The citizen., 1905-12-22
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Gem
eral Topics from
the Capital.
Dec. 16, 1905.

ever maze In the senate upon the
President was delivered by Sena-
tor Tillman this week. 1t dealt
particularly with the Santo Do
mingo treaty and in general with
what Mr.. Tillman termed "the
usnrpation of authority" by the
executive. The President was
warmly defended by Sen ator
Spooner and the result was what
might be termed drawn battle
with no result except to show that
the President and some Of his poll
cies have warm opponents in the
south Senator Tillman said that
he would admit the President was
patriotic man from his own point
of view but that when he once
conceived an idea, he did not let
law, precedent nor the constitu
tion stand in the way of carrying
it out. As 10 the Santo Domingo
treaty. Senator Tillman said that
the President simply waited till
he got Congress off his hands and
then went to work carrying out
his pet idea as to the solution of
the Santo Domingan trouble. To
this Senator Spooner replied that
the Senate had left the President
in an embarrassing position by adj
jOurning without acting on the
SantO Domingo treatN and that
the President had nothing to do
but to take the matter into his
own hands. Senator Spooner said
that when the trouble reached an
acute stage an Italian warShip
had appeared on the scene and it
was only the presence of American
warShipS that had prevented other
powers from sending warsh,pS too
and following the lead that Italy
had attempted of looking ont for
their own interests. Since the
United States had held the Gus,
tom Houses. said he, tuere had
been no revolution and very little
talk of one. Ii the Senate did
not act on the treaty, the money
that had been collected aud was
now in safe keeping for the credi
tor nations would betOm the
property of Santo Domingo, while
the powers would be left to look
after their debts and their inter
ests as best they could. 1t was
altogether an unpleasant aud un
seemly Squabble and there was
little outcome to it except that it,
if anything deepened the breach
between the Senate and the EX-
ecutive. 1t is question whether
the cause of the Santo DOMINICAN
treaty has been helped or hurt by
the incident. That can only be
told when the measure comes be
fore the Senate in executive ses.
sion. But it has at least made
clear that the United States up
to date has been acting in perfect
ly good faith toward the creditor
nations and if the matter is not
legislated on during the present
session, the President will It least
have cleared his skirts aud the re-
SpOnSibilliy will rest on the Senate
in not having taken advantage of
the order that he has maintained
in Santo Domingo.
Insular business is we'll 10 the
fore. The bids for the l, 900 miles
of railway in the Philippines have
been opened, and while the sue
cesSSul bidders have not yet been
announced. it is shown that there
is capital ready aud waiting to
carry out the whole scheme of
railway extension. Col. Edwards,
the Chief of the InSular Bureau,
has said that one of the most
pressing needs of the Philippines
was tor good system of railway
and highway communication and
this is practically assured. There
are SeN eral classes of bids for the
work and one of them at least is
from an English corporation which
wants to put in almost half of the
to al mileage. One of the other
fl ms bidding while nominally
American is really international
in characters and if its bid is ac
cepted will doubtless get large
part of the money from England.
Whether it will he wise to accept
this foreign helping hand or not
is question, but it is significant
that foreign countries think we'll
enough of the stable government
now operating in the Islands TO be
willing to put their money there.
1t may be remarked too that the
bids are under the thirty year
guarantee which would mean that
the American Government for
more than a generation would
stand sponsor to the undertaking,
a thing it would not be likely to
do if there was any chance of the
American flag being hauled down
and the Islands vacated by the
United States. That is really the
most significant fact that was de-
velOped by the transaction.
Tho DhiI,nnipa also onucnr,aI