| THE 
|National Capital 
Events of Interest from the Seat of 
. Government 
| By J. E. Jones 
The Breeze Bureau. 
Washington, Sept. 2, 1914. 
Tre Hrrors or Mexico 
Undoubtedly the American news- 
paper readers have greatly missed the 
accounts of what John Lind was do- 
ing down in Vera Cruz, but appar- 
ently the sage of Minnesota has drop- 
ped out of sight far beyond the hori- 
zon. Nelson O’Shaughnessy, who 
was a crony of Huerta’s, and who 
under very trying circumstances did 
splendid work for his government, 
has been pressed into service as an 
emergency cierk, and the chances are 
that a little later on will be sent back 
to Mexico City to represent his 
country. President Wilson scolded a 
little because of some of the reported 
indiscretions of O’Shaughnessy dur- 
ing the height of the Mexican trouble, 
but when the charge de affairs came 
back and talked it over with his chief 
it was all right, and metaphorically 
speaking, Woodrow Wilson slapped 
O’Shaughnessy on the back and told 
him he had done well. 
THe Licut Tuat Kis 
The city of Washington is a great 
place for automobiles. In fact there 
are perhaps more of them than in 
any other city of its size in the coun- 
try. A modern device on the auto- 
mobile, by which a glaring search- 
light has been thrown on the road- 
_ way, has claimed a lot of victims, and 
has been banished. 
the result is that in the District of 
Columbia this instrument of death 
Of course the 
owners of big automobiles resisted 
because hig headlights indicate that 
their automobiles cost a lot of money. 
By putting a piece of muslin over the 
front of the searchlight, or by means 
of frosting the glass with soap or 
some other substance, the glaring 
_light-has been brought under control. 
= 
In Oneé MINNEsoTA DiIstRICT 
Four years ago Mr. James Tawney 
of Minnesota was chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee of the 
House of Representatives, and was 
one of the half dozen committee 
chairmen who arranged legislation as 
- fore-ordained by Joseph G. Cannon, 
who kept a tight rein on Congress 
and manipulated the system of legis- 
lating according to the rules in a man- 
ner that was no more to the credit 
of the country than the present plan 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 
of the cacus, Tawney was defeated, 
and one might have supposed from 
reading the wails in the newspapers 
controlled by the old guard that the 
government was in danger of coming 
to a sudden stop. Former President 
Taft was one who took this view of 
the situation and in order to forestail 
the impending national crisis a sine- 
cure was fixed up, with the result 
that Mr. Tawney has not suffered a 
curtailment in his income. The man 
who beat Tawney was Sidney Ander- 
son, and when he arrived in Wash- 
ing he was twenty-eight years of age. 
He was pointed out as illustrating the 
horrible mistakes that voters some- 
times make, because Washington 
above all other places could not un- 
derstand why a young, inexperienced 
man should have been chosen to re- 
place a wheel-horse who was ready to 
faithfully stand by the political ma- 
chinery until it busted. However, 
Anderson was unconcerned, and 
started to work. He was appointed 
on the Ways and Means Comunittee, 
but when he found that this was an 
empty honor he resigned, and in do- 
ing so made a vigorous attack upon 
the caucus system, and showed the 
necessity for a complete revision of 
the rules of the House of Representa- 
tives in order that individual mem- 
bers might be enabled to do the work 
that the country and their districts 
expect of them. Anderson is a mem- 
ber of the Agricultural Committee 
and is doing splendid work since he 
has found a place that furnishes more 
latitude than was the case in his for- 
mer assignment to a committee where 
he was a minority member of a 
strictly party committee. He is one 
of the best debaters in the House, and 
the judgment of the Capital has been 
revised in such a manner that it has 
become convinced that the Minnesota 
district knew what it was doing when 
it sent Anderson to Congress, and 
knows what it is doing by keeping 
him there. 
Finietnos ‘GETTING THE OFFICES 
The first step toward ‘independ- 
ence in the Philippines has been in 
turning over as far as possible the 
machinery of government to the na- 
tives of the island, and it is doubtful 
if any process could have been in- 
vented. that would have brought more 
protests from the American residents 
holding the snaps. ‘The legislation in 
reference to ultimate independence 
for the Philippines has received the 
tentative consent of President Wil- 
son, and it is expected that it will ap- 
pear before Congress to be acted up- 
on next winter. Of course it is go- 
ing to mean a big fight, as there are 
many view-points concerning what 
43 
should be our attitude toward the is- 
landers. © 
PENNY POSTAGE 
Such issues as that of penny pos- 
tage have been knocked higher than 
a kite by the financial stringency in 
the money situation, created by the 
war. There are a number of bills 
before Congress providing for reduc- 
tion of postage rates, and these were 
in anticipation of a large increase of 
the revenue by reason of the parcel 
post. However, the parcel post has 
not been as great a money making 
institution as was expected, and 
therefore between foreign wars, 
postal disappointments, and other ad- ~ 
verse conditions, it will Ikely be 
necessary to put two cent stamps on 
your letters for a long time to come. 
He 1s Now FIGHTING FOR PEACE 
Congressman Bartholdt, who has 
been posing as one of the greatest 
peace advocates in the world, has 
swung into the defense of the Ger- 
man Kaiser, and ‘has exhibited so 
much partisanship that it is doubtful 
whether he is adding to his prestige, 
chances for securing the Nobel peace 
prize, for which he is so eager that 
his friends in the House of Repre- 
sentatives have enlisted in his support 
to the extent of subscribing to a peti- 
tion in his interest. 
THe Get-RicH-QuIcKs 
People nowadays are not selling 
gold bricks as a means to get rich 
quick, since the same results appear 
to be obtainable by selling plain, com- 
ron, ordinary food stuffs. So many 
ways have been found by which the 
food market can be manipulated that 
the Washington government has 
found it necessary to increase its ac- 
tivity in order that poor people may 
be permitted to continue to live. 
Tue Bap Spots 
A determined effort has been made 
to remove the bad spots in the river 
and harbor bill, and to leave the re- 
maining good meat in the barrel. The 
theory is that the bad “spots” may 
ruin the contents of the whole barrel. 
In the case of apples one bad one of- 
ten spoils all the good fruit- The 
same principle can be applied to pork 
barrels. Many valuable projects have 
been tied up in the bill along with 
the bad proposals. Obviously the 
thing to do is to weed out the bad 
items. 
Just THE THING. 
She—But we can’t dance upon this 
carpet. 
He—But this is a rag carpet my 
dear. 
