Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1903-01-28
As Related to the thrust
Legislation.
ROOSEVELT, KNOX AND THE COMPANY
Are Shrwdly Manipulating the Peoples Rep
reSsntatiysS at Washington.
Special Correspondence ofthe COURIER.

seems as though the master hand
of Matthew Stanley Quay has SO
stacked the cards in the Senate
that the omnibus Statehood bill
will win out and the territories of
Oklahoma, New Mexico and Ari-
iona will come into their own.
If he docs win it will be sig
nal victory won over the fiercest
opposition, not only of nearly all
the Republican Senator's, but the
President as well. 1t is well
known here that the President is
opposed to the bill becoming a
law and it Is even rumored that If
the bill should pass he will veto it,.
That shows some more of the Re-
publican hypocrisy. They advo-
Gated the admission of those terri
tories into the Union as States in
their platform of 1900 without
qualification and then when the
tost comes, simply because there
are liable TO be some Democratic
Senators from one or two of the
new States they go back deliber-
ately on all these promises. If
the bill does pass and the Presi-
dent has not enough nerve To veto
It, then the man i'm either of those
new States who votes the Republi-
can ticket will deliberately stulify
himself. If they fail TO get state
hood il will he the fault of the Re
publican party and the present Re
publican administration. If they
do get it they can thank the Dem
ocratic party in the Senate which
is standing loyalty To the interests
of those people and trying 10 give
them local self government. If
they then fail to give the Demo
cratic party that support which its
friendship for them and their dear
est intrcsts clearly entities it, they
will be guilty of the baSest ingrat-
itude.
This statehood fight is very
pretty battleas it stands now. The
leaders in the fight are Senator
Quay for the passage of the bill,
and Senator Beveridge. of Indiana,
against it. 1t really is amusing to
watch the old political leader from
Pennsylvania who is the hero of
many hard fought parliamentary
battle, play with the precocious
youngster from Indiana as cat
plays with mouse. He lets him
run a certain distance and then
checks him, 1t is the master hand
in politics playing with the novice
and before the battle is over Mr..
Beveridge will know more than he
did when he entered it.
1t is an open secret here that
many of the Republican Senator's
who are assisting Mr.. Quay in his
fight for Statehood bill are really
not in sympathy with it, but that
they are using it to keep back any
Legislation at this session on the
trust question, also to delay or de-
feat the ratification of the Cuban
reciprocity treaty. The beet SUI
gar people are against the treaty.
but some of them cannot afford to
go against the administration in
case the treaty should come to a
vote and they are using the State
hood bill TO delay the game hoping
that the session may end without
action on the treaty. There are
others who are against any action
on the trust question, but they
know that if the matter should
come to a vote in the Senate they
would be compelled to vote for
some sort of an antitrust bill in
order to make good their campaign
vociferacions against trusts, even
though it be only a stuffed club
With which to hit the trusts, and
every bill suggested so far by the
Republican leaders is of that ma
ture. There would be very little
opposition to them on the part of
the trusts becaus they (the trusts
know they cannot be hurt by any
thing the Republicans have offered
a. a remedy for the evil, but the
Republicans do not want to do any
thing at all in that line if they can
help it, and, therefore, they are
using the Statehood bill to soap
the track of antitrust legislation.
The good old game of antitrust
bluff is indulged in daily by the
Republicans at both ends of Penn