The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-04-03
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER
WASHINGTON, D. C. MARCH 29th, 1868.

cIared that it were bett er that no legis-
lation be passed, or that legislation as
crude as the Railway Rate bill when it
went from tue House to the Senate be
placed upon the statutes than that the
President should usurp the legislative
functions of Congress and dictate the
course of the majority in the national
legislature. He declared that Congress
was no longer legislative department
of the government but had degenerated
into "a machine to record the will of
the man at the other cad of the Avenue"
After reviewing the legislation to which
the President had driven his party IN
Congress, and showing the incapaclty
and unwillingness of the Republican
leaders in Congress to carry out the
will Of the people, Mr.. Beall said that
"a more disgraceful exhibition of the
abdication of power by one of the great
departments Of the government was
never given to the people. and more
disgusting usurpatien of power was
never witnessed by any nation" Con-
Guiding, the eloquent Texas paraphased
the book of Solomon, saying among
other things, of the President, "He is
both a broncho buster and a trust bus
ter. the difference being that when he
breaks a broncho he blindfolds tie
horee and when he starts to burst a
trust he blindfolds himself. He is tickle
in his affections. In the White House
code book of 1904 Harriman's name
was 'donation": in 1908 it is "damna-
ton"
Representative John Sharp William
announced his purpose one day this
week, to introduce a resolution of in
curry to investigate the extent to which
the President ad hauled Representa-
tive Diekama of Michigan over the
co ais because of the character of the
report which a subcommittee Of which
Mr.. Diekama is chairman has made in
the case of Judge Whitley of the Unit
ed States court Of Shanghai. 1t has
been reported in local paper that til is
report severely C entured Judge Whitley
and later that the President had severe
lv scored the chairman of the sub-com-
mittee Mr.. Diekama arose in the
House, howe yer, and declared that the
President had not hauled him over the
Goals at all but had merely called his
attention to the fact that if Judge
Whitley were scored it would so injure
his prestige in China as practically to
end his usefulness there. The fact is
every unprecedented observer believes
that Judge Whitley deserves the highest
commentator, instead of censure for
his course in China, but Mr.. Williams
took the ground that entirely apart
from the merits of the case, the Presi-
dent should do nothing to coerce the
members of a committee of Congress, s
point which cannot be controverted
Mr.. Diekama's explanation that the
newspaper story was false, however,
cleared the situation.
William J. Bryan is in Washington
and he has made a great hit with the
Irish by attending banquet given by
Ancient Order of Hibernians at which
he spoke, boasting of the fact that his an,
cestors were Irish and giving high
praise to Catholic Church for its benz.
ticent work in this and other countries
To the politicians the most interestin
and significant feature Of Mr.. Bryan's
visit was his long conference with
Bourke Cochran with whom he walked
to the Capitol. Mr.. Bryan would throw
no light on his conference with the
eloquent New Yorker who has just
been read out of Tamm any Hall. The
Peerless Leader visited the House and
his coming was the occasion of ar
enthusiastic though informal reception
in the room reserved for the reception
of members of the press, on the Demo.
cratic side Of the House.
There is comment in some quarters
away from Washington because there
is SO little written from here of Demo
cratic politics but there is really very
little to write The Democrats in Con.
gress seem to be almost unanimously Of
the opinion that Mr.. Bryan will bt
nominated and the reports which react
here from the various states certainly
show a remarkable strength for the
great Nebraskan. Occasionally, o.
course, there is talk of some other can
didate. A Minnesetian will talk en-
Enthusiastically of Johnson, or a New
Yorker of Grey, and because there is sc
little doing in political way, their in
terviews receive prominence in the
press to which they are by no means en-.
titled. There is, obviously, faction il
the Democratic party whose cry il
Anyone but Bryan" precisely as ir
the Republican party there is faction
whose cry is Anyone but Taft" but in
both parties it is the same sort of fac
ton, the conservative, let well enough
alone crowd, and this seems to be bad
year for that sort OF crowd. The
Democrats tried the conservative candi-
date four years ago, when they accepted
Judge Parker at the dictaton of the
New York leaders, but they DO not seem
disposed to repeat the experiment.
For time it looked as if it was any
mans game in the Republican party
and certainly the Roosevelt, anti
Taft faction did include some of the
loudest shcuters in the party. But
as the days go by they demonstrate that
their capacity ends with shouting and
that they are not the men who control
the party or who capture the delegates.
Senator Foraker still talks of his show
ing and of the number of delegates he
will have, but sensible men only listen
and laugh.