Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-11-01
HAS MANY
PROBLEMS
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT MUST
SETTLE SEVERAL QUESTIONS
OF MOMENT SOON.
TO MAKE APPOINTMENTS
Must Name Members Of the Cabinet,
Postmasters and Members Of the
Diplomatic Service and Must Neso-
tiate With China and Other Nations.

Washington, Oct. 31.-President
Roosevelt will have busy time of it
the next five or six months. He will
have work enough ON hand after the
election to stagger a man Of ordinary
capacity for doing things. The pre-.
paration of the annual message to con-
gress In itself will involve much labor.
Then, an inaugural address will, pre-
sumably, have to be prepared and the
details of the inaugural ceremonies will
have to be directed. In addition, the
President will have to give attention
to numerous important appointments,
to large questions of legislation, to i'm
portant treaties and foreign matters
and to various difficult domestic affairs
pending in the different departments.
In the way of appointments, the
most important will be those of cabi-
net officers. A postmaster general will
have to be named Practically, how
ever, this Is considered settled, as it Is
taken for granted George B. Cortelyou
will succeed Postmaster General
Wynne. Attorney General Moody is
expected to retire next spring and his
successor will have to be decided on.
Talk is that a new secretary of the in
terror will succeed Mr.. Hitchcock,
although this is indefinite as yet, as
are other reports affecting cabinet
places. 1t seems certain as things
stand now that Secretaries Shaw and
Wilson will remain. OF course, va
cancy on the supreme bench may come
at any time, whenever Chief Justice
Fuller gets ready to retire.
Some big postmasterships will have
to be disposed of, foremost among
them the one at New York. A sue
cessor to Postmaster Merritt of Wash.
ington5 will have to be chosen.
Other appointments that will have
to be made include: A successor to
the late Colonel J. H. Brigham as as
sistant secretary of agriculture; a sue.
cessor to Judge j. F. Cooper as mem.
Der Of the Philippine supreme court;
a chief of the bureau of manufactures
of the department of commerce and
labor; successor to Public Printer F.
w. Palmer, formerly of Iowa, who is
expected to retire at the end of his
term. In the diplomatic service 1T is
expected some important changes will
take place.
Probably the most acutely interest
ing subject in the way of foreign nego.
tiations that will come up is the Chi
nese exclusion treaty. The people of
the Pacific coast are prepared to make
vigorous protest against extending ad.
ditional privileges to the Chinese, even
the educated ones, and they are watch.
ing the new treaty narrowly. Some
other questions between this and for.
eign governments to which the Presi.
dent will have to give keen attention
are: The protection of the rights of
American citizens whose asphalt prop.
erty has been practically confiscated
by President Castro, a matter now in
the courts Of Venezuela; the problem
whether to take action to establish
peace In Hayti and Santo Domingo.
the Congo Free State difficulties, as
set before the President by the mis-
sionaries and their friends.
Then there will be all the perplexine
matters relating to Panama and the
canal strip. The President has already
made 1t clear he proposes to take a
firm hold OF this situation by directing
Secretary Taft to make visit to the
canal zone and to adjust all differences
with Panama satisfactorily and to pro.
mote the digging of the isthmian canal
with all possible energy.