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National Capital 
Events of Interest from the Seat of 
Government 
By J. E. Jones 
The Breeze Bureau 
Washington, Jan. 27, 1914 
THe ProsuemMs oF Mexico. 
The characteristic Mr, Dooley once 
related that “Napoleon had an army 
of ten thousand men; he marched 
them to the top of the hill; but who 
marched them back again?” Naturally, 
“it was Mr. Dooley.” And just about 
in the same illogical manner the 
armies of the United States have 
been moved to the Mexican border, 
only to be “‘marched back again.” - It 
has happened many, many times since 
that eventful day more than two years 
ago when President Taft “made it 
clear that he was getting ready to do 
something.” Army posts have been 
deserted, and the soldiers after a few 
weeks on the border have been 
“marched back again,’—and then 
some more! These events speak for 
the patience of the American people. 
In the Congress discussion of Mexico 
is almost taboo, and even the critics 
of the Administration policy bridle 
their utterances. But now legislation 
affecting the Mexican situation is con- 
tinually coming up. A short time ago 
Senator Ashurst proposed a barb wire 
fence along the Mexican border. One 
has but to recall San Juan Hill to find 
the reason. Now Senator Sheppard 
has a bill for a government highway 
along the Rio Grande, and of course 
the object is to facilitate the move- 
ment of troops, Still another mea- 
sure before Congress provided for 
means to increase the army to a war 
basis, Uncle Sam is gradually pull- 
ing at his foot straps, but looks 
troubled, and those at Washington 
who can best observe how he chews 
at the straw between his teeth, know 
that he is hoping that he will escape 
the unpleasant task of intervening in 
Mexcio. 
PosTorFricE BURGLAR- 
IES. 
When the postmaster’s safe is 
robbed, and the mail is scattered hel- 
ter-skelter about the premises, the 
first thing to be done is to notify the 
Department, which dispatches an in- 
spector to the scene, and in the course 
of time the robber is likely to be 
caught, Sometimes this process takes 
a number of years, In the meantime 
the postmaster and his bondsmen are 
SIMPLIFYING 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
debited at Washington for the few 
hundreds, or thousands of dollars, 
that may have been stolen. Heretofore 
it has taken a special act of Congress 
to move the burden of responsibility 
for the loss from the postmaster and 
his sureties. Finally jt-has come to 
pass in this year of 1914 that the Sen- 
ate of the United States has provided 
a means by which tthe Postoffice De- 
partment may reimburse the _post- 
masters; and should the House con- 
cur the period of worry as to what 
will be “done about it at Washington” 
will be abbreviated. 
Unanimous Consent AGREEMENTS. 
Last fall the Senate, in order to 
get, rid of the persistent issues of the 
San Francisco Water supply _ bill, 
known as the “Hetch Hetchy” meas- 
ure, and the “Seaman’s Bill,” gave 
unanimous consent that they should 
be taken up at specified time around 
the first of December, It was sup- 
posed that the currency bill would 
be out of the way by that time. As 
it turned out the latter bill was under 
full headway when the two bills were 
reached; nevertheless the “unanimous 
consent agreements” had to be carried 
out, and all else was pushed on the 
siding for a time. The worst of it 
all was that these “unanimous con- 
sent agreements” were secured when 
only a few tired Senators were in 
their seats, and it has been stated that 
they did not realize what was being 
put over on them, However, this is 
not going to occur again, since our 
august “House of Lords” has just 
passed an amendment to its rules pro- 
viding that hereafter no unanimous 
consent agreement can be had unless 
there is a ‘quorum present in the 
Senate at the time. 
THe LITERARY TEst FoR IMMIGRANTS. 
One of the last acts of President 
Taft was to veto the literary test pro- 
vided for immigrants entering our 
ports. Now the Democrats of the 
House Rules Committee have passed 
favorably upon the Burnett immigra- 
tion bill which provides a test of this 
kind for foreigners coming to Amer- 
ica. 
How To Grow «THIN. 
Since leaving the White House 
on March 4 former President Taft 
has reduced eighty pounds in weight, 
his receipt being diet and exercise. 
Former President Roosevelt has been 
fighting for years against too much 
fat, and he frequently goes out and 
chops down a few trees or builds 
several hay stacks when he is at home 
in Oyster Bay, The German Kaiser 
is also too fat, notwithstanding the 
fact that he has been on the water 
wagon for several months, and it is 
reported that he is exercising on the 
woodpile with sucess. Gladstone 
used to chop wood in order to place 
himself in good fighting condition 
when things were at their best in 
English politics. Of all these and 
many more instances, ithe case of Mr. 
Taft serves the best purpose. Na- 
turally of a large stature, the habits 
of life in the White House caused 
him to put on flesh so that before he 
left Washington he was so bulky that 
his movements were awkward, and 
some even declared that he was be- 
coming unsightly. Mr. Taft took off 
twenty pounds a month at first, and 
has demonstrated that ones weight 
is largely in his own keeping. On 
his recent visits to Washington he 
looked quite like another man: and 
the best of it is that he declares that 
he “never felt better.” Fat men have 
only to get a copy of the President’s 
menu to reduce, For ttheir satisfac- 
tion it may be added that they can 
leave the woodpiles and the trees and 
the haystacks to tthe keeping of those 
great friends, the Kaiser and the 
Colonel. 
Stir TALKING STRIKE INVESTIGA- 
TION. 
The Rules Committee of the House 
of Representatives proposed to put 
the question of investigating the Col- 
orado and Michigan mine strikes up 
to Congress.. The Senate was so well 
pleased with itself when it sent a 
special committee into the West Vir- 
ginia mining regions to investigate 
conditions that the lawmakers have 
been fairly itching to take a hand in 
the Michigan and Colorado strikes. 
The Congressmen have an idea that 
they can make the work of local state 
authorities and representatives of the 
Labor Department look insignificant 
in comparison with the results they 
can obtain first hand. 
Says Four Out oF Every Five Fatt. 
According to Vice President Mar- 
shall 400,000 out of the 500,000 stu- 
dents who graduate annually from 
our public schools fail in their efforts 
to achieve success. The Vice Pres- 
ident believes that denominational 
- schools accomplish better results than 
the common schools. He says the 
“flannel mouther anarchist’? who be- 
wails the fate of humanity from a 
soap box on the corner is not the only 
citizen who has a kick against so- 
ciety, to which statement he brings 
as support statistics relating to edu- 
cated failures. 
