Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1902-06-20

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Immediately and on Fri
day sent special message to Congress
urging that body to pass the Cuban
reciprocity bill and incidentally men
tioning that he could not approve of
the rebate scheme put forth by the
"insurgent" senators. While Mr..
Roosevelt's statement is very fair ex-
position of his views it does not appear
to have produced any marked impress
sion upon his opponents in the Senate
and the question of Cuban reciprocity
is as far from settlement as ever.
In this connection it should be borne
in mind that were the President or the
republican senators who desire to be-
friend Cuba, willing to take any &C.
ton which would tend to decrease the
profits of the Sugar Trust, the way
to aiding Cuba would be made clear.
The eighteen republican senators, who
oppose straight reciprocity with Cuba
on the ground that it would result
merely in augmenting the profits of
the Trust, would gladly vote for the
reciprocity bill as it passed the House
and which removed the differential on
refined sugar and then could count or
the combined support of the demo
Gratis. hesupport of the ''insurgent'
republicans and large number of the
democrats could also be secured fol
the substitute bill of Senator Dietrich
which would transfer the duty now
imposed as a differential on refined
sugar to the raw product and ther
grant straight reciprocity to the ex
tent of Is per cent. to Cuba. The diff
ficuIty with which Mr.. Roosevelt and
his supporters in the Senate are con
tending is their effort to serve two
masters, the Sugar Trust and Cuba
and the indications are that they will
fall between the two and that repnbli
can harmony in the Senate will suffer
as severely as it did in the House when
the same bill was considered there.
On Thursday the Senate will vote or
the Nicaraguan Canal bill, the con
sensus of opinion being that the Spoon.
er resolution will be adopted. But two
appropriation bills remain to be con
sidered in the Senate and they will be
disposed of with comparatively little
debate so that the Senate will be face
to face with the Cuban dilemma and
some action will have to be taken. The
President still insists that il adjourn.
ment is taken without action on the
Cuban matter he will call Congress in
special session. All day Frieay the
Senate spent in secret session, the sup
porters of the President endeavoring
to secure confirmation of the nOmina
tion of General Crozier as Chief Of
Ordnance, but without avail, aud the
session adjourned without action. On
Saturday Senator Elkins introduced a
resolution providing for the annexation
of Cuba as a state.
The House of Representatives has
shown unusual industry during the
past week and number of important
measures have been disposed of. AT
ter passing the bill for the protection
of the President last Monday, the
Lacey bill was taken up and defeated.
The Pacific cable bill, introduced and
advocated by Mr.. Corliss. of Michigan,
was defeated and on Friday the Hans
brough-Newlands irrigation bill was
passed. As this bill has already passed
the Senate and as such amendments as
were indicated to be essential by the
President were adopted. there is rea-
son to believe that the Secretary of the
Interior will soon be in position to
commence an extensive system of irri.
cation in the arid West.
The defeat of the Lacey bill, which
provided for the transfer of the care
of the Forest Reserves from the De-
partment of the Interior to the Depart
ment of Agriculture, calls for special
comment because of the causes which
produced it. Representative Cannon,
by an insincere land misleading speech,
was responsible for the adverse vote
on the measure. Mr.. Cannon led the
members to believe that the admins
tration of the reserves by the Secretary
Of Agriculture would mean greatly in
creased expense to the government, an
assumption for which there was no
ground. Mr.. Cannon did not mention,
however, that under the management
of Secretary Hitchcock there are en-
ployed several hundred rangers who
are nominated by members of Congress
and that of that number eight are
Mr.. Cannon g appointees. Neither did
Mr.. Cannon remember to state that the
rangers nominated by congressman are
generally broken-down politicians who
are VIGOROUSLY incompetent and that
the earnestness with which President
Roosevelt had advocated the Lacey bill
was due to his belief that, under the
Secretary of Agriculture, reform
would be worked and the incompetent
Congressional nominees would be re-
placed by men who would retain their
positions only by the merit 18th which
they performed their duties. It is
generally admitted by republicans as
we'll as by democrats, that the Lacey
dill was defeated by the love of
'spoils. y