The daily gazette., 1881-12-23
SECOND EDITION
THE HOUSE COMMITTEES UN
SATISFACTORY.
Extraordinary Appointments by the
Speaker.
" AsHTNaToN Dec. 81, 1881.


" NAsHTNGToN Dec. 81, 1881.
The House committees were ans
nounced to.day, and study of the
list causes good deal of surprise.
Speaker Keifer appears to have made
up his lists more with regard to his
personal friendships and to give
places te those who supported him
than with any reference to public
policies, to the experience of mems
bers or the importance of localities
or States. OF the chairmanships of
committees Pennsylvania carries Off
the llon's share, both in numbers and
Importance, for Pennsylvanians are
made chairmen of Ways and Means,
the Post Office, Manufactures, Public
Buildings and Grounds, Public Ex.
penditures, Coinage, Weights and
Measures and Expenditures on Pub
lie Buildings. New York gets six
chairmanships, but only one of them
is OF the least consequence, that on
Appropriations. Ohio gets five, of
which Patents is the only important
one. Wisconsin gets three, all i'm
portant- Foreign Affairs, Public
Lands aud Pacific Railroads. Cali.
fornia, with only two republican
members, gets two chairmanships,
both of kind often sought after
Commerce and Private Land Claims.
Michigan gets three unimportant
committees. New England is we'll
taken care Of, Maine getting the
Judiciary Committee, Massachusetts
the Banking and Currency and the
Navy.
Take, for instance, the case of
Mr.. Robeson. The rumor that he
was to be made chairman of the
Navy Committee caused so much
uncomplimentary remarks here and
elsewhere that the Speaker has ap.
parently feared to go so far, but he
has made him second on that COM
mlttee and chairman of the Com
mittee on Expenditures in the NAVY
Department; also second on the Ap-
preparations Committee, besides
giving bim place on the Committee
on Rules.
That the Ways and Means Commit
tee, which prepares Legislation on
tariff and subsidies, should be made
strongly pretectionist is not to be found
fault with, because the republican
party favors high protection and sub-
sidies, but having given Pennsylvania
seven chairmanships of committees the
Speaker also gives her three out of
thirteen members of the Ways and
Means Committee. He might have
given New York at least one, and he
might have given all New England
more than one. The committee stands
ten protectionists and three tariff re-.
formers. A reasonable disposition for
fair play, or, If that were wanting, q
desire to constitute an intelligent COM
mittee, would have led the Speaker to
place Mr.. Hewitt, of New York, on
the Ways and Means. He has had an
abundant Congressional experience, is
manufacturer on a very great scale, |
and therefore knows and would care
tor the interests of manufacturers, and
he is one of half dozen men on both |
sides who have thoroughly studied
the present tariff. He might even,
teing great iron master and familiar |
with processes and prices of iron and
steel manufacturers, have been ex.
tremeiy useful on the Naval Commit
tee, but Mr.. Hewitt is placed on the
insignificant Committee on Buildings
and Grounds, and nowhere else. Mr..
Whithorne, chairman duridg two ses-
sions of the Naval Committee, and an |
undoubtedly able and honest man, with |
great experience, is dropped from that |
committee entirely and appears at the
tail end of the Com. on Levees,
Everybody remembers at once that he |
investigated Mr.. Robeson's malad-
ministration of the navy, and if The
Speaker has any reason other than this
for dropping him from The Naval Com.
a due regard for his own credit ought |
to induce him to make it public.
These are specimens of Speaker
keifer's committee appointments, and
to understand them in parl it is me-
cessary to know Mr.. Robson was the
best friend of Mr.. Keifer in caucus.
The PeInsylyanians going over to him
In body insured his nomination, and
Wisconsin and California members
were his earliest and most jealous ad-
herents,