The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-02-13
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WAsHINGToN, D. c., February 9th.

WASHINGTON, D. c., February 9th.
Mr.. EDITOR: Mark Hanna has
| introduced in the Senate bill which, be
cause of its barefaced purpose of catcfin.
the negro vote and offsetting the negro
appointments Of President Roosevelt
would be ludicrous were it not capable OF
being made the means of defrauding thou
sands of ignorant and trusting people
Senator Hanna's bill proposes to pension
every ex slave and the relatives OF such
ex-slaves as have elder members of their
families dependent on them. The pen
sions are to vary from 81 per month for
slaves under so to $15 per month for
slaves 20 and over. Moreover. bonuses
are to be paid to such as prove eligible
for pensions ranging from 500 for those
aged so to $500 for those 20 and over. AS
soon as the bill was introduced, Mr. Hanna
was seen by your correspondent and
frankly admitted that he had no intention
of urging the measure and never expected
it to become law. When asked why he
had introduced it, he said he had done so
at the request of friend and merely
wished to be accommodating. Asked if
the friend was going to be his campaign
manager in 1904 Mr.. Hanna refused to
answer. Commissioner Ware, when seen
the next day, said that the Hanna bill
would almost bankrupt the government if
it were to become law. Evidence as to
who were and who were not ex slaves
would be practically impossible to pro-
cure and the law would be made the ex-
cuse for voting thousands of private pen
sions to negroes by legislators anxious to
secure the negro vote.
While Senator Hanna's pension bill is
obviously bid for negro support in the
next national convention, its worst fea.
ture is the end to which it will be put by
INSCRIPTIONS persons. Senator Mason
introduced similar measure some years
ago and it is estimated that certain "edu
Gated negroes" who formed the Eek
slaves Federation,' collected from the
negroes in the South upwards Of $500, 900
for registry, representing that registry by
the association would insure to them the
benefits of the proposed pensions as soon
as the law passed. The bill, as do all
measures introduced in Congress, bore the
legend, "Read twice and referred to the
committee on, etc" and it was represented
to the negroes that having been read twice
it would require but one more reading
and they must lose no time in becoming
enrolled. The "Federation' was finally
barred from the use of the mails.
According to the Senate leaders the
antitrust program of this session of Con-
gress is completed in so far as the upper
chamber is concerned. The passage of
the Elkins bill is expected in the House.
The Littlefield bill, itself too mild in its
provisions to correct any of the trust
abuses, was passed by the House on Sat-
urday, but will be buried in Senate COM
mittee where it will never see the light of
day. The Senate program includes the
appropriation of $500, 900 for the employ
ment of expert attorneys in the prosecu
ton of antitrust cases; law making
antitrust cases privileged in the courts;
penalties for granting and receiving re-
bates on transportation charges, provided
by the Elkins law, and wholly made
quate publicity provision attached to the
bill creating department of Commerce
and Labor.
Reviewing the Senate program"
prominent democratic Senator, who re-
quested that his name be withheld, said to
your correspondent today: "Anti-trust
legislation by the republican party was
bound to be farce. 1t is ridiculous to
suppose that the republicans are going to
enact legislation which would curtail the
profits or be otherwise Objectionable to
the very interests which have sent them
here and keep them in Congress. Some
of the provisions are fairly good. The
$500, 900 for the Attorney General is all