The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1909-05-21
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER
Washington, D. c., May 18th, 1909
Mr.. Editor -

The tariff continues to be almost the
sole topic of interest in political circles
in Washington, as it is to consider
able extent n business and hnanclal
circles elsewhere. No great amount OF
progress is being made by the Senate
lust now, althoug h one thing has
been demonstrated during the last
week and that is that it is hopeless to
look for any overthrow of the Aldrlch
organization in the upper House. Inc
votes on the various schedules have
varied, it is true, but not materially ana
the usual division shows the strength
of>she organization to be about OIL votes
as against Al for the combined strength
of the Democrats and the Republican
insurgents. A somewhat unfortunate
phase of the situation is the regularity
with which certain Democratic Senators
vote with the organization, regularity
which gives color to the allegation that
Mr.. Aldrich has reserve force OF Dem
ocrates to draw on whenever sutficl-
ent lumber of Republicans break away
from the organization to render nee
essary calling out the reserves The
most optimistic observer of the events
in the Senate cannot reasonably predict
any m aterial changes from the tariff as
reported by the Finance Committee
before it passes the Senate. The ear
nest advocates of tariff revision down
ward are still making brave fight, but
they are gradually turning their eyes
toward the White House as the only
power which can save the county from
the reenactment of measure which IS
virtually the Dipgley law with few in
consequential changes.
From the White House comes the in
formation that the President has not
charged his views in the sligh est
and that he will veto any bill which
in his estimation, does not fulfill the
the pledges of the party and OF himself
as it's leaders and which does not con-
stitutute genuine revision downward
When these reiterated assertions OF the
President are submitted to the Sc nate
leaders tn ey fall back on the declara-
| ton that all tariff bills are made in
conference and once they succeed in
getting the bill through the Senate they
| will make such alterations as are neces-
| sary to sec ure the approval of Presl-
| dent Taft. This seems to be probable
| prediction for the Congress can hardly
afford to have the President veto the
tariff bill, course in which he would
be amply sustained by popular opinion
and which would only reflect unfor-
tunately on those servitors of the spe-
cial interests who had violated. their
| pledges and made such course neces-
| sary.
Assuming that the Senate leaders,
once they have passed their bill, go to
the President and ask him the price of
his approval, as expressed in terms of
| reduced duties, the fate of the con-
sumner will rest with the Chief Execu-
tive. On him will be tr emendous
pressure to take as little as possible in
return for his approval and the opinion
| is divided as to how long he will hold
| out against the insistence of the party
leaders in Congress and the widely
| heralded views of interested persons
| that it is only necessary to get any kind
of bill finally enacted to usher in an
| era of unprecedented prosperity. AS it
is as least possible that the tariff law
| now being framed will stand on the
| statute books for a number of years,
it would be we'll if those who have no
personal interest in high duties would
| refrain, in so far as possible, from ad-
| ding to the clamor of the protected in
terests for final disposition Of the bill,
for by so adding they are merely up
| holding the lands of those who seek to
induce the President to approve any
sort of bill rather than keep the coun-
try longer in suspense.
President Taft has inherited num-
Der of troubles from his predecessors
and one of the latest to come to light
deals with the qeustion of whether a
naval surgeon shall be placed in com
mand of naval hospital ship. Naval
officers generally protest against such
a course 1t is advocated by the medi-
cal department and President Roose-
welt did assign naval doctor to the
command of one hospital ship, although
by doing so he lost the services of one
of the ablest officers the Navy ever had,
Admiral Brownson, who, resigned his
post of Chief of Navigation rather than
issue an order which he believed so
detrimental TO the good Of the Navy.
Mr.. Roosevelt was largely Influenced
in his course by DR.. Rixey, the Sur
geon General of the Navy and the
Roosevelt family physician. The ques-
ton has come up again in connection
with the Solace about to be commission
ed at Charleston South Carolina DIR |