The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1909-05-28
WASHINGTON LETTER.

WASHINGTON LETTER.
The Senate leaders are far from salts
fed with the progress being made OH the
tariff bill, and with desire to call halt
on speeches for home consumption aud
to have the tariff debate confined to the
specific questions under consideration,
they intend to do everything in their
power to limit the scope of the discussion.
Hereafter the tariff orators are to be held
within bounds and will not be permitted
to discuss the Fundamentals of free trade
and protection, the trust question, the
political situation, freightrates aud other
economic subjects. On Thursday of last
week, after long debate in which al
most everything except the pending
amendment was discussed, Senator Till
! man suggested that the time had come
when something ought to be done to put
an end to ''ths useless wrangle" and said
he was weary of sitting in the Senate
with nothing TO do except listen to pro-
fessions of political faith by Republicans
and Democrats, aud in this he voiced the
sentiments of many others. Senator
A1dricb, chairman Of the Finance Com
mittee, intends at an early date, to in.
woke rule that no Senator shall speak
more than twice on any one question in
debate on the same day without the per-
mission of the Senate, and he intends,
also, to insist that the Senate confine
itself to consideration Of the paragraphs
nnder consideration. 1t is hoped, in this
way, to dispose of the bill before the
summer is over.
~
Since the Sperry board made its report
on changes in the navy regulations Secre-
tary Meyer has been applying himself
industriously to the subject, and he, has
decided, practically, to formulate plan
of his own for navy yard reorganization,
founded on the basic principle that the
highest possible degree of efficiency
afoat shall be the controlling purpose of
every change and of his entire admins
tration. Brief as has been. his experience
at the head Of the Navy Department, Mr.
Meyer has grasped already this basic
proposition that the efficiency of the
fleet is the great essential and that all else
must bend to that end. While efficiency
and economy will be promoted in the
navy yards, they are to be recognized as
of secondary Importance.
~
| In the days of the Roosevelt admins.
tration visitors to the Senate galleries
were always sure to get glimpse of Vice
President Fairbanks, hear his sonorous
tones, and view the dignity of mien with
which he presided over that body He
was always in his seat and seemed to
believe that it was the duty Of the Vice
President to remain near the Senate.
Vice President Sherman takes another
view, and believes that the Vice Presi-
dent should have the same leisure as any
other member of the Senate. He knows
there are many capable hands in which
to trust the gavel and he has taken sew
eral afternoons off to play golf and has
made several trips to his home on bust
| .,a.s IIa ca1lc Cauatov Erra ~ ti,a H. :.
whenever it is pos ible, knowing that he
is entrusting the business of the Senate to
one of the most exact and capable officers
who ever presided over the Upper House
of Congress. When Senator Frye is
absent Mr.. Sherman calls on any one who
happens to catch his eye. One day last
week four different Senators alternated in
the chair. The consensus of opinion is
that Mr.. Sherman is right in escaping at
times from the bombardment oforatorical
periods.
*x*
/ After no little discussion and FIVE week s
work, the name of Jefferson Davis, presi
dent of the late Southern Confederacy
has been restored to the tablet on Cabin
lJohn Bridge. When Mr.. Davis was Sec
rotary of War, in the fifties, his name
formed part of the legend originally cut
into the tablet, but it was erased from the
stone in 1862 by order of Secretary Calet
Smith of.the Interior Department. Presi
dent Roosevelt ordered its restoration
forty-seven years later, just before his re
tirement from Office, and his action wal
the result of urgent appeals ofthe Daugh
tiers of the confederaey,
~