Report from Washington, D.C., March 1903

Watauga Democrat, March 12, 1903

From Our Regular Correspondent

What democratic representatives designate as the most flagrant outrage ever perpetrated on the rights of the minority occurred last week when the majority voted, amid a scene of wild disorder, to unseat Representative J.J. Butler of the 12^th Dist. Of Missouri and seated in his place Mr. G.C.R. Wagoner.

Mr. Butler was elected by a majority of over 6,000, and because of some frauds were found in the election returns, 41 precincts were thrown out and Mr. Wagoner accorded his seat. Representative DeArmond of Missouri made a scathing speech saying in part “And now we have here the farce, the shameful special of an attempt to put that man into the House, to draw $10,000 salary, to draw two mileages to draw two allowances for stationery. In all the proceedings, not only in the United States Congress, but in the wide world over, in the history of election contests, no other case so low, so base, so mean, showing such utter want of decency and all pretense of right, so thoroughly  colorless of anything except iniquity and wrong can be found; nothing in baseness and hypocrisy, nothing in meanness and deceit; nothing in bitter partisanship, and can’t to match or be compared with this case can be found. Welcome this man to your bosom as a man not at all entitled to the seat but as a man fully entitled to the political fellowship of those who would steal it for him—the recipient of stolen goods placed on a precise par with those who stole the goods.”

As a result of the unseating of Butler, the Democrats pledged themselves to filibuster on every motion on to the end of the session and have made good their pledge. Only by the adoption of rules clearly beyond the spirit of the Constitution and rulings which are more tyrannical that those of the last Speaker Reed, have the Republicans accomplished any business whatever.

Republican members of the Senate took occasion when Sundry Civil Bill was under consideration to criticize the President for his appointment of Senators Lodge and Turner on the Alaskan Boundary commission. As these appointments do not require the confirmation of the Senate no further actions can be taken, but Senators Hale and Hoar were bitter in their denunciation of the practice of appointing senators on special commission although they protested that their objection in no way involve the personality of the Senators appointed.

The Republican members of the Senate, forced to commit themselves by Senator Blackburn’s systematic presentation of the question, voted not to consider the Littlefield bill. Senator Hoar had said that this measure constituted the only effective provisions against the trusts and it was known that the President and the Attorney General approved the bill but the trust influence in the Senate prevented even its consideration. The claim is made that there remains no time for the consideration of so important a measure but on the other hand there is an organized attempt to enact the Aldrich financial bill, capable of farther reaching effects and infinitely more difficult to understand. According to the program arranged by Mr. Aldrich and Representative Payne this measure was to pass both houses without debate, but it is now believed it will suffer defeat in the House.

The probably defeat of the Aldrich bill in the House is a source of much relief to the Democrats who believe they see in its provisions great possibilities of evil. It is pointed out that it would authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to determine what railroad, state, county and municipal bonds he would accept as securities for government funds and what he would reject and were there to be selected a Secretary whose integrity was not of the strictest he could be confidential information to his friends slightly in advance of his contemplated action, enable them to reap fortune on either side of the stock market.

The President sent to the Senate an earnest appeal for the passage of the Philippine sugar and tobacco imported into this country from 75 to 50 per cent of the Dinglev rates, and admitting other imports free. Your correspondent made a careful canvass of the Senate and ascertained that a majority of the Democrats and of the Republicans would be glad to vote this measure but will not, it is feared, have an opportunity because Senators Patterson and Teller of Colorado, have determined to talk the measure to death if its further consideration is undertaken. They fear the competition of the Philippine sugar with the beet sugar product of Colorado.

Statehood legislation was declared off a few days before the adjournment, the Republicans having proposed an impossible compromise and the Democrats voted unanimously, in caucus, to reject it. The dead lock on the Panama Canal remains unbroken, however, and an extra session of the Senate has been called to ratify the Colombian and Cuban treaties. Senator Morgan adheres to his proposition that the Colombian convention as drafted is as infamous measure and has announced that he will oppose any vote on the bill. Mr. Morgan is the only Senator who is opposed to the treaty but he is a Gibralter, under the circumstances.

There has been much criticism of the White House chiefly by those who have never been it or who have gotten their information secondhand. Moreover, the impression has gotten abroad that the President is to blame for all that is criticized although he is neither an architect nor a decorator. With regard to the office building the President asked that it be made plain and his desire has certainly been carried out. Your correspondent, who has lived in Washington for many years, and who has been in the White House on many occasions during and since Grant’s administration, but without being a connoisseur in art decoration, can say that the convenience of the White House has been greatly improved and no complaint has been heard from the President with regard to the office building.