Washington Letter

Wasbikoton, D. C, Feb. 11, lSfló. Senator Hill stated the financial situation in a nutshell when he said of the president's last special message: "Itunloads the responsibility on congress." President Cleveland, after weeks of negotiation, could do no better than to get an offer of gold to be paid for in thirty-year 4 per cent. coin bonds, at a price which makes the bonds carry interest at the rate of 3 and % per cent., although the same men expressed a willingness to furnish gold for an unlimited amount of 3 per cent. gold bonds. The president had this offer more than a week ago, but he held it in abeyance until the house defeated the bill providing for 3 per cent. gold bonds. Then he accepted the offer to the amount of 3,500,000 ounces of standard gold coin, which will require the issuing of wit h in a fractioti of $62,400,000 n bonds, with a proviso that the fiOld should be paid for at the same price with 3 per cent. bonds, if congress vvould within ten days authorize their issue. The president then m a special message laid the facts before congress, laying particular stress upon the $16,000,000 which represents the difference in the interest that would have to be paid on 3 per cent. gold bonds and that which will have to be paid on the 3 and 34 Per cent. coin bonds, and leaving it for congress to decide which it shall be. Chairman Wilson, of the house ways and means committee, who is in charge of the bill providing for the issueof 3 per cent. gold bonds, is working with his usual energy to get the bill before the house, although he knows as well as any ruán that it will not have one chance out of a possibie hundred to pass the house, even if favorably repdrted f rom the committee, but he fully agrees with the president in desiring to put the house on record on this matter of saving $16,000,000. He holds with the president that the question of whether a man favors or opposes bonds does not t ter into the question now. That ■ has been settled, and the bonds are 1 to be issued under a law for which this congress is not responsible. 1 The only question at issue, according to the president's opinión, is whether $16,000,000 shall be saved or not. The silver men claim that the authorization of a gold bond by . congress will be equivalent to an official endorsement of the single gold standard, and that claim is what will prevent many democrats voting for the bil I, if it gets before the house. Whether congress acts or refuses to act, it is generally believed that the present bond issue will have the effect of greatly lessening the probability of an extra session of congress. The president and Secretary Carlisle believe that getting the gold for these bonds frorn abroad will be highly beneficial to the treasury and that no further bond 'issues will be necessary, unless there shall be some unexpected turn of affairs. The senats adopted the amendrnent to the consular and diplomatic bill appropriating $500,000 to start the work of laying a cable to Hawaii and authorizing the president to contract for the entire work. VVith the exception of Senators Butler, Cali, Gorman, Hill and Morgan, all of the democrats present voted against the amendment. Senator Gorman's inquiry as to what authority the senate had for going into a state and investigating the election of a governor and a legislature was prompted by Senator Call's resolution for an investigation of the part that the Louisana and Honduras Lottery company, played in last Florida state election, but is equally applicable to other tions proposing investigations of state elections. And Senator Gorman's statement that the people of Maryland had away, when crookedness existed or was suspected, of righting the matter for themselves without appealing to congress, was suggestive. It is not at all probable that any resolution providing for the inveitigation of a state election by a senate committee will be adopted, and it is a matter for regret that any democrat should vote for such a resolution under any circumstances. The democratie party has always maintained that state authority was supreme in state elections, and the party has invariably suffered when attempts have been made to abandon principies as oíd as the party itself. It was the old undying principies which kept the party alive through years of defeat, and it is upon them that the party must depend for future success. Senator Vilas succeeded in getting anamendment to the Sundry Civil Appropriation bill, authorizing the president to appoint a commission to confer with a hke body representing Great Britaih and Canada as to the feasibility of a series of canals between the great lakes and the Atantic ocean with a depth sufficient to accoraodate ocean going vessels.