Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-01-14
A Readable Letter.
WASHINGTON, d. c., Jan. II


problem of passing each other on the
same track, he will have "a clear idea of
the present position of the factions of
the majority in Congress. This posi-
ton has become more ridiculous since
the announcements of the committees,
which Mr.. Carlisle has been a month
IN arranging, and the opposing locomo-
tives which he has hitched to the
different trains might very appropriate
y be christened "Wall Street" aud
the "Rowdy West and South"
representing and hauling the different
factions.
Mounted on the latter, as engineer,
is that wild, horizontal free-trader.
Mr.. Morrison, of Illinois, at the head
of the Committee of Ways and Means,
assisted by the child-like Bland, the
father Of the almighty silver dollar,
and the untamed Scotchman, Beck, as
firemen and assistants. In the cab Of
the other sits the irrepressible Randall,
at the head of appropriations, the
greatest apostle of protectionism in
the country, with Manning and the
President ready to furnish fuel enough
to melt down the aforesaid dollar, or to
switch off the frisky free traders. A
similar arrangement of forces in the
preceding Congress brought the oppos-
ing trains to dead halt, and similar
result is likely to happen in the
present. Oil and water are chemical
opposites, and no less so are the
elements of the Democratic majority,
now undertaking to govern this great
country--too great, it is feared, for
the forces now at it's head
But if the hostile alignments above
noted are grotesque and astonishing,
what must the country think of the
head of the foreign affairs, the young
scion of the aristocratic house of
Belmont, and the representative in
America of the Rothchilds, the monied
kings of Europe, the prop and sup
port of all the tyrannies and rotten
monarchies of the Old World! How
will it strike the people, and especially
the old soldiers, to see the grand old
"War Governor" of Pennsylvania, the
patriotic Curtin, at the bead of his
state when Gettysburg was fought and
won, displaced by Perry Belmont,
then a school-boy, and his father
chairman of the anti-war party, the
Earty responsible for the Rebellion?
A nice man, indeed, to represent the
foeign interests and foreign policy, or
what ought to be the foreign policy of
a democratic Republic! And of such
incngruous elements are the factions
of this great ''party Of the people"
composed!
Nj Eustis. Of Louisiana, threw
another bombshell into administration
circles on Friday, introducing reso-
lutionin the Senate to the effect that
the ter million bonds to be paid in
February, be paid in silver, which the
resolution claims will be ''in strict
compliance with the law" the author
declaring his purpose to be to compel
Congress to define itself squarely on
the silver issue. It was referred to
Finance Committee, and its discu ssion
when it comes up, if ever, will open
up the entire financial policy of the
government.
The Senate celebrated st Jackson's
day by the triumphant passing of Mr..
Edmunds' new and stringent anti
polygamy bill, anti-woman suffrage
clause and all, 38 yeas to 7 nays, the
latter including Senator Hoar, because
as he explained, it disfranchised the
woman Of Utah. The bill passed as
i came from the Committee, and is
most sweeping and severe in it's pro-
Visions, practically putting the entire
pntrol and legislation of the territory
Under direct national supervision, and
i enforced must end polygamy. In
he same body, an important and far
haching measure to prohibit the
biting of government contracts to
PERSONS employing convict labor, was
Introduced. Having disposed of the
tab bill the exhausted statesmen of
he upper house adjourned till to-day.
Since the announcement of the
sanding committees there is a good
deal of 'sea-sickness'' among the
statesmen of the Democratic ship.
fany failing to get what they wanted,
bnspicuous among them being the
great Iowa Greenback champion. Gen.
Weaver, who expected to be put at the
lead of the Labor committee, as a
bward, not SO much for his horney-
landed toll as for his efforts to rein
Eate the Rothchilds party in power.
Instead, the position was given to a
It. Louis dude by the name Of O'NeillI
tho wears button-hole boquet la
Ben Butler, and sports silk stockings
ind silver-headed cane. Foran, of
ohio, whom the working-men really
wanted, was also discarded to make
Dom for the man with the boquet.
A glance at the heads of the COM
nittees will convince the most incredu
bus, not only that the most ultra wing
IT tho i IL