The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1901-08-09
WASHINGTON LETTER.

the first step toward putting a
stop to an illegal practice on the
part of army officers in the Philip
pines, who handle government
money, how long will it take to
stop the practice! That is the
conundrum suggested by Secre-
tarY Roots request that the heads
of bureaus in the War Depart
ment submit suggestions as to the
best way of relieving the respon-
sibility of officers who handle
public money in the Philippines,
and what ought to be done about
those officers who have been and
are violating army regulations and
making themselves liable to court
martial by depositing public funds
in foreign banks, instead of tax
ing the chance of keeping it in
their possession. Three years ago
the attention Of the Secretary of
War was calleed to this matter,
and Congress had dab at it, but
did not improve the situation. 1t
authorized the deposit of u. S.
funds in banks in China and else
where, provided the banks SO des-
ignated would deposit U. S. bonds
with the Treasury Department to
the value of the deposits. A num-
Der of banks were designated as
repositories of public funds under
that act, but every one of them
refused to buy and deposit U. S.
bonds. This left the officers of
the Paymasters Department the
choice between violating both law
and army regulations and keeping
the money near them and taking
the chances of having it stolen.
Most of them chose the first and
recent report from one officer
shows that he has more than
5000, 900 in a Hong Kong bank.
Another officer, who was among
the few who chose the last, was
recently robbed of $40, 900, which
he had in Il small safe and of
whice no trace has since been
found. Surely it was high time
that the War Department took the
matter up. 1t is true that nothing
can be done to relieve the situation
except through an act of Congress,
but it is also true that the War
Department should point out to
Congress what ought to be done,
in order that the failure of the
last Legislation on the subject shall
not be repeated.
One by one the stories of the
means by which fabulous wealth
was to be obtained from the
Philippines are being swept away
as actual knowledge is gained.
One of the most reasonable of
these stories concerned the great
forests of fine woods on the islands
that American makers of fine fur.
niture would gladly pay fortunes
for. This is the way that story,
with all its variations was pune
tured by U. S. government for
estry expert-Capt. Il. p. Ahern-
who has just returned from the
Philippines: GA mistaken idea
prevails in the u. S. that most of
the Philippine timber is of varities
very valuable for cabinet making.
There are seven or eight varieties
which take fine finish, but apart
from those none of the native
woods are likely to find their way
to the U. y"
Intelligent observers just from
Cuba report business in bad way
all over the island, owing to the
uncertainty of the future. Mer-
chants are afraid to invest any
more capital until they know more
about what the Cuban government
is to be, and they are unusually
careful in selling goods on credit.
The worst part of the business is
that there is no hope for any
change for the better in the near
future, as the shortest estimate of
the time that will be required to
Cuban government is
eight months from the date upon
which Gen. Wood issues the or
ders for holding the two elections
that will be necessary, and Gen.
Wood is now in this country, or
rather in the waters adjacent
thereto on board a government
vessel, which he is using as his
private yacht, and the orders will
not be issued until he returns to