THE. 
National Capital 
Events of Interest from the Seat of 
Government 
By J. E. Jones 
The Breeze Bureai, 
Washington, Jan. 12, 1915. 
HoLpING THE Bear’s Tart, 
Former President Taft has been in 
Washington, and he has told a Com- 
mittee of Congress that he “is in a 
position to say what he believes.” He 
is “dead against” turning the Fili- 
pinos loose, and recalls that when 
President McKinley sent him to the 
Islands as Governor General that he 
told him “we have got the bear by the 
tail and we must stay and hold it.” 
Mr. Taft is of the same opinion still, 
and he quotes some of his native 
friends in the Islands as having said: 
“Your steamers would not go around 
Corregidor Island before the throat- 
cutting would begin.” He added that 
“T verily believe that to be true.” The 
former President says that 90 per 
Gent or) the people of the Islands 
are unfit for self-government, and 
that such a policy if put into effect 
would lead to a duplication of what 
' is taking place in Mexico today. He 
says it will be thirty years before 
the Filipinos will be capable of assum- 
ing their own responsibilities with 
reference to government. 
RaLiyInc RouND THE PRESIDENT 
There has been no cessation of dis- 
cussion in Washington concerning 
the President’s note of protest against 
British _ interference with neutral 
ships and cargoes. Not for a long 
time has there been any such display 
of unanimity in and out of Congress 
as the announcement of this step by 
the Administration has called forth. 
It has. been known for sometime 
that the work of preparing diplomatic 
representations on this subject was 
under way, but the strong tone and 
plain language employed have sur- 
prised—and delighted—supporters as 
well as critics of the foreign policy 
of the Administration. It has cone 
as a great relief to the members of 
Congress who have been trying to 
explain to their indignant constitu- 
ents whose shipments were held up 
or interfered with by British cruisers 
why nothing was being done in re- 
sponse to their complaints. Senator 
Walsh of Montana, whose state has 
been especially hard hit by the prac- 
tical stoppage of the copper trade 
with neutral countries, expressed the 
prevailing view of England’s motives 
’ when he called attention to the fact 
Ni@in hb) SO) KiB BIR Bi Zi 
that her course was giving British 
concerns an overwhelming advantage 
in competing for the trade heretofore 
in the hands of the neutrals. 
Evit, PowER OF PATRONAGE 
Senator Borah wants direct elec- 
tion of all public officials, and in com- 
menting upon the fact that the Presi- 
dent appoints 10,000 officials “by and 
with the advice and consent of the 
Senate,” says that as a result “im- 
portant legislation now is planned and 
written in the executive branch of 
government and forced through 
Congress partly by the aid of patron- 
age.” He expresses the belief that 
“Such a procedure is a menace to 
popular and representative govern- 
ment—it is the beginning of a dicta- 
torship.” 
CLEANING Up THE Express 
CoMPANIES 
When the United States Express 
Company liquidated and quit busi- 
ness the forepart of the year, it evi- 
dently saved itself a lot of trouble. 
The Adams and American Express 
Companies have closed their books on 
a disastrous year, and the Wells 
Fargo officials are taking their solace 
in reading the statistics of earnings 
in the sweet, fat years before Uncie 
Sam became weary of the extortion- 
ate rates of these separate organiza- 
tions that used to get together in ar- 
ranging to squeeze the public, just as 
they “get together” today in order 
that they may not be forced an inch 
farther than is absolutely necessary, 
to escape the artillery fire that has 
followed in the clear pathway that the 
government parcel post siege guns 
have made. The Postmaster General 
in his recent report recalls that the 
original advocates of the parcel post 
predicted “that possibly 300,000,000 
parcels would be handled during the 
first year,’ whereas more than 800,- 
000,000 parcels are now _ going 
through the mails annually. In- 
creases like 200 to 500 per cent in a 
single year have not been unusual in 
some of the big postoffices. Many 
people who have watched the parcel 
post development, and the antics of 
the express interests, are inclined to 
believe that the parcel post rates are 
very tunsystematically arranged, and 
it is even declared that the express 
company officials have been doing a 
little “crowing” over their claim that 
the parcel post was handling the un- 
profitable business, while they still 
took the cream off the top of the bot- 
tle. But the confessions of losses and 
deficits by the companies, and the 
growing satisfaction among the peo- 
ple of the country in their own 
3 
method of carrying packages in the 
mails, indicate that a proposition that 
selfish business interests strangled for 
years, is at last making good in a 
beneficial manner to the country. 
Tue MAN From Missourtr 
The man from Missouri who 
“wanted to be shown” must have 
been Senator Reed, since from the 
first he has stood in the way of the 
plans of President Wilson, alway: 
demanding that he “be shown.” He 
blocked, or delayed, so many pieces 
of pet Administration legislation that 
he became decidedly unpopular at the 
White House, and the President even 
went to the extent, in one of his 
statements, of pointing out Senator 
Reed and two or three other Sena- 
tors, as standing in the way of Demo- 
cratic policies. Senator Reed has 
even found his seat removed from the 
pie counter, and he has retaliated by 
kicking over some of the President’s 
appointments, by defeating confirm- 
ation. It is understood that the 
“knife is out,” and that the White 
House and the Democratic Senators 
who are not in harmony with the 
Chief Executive have reached the 
parting of the ways. The defection 
is hardly big enough to be called a 
Split he moart yr Dita don pie 
enough to cause a whole lot of con- 
cern to Democratic party leaders. 
PRESIDENT May Not ‘Go 
The original plan was that the At- 
lantic fleet should leave Hampton 
Roads on Washington’s birthday for 
the Panama Canal; and that - special 
warships and steamers should take 
President Wilson and a great cargo 
of officials and citizens to the canal. 
Standing on the bridge of the good 
old Oregon, it was planned that Presi- 
dent Wilson should lead a fleet of 
warships of the world. When the 
program was being perfected in July, 
acceptances were received from Great 
Britain, Germany, Russia, France, 
and all the rest of the great powers. 
The European warships are unusual- 
ly busy—so busy in fact that the 
heads of the various governments 
are not even taking time to send their 
regrets. ‘he effect has been some- 
what disappointing so far as America 
is concerned, and whether the Presi- 
dent goes to California by way of 
Panama or not, the initial part of the 
show is doomed to be much smaller 
than anticipated. The White House 
has been giving out intimations that 
the President will be “very busy” in 
March and may have to disappoint 
the exposition boomers. 
The Breeze $2 a year postpaid. 
