Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1905-09-15
WASHINGTON LETTER
prom our Regular CORES pondent.

WASHINGTON LETTER
(Prom our Regular CORES pendent,
Washington, d. G., Sept. 8 Never
before in the history OF the United
States has chief executive been faced
with such number of prose cutions for
irregularities In the government ser
vice. The acting Secretary of War
has now come to the front with prose
cutiOns in the Sc lIykill Arsenal case.
This case has be 4 rather ObScured 10
Washington by ntarer upheavals in
the federal services b ut the Judge Adj
vOcate General hal now been Instruct
ed to prepare for t 10 criminal prose-
cutlon of Morris Bust. b, contractor,
and Robert Charltons IAN inspector in
the arsenal muddle. Busch holds a
contract for furnishing fur caps and
gauntlets 10 be delivered at the Schuyl-
kill Arsenal, the action will be for con
spiracy to defraud, based on recent
| report of Maj. Strong, acting Inspector
general. The report alleges a con
splracy between Busch and the iuspec
tor Charlton. Her. al CT :. cynlmisslOI
Cd t tticer will be detailed as inspector
of the clothing material furnished. The
order of the acting Secretary of War
provides that the contractor be COM
PEELED to work out his contract and
failure to do so or the Offering of in
ferior goods will be made the basis of
civil suit. The Quartermaster Gen
eral of the Army will have an investi
cation made of the other dep0ts in the
service among which is that at New
Orleans also under civilian inspector.
1t is not believed that such a state of
affairs as that existing at Philadelphia
| will be discovered. but Gen Humphreys
intends to be on the safe side.
The question of successor to DR..
Salmon. the late chief OF the Bureau
of Animal Industry in the Department
of Agriculture has not yet been settled
and is not likely to be for some time to
come. DR.. Alonzo E. Melvin, assistant
in the Bureau, will act in DR.. SalmOn's
place, but it is by no means certain that
be will receive the promotion perma-
| nently as it is said Secretary Wilson
has his eye on another man to take Dr.
Salmon's place. Meantime good deal
of gossip is going round as to the eXat t
| reason for DIR. Salmon s resignation.
| The phrase unfortunate to connec
tion'' was used by the Secretary of
| Agriculture in speaking of DIR. SalmOn's
relations with the Howard Publishing
Company that had a contract for meat
| tables with DR.. Salmon's Bureau. 1t
| is now said that there were some
phases of the Doctors financial trans
actions with the Howard concern that
were neither actually cnlpable nor al
| together praisewOrthy from a depart.
| mental point of view. 1t is also said
| that Dr. Salmon managed to save the
uh<Nfa <Nfh in ,Inn bJI of Of h
Bureau, and that he leaves the Depart
| nent We'll provided fnanci lily. DIR.
Salmon himself refused to discuss the
matter further than to say that all he
had to make public was contained III
his.letter of resignation to the Secre-
tary of Agriculture.
The selection of permanent new
Public Printer to succeed Mr.. Palmer
has not yet been made. Both the ex
public printer and foreman Ricketts,
| with whom he had the difference that
led to his removal, called on Chairman
Keep of the Investigating committee,
at the Treasury today and the friends
of the foreman insist that be is going
to succeed his old chief as public prin-
ter This is not thought likely al
though be had been temporarily ap-
pointed as it is believed that Pre- sident
Roosevelt for reasons of policy if for
nothing else will pick all outside man
who has had nothing to do with the
row in the big printing office.
There is d great deal of Interest in
Washington over the return OF the
Taft party from their tour, inspection,
junket or whatever it may be called
through the Philippines More inter
est than usual has been taken in this |
trip because of the expression of great
interest that has been made by the |
members of the party In favor of closer |
trade relations with the islands. 1t is |
more than possible that after the men,
bers of the expedition get back and |
have heart to heart talk with Uncle |
Joe Cannon that they will find their |
views On trade relations have been mis- |
understood in the United States. 1t |
is not like that region producing as |
much sugar and tobacco as the Philip |
pines will be allowed to crawl under |
The flap of the tariff tent till the con-
trolers of those industries in the Uni. |
ted States have had a chance to try the |
ground and see how far the control of |
the sugar and tobacco crops can be |
made profitable to them. Meantime of |
course it is not certain that we are go
ing to keep the islands at all. japan |
wants them and this Is reason enough |
in the eyes of many people why we |
should get rid OF them on Japan's |
terms. The mere fact that Japan has
no money to pay for them does not en-
ter into their particular discussion. 1t
is probable that large part of this re-
linquishment talk emanates from Army
officers who do not fancy two years
tour of duty in tropical ATTITUDES.
The board of consulting engineers of
the Panama Canal have had another
meeting in Washington. After they
get through here they will vary the
by taking "a trip to Oyster
Bay to call on the President and then
they will probably run down TO Pan
anna which has already been the vaca-
tion ground of so much highly spe-
cialized engineering talent. What
they will do in the matter of settling
the fate of the canal Is question of
the future. Their conclusion is by no
means in sight and the work of actual
digging Will wait on them and on SAM.
tarY precautions for some time to
come. There Is of course no hurry as
they are getting paid at the rate of So,
DOC each and SIS a day expenses.