New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-04-25
THE UYPECORDED PROTEST.

| iHh ONhECOhDHD hhC ""i' .
The debate III the House on luesday us
! closed the prevalence OF very singular ue-
! fusion among members. Inc nam purpose Vi
| MIR. Cox and those who sldeu WIN MN seems
! to have been to get the protest which he OIL
! fcred printed i'll Tile Congressional hecofa,
while the object OF those VINO oppO'eu
/ him was to prevent 1t. For thlS "hole
| day was spent The Appropriation Bill,
which had been rushed through OH
| the previous day, was now discussed III detalI;
/ high questions OF geography ana history ana
/ engineering and Typographical surveys ana ny
draulics and Interstate commerce ana 0I''e
/ politics and personal AMBITION were ueoa'eu
/ with warmth and at great length, ana theIe
were citations of authorities and production
/ Of books and display OF maps ana col
/ loquics in the you're another y style
and loud laughter" great confusion
and continued disorder" and everything to
indicate that the craftsmanship Of the House
was in a condition of violent eruption. AND
all for The purpose, on the one side, Of get
ting something into, and on the other, Of
lc.pin,, il ont Of, The record. 1t happened,
of course. during the progress of the wordy
scueI. t,,t everything contained in the pro.
test. with much more that must have been
more objectionable. came out in such form that
if will apprar in The Record any way; but, all
the same. the protestants against the protest
shoutcd and howlcd. and threw up their hands,
and raised points of order and made general
conrusion. The result WAS that Mr.. Cox was
hcaton ON his question of privilege, and the
rrot,.t WAS not permitted to 20 upon the
r,ocs Of Tie record. All the points in it,
Loycyer. appcar IN the debate, and the protest
u..If has been printed i'm the newspapers,
fbrourb which alone it could reach the people
The auccr mart of all this iangle is the inn
,,,.,.t,,,cc that the actors in 1t seem to assign
IA tbc nriutipg of this document, or any other
~ me Re,ord Precisely what advantage it
can bc ON the one hand to have it appear
there. or what advantage on the other in
kecping il out. the average man fails to un-
drr,taud II isn't possible that Congress
mon drludr themselves with the idea
that The RecoM is read by any cX-
cent Themselves, or that among them,
members read anything except their
own speeches. Why. then, all this hullabaloo
/ about getting things into The Hec0fdY Ii Is
not so strange, perhaps that there should be
sort of mania for getting speeches admitted
! into The EccOd that were never delivered in
! tue House, that being the only opportunity
some members have Of getting their names and
speeches printed, except mt their own
expense. But this iilibustcring all day
long to get anything i'll or keep 1t
out Of the pages OF the oul'Eu Jourhai
is entirely uuaccOuntable. we Iear that mem
bcrs of Congress do not appreciate their OPP
pOrtunitics. Here Is the newspaper press
eager and fairly reaching out for matters of
| interest. Let any member of Congress say or
do anything out of the common, anything
which will interest anybody besides himself,
and he need give himself no anxiety about its
beng made public. The representatives of the
press are at their elbows constantly, waiting
for them to say something worth as much as
a cent a word to the general public, or to do
| in IN read about. And the members, of whom