The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-17
cuLsERsos AT THE rRoauoIs

they are less Onended than the Starcne(
 collar members when asked leading ques tions by g reporter. These free-thinkert help to disseminate news at times. wt
 believe though that the bulk of the in telligence given out to the Press is to bt credited to the activity and shrewdnes: of the Washington correspondents. They can easily find out what is likely to be
 taken up in a particular executive ses-
 sion: there have been many private and
 some public expressions of opinion on the subject, perhaps. by different Senators.
 The reporters need have no difficulty in
 getting the names of the various speak
 CTS. It requires a Very small outfit in
 curiosity to ask leading questions like
 who has the ioor?' or "who spoke
 last?r or "who will speak next?' These
 questions to any Senator who chances to
 stray on the outside or who may chance
 to be hurrying to his committee room for
 a document. If the worst comes to the
 worst the reporter can fall back on in-
 vention. He is bound to have something
 for his editor. He knows Senators can
 not contradict any statement as to what
 has happened in executive session. To
 contradict Is to affirm in sense; to
 contradict would mean the betrayal of
 secrets partially at least.
 That executive session secrets are kept,
 however, Is shown in the darkness that has enveloped the correspondence of this government prior to the Panama resolu- tion. Senator Hoar introduced his famous resolution calling for this cores pondence and 1t was so framed that not the smallest minnow could escape through the meshes of his net. The Senator's wife died. the President publicly and executive reply went in. Hoar was satis- fled and the public is none the wiser. All the newspaper curiosity of the whole corps of correspondents has not been sufficient to drag Hays letters, Hays in- terviews, the Presidents letter and the Presidents interviews into the light. There is chafiing of the Democrats under the power of the rule enjoining secrecy. but they dare not reveal what they know.
 Senator Culberson in his recent speech before the Iroquois Club at Chicago showed clearly the fretting effect of hav- ing to talk of the foreign policy of Roose velt's administration being at the same time unable to speak out in meeting He would denounce. but he knew not what minute his indignation might make draft upon the secret information he held In his possession as a Senator of the United States. He did set out Sena- tor Cullom's interview given to the press in August 1903. three months prior to the rebellion on the Isthmus wherein the whole policy as subsequently pursued was positively and in terms declared whence the inspiration" cried Senator Culberson, whence the thought of conflict and revolution?" Manifestly he would dearly love to tell all he knows. What he does tell is significant Let us transcribe at length what muzzled Democratic Sena- tor feels privileged publicly to declare IS to the origin and course of the Panama revolutions:
 It would be gross misIudgment of character to suppose that this conception. which was an invitation to secede and a promise Of recognition, was that of the a qqilistnguished, but pacific Senator from limos, rather than of him whose very element is unrest and disorder, with whom arbitrary and despotic action Is A passion, and to whom the tinsel and snow and havoc of war are dearer than rnf righteousness In the great legislative body where should reside the conserya- tive and independent forces of our fn- stitutions. an effort was made to secure wantonly dehoured Colombia of her fairest territory; but in addition to posi- tive suppression of diplomatic cores | pondence. an investigation was refused by 1 2 partisan majority. Had this investiga- lion been allowed and the intrigue ex- posed the determining factor in the fabri- | cated rebellion would have been traced | by public inquiry not only to the thresh- | 'ld, but into the very portals of the ad-  natural, and comported with the peculiar lonor which subsists even among vulgar md unpretentious plunderers. that the should keep faith with its puppets and confederates to the end. In confusing and guilty haste 1t anticipated md discounted the time for the revolt. t magnifed the number and character of he insurgents, and officers of the gov rnment connived at a subterfuge to de- 'eive and corrupt the forces sent to rush the uprising. It denied the au- hority of Columbia to suppress the evolutionary movement both prior and subsequent to it's continuation. It invaded ts territory by land and sea to accom- 'ish the freedom of transit across the sthmus. It reversed the course of the government for more than half cen ury and perverted the treaty of 1S46 by that the duty of maintaining rec transit was primarily upon the United States, and that his mere easement was uperior to the right of Colombia to sovereignty and self-preservation. Not ontent with these acts of illegality and urpitude. but seeking to give them the augmented force which attends success md purposing to complete the spoliation he administration within two days re- ognized the mock government it alone reated and upheld, and within two weeks, in the very midst of war, ac- epted cession of the coveted territory rom its allies and associates
 The Albany .5CGa) Herald butts into he hen question and settles 1t very dramatically in this way:
 A setting hen sits on her nest, but