The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1903-08-14
NATIONAL NEWS.


Lyon glove contract and, as was
expected, practically exonerates
Congressman Littauer, the Presi-
dents intimate friend and most
trusted advisor" Mr.. Littauer
claims that it was not until after
Lyons had secured the contract
that he became interested in it and
then only because he felt obliged,
AS q manufacturer vi the gloves,
to charge Lyon as much for them
as Lyon had bid, the profit being
purely incidental and unexpected
by himself and Lyon. In this ex-
planation Littauer is practically
upheld by Root. The one point
which Littauer fails to explain is
why he appeared at the War De-
partment on several occasions and
used his influence as member of
Congress to secure the contract for
Lyon, especially as Lyon was not
a constituent of his. With
recommendation that, as stated
above, practically exonerates Lit
tauer, Secretary Root has referred
the whole matter to the Attorney
General for his advice.
The postal officials have made
another generous haul, securing
indictments against August W.
Machen and seven of his confeder-
ates who had, according to the evi
dence presented to the grand jury,
divided among them funds of
which the Government has been
defrauded amounting to upward of
$4,000. By his Vaccinations
Machen had secured a ''rake off "
on every registered letter case, on
every carriers satchel and on every
mail box that had been painted.
Among those indicted with Machen
were William Gordon Crawford,
manager of the Postal Device and
Lock Company, "CIiff" Long and
several others. Long was a pro-
tege of Senator Hanna's and had
on several occasions represented
Abner Mckinley, attempting to
sell goods of which he claimed
Mckinley was the owner, to the
Department, and threatening with
dismissal. as a result of McKin-
ley's influence at the White House,
those who refused to purchase the
inferior grades of goods he offered.
The grand jury is still in session
and is known to be working on
Postoffice cases and some more
startling indictments are promised
at an early date.
MANY of the people of Texas"
said Representative S. B. Cooper
this week, care not tariff reform
ers of the Cleveland stripe; that is
to say, they want some incidental
protection. In other words, they
are more on the line of the late
Samuel j. Randall's contention
than on that principle of the Will
son bill, as reported from the
Ways and Means Committee. In
southwest Texas the sheep and
cattle interests are important and1
those engaged in them are natur'
ally opposed to the free-raw-ma-
terial theory of the tariff. The
same is the case in my district,
where the rice and lumber indus
tries are thriving. This large in
fusion of protectionist ideas of the
Democratic variety tends to give
popularity to such candidates for
the Presidential nomination as do
not wish to push tariff re- adjust
ments beyond a safe point. Mr..
German is not only popular on
this account, but also because of
his attitude on what is known as
the Force bill, and that not only
in Texas, but throughout the
South. | have some doubt of the
accuracy of the interview tele-
graphed from New York upon his
arrival there from Europe. He is
not given to saying things which
reflect upon those in the party
whom who differ from him on pub