Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1914-01-23
....
The NATIONAL CAPITAL
Events of Interest from the Seat
of Government.
by j. Il. JONES.


There appears to be new opportu
nifty for the oldest inhabitant" or the
only survivor" of the Fiji-Australiar
war to fix the time when the Ameri
can lords of the army and navy did not
i bemoan the appropriateness of oui
fighting machines, and the lack of men
to uphold properly the peace and dig
nifty of our country. This we are re-
minded by the declaration of Genera
Wood, chief of the staff of the army, is
just simply tee-r-r-i- ble-plus big T
and a vowel. All but let us hail the
senator from Oregon, who adds dash
of hope to his remorse. AN army
without adequate material for war is
useless" says Senator Chamberlain
and he adds that he believes in pur
suing a liberal policy toward the army
While the generals of the army are
bewailing the conditions in their end
| of the war game, the admirals of the
navy are crying enough tears to float
one of those extra $10,OOO,OOO ships
that they want Congress to vote. The
secretary of the navy declares that we
are going to have an "air navy" along
with other Observation-Disclosures of de
structiOn, and he wants to supply ev
cry ship with flying machine. Sen
ator Burton of Ohio points out thai
about one-third of all the money raised
! by the government goes into the wal
game, or in paying the damage
through pensions, etc. And he won
ders why, as do millions of others
since we are people of peace.
Still, wondering" counts for little
since the gentlemen whom Uncle Sam
! decorates with his finest gold cord and
tassel are able to demonstrate any day
in the week how our "niggardly" gov
eminent has impoverished the army
and navy so that mostly any old tenth
rate power could lick the boots off us
There is hope though since that red
headed congressman from New York
Fitzgerald, is about due to arise again
and make a statement. A twelve
month ago he blew the foam from the
high seas which broke over his ban
quet schooner" and told an assembly
of military and naval men something
like this:
You said that il we would build
the Panama Canal it would be easier to
protect our seacoast; now you want
the number of ships doubled. You said
that for the same reason we would
need fewer soldiers, yet you now want
to put $4,000 troops on the isthmus
For heavens sake why don't you play
fair, and tell the truth, about what you
do need-and what you simply want?'
Fitzgerald belongs to Tammany
Hall, and equally deplorable is the fact
that he is New York lawyer. But let
joss sticks be burned before his taber
nacle In thankfulness that he is chair
man of the committee of appropria
tions in the house Of representatives
The Nerve Of Some People
Bidding them not to remember how
he succeeded in convincing the best
medicine men of the army and navy
that he couldn't live six MONTHS" and
thereby securing pardon from prison
former Banker Morse of New York
! has asked Congress and the depart
ment of justice to investigate the mat
ter Of his conviction. He alleges In
substance that he wasn't any worse
than the rest of the big plungers in the
New York financial game in 1907, but
Morse went to the pen and the others
did not. When AL. Jennings was re
stored to full citizenship after having
been pardoned from prison where he
was serving sentence for train rob
berry, 1t was just after he had helped tc
pull Off moving picture stunt at the
White House showing how wolf
could be caught by hand. Now Jen
nings is talking of running for gov
ernor Of Oklahoma. Washington ad
mired the Jennings nerve. just as New
York does that of Morse, who indie
pendent of his recent Washington ex
cursion, is getting together a few lit
tie trusts" and syndicates at the me
,tropolis.
| Standardization Of the Post Offices
Standardization in the postofices
of the country is aimed at by Post
master General Burleson, who has Sc
lected some of his best postofice in
spectors to tour the country. establish
ing uniform methods of handling mai
in some of the larger Offices.
six Yearsy Including Last Nine Months
Biff-bang! Congress is off again
saving the country in the same ole
way, and pulling the continuous per
Torrance that has now been in pro
cess for more than six years. Great
years those must have been, too! 81,