Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-12-01
The Coming Session of Congress.

The Coming Session OF congress.
The second session of the Forty-seventh
Congress convenes ON Monday next.
Certain elements of the Republican party
pretend to expect great things from their
representatives in this body in the way of
reform, though the last session was mark
ed by recklessness and disregard of the
public interests that would have shamed
the statesmen who figured under the re-
glme Of Grant. The conduct of the Re-
publican majority was so fragrant that it
invited defeat, and the people were prompt
to reouke the Refers, the Robesons and
their ilk at the polls.
The Republicans are put upon their
good behavior at the present session, and
the administration has set them the ex-
ample of paying heed to public opinion by
Topping off the heads of certain corrupt
officials, whose misdeeds long since in
yited punishment Undoubtedly, the
shrewd Republican leaders are alive to
the necessity of relieving themselves from
the Odium in which they are held by the
masses, but the fact that the majority of
their associates have been condemned at
the polls and sentenced to obscurity will
necessarily hamper them in their enforced
mission of reform. They realize that a
great deal must be done to placate the
spirit of popular resentment awakened by
their sins of commission and omission,
but where to begin and how far to 90 they
cannot determine.
Besides this, the coming session of Con-
gress will be brief. and will be barely suf-
ficient for the discharge of the purely
perfunctory duties of that body. More
over, it is customary to take a recess at
the Christmas holidays, and it will be
well into January ere the serious work of
the session will begin. And, further yet,
even after it does begin, there are so many
members to be retif,, many of whom
have special schemee Ard, and who
are alive only to pc - that con-
cord or unanimity upon any cOmprehen-
sive programme of reform devised by the
Republicans viii be next to impossible.
The regular appropriation bills must be
passed-they must be shOrn of their usual
dimensions, and this work will consume
the major part of the session. Efforts
may be made to conform to the wishes of
the people in the matter of reducing taxa
ton, but any proposition made to that
end will promote debate and arouse the
animOsities of the respective supporters
of protection and tariff reform. This de-
bate will undoubtedly be prolonged, and
lead to no satisfactory results, save the
possible enlightenment of the public upon
the subject at issue.
The hopes of the Radical organs that
the majority in the present Congress can
OF will do anything to rehabilitate their
party and restore it to public favor are
therefore misplaced. Fully One-third OF
the party is committed to revenue reform,
but the remainder is as fully committed
to high protective tariff. Radicalism
has not learned and cannot accommodate
itself to habits of economy, and those
who look to it for relief will be disap-
pointed If the people had entertained
hopes of relief at its hands, they would not
have condemned it. They have assigned
the task of reform to the Democracy, and
all that the Republicans can do is to be
| less lavish in the disposal of the public
revenues in voting the annual supplies.
! There cannot and will not be any reform
at the hands of the present Congress. 1t
/ has been condemned by the public for its
/ shortcomings. and, if it does not already
I realize this it will shortly be struck with
J it as a stubborn fact.