THE e 
National Capital 
Events of Interest from the Seat of 
overnment 
By J. E. Jones 
The Breezé Bureau 
Washington, Jan. 20, 1914 
Tae War Game in A Country oF 
PEACE. 
There appears.to be a new oppor- 
tunity for the “oldest inhabitant,” or 
the “only survivor” of the Fiji-Aus- 
tralian war to fix the time when the 
American lords of the army and navy 
did not bemoan the unpreparedness 
of our fighting machines, and the 
lack of men, to properly uphold the 
peace and dignity of our great coun- 
try. This we are reminded by the 
declaration of General Wood, chief of 
the staff of the army, is just simply 
tee-r-r-ble plus a big T and a vowel. 
Ah, but let us hail the Senator from 
Oregon, who adds a dash of hope to 
hig remorse, ‘‘An army without ad- 
equate material for war is useless,” 
says Senator Chamberlain, and he 
adds that he believes in pursuing a 
liberal policy toward the army, While 
the generals of the army are bewail- 
ing the conditions in their end of the 
war game, the Admirals of the navy 
are crying enough tears to float one 
of those extra ten million dollar 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 instrumentalities of 
destruction, and he wants to supply 
every ship with a flying machine. 
Senator Burton of Ohio points out 
that about one-third of all money 
raised by the government goes into 
the war game, or in paying the dam- 
age, through pensions, etc. And he 
wonders why, as do millions of 
others, since we are a people of 
peace! Still, “wondering” counts for 
little, since the gentlemen whom Un- 
cle Sam decorates with his finest gold 
cord and tassle are able to demon- 
strate any day in the week how our 
“niggardly” government has impov- 
erished 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 Con- 
gressman from New York, Fitzger- 
ald, 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 banquet 
“schooner” and told an assembly of 
military and naval men something 
like this: “You said that if we would 
build the Panama Canal it would be 
‘bled. 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
easier to protect the seacoast; now 
you want the number of ships dou- 
You said that for the same 
reason we would need fewer soldiers, 
yet you now want to put 50,000 
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?” Fitzger- 
ald belongs to Tammany Hall, and 
equally deplorable is the fact that he 
is a New York lawyer. But let joss- 
sticks be burned before his taber- 
nacle in thankfulness that he is 
chairman of the committee of appro- 
priations in the House of Represen- 
tatives, 
Six YEARS; INCLUDING THE Last 
Nine Monrus, 
Biff—bang! Congress is off again, 
saving the country in the same old 
way, and pulling the continuous per- 
formance that has now been in pro- 
cess for more that six years. Great 
years those must have been, too! Six 
years ago: Why, Roosevelt was pres- 
ident then, busting the trusts, chang- 
ing the spelling books, razooing Con- 
gress, and putting nature fakirs and 
lords of the railroads and frenzied 
finance into the Annanias class. Like- 
wise he was preparing to have the 
confirmation of William Howard 
Taft made by the Republican party 
and voters. It was done. Then came 
the Payne-Aldrich tariff, and other 
painful things, including reciprocity 
with Canada, in which the latter coun- 
try refused to reciprocate. William 
Howard, it is sometimes said, had a 
private wire into “Brother Charlie’s 
lair, down near Wall street—anyhow 
it has been more or less definitely set- 
tled that those rich brothers helped 
to “queer” their poor but famous rel- 
ative. ‘‘Howsomever,” it was gen- 
erally accepted that “old Bill’s all 
right,” until a period just before the 
Chicago convention, when ‘Teddy 
started in to recall his appointment. 
Just a little less than two years ago 
when the correspondent of this paper 
dropped into Taft headquarters— 
rent one thousand dollars a week, 
and heard the assistant bazoo of the 
institution who still retains a box 
stall in the Republican Congressional 
Committee, remark: “Oh, what do we 
care about Teddy and his roar— 
we've got the delegates.” True 
enough, they had ’em. And lest it 
be generally accepted that William 
H. Taft was always considered a 
failure, let us recall that up to the 
night of election, the Republicans in 
Washington,—and they parrot the 
sentiment of the country, stood on 
their very tiptoes and fairly shouted 
’ 0’ the walk. 
3 
that “Taft’s all right.” Passing the 
post mortems, if you please, there 
was inducted into the Presidency less 
than a year ago a veritable political 
upstart. Three years before most 
people who did not know an alma 
mater from a hoopless barrel, or a 
sororiety from “‘sorosis” of the liver, 
were asking: “Hey, Wilson, did you 
say—who’s he? Oh yes, Princeton, 
Grover Cleveland, Buzzard’s Bay. Oh 
sure, s-h-u-r-e, I know about him.” 
Down the avenues came the bands, 
and the Democratic clubs, and Gov- 
ernor “Bill” Sulzer wearing a slouch 
hat and chewing tobacco. A mack- 
eral sky and soft warm breezes de- 
lighted the assembled — suffragettes 
and other millions, in painless con- 
trast to the howling, yowling winds 
and blinding snow of the Fourth of 
March four years previous. Those 
were bad omens for William Howard 
Taft, and in his quiet retreat at Yale 
he has plenty of time to reflect over 
it all. Woodrow Wilson in fine 
months has forced a new tariff and 
a great big currency scheme through 
Congress. Now he has tackled the 
“trusts” and with his well trained 
boys in the two houses he can do just 
whatever he wants to do with the 
crowds of Mammon. Up in Wail 
street the little billionaires are 
trembling in their patent leathers, and 
they have given up as licked. Of 
course the policies of the present Ad- 
ministration have yet to prove their 
efficiency, or fail. Anyhow, it would 
be a_ shortsighted opponent who 
would attempt to discount the re- 
sults of these initial nine months. Is 
Wilson popular in Washington? 
Hardly—Washington hasn’t got his 
size yet, any more than has the rest 
of the country. But Wilson has the 
number of every big and little politi- 
cian who signs his name on official 
stationery. While there are plenty 
of people who are “after him” yet 
the tale so far is a simple one. Tis 
this: For nine months he has been 
the magnificent and undisputed cock 
It may be different later 
on, maybe, maybe not; nobody knows. 
STANDARDIZATION OF THE Post 
OFFICES. 
Standardization of the postoffices 
of the country aimed at by Post- 
master General Burleson, who has se- 
lected some of his best postoffice in- 
spectors to tour the country, estab- 
lishing uniform methods of handling 
mail in some of the larger offices, 
Prospective happiness! it is per- 
haps the only real happiness in the 
world—A. de Musset. 
