The Republican journal., 1910-04-07
Men and Affairs at Washington

such veterans of politics as eX-Gov. ohm
F. Hill Of Augusta and Francis McFall
of PASSPORT, not to mention few Ban
gor men and observers from other parts
of the State, have been in town. Primari-
~ they came on some business errands,
or just to get a little enjoyment of the
splendid spring weather, the green grass
and the budding trees of this latitude,
but even so, how could they abstain from
talking it over" The Republicans in
Maine propose to be up and coming this
year. They are going to have live cam
paign for State officials and for Con-
gressmen, putting the issues squarely be-
fore the people and asking every loyal
Republican to show his colors and get to
the polls The Maine men in the Senate
and House think the party should roll up
a good majority this year and demon
strate to the country that their State,
without question, is back in the strong
hold column.
That is what President Taft wants. He
is the moving spirit behind the active
preparations and has told several of the
Maine men Of his earnest hopes that
Maine viii give good account of herself
this Year. He expects Maine to stand
by tn tariff law, which the Maine men
in Congress We're influential in enacting
and which does much for the protection
and prosperity Of the industries in the
STATE.
The Maine visitors of political note
called around at The Capitol to see the
Senators and Representatives from home.
They had good long talks with Senator
Hale, who is regarded as the leader IN
the fight this year The Senators have
taken turns in this task, according to the
times when they come up for reelection.
Senator Frye had his turn four years ago,
when the legislature was chosen that re-
elected him. Senator Hale comes up for
reelection before the legislature to be
chosen in September.
Representative Burleigh Of the third
district has been actively interested in
recent davs'with several matters of Maine
concern. in which his Pine Tree State
colleagues co-operated with him. He
helped in the hard House fight to prevent
the elimination of the pension agency at
Augusta. Although that fight was lost,
the determined work that a group of such
men as Gov. Burleigh did will help the
cause along in the Senate, where it is eX-
pected the provision for continuing the
pension agencies at number of cities,
including Augusta, will be revived
There has been a strong effort for
years to inaugurate system for the
payment of pensions to soldiers direct
from Washington. This would necessitate
the dismissal of about eighteen promi-
nent veterans, like Gen. Selden Conner at
Augusta, and also the dismissal of many
of their clerks or the transfer of those
clerks to Washington, where living is
high and where the salaries they are now
paid would not be adequate. The New
England Senators expect to be able to
put the provision back in the bill, but the
hard fight will come in conference be-
tween the two houses.
Representative Burleigh is continuing
the preparation Of public building items
for the omnibus bill, which there is still
some hope of Congress taking up before
the end of the session. There will be
many New England items in this bill, in
GLIDING some for Maine, all of which the
sub committee, of which Gov. Burleigh
IS chairman, has been carefully consider
ing. If the bill is to be taken up it must
be ready within few weeks. The great
problem is to determine what projects
nan wait and what projects are most
public expenditures make it imperative
that the total Of the omnibus bill shall
be as small as it can we'll be.
This is the Easter season, when MANY
High school classes are visiting Wash
ington. Nearly all the Maine members
of the House have had turn at showing
courtesies to these young visitors and
arranging for the Speaker, thesPresident,
and other high officials to give them a
reception and handshake Two or three
High school classes have been here from
the third Maine district, including the
Waterville high SCHOOLS graduating class.
Gov. Burleigh co-operated all he could to
help these young tourists to have an en-
3oyable visit at the National Capital
Senator Hale's mail these days con-
tains many letters from business men of
Maine expressing appreciation of his
course regarding the publicity feature of
the corporation tax law. 1t was very
effective effort of the Senator's part
toward removing the possibility that
business corporations would be harassed
10y the big trusts which are their rivals
in particular lines of industry
After the corporation tax law was
passed, as provision of the tariff law,
it was discovered that clause requiring
the records of each corporation to be
made public in Washington would enable
the trusts to get line upon the business
of their rivals. The steel trust. for in