The New York herald., 1875-12-22

Respect ,-"The Restoration OF the
Bourbons."
The Speaker has made grave blunder in
the appointment Of the committees. Taken
in practical point Of view it would seem to
be of little matter what members of the
that the business was we'll done But
the growth Of this country, like that
of Great Britain, has imposed 50
many new duties upon the represen-
tative body Of the government that, prac-
tically, legislation depends upon committee
service. especially in a government where
we do not have a cabinet responsible to the
House, cabinet composed Of learned and
gifted men, to draw up bills and see that
legislation is controlled by some sense OF the
peoples rights. In the absence OF such q
body, which seems to be impossible in
our government, the committees of the
House, as the popular branch of the gov
ernment assume an Importance which can
only be understood when we call them minor
legislatures, practically responsible for the
work of the session. There are some
| committees the chairmanship of which
is Of more Importance than the Speaker
ship. A wise Speaker, thinking only Of
the people, would select these commit
tees for the good of the country, regarding
also the rights of party majority, the claims
of States and sections and the best interests
of the nation.
Speaker Kerr seems to have been animated
by variety of motives, so far as his motives
can appear from reading the names Of the
gentlemen selected. First, and above all
things, he has taken care of his blossom
friends" Mr.. Morrison, as the champion
blossom friend" takes the most important
committee. Many years of service in
the House have succeeded in convinc-
ing the country that Mr. Morrison
is an ordinary wooden-headed Hoosier
politician, whose voice was never heard
in debate or council. and who, if Mr.. Cox or
Mr.. Randall had been Speaker would have
been overjoyed with the Committee on Revo-
lutionary Pensions or some such place. But
he happened to be crony of Mr.. Kerr, and
he is given the leadership of the House, to
defend his party against, perhaps, the ablest
minority ever seen in that body, headed by
men as astute and experienced as Blaine
and Garfield, members of his own commit
tee. The spectacle of Morrison actually
called upon to antagonize these men
would be laughable, if it were not
serious matter to a party which
tumbled into rebel ditch before it was
q day in power, and which has only too
many members dying for an opportunity to
take it into another one. Mr.. Kerr may plead
illustrious democratic examples in this stand
ing ..by his friends"-no less an example, for
instance, than John Kelly But if the
Speaker has been reading any New York pa
per-which we doubt, as he has been in bad
health and not disposed to weary his mind
with irritating current events-he would
have known what came of John kellys
effort. The second consideration in his
mind seems to have been the Mississippi
Valley. Among the cant Of our recent poll
tics is this-that the Mississippi Valley is
the ruling section of the nation, that politi-
clans are born there out of some natural in
fuences that make it the country for politi-
cal development, and that the main busi-
ness of the East and the North is to pay
taxes for the valley" to support a post
Office department which has deficiencies be-
cause of the sparse West, to endow railroads
for 'the development of the Valley" and
to pay foreign capitalists that fearful tax
which they exact because the VALLEY" is
always talking about repudiating the debt
and initiation. Mr.. Kerr has given the "Val-
ley" the control of the House, except SO far
as he has asked the representatives of the
old Confederate government to aid him.
Nearly seyen-eighths of the committees are
given to the West and the South.
Of the important committees only one, the
Appropriations, is given to an Eastern man,
Mr. Randall, of Pennsylvania, and grudg-
ingly we can well imagine, remembering that
the World took pains to intimate that If Mr..
Randall were Speaker he would drive half
million votes from the democratic party in
November Mr.. Cox has an important COM
mittee, but Mr. Cox showed in his course on
the Speakership that he was much more of a
Western than an Eastern man that he was a
Representative from Ohio STILL who had come
with his carpet-bag to New York. Soy give
him to the West. Virtually all of the leading
committees 90 West and South. Not one is
given to New England. Even in party sense
nothing could have been more graceful than
for the Speaker to have recognized in the per-
son of some such man as Banks, for instance,
that remarkable victory in Massachusetts,
which made CASTOR Governor. But Mr.. Kerr
evidently has forgotten all about it, or perhaps
Mr.. Banks was not 'loyaP or "yigilant, !"
or something Of the kind, when Mr. Kerr was
in the field for Speaker. So New England is
not deemed worthy of recognition by q
Speaker who has craftsmanship after chair
manship for the South, and especially for