The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-09

are SO well pleased with the record they made
that they fondly hope it may be brought into
the campaign this summer The Democrats
plead in extenuation Of their failure to do any
thing of consequence the tact that they
were in the minority in the Senate, and prom
ised many things at the next session Invariably
when the plea of senatorial minority was re-
peated to Republicans they pooh poohed, and re-
piled that that was begging the question; that
the Democratic majority was so large in the
House and the Republican majority so small in
the Senate that it was acknowledging the alb
surdity of the measures proposed by the Demo
Gratis to say they could not get them through.
A measure that could not be Endorsed by at least
two Republican senators was so absurd or
partisan that it should not become law
General complaint has been heard of the UNI
approachable stupidity of the session justclosed.
There is no class that so quickly and forcibly
discovers the fact that nothing is being done,
who suffer more from it, than the newspaper
men. It has been standing
complaint among these men that nothing
has been done, and that no effort
was made by the working majority to finally ac
complish anything. The Democrats have lacked
nerve They have had neither the principle nor
the courage to assert desire to have it. They
have not challenged those who have courage and
principle. The party seemed to have felt
through its representatives in Congress, that it
was very near supremacy by the approaching
election; that if it could escape doing anything
that would make record it would succeed in
November. Like the mother who taking her idi-
oIad fo
keep his mouth shut and no one would know he
was fool the; partyhas SHE'D away from every
sensible proposition lest by taking hold of it it
would display that assininity it felt so keenly
lurking within it.
The last three days of Congress were fruitful
of little good, unless it was good to get matters
closed up in the appropriations and depart.
There was slight degree more of decency dis
played on the part of the Democrats in the Sen
ate than in the House. Whether that was due
to the fact that the Senate is more decorous, and
the representatives there of higher order in
intelligence, or whether in the House those of
they represent, and, consequently, fresher in
disposition Democratic, is not known, but there
was a more persistent inclination shown to keep
clear of fairness and magnanimity in the House
than Senate by members of the party. The tenaci-
tyi with which the majority in the House fought
to increase the deficiency in the national and
necessary running expense of the government
by cutting Gown appropriations required by law
was generally remarked. 1t is estimated that
the deficiency which the Republicans of the
next House must make good will be four times
as heavy as that which this Congress was
called upon to- consider. This is the design of
the House The next House is to be Republican
and the present committee on appropriations
has designed that it shall be embarrassed
by large deficiency If there was any one
thing the last committee took more pleasure in
than another it was in making good deficiency.
thatswas just and that was necessary. 1t had
the courage Of its convictions. There has been
nothing done yet by this Congress to eliminate
one scratch Of the condemnation that was re-
corded against it before it was organized, and
the man who said it would be majority with
long legs and no body spoke the words Of a
prophet asss /