Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1906-04-06
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From our keEular NORTHUMBERLAND,

tFrom our Regular correspondent
Washington, DC. March 31.-Sena.
tor Aldrich says that there will be three
weeks more of debate on the raie bill
and that 1t will then be passed with 4
rather broad court review provision
thst will be acceptable to the House.
Senator Aldrich is very good Judge Of
pending legislation and he may be
right. There In rumor, however,
that the Senate Is going to put tho rate
bill into form that will be acceptable
to the House for the purpose of hold
ing 1t up at the last moment till it can
get consideration for a ship subsidy
bill, This is Of course a Senate provi-
sion for the House is not in tho frame
of mind to consider subsidy at this ses-
sion. Also the Speaker has declared
himself against it on occasions, almost
as much against it al he is against
tariff revision. But 1T 10 said that the
friends of subsidy have won the Speak.
er over to their way Of thinking and
that his Influence will be used to get
favorable consideration for the meas
ure. Though it 10 q question whether
even the almost all powerful inf uence
of the Speaker could force a bill OF that
sort through just at this juncture.
However. there is back of that still an.
other story, that is that Uncle Joe
figures on posing as the dark horse of
the next nominating conversion and
while be is not particularly keen about
the fate of the rate bill be wants to
make friends unto himself of all the
White House influence he can muster
before the fateful day arrives.
The Keep Commission are a canny
lot Of boys. They are all of them Young.
as seasoned politicians 60, and all of
them are close personal friends of the
President. disappointed them on this
pet commission simply because he knew
that they were honest young men and
be thinks that any mau who is honest
and willing can do as many different
things and do them well as be can him
self. Now Keep, Hitchcock. Pinchot,
ct al are by no means as versatile as
the President, though they are all of
them honest, well intentioned young
men. But they have shown themselves
to be crafty to degree. Everyone has
heard of the famous Keep Commission.
but not everyone has heard of the sub
committees that are doing the work.
The Commission goes into a depart
ment that 1t wants to Investigate and
select asub-committee from among the
bureau chiefs and heads OF divisions
who already have as much az they can
conveniently do, and makes them do
the actual work of investigating. This
sub committee then reports to the Com.
mission after:it has spent a month or
two working after Office hours getting
up the data, and the Commission puts
out the gist of the sub commuters re-.
port as the findings. Yes. it is a beau.
tiful scheme and 1t makes the Keep
Commission look mighty erudite when
ons reads its report.
But the funniest thing the commits
sion has done yet was it's report on the
Government Printing Office. Now
this office is about as much In need of
reform as could be we'll imagined. But
the interesting thing was that the
Keep Commission printed Its report on
the need OF economy in the most waste
full volume that ever came off the gov
eminent presses. 1t selected a folio
page with a quarter wide margin, which
as any printer will testify Is about as
wasteful a form of composition as