The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-28
THE DO|NGS of
CONGRESMEN
GIimpses of Politics, Men and
Legislation at Wash
ington.
(Mail Special to the Advertiser.)

mail Special to the Advert1ser)
WASHINGTON, D. c., May IL
week of many legislative ups and downs
behind. A week of more legislative up:
and downs ahead, perhaps two weeks
perhaps three such weeks. DesultOry
firing every day. War with the House
and then a truce. War with the Senate
| and then a truce But in the main
hostilities to the fore, for the flag OF
truce has been hoisted only in the
| interims when the President and the
| leaders parIeyed. As a matter of fact
| there has been no peace. 1t has been
| only a semblance of peace. The fxers
thought they had it fixed only to dis
cover several times that affairs would
not stay fixed.
For example. The House Republicans
parleyed in conference two long even
| ings and took strides toward enacting a
compromise currency bill. Eureka!
Hats went up. The goose honked high.
The President wanted a currency bill.
1t would help out in the campaign.
cold Joe' Cannon hardly cared fig
whether there was a currency bill Or
not. But he wants Republican House
elected next autumn. The tidings are
that currency bill, any old currency
bill which can squeeze through the leg
islative channels, Will help corral votes
for the Republican ticket. So "Old
Joe' wants a bill and most of the Re-
publicans, along with the President,
want a bill.
At last, after months of talk, months
of maneuvering pro and con, months OF
emphasizing differences, the currency
bill began to materialiZe. A special
committee of the House Republican con-
ference-the Bank and Currency Com
mittee having baked at the task-was
at work and things were going along
splendidly, so the Speaker thought. The
President had gone away to Plain Deal
ing, Virginia, for an outing.
But he had planted the seeds of re-
newed hostilities before he departed.
The Senate, after being jolted and
shaken and mixed and made very cross,
had settled down to the even tenor of
its way. The first day of the Presi-
dent absence, however, little groups of
Senators were gathering on the floor
and discussing things excitedly. What
was it about? There was difficulty in
getting them to say. They held punches
of manuscript in their hands. One bunch
As they talked. they nodded heads
toward Senator William Alden Smith, of
Michigan, a young Senator, who was
veteran Representative before he came
to the Senate some months ago and, who
L L. Al n IL
a whirlwind. But Mr.. Smith was silent
as to what it was all about. 4 They
nodded heads also toward Senator Isa-
dor Rayner. of Maryland, an eloquent
Democrat whose brain is a mighty forge
for word bolts. But he, whose elo-
quence is measured by the yard, was
silent. They nodded heads also toward
that old octogenarian Nestor, Senator
John w. Stewart, of Vermont. He has
been sitting, grim and silent in the Sen
ate, ever since he came by gubernatorial
few weeks ago and
jumped into a toga.
The President had been writing let
tiers of tremendous length to all these
three about his rights and prerogatives
as commander-in-ch chief of the navy.
The letter to Senator Smith, expressing
the view that the President had found
nothing to change his mind about the
negro soldiers of the 25th Infantry
being guilty of the Brownsville affray,
could have been overlooked. The letter
to the eloquent Rayner had announced
that the President would not grant a
court of inquiry to Col. William F.
Stewart, of the Coast Artillery Corps,
whose offense is cantankerousness and
whose punishment, now attracting the
attention of the country, was virtual
Punishment to an isolated post in the
wilds of barren Arizona. The Senate
could have overlooked that, perhaps.
But the letter to Senator Stewart had
followed a breaking of grimness and
silence by that octogenarian, in the
course of a Brownsville debate, to ex-
press views in sympathy with Senator
Foraker's bill that the Congress should
vote for the restoration of the dis
charged negro soldiers to the army.
There was dynamite in that so page let
ter, inclosing also copies of the letters
to Senators Smith and Rayner.
The President would not only veto
that Foraker bill; if the Senate and
House passed it over his veto he would
ignore the legislatio-. He had his rights
as commander-in-ch Congress should
not interfere with them. Myi Ny
How the Constitutional lawyers, did sit
up and take notice! How they have
been turning the musty pages! How
they have been making ready to pour
out torrents of constitutional lore! Of
course the Senate was in a ferment two
short weeks ago when the President
sent the irrepressible Peveridge into its
midst to get four frowning ships of
war and secured only twO-iust the
number the Senate had informally set
tied upon long before. But that fer
ment was only a thin layer of froth as
compared with the ferment over the
defiance of the COMMUNICATIVE chief.
And therefore it is now again ''the
night before the battle, MOTHER and
the warrior Senators are preparing to
man the ramparts. The President has
just come back from Virginia, enjoying
the tremendous muddle he succeeds
keeping Congress in.
eve will go home,'' the Congress
men are saying in despair, as soon as