Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1905-08-04

} Inc RSTituIturdl department ZONES from inc
Blight With Bloom Restorsd-Ths Printing
| Scandal Fails to Blur the Impression The
! Deficit Grows and the Administration Talks
/ of Rcimpostion of War Taxes - Senator
( Hemingway favors Retrenchment in Battle
/ ships -feIlo" JACK Steals March on Marine
Hospital Ssrvce-TroubIe at Porto Rico
The Peace Conference.
/ From our regular co-rcslondrut.l
WASHlNGTON, ID. c., July q.
The District Attorney and the spr-
cial grand jury that has been sum
mon,d to inquire into the cotton leak
in the Agricultural Department, have
both been very busy and ultra mystcr-
ious. OF course the proceedings OF the
grand jury are of Star Chamber breed
and no one wants to pry too closely
into the preliminary testimony on
which an indictment is founded. But
the air of mystery that has been thrown
around the proceedings in this case is
almost rs bad as that which accom-
panied the proceedings of the Keep
commiss ion which Investigated the
Government Printing Office scandal.
! There have been yelled women and
mysterious witnesses from New York
and there is nothing allowed to escape
form the grand jury room but the stern
intimation that an indictment for
something is going TO be found against
somebody. Meantime ex-Statistlcian
Hyde is on his way to Europe to rest
his shattered nerves, and dismissed
Assistant Statistician Holmes rides in
his automobile and like the Shut-Eye
Sentry swcars that he never seen
nothing wrong" Strange rs the ways
OF the law may seem to outsiders it. is
| just possible that unless the second
investigation of the Secret Service is
more productive than was the first,
there may not be ground for action
anyhow. Mr.. Holmes puts up the
naive plea that he did not defraud
anybody in particular; that he had
the information and he merely took
gamblers chance with the other
gamblers and that he was no worse
than man who thinks he has q good
thing and plays it at the track. This
may sound little strained to ordinari-
ly honest outsiders who do not have
Il chance at advance cotton informa-
ton, but the fact remains that there
is no specific statute against doing just
what Holmes did. However, the Dis.
trict Attorney thinks that he is going
to get evidence enough to bring in
dictment for conspiracy and bribery
against some persons whose names
have not yet been divulged.
Representative Livingston OF Geor-
gia to-day authorized long interview
on the subject of the Treasury Deficit.
He is in favor of reimposition OF the
stamp taxes on patent medicines,
checks and stock transactions. He
says of course that the tariff ought to
be revised and that the whole country
would be the gamer, and some trusts
broken up as we'll as the revenues
increased if this were done. At the
same time he says that this probably
will be impossible with the makeup
Of the present Congress and the next
best thing is to reimpose the stamp
tax on the people who can afford to
pay it. He says that the man who
buys bonds is able to pay tax on
them and that the same is true of the
man who has bank account enough to
draw a check against. The same holds
goods in dealing with futures OF grain
or cotton.
Republican Congressman on the
other hand will not talk OF tariff revi-
sion but coniine their energies to
showing how appropriations Can be
cut and expenses reduced to make up
for the shortage i'll revenue. Repre-
sentative Patterson OF Pa, Burton OF
Ohio, Senator Hemingway and Others
all favor reduction of appropriations.
Senator Hemingway said: 1--WE are
appropriating too much money for
battleships, and l think we can make
of all kinds. do not think there is
any doubt that we can catch up with
the deficit in that way, and if we can
not then it will be time to try some
other PLAN"
The Marine Hospital Service is max
ing frantic efforts to catch up with
the yellow fever that stole march on
its officers in New Orleans. The Sur
geOn General thinks that this season s
outbreak is not likely to be serious,
but the wires have been kept busy with
orders and directions to the officers at
the scene OF the trouble and it is very
likely that some of them will be made
10 feel the weight of official displeas-
ure when the present scare is over.
Yellow fever is not half so deadly and
mysterious in the eyes of physicians
since the army medical officers pointed
out to the Marine Hospital that it was
propagated by mosquitoes. 1t is OF
course Just as inconvenient to the man
who gets it, but the quarantine watch.
ers seem to have thought that know.
ing where it came from was all that
was necessary and have relaxed their
vigilance on South American ports q
good deal. Now everyone in the SER
vice is trying to catch up and there
are large orders being telegraphed for
mosquito netting and disinfectants.
This country seems never to be
through with its troubles. The latest
outbreak of discomfort is in Porto
Rico and wire advices say that a vigor-
Gus protest against the American way
of running things in the island has
been forwarded to Washington. The
officials of the War Department. who
have had most to do with the running
OF Porto Rico since the American
occupation, shrug their shoulders and
make light of the complaint. The
islanders want more local selt-govern-
ment than they have at present, and