Items of Interest February 15, 1900 Issue

Items of Interest

A peaceful settlement of the political feud in Kentucky is now fully expected. The body of William Goebel, the Democratic claimant of the office of Governor, who was assassinated, was buried at Frankfort, and thousands participated in the obsequies, but there was no turbulence. Acting Governor Taylor still holds the State House by force and refuses to accept as legal the act of the Democratic majority of the Legislature in deposing him, but leaders of his party, both in Kentucky and at the National capital, have urged him to abdicate in the interests of peace and submit his claims to the courts. The general opinion is that he will do so, for already he has sent part of the troops home and has rescinded his proclamation that an insurrection exists.

President McKinley has transmitted to the Senate, with a view to receive the advice and consent of that body to its ratification, a convention signed on February 5, by the ambassadors of both the United States and Great Britain, which takes the place of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty and leaves the United States free to construct the Nicaragua canal and thereafter maintain and control it as a gateway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, open to the merchant and naval vessels of all nations on equal terms. The proposed treaty denies the United States the right to fortify the entrances to the canal, and much opposition to the arrangement has been voiced by the press on that account.

The House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce will vote soon whether the Sherman Pacific cable bill granting a subsidy, or the Corliss measure providing for government construction shall be reported. The Sherman bill as amended provides for paying a subsidy of $400,000 annually for twenty years to a private company to build the cable, in return for which government messages shall be sent free, and also provides that after twenty years half rates shall be paid for government messages. The Corliss bill simply provides that a cable shall be built by the government under the joint supervision of the secretary of war, secretary of the navy, and postmaster-general.

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