Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-03-31
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, Mar. &c, 1904.

WASHINGTON Mar ~, l3U4.
The Republican party in Congress has
this week done its utmost to make dis
graceful record for itself. That this record
will be exhibited on every platform at every
cross roads, during the coming campaign,
goes without saying. What it has done is
to refuse by strict party vote to inyesti-
gate the post Office department that breed
ing-burrow of scandal and corruption. In
voting not to investigate the frauds or pun
ish the poodle-snatchers the Republicans do
not by any means deny their existence;
they only deny the expediency Of letting in
any more light. When Briston's report was
flung into the House with its charges
against 15l members, the guilty ones were
too angry to speak except in Drofane ejacu-
lations. They did not spend time denying
the accusations; they simply denounced
the accuser. Though high official Of their
own party, they called him a slandered
and scandal monger, a liar and scoundrel
Having dipped their tongues in gall, they
did not hesitate to extend their invective TO
his superiors.
After week s turbulence it occurred to
some members that there was quite as much
a call for an investigation as for vitupera-
tion, and an effort was made to have the
House of Representatives do its duty in
this respect. To a majority of Republicans
the proposal to investigate seemed an adj
ditional outrage For two days, during
the consideration of the post Office appro-
priation bill they have stormed and ragged
against it and haye finally defeated investi-
CATION by strict party vote although the
committee that was proposed five in the
House and three in the Senate) would have
been wholly in the hands of Republicans
They declared that it was mot germane'' -
their real objection, of course, being that it
was altogether too germane.
John Sharp Williams, the Democratic
leader, eloquently pleaded for inyestiga-
ton. ''The- only way we can secure
honesty in the post Office department., he
declared, lis by the gentleman withdraw
ing his point of order, or by the House
marching over it bodily. The people of the
United States are greater than Congress,
and they demand an investigation of the
rottenness. 20 won't you," he pleaded,
do something to keep the great body of
American citizenry from believing that the
post office department is infamous" No;
they would not do any such thing, and
they did not The House decided not to
investigate 80 Democrats to 133 Republic
cans. General Grosvenor, Of Ohio, had de-
cIared that to investigate the scandal
would be reflection upon the dignity of
the House. y A curious notion Of dignity
The post Office bill passed at the close of
yesterdays session.
The case of Senator Smoot, Of Utah, will
not be decided till after the Presidential
election, for partisan reasons. Several
needy gentlemen, probably i've will be ap-
pointed "a commission to visit Utah dur
ing the summer, and try to find out why
Smoot has only one wife. Incidentally,
they can make stump speeches on the way.
Scandals seem to break out all round the
sky this year. The postal scandal has held
the focus in the lime-light, but now it is
the Dawes Commission. It was organized
under Harrison to close up the affairs of the
five civilized tribes in Indian Territory,
and it has been kept alive by favor of Mr..
Secretary Hitchcock. A committee reports
that it is so submerged in scandals and
frauds as to have lost its usefulness, and it
must now cease to exist. The names of all
the Commissioners are smirched; they have
all entered into speculations in Indian
lands and frontier trust companies; they
have SO fostered jealousies as to be scarcely
on speaking terms with one another, and
have entirely lost the confidence and re-
spect of the Indians. In fact. the FIVE
civilized tribes seem now to be investigating
the five uncivilized commissioners.