Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1903-06-11

educed in salary and placed in
"a position that he could no
ger stick his inquisitive nose in
the business Of some high officials
who were interested in a graft, viii
be a lesson TO other government
clerks TO keep their eyes and ears
closed. They must never see or
hear anything that is crooked. That
is peculiarly republican method of
honesty in public Office.
The Postmaster General regrets
10 report" that one of the assistant
attorneys in his department has
been arrested for boodling. 1t is
also sad TO relate that the prisoner
charged with the crime is a good re-
publican and was vouched for by
that good and great man, Senator
Fairbanks. The good state of Indi-
ana seems TO be furnishing more
than her share OF these patriots for
pelf discovered in the post-office
scandals.
The republican post Office stew is
getting thicker by the addition of
new ingredients almost every day.
II is now reported that a United
States Senator is mixed up in q
charge OF boodling in the interest of
one OF the get-rich-quick concerns
for which he used his influence with
the department. Evidently this is
what the republicans call running
the government and the country on
a business basis.
The manner in which Mark Hanna
deity placed President Roosevelt
in hole the other day is causing
amusement here among democrats
and CONSERVATION among some of the
administration republicans. The
very next day after the President
has issued his official statement that
he had never asked any man for help
TO be nominated, Mark Hanna comes
out with the statement that the
President telegraphed him that he
wanted OhiO's Endorsement, and
thereby causes him to withdraw all
further opposition TO such move by
the Ohio state convention. Hitherto
no President has made such an open
bid for votes, but precedent seems
to have no charm for Roosevelt and
be no check TO his remarkable meth
cd Of doing things. A citizen of
New York, albeit he is President,
debating to the leaders of another
state concerning their political ac-
ton is new move in politics, and
the implied threat that he would
not forward his ambition is much
below the high plane upon which
the President of the United States
should stand. What is the meaning
of this anxiety to secure delegates
so long in advance of the national
convention =? Public opinion may
endorse this open and unseemly
fight that Roosevelt is making, but
hitherto il has stamped its disap-
proval Of official interference with
the free will of the voters. BY this
action on the part of Roosevelt, all
Federal officials are virtually invited.
if not ordered, to take an active in
terest in securing delegates for their
chief or be considered persons non
grata and outside the pale of his es-
TEEN. If Senator Hanna had called
on all the Federal Officers who are
under obligations to him, to rally to
his standard, what q howl would
there have been my countrymen.
That would have been called coercion.
The President S action is simply the
eccentricity of genius. No wonder
Hanna is in satisfied frame of mind
over the turn of affairs; he has forced
the President TO throw the ethics of
Civil Service Reform to the four
winds. And yet, we are told that
such didoes are making the Presi-
dent extremely popular. Well, let
it go at that.
The republican programme for the
incoming Congress is to avoid any
political Legislation and adjourn in
May. There is to be no tariff or
trust Legislation, but financial bill |
is to be passed. This certainly is
not strenuous programme. Per-
haps this do-nothing policy will pre-
vail and then again perhaps il wont.
so long as trust prices and starva-
lion wages are the order of the day
he democrats are not going to let
up in their endeavors to get at the
irust-controlled schedules in the
Dingley bill. The republican ma
ority in the next Congress will be