New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-11-26
Is CU1lGE NEEDED

The new Congress Is about to meet Al
ready among those who are engaged III COM
mrrcial or industrial pursuits, there Is not Il
little apprehension in regard to possible icSis-
latiye action. This is in part because business
men have learned to dread Congressional
interference and threats of interference ana
in part because there Is not an assured
majority in either House known to be III favor
Of maintaining the features of public policy
which have secured for the country such
marvellous growth and prosperity. Congress
has become a nuisance, of late years, because
every n-infol1ned and inexperienced mem
her faDcies that the millennium would
come on the instant if he could only
make the laws, because every demagoSuc
has some fraction Of the people which he
wants to please at the expense OF the rest ana
because the party i'll the majority IN Congress
has been eager to gather IN votes from ever!
ouartcr in order to Overturn the RepubNcah
parfy. The country hopes for better Things
from the Republican members OF the new
Congress. 1t would have little fear II the
members of that party were III an asSHcu
and positive majority. Yet there are some
RcpublicauS who have seemed inclined 10 Ia
yor legislative reconstruction and revolution
in many directions, as if, III their opinion, the
country had only taken the first step toward
wise government in sending them 10 Con-
gress.
The Republican party has now been respon-
sible for all the leading features of public
policy during period of twenty years. With
| in week will come the twentieth anniversary
of the regular meeting of the first Congress
ever controlled in both branches by that party.
Prior to 1861 there had been Republican
Housc. but it was thwartcd by n Democratic
Senate and President Prior to December, III
| 1861, there had been a special session, but 1t
was wholly occupied with the necessities Ars-
ing from the civil war; Twenty years ago
the party entered upon the task of
framing permanent policy for the gov
ernmcnt of the country, and ITS enOris
have been so far approved that at no time
during all the intervening period have the
pcoplc consented to take the power wholly
from the Republicans. When Mr.. Johnson
transferred the Executive power to the Demo-
Gratis the Republicans had strong majority
in both Houses of Congress. When the Demo
Gratis succeeded, through force and frand at
the South, in capturing first the ionse and
aftcrward the Senate, there were Republican
Presidents to meet every reactonary measure
with veto. Now the main question for
every new Republican member of Congress to
consider is this: Has not the country pros
pered greatly, in consequence OF government
on the whole wise and able, during twenty
years Of Republican rule'
That the growth of the country in commerce,
industry. wealth and individual weIl-being
has been greater within the past twenty years
than during any other period of forty years
in its whole history, is stubborn fact.
Theorists who think everything going to the
bad because their ideas do not prevail, and
partisans who spend their time IN amentlnS
the faults of the party in power, must face that
great fact. All candid historians recognize it,
whether they approve or censure the policy
which has prevailed. Statesmen, journalists and
sensible business men in foreign cOun-
tries publicly recognize tho fact even
though their own beliefs may lead them
to deny that the policy of the United States
Government has caused the exceptional dcvel-
opment of this country within the past twenty
wears. they do not pretend to deny that the
progress and development have been exccp-
tional and marvellous. In view OF this great
and indisputable fact is it not the first duty
of any American politician who proposes a
change of policy TO be sure that it will
bring about positive and important beneficial
resultsH If the country has been so governed
in the past that wonderful prosperity has re-
suited, no man has right to urge change
except for the clearest reasons, and with the
greatest possible certainty that the consequences
Will be good.
1t is proposed to change the public policy as
TO the tariff, the debt, the currency, the banks,
and in many other respects. But the country
has done wonderfully well with the tariff AZ it
is 1t has startled ell the older nations by the
progress of its industry, and attracted millions