New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-12-28

Fifty-twO hours was all the time the House man
aged to devote to business during the three weeks
session before The holidays. Considering the quail
ity of the work it did the country may be glad there
was no more OF 1t.
Senator Beck is in a distressing state of mind
about the prospects for extra session. lie thlnks
the Republicans nan to force and put the blame
on the Democrats The object, he imagiues. is to
set committees at work to gather evidence upon
which ten or fifteen Southern Democratic numbers
can be unseated. Beck Is unduly alarmed. The Re-
pubcans have no fancy for extra sessions, and as
for the Southern members who, like Chalmers.
counted themselves IN. why the cases against them
will stand until next winter without losing any
strength That sort OF political pOttage never spolls
by keeping.
The crack in the walls of the New Capitol at Al
bany should warn the Legislators shortly to assem-
bic not 10 lie too bOsterOus. The el0quence OF
last session seems TO have sir0ined the building
badly.
The movement for the complete secularizatiOn of
the State recently organized in Chicago. claims
both the exPresldent and the next President as CO.
workers. In 1875 President Grant recommended
to Congress a Constitutional amendment requiring
every State to maintain free public schools in which
neither religious atheisticn nor pagan encts should
be taught" and also prohibiting the granting of
public money to any religions sect and requiring
the equal taxation of church property. General
Garfield said III a speech IN the House IN June
1874: The divorce between Church and state
ought to he absolute. Ii ought to be 80 absolute
that no church property anywhere IN any state or
in the Nation should be EXEMPT from equal taxa
ton; for ii you exempt the property OF any church
organization to that extent you impose church
tax upon the whole community"
The efforts of the New-York City Democracy to
pull itself together form the most grotesque and
entertaining Christmas pantOmmo 10 be seen in the
me ropoIis The show rs likely to run long time.
regardless of the fact that does not pay expenses
Colonel Iugersoll is reminding the public of the
fact that there one portion of the United States
where the people enjoy none of the rights of self
government The District of Columbia is ruled 10y
three commissioners appointed by the President, and
the Inhabitants do not vote because there are no
elections all the Offices being filed by appointment.
In theory the Government Is as aocratlc as that of
siam, but In practice 1t has proved much more sat
isfactorv than the system of legislature and pop
ular suffrage which IL supplanted, and which pro-
duced Boss Shepherd and the Washington Ring.
Now is the time when the retired statesman
whose sands of political life are fast running out
peryuades the country newspaper to say that he
would make an excellent member of the Cabinet or
q most acceptable foreign Minister.
The anti-Democratic press of Texas appears to
believe that the Democrats are actually concoctng
a scheme for making three new States out of tho
vast territory of that commonwealth. We'll, let
them concoct. Their scheme may furnish ground
for the healthful political antagOnism which Is so
much needed in Texas, bat with Republican Pres
ident IN Washington and Republican Congress
coming into existence on the 4th of March, 1t will
be harmless. There are inequalities enough now in
the system OF State representation in the Senate
without giving the million and half of people
habiting the southwestern corner of the country
four times the power in that body welded by the
great State of NewYork.
Secretary Ramsey has influential backing for the
Senatorship in the press of Minnesota. He was
beaten for reelection six years ago by a cOmbna-
tion which broke away from the caucus noniina-
ton.
Every few DAYS fresh political nobody is pnraded
IN the Pennsylvania newspapers as the des-
tined to beat Mr.. Grow in the race for the Senate
If Mr.. Grow Is TO be defeated, the Republicans Of
Pennsylvania ought to insist that it shall be done
by a man Who is his equal in statesmanlike quail
ties and experience They cannot afford to put an
obscure man III the Senate, who will do nothing but
draw his pay and recommend his friends for appoint
Inent to office.