The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-07-31
FROM THE NATIONS CAPITAL
From Our O,cn Correspondent.

. WASHINGTON, D. c., July 90, 1901.
Naturally, the great event or the
week here has been the demand of Ad-
Iniral Schley for Court of Inquiry in
to his conduct ut Santiago. Despite
all the columns that have been printed
On this subject, certain mistaken i'm
PRESTON iii regard to it seems to be
very widely disseminated. For in
stance, credit is given 10 Secretary
Long for granting the court demanded,
when, as matter Of fact, he could not
legally refuse, any officer having the
right to call for an inquiry into his
acts. Again, there has been O good
deal of excited comment in regard to
the alleged interyiew-since denied
In totO-with Admiral Bob Evans in
which he stated that Schley did not
have the signals for communicating
with the vessels. Yet there is nothing
new in this; it was so stated by Schley
in mis- letter to the Senate some two
years ago, and has never been disput-
ed. Whether this was withheld inten-
tionally or unintentionally is not
known; it is known, however, that no
information that could be withheld
was ever sent to the Brooklyn. 1t was
q matter of common comment among
the newspaper boats of Santiago. that
there was no use for them to visit the
Brooklyn daily, as they always had to
take, rather than receive, news there,
her people being kept in dense ignor-
ance OF all matters pertaining to the
fleet. Whether this was due to Samp-
son himself or to Captain Chadwick,
his chief of staff, is another question.
The cynical admission by Govern
ment officials that it is intended to hold
all the sea-forts of Cuba, including
those at Havana, Cienfuegos, Mas
zas, Santiago and elsewhere, by Amer
ican troops, in addition to the five
naval stations granted by the Platt
amendment. proves how we'll advised
the Cubans were to demur to that ex-
traordinary document, and seek to pin
the Administration down to an exact
Interpretation Of its terms. This i'm
perium in imperio is, it is claimed, JUS
titled by the general protection clause
of the Platt amendment, and it is
frankly admitted that it was intended
all along to insist on this under the
terms of that Amendment. This is the
reason why all attempts to interpret
the amendment were resisted 30 strong
ly by the United States--through care
was taken not to state the real reasons
therefore. An attempt will be made
to bulldoze Cuba into requesting the
United States to man, equip, and hold
these fOrtresses, but If the Island gov
eminent refuses to accede to this, they
will be held anyway. 1t goes without
saying, that Cuba cannot be indepen-
dent under such restrictions as are inn
posed by the Plat amendment as now
interpreted. and as it will be interpreted.
II Britain claimed suzereignty over the
Transvaal by right of such ehadowy re-
strlctions as she did, much more can
the United States claim suzereiguty
over Cuba. Hence it is very doubtful
whether any of the powers will be will
ing to establish diplomatic relations
with the island, any more than most
of them did with the South African
Republic.
The future only can show whether
the next Congress will take action to
cripple the great trusts or monopolies.
but the evidence against them is now
growing so strong that it is thought
that the Republicans will not dare to
fail to do something. The steel trust
is now offering to deliver Bessemer
steel billets in 1000 and 1900 ton lots
to English buyers at S25 per ton, the
price charged to domestic consumers at
its mills. This is 98 a ton less than the
prevailing price for British made bill
let's, although the ateel trust must pay
rail transportation at both ends, ocean
freight, and insurance charges, which
amount to about half the price receiv-
ed on delivery to the British buyer.
The trouble with the steel trust is that
its capital stock amounts to @1, ,0OO, ,OOO.-
900 in addition to 9804, ,000, 900 of 6 per
cent bondf, making total Of $1,4O4,-
100000. The total valuation of all the
stocks and bonde OF the constituent
companies which were merged in Mr..
Morgan's consolidation was only S713,-
977, 200. about half the amount on which
the trust now pays dividends. This
explains why the foreign buyer fares
80 much better than the home buyer.
Mr. Morgan and Mr.. Schwab have re-
versc-l the process OF figuring the cost
of manufactured articles. They figure
backward from the amount they need
to pay dividends, instead of forward