Show rOE ILLINOIS SENATORSHIp Contestants for Billy Masons PlaceContest for Cullom i on Committee ChairmanshipPhiladelphia Political I Poli-tical CenterNew Departure in Star Route Service Pension Appropriation Surplus J Correspondence Tribune Washington D C July lO Senator Mason of Illinois will make a very livc seat in the United jy j fight to retain his States Senate after the 4th of March l 3 NO one who knew Billy when lIe first came to Congress some seventeen seven-teen yeaifl ago would ever have picked him out as a probable successor to ouch mon as Dpuglas Trumbull Davis Yates or Farwell At that time he wore long hair just as he does now and a flowing black necktie of the WlndsoL varIety ason had very little tie previous experience In any parliamentary parlia-mentary body before his election to the House of Reprsentatives but he very soon made himself felt Pie was C ready debater of genial disposition always witty and goodnatured Withal Billy Mason was and is today a tenderhearted fellow always ready to give his last dollar to C man in need About a year ago a former resident resi-dent of Chicago of the opposite political po-litical faith found himself stranded In Washington He had only a casual acquaintance ac-quaintance with the Junior Senator from Illinois but Mason learned of his t distress He paid the house rent of his ollltlme opponent then he ad nnccil money to pay off a chattel mortgage on his furniture and later morlSa lllled hlb larder with table supplies On top off all this he was Instrumental in getting him employment in the West ant to cap the climax helped him get < hls family to their new hom Mason ia by no means a rich man He has 0 comfortably Income from his I law practice in Chicago but he has a I large family and lives well His means are au the disposal of his friends and this is one of the secrets of his po Jitlcal success Mason is 51 years of age and has made his own way in the world Ho was the youngest one of the fourteen children who constituted his fathers family and naturally had to hustle for a living from 3 very early period in his life He may be defeated 1 by Mr Dawes bift he will not be shelved without a very vigorous fight Charles G Dawes who has entered the race tor Masons seat has made an excellent Comptroller of the Currency Cur-rency He is a young man and was green in financial affairs when chosen I to succeed Mr Eckels But young men have lllled the same office with great credit since the days of Comptroller Comp-troller Knox who retired soon after Mr Cleveland was first inaugurated Mr Trenholm of South Carolina Is the oldest man In years who has filled the office since President Arthurs time Cannon Hepburn Eckels and Dawes J were all young men and all made excellent ex-cellent records The three former stepped out of the Treasury department I depart-ment Into far more lucrative positions in banks in Chicago and New York I I Mr Dawes falls to achieve his ambition am-bition It Is a safe prediction that he will not again seek an appointive office of-fice He will probably not retire from politics but will choose to make the race for an election again In the meantime the chances are that he will be invited to take the presidents chair in some good bank where the salary Is n great deal larger than that which the Government pays to the man who has I control of all the banks If he Is not asked to accept such a place some wonder won-der will be created as it has come to I be accepted aa an axiom that the Comptroller of the Currency Is a steps step-s pingstone to a bank presidency S Senator Masons colleague Senator Cullom also has a contest on hand I is not that the seat of the senior Senator Sen-ator from Illinois Is In danger On the contrary he has Just been returned for another term of six years and consequently con-sequently is safe until 1907 unless struck by Presidential lightning But some of Mr Culloms warmest friends in the Senate think that he would make a far more satisfactory chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations than would Senator Henry Cabot Lodge The latter is in the line of I succession to this important chairmanship chairman-ship which is vacant because of the death of Senator Cushman 1C Davis Cullom has many of the traits which made Davis the very best chairman that the Foreign Relations committee ever had On the other hand Lodge hag few of them He is a polished orator and a profound scholar but he I is more of a politician than a diplomat and a diplomat Is required in that I 4 pace In fact the Foreign Relations committee has almost as many International I Inter-national knots to untangle r the Secretary Sec-retary of State and the wrong man at the head of tho committee could easily get the Nation into all sorts of unpleasant snarls The Senate committees are not made I up by the presiding onicer as Is tho case in the House but are selectedby I a caucus So many places on each committee are assigned to the majorl I ty and so many to the minority and I each party in caucus makes its own selections Culloms friends arc In I dustriously at work in his behalf Lodge seems to look upon the place as his by right and aparently is not mak ing an effort to get it No one will know what the outcome will be before Jlext December S C No city In the country is attracting half the attention among politicians l > which is being accorded to Philadelphia Phiadelphia f I t at the present time The staid old town which has for yeans been known I as the City of Brotherly Love Is principally I prin-cipally prominent Just now because of the cordial hatred toward the machine I I ma-chine which Is expressed by half the men one meets there nowadays I has long been generally known that n I While osten ring rules Philadelphia Yhle sibly divided into the two political parties par-ties the governing force of the city has I really bpen and still Is one big combine com-bine for loot Philadelphia is the only large town In the United States In which citizens have tamely submitted to the most grasping exactions of a street railroad monopoly Eight cent fares arc the ruleH n passenger desires de-sires to ride three blocks in one direction direc-tion and two more at right angles ton must pay one fivecent fare and three cents for n transfer Philadelphians Philadel-phians have grown so accustomed to this exorbitant charge that they look chartc upon it as legitimate and probably would never have thought of asking for reform In this particular had It not been for the advent oC Mr Johnson of Cleveland a short time ago Johnson asked for franchises upon streets not now occupied and offered free transfers if his request were granted The Legislature Leg-islature soon after enacted the famous or infamousrapid transit laws and promptly u syndicate of Philadelphians went after those franchises and got them Then came Mr Wanamaker and offered a few millions for what the syndicate had secured for nothing It was a case of locking the door after the horsethlef had been busy Naturally Nat-urally the syndicate declined to loosen i the hold l which they had secured Philadelphia I Phil-adelphia will get better street car service ser-vice with modern construction underground under-ground Instead of overhead trolleys and livecent fares with free transfers But In the meantime the sleepy old town has awakened to the fact that a ring rules and all sorts of threats I are being made of an upheaval The fact that Mr Charles Emory Smith PostmasterGeneral has Joined the reformers re-formers makes the Philadelphia silua tionof national importance I is certainly cer-tainly attracting wide attention here and the Philadelphia newspapers arc I consequently enjoying a better circulation circu-lation in Washington than they ever had before On the first of July a new departure in the matter of star route mal service ser-vice was Inaugurated by tho Second I Assistant PostmasterGeneral In asking ask-ing for bids for carrying the mails on these star routes for the next four years It was stipulated that the contractor con-tractor must deliver mol matter along his route when residents expressed a desire for such service and agreed to provide a proper receptacle to hold It This new departure was occasioned by the great popularity of the rural free delivery service I was found that the mallcarriers asked very little I lit-tle or nothing more for this extra work and consequently In nearly every contract aWard this year and that means abut fourth of all In the country fho stipulation is made for free delivery and free collection So far as can bo judged tho new service is satisfactory Notso generally pleasing pleas-ing as the regular rural service but a great Improvement upon tho old method and It Is likely to be continued In all future contracts In the meantime mean-time the rural free delivery service is growing more popular every day and It will not he many years before Congress will be compelled to provide for the free delivery service in the most remote re-mote regions of the country For the first time in more than twenty years the Pension ofllce has covered into the treasury a surplus from the appropriation made to pay pensioners This Is due to two causes First the careful admlnstration of his office by Commissioner Eons and second the mortality growing greater each yearamong the old soldiers who served In the Civil war Unless Congress Con-gress radically changes the pension laws there will be a steady falling off year by year In the amount required for the payment of pensions Of course the Spanish war and the Insurrection in the Philippines will keep the pension oflicc busy many years tcole in passing up nthe claims of soldiers in arms since April 1SOS but the list of the veterans of ClGS on the rolls has reached the maximum In the meantime mean-time the fact that Mr l Evans failed to expend all the money to his credit during the past year will undoubtedly I serve as additional ammunition in the war now being waged against him l the howling however Is In the nature F of generalities No one has yet furnished fur-nished a bill of particulars He is accused of Injustice but no case has been cited In which he has violated the law or In which he has interposed any unnecessary barrier against a t claimant for the nations bounty I Is true however that his enemies I have forced his retention Mr Evans r has worked hard during the past four I years lie would like 0 rest from his I exacting labors The President would like to give him some other place To do so now would be tacitly to acknowledge acknowl-edge that he was a party to the bargain bar-gain which Gen Sickles alleges was made last fall Evans certainly will not be removed I he leaves the ofllco it will be of his own volition or because a better place Is open to him He has made one of the very best Comrnls sioners and the President Is one of the foremost to acknowledge the fact C H HARRINGTON |