The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-28

Just give US a little rest. We don i
mind about sunshine. We want rest
even if we have to rest somewhere of
in a dark cave
And in this - Don I care a rap, atti-
tude Congress is straining at the traces
to pull out the legislative loads that
must be pulled through. It takes for
granted that the President is going to
fight on one thing or another right up
to adjournment day and, then, perhaps,
| threaten an extra session. That he
won t get He knows it and Congress
knows it. But the country is not aware
Of it. The general run of voters think
what the President says is ex cathedra
and that something must be wrong when
he is humping the wicked old Senate
and the poor old House.
So it goes. The curtain goes up on
the bill for dramatic scene and the
| curtain comes down again. 1t really is
| a holy show, as all the old-timers agree
| Nothing like it before in many long
years.
The Senate is going deep into the
military question this week and laying
all kinds of plots to get the series of
three" (the three letters the President
| has written to Senators about his au-
| thority as commander-i chief spread
upon the broad pages of the Congress
| sional Record. Senator Rayner of
| Maryland, intends to read his letter be-
| fore he concludes the speech he has pre-
| pared to show that Col. William F.
! Stewart, of the Coast Artillery, is en-
titled to court of inquiry to deter
mine whether he should be banished to
a lone post in Arizona for pure con-
| righteousness. OF course, Senator
Rayner is devoting himself to the case
of Col. Stewart exclusively. He wants
nothing whatever to do with the ques-
tion whether the President ought to ig-
| more the Foraker bill, should Congress
pass the measure over his veto. But it
should be borne in mind that the
Democrats in the Senate, Mr. Rayner
among them, expect to vote against the
Foraker bill for restoring the dis
charged negro soldiers to the army, and
alike against the Warner BILL which is
much milder, and which was introduced
at the President s suggestion, presum-
ably for campaign purposes.
Senator Foraker is cunning around to
get all of the series of three into print
and is making things uncomfortable for
certain of the thick and thin admins
tration Senators. He is going to try to
force the Senate to pass his bill to re-
store the negro soldiers and will speak
again to that end within a few DAYS.
He proposes to call upon William Alden
Smith, Senator from Michigan, to give
his letter to the Senate and to make a
like request of Senator John w. Stew
art, of Vermont. Of course the con-
troversy,' arising from the writing of
these letters, makes more improbable
than ever the enactment of any leglsla-
ton whatever for the relief of the dis
charged negro troopers. In so far as 1t
arouses fresh antagonisms among the
negroes throughout the country and
puts the President further on record
against the negro troops it is thorn |
in the side of the Taft boom, for the |
Secretary of Wars candidacy is harmed
by the opening of the Brownsville case
in such a way.
When the news of the latest of the |
'Eseries of three got around in the
Senate some of the Republicans there |
sought to have party conference |
called. They reasoned that the Presi- |
dent had defed the authority of Con- /
gress ''tO make rules for the govern
ment and regulation of the land and |
naval forces as the Constitution pre-
scribes that Congress shall do. But the
old leaders promptly put their feet
down on that proposition for party
conference. 1t would make conspicuous
the breach between. the President and
the Senate. That would never do. The
President and the Senate have had
many a tiff in the last seven years, but |
there has never been official recognition
of it.
The doings in the House in the mean
time have been of a very animated |
character. First of all there has been
the concerted effort to pass a compro-
mise currency bill The compromise bill
has been prepared this week and will
shortly reach the public. While the spe
cial committee, headed by Representa-
tive Vreeland, of New York, has been
laboring to prepare the BILL the Speaker
has been laboring to get the votes with
which to pass it. The most careful can
vass ever made of the House Repubi-
cans has demonstrated that, there are so
many recalcitrants the Republicans can
not muster enough votes on their side
of the chamber. Accordingly they have
been going over on the Democratic side
to see who can be picked off. As the
Democrats, after the long flibuster dur
ing which they have been refused OPP
portunity to secure unanimous consents,
are exceedingly anxious to get few
personal bills passed, the Republican
leaders have been agreeing to pass some
of these personal bills without obJec
ton, provided simply that the favored |
Democrats will vote for the compromise
currency bill when it comes up. The
Republicans certainly want to get their
currency bill through. Senator Aldrich |
has been in the Speaker s room, almost
every day, talking things over and tax
ing note of the progress being made by
the perspiring toilers.
The Child Labor bill has been passed
by Senate and House, it should be re
marked, which is one of the measures
the President wanted. 1t applies solely |
to the District of Columbia. The Presi-
dent wanted it to be made a model
measure for the rest of the country, but |
the bill was so emasculated Senator
| oJua aDI of hnr friends of the prpSi-