THE 
National ¢ Capital 
Events of Interest from the Seat of 
Government 
By J. E. Jones 
The Breeze Bureau 
Washington, April 28, 1914 
A War That Is Not a War. 
While a country was impatiently 
waiting for the Senate of the United 
States to pass a resolution uphold- 
ing the action of the President in 
using armed foree in Mexico, that 
ereat body was deliberately choos- 
ing a pathway to be traveled which 
would leave the record of Congress 
absolutely plain. The President 
had admonished Congress that it 
must under no circumstances com- 
mit the American government to 
‘‘war’’ upon Mexico. The action of 
the United States was to be direct- 
ed, according to the President, 
against the Huerta (pronounced 
Wherta) faction, which Washing- 
ton has refused to recognize as a 
eovernment. The President told 
Congress in his speech: ‘‘LI come to 
ask your approval.’’ And _ before 
that approval was obtained Vera 
Cruz was in the hands of the Amer- 
ican navy. 
We sat in the Senate gallery 
through the afternoon, and the long 
night, and watched one of the great- 
est scenes enacted in that Chamber 
since the Spanish-American war. 
Some people may say that the Re- 
publicans sought to make a partisan 
issue, and if such was the intention 
they certainly have left a clear re- 
cord. The Administration forces 
stood firm for the resolution that 
eame from the Committee, and 
which, it was charged, ‘‘was writ- 
ten on a White House typewriter.’’ 
This resolution ‘‘justified’’ the 
President, because of the refusal of 
Huerta to salute the Stars and 
Stripes, and for two or three minor 
instances of official insult by Huerta. 
On this platform the Democrats 
stood pat. The Republicans in their 
resolutions—the principal one of 
which was that introduced by Sena- 
tor Lodge, recited the generally 
chaotie conditions of Mexico, and 
held that these conditions should 
form the basis of our action against 
Huerta. Many asserted that the in- 
stances cited by the President did 
rot furnish a good reason for the 
use of armed foree, and several 
Senators took the ground that the 
apology in the form offered by Gen- 
eral Huerta, was all that the United 
States should demand. There was 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
no thought, or charge, in that Cham- 
ber, that the Senators were quibb- 
ling, and when the minority resolu- 
tions were all defeated, the Repub- 
licans, had made their point plain 
that it was only the method of ap- 
proval for which they fought, and 
the Senate at 3:25 in the morning 
sustained the President absolutely— 
only thirteen Members voting 
against the resolution offered by the 
Administration. 
If the latest move in Mexico is 
successful it will be said that a 
united and patriotic Congress ‘‘up- 
held the President.’’ If our new 
Mexican policy is a failure then the 
Republicans in the next campaign 
will produce the record made by 
them to lay all the blame on the 
Democratic Administration. Call 
this patriotism, polities, or what you 
will,— nevertheless that’s the way it 
was fixed in Congress. 
The Funny Representatives. 
Ninety-seven Congressmen voted 
to reduce their own salaries from 
$7,500. to $6,000 a few days ago— 
but there were 205 in opposition, 
and had there been any real dan- 
ver of this proposition going 
through, about ninety of the ninety- 
seven would have found a speedy 
method of changing their votes. 
The Representatives as a rule are 
very much impressed with their own 
greatness, and their confidential 
opinion is that they are ‘‘working’’ 
altogether too cheap. <A few years 
ago legislators throughout the coun- 
try started in to advocate cutting 
out railroad passes, direct primaries, 
restricted campaign contributions, 
and a lot of other things they never 
wanted. But the public took up the 
suggestions, and so thoroughly ap- 
proved, that the public servants had 
to carry the propositions through in 
order to save their jobs. But the 
lesson does not seem to have sunk 
home, and the Congressmen who are 
still try ing to jolly the voters with 
the notion that they are genuine re- 
formers, will wake up some day to 
the fact that the country thorough- 
ly approves the idea of a cut in their 
salaries—and then they are going to 
be very, very sorry. Some of the 
Members will get so mad that they 
will conelude ‘‘they can’t afford it,’’ 
and will go back home and practise 
law, and if they are lucky many of 
them will get about half of that six 
thousand when they have to depend 
on the results of private real rust- 
ling. 
The Milk of Human Kindness. 
When the beautiful daughter of 
Secretary McAdoo of the Treasury, 
quit munching chocolates in the Sen- 
ate gallery, the night the Mexican 
resolution was passed, and pulled 
her daddy’s coat tail so that he 
would turn around, a good many 
people smiled pleasantly at the in- 
cident. When Bryan left the Sen- 
ate because Senator Fall was flay- 
ing him, most people were wonder- 
ing how the Secretary relished hear- 
ing such things in a place where he 
could not talk back. These are 
mere incidents in the lives of Amer- 
ican ‘‘royalty.’’ But the official 
family is found to be very kind, 
and the wife of the President makes 
war upon the slums of the Capital, 
while her daughter sings for the 
blind; and the wife of the Vice- 
President cancels social engage- 
ments in order that she may stay 
at home to nurse a sick maid. It 
has also been noted that the Secre- 
tary of State celebrated his last 
birthday surrounded by the men in 
his Department, and ‘their ‘wives. 
And then the Secretary of the Navy 
has let it be known that he is for 
‘the under dog,’’ and insists on 
closer relationship between the 
higher officials and the men who 
wear the navy uniform. Mean- 
while the Secretary of the Interior 
established a ‘‘Home Club’’ for his 
employees, and the Postmaster Gen- 
eral lays off horses and puts on mo- 
tor trueks. Surely the milk of hu- 
man kindness is overfilling the pail. 
Refuse ‘‘Tainted Money.’’ 
‘“‘Take back your gold’’ is the 
practical meaning of the refusal by 
Congress to use $250,000 of funds 
which the Rockefeller Foundation 
has offered. As a result the govern- 
ment will itself vote that amount for 
certain investigation in carrying on 
educational work: in the southern 
states, which have formerly been fi- 
naneed by the Rockefeller Founda- 
tion. This relates to the eradication — 
of the boll weevil, the marketing of 
agricultural products, farm eredits, 
forms of co-operation among farm- 
ers of the United States, and girls’ 
and boys’ clubs, formed to improve 
the methods of growing poultry and 
various grains, and also stimulating 
the interest in home economies. 
Letting in the Public. 
Senator Kenyon is still on the 
trail of ‘‘executive sessions’’ of the 
Senate, and he wants all forms of 
secrecy abolished. The agitation 
for open meetings of the committees 
of Congress appears to be taking a 
vacation, as nothing has been heard 
of that reform of late. 
