The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1905-10-26


Army as Second Lieutenant in the 7th
Cav, in 1857. One of his feats while
serving with Custer was to swim the
Yellowstone with his horse and make q
reconnaissance on the other side after q
detail had failed to get across owing to
the strength of the current. But for
the counsel Of an Indian. Weston's ca
reer would have ended there. for an
other Indian had sworn to kill him.
Transferred to the Commissary De-
partment. Gen. Weston developed un-
usual business capacity. In the Santi-
ago campaign Gen. Weston served as
Chief Commissary and became well ac-
quainted with the President. then Col.
Roosevelt. of the Rough Riders. For
his services he was made a Brigadier-
General Of Volunteers.
Gen. Randall, who now retires. en-
listed from Pennsylvania as a private
and served throughout the civil war.
He served creditably. and was honora-
bly, mustered out in April, 1865, as
Lieutenant-Colonel. During the war
with Spain he was made Brigadier-
General of Volunteers. reaching that
rank in the Regular Army in 1901. On
June Is last he was made a Major
General.
The President has issued q letter to
each member of the Cabinet in the fol-
lowing remarkable language:
1T has been made the subject of an
understanding with the three press as
sociations that nothing is to be given
out hereafter in regard to Cabinet
meetings This will do away with the
Unseemly practice, which self-respect-
ing members Of the press have always
disliked to follow, Of waylaying men,
bers of the Cabinet as they come out
from the Cabinet meetings and asking
them for information Of what has TAX
en- place.
1T is to hoped that i'm observance Of
this request, which places each member
of the Cabinet under the solemn moral
obligation not to discuss proceedings Of
the meetings of the Cabinet. no one will
In moment of weakness or of good ma
ture give to a special correspondent
whom he may especially like, or for
whom he feels sorry, a statement Of
anything that has happened in Cabinet
meetings. Such a course would make
it necessary to go back to the old prac-
tice Of giving out a resume of what has
been done by the Cabinet, which is un-
desirable. Members Of the Cabinet will
also please refrain from discussing pol
icies. either Of their own or those Of
the Administration"
The effect Of this order is that no
news Of the Administration will reach
the public except as dished out by the
penciled by the President. A noted cor
respondent ventures the opinion that
the country at large will not give the
same credence to news from Washing
ton that 1t once did, when it learns that
all that it gets is strained through the
White House colander.
1t was decided two or more years ago
that we should dig a canal across Pan
anna. We have spent several million
dollars and a number of lives down
there, and now it is fully decided that
we will have a lock canal" Will we
have a canal? Sure, Pete. But you
won't live to cross the ISthmus on q
boat.
The United States Senators from Ala
bama are both over 80 years of age.
They are both after reelection. They
will probably get it, Senator Morgan,
SO years old Senator PettuS will be
Sc. The Alabama Legislature meets
only once in four years and after the
session Of 1906 there will not be ses-
sion until 1910. Next years Alabama
Legislature will probably re-elect both
Morgan and Pettus If they live out
their terms they will be SO and "a.
What sort of a chance has the Oslerian
theory down in Alabama?
When President Roosevelt was stu
dent at Harvard an old black nanny
was his laundress. She's still there and
alive, and she has applied to young
Theodore to let her do his wash" like
she did his "daddy's," and she got it
all right.
President Roosevelt is on his romp-
ing trip through the South. and he is
having the time of his life. Everywhere
he has been treated with the most un-
varying courtesy. as due his high office,
and with the genuine hospitality which
Southerners know so well how to ex-