capitol and seen the intersection of tremendous political and moral forces and tendencies, who has heard the actors and looked upon the spectacle, who has even gone behind the scenes and seen and smelled the dirty ropes, pulleys and axle grease by which the scenic effects are made, has, of course, outgrown his youthful illustonments. Our countrymen must either in person or by proxy have this experience or we will for ever be at the mercy of expert political rascals. The worms that gnaw the fruit to-day are nepotism, favoritism, political patronage. The appointees of the govern ment are In number one-half million. No one who has not been behind the scenes knows how incompetent, how worse than superfuous, thousands of them are. It Is because they have not been appointed for their fitness, but solely because of their relationship to senators, members of con- gress, cabinet ministers, generals and ad- mirals. If this class were weeded out of public service, it would be reduced by at least one-third, but its effectiveness would be increased through the excision of lot of idle incompetent loafing male and female bummers. This Is one of the tasks 1t Is believed the new president will ad- dress himself to and 1t is task as great and much more worthy than any perform ed by fabled Hercules.
 There are some signs that point to the departure of the spoilsman in politics, many of the worst examples are dead, but so enshrined are they and others in a glamourof alleged greatness and exalted statesmenship that deem it impolitic to call them by name for fear of arousing the resentment of those who have seen them only from distance lending en- chantment point of view and who have neither the time nor the means for inves- tigation. At no previous time in our nati- onal history has there been such an i'm perative demand for cleanness and honesty and competency in administration. We have made our debut in the international arena. We have taken up the white mans burden in Hawaii, in the Antilles and in the Philippines and the telescopes of the critical civilized world are leveled at us. President Roosevelt has said In his message to congress that there must ! ho no r,romnffnna In fho r,nilifarxr rsaual ar