Smyrna times., 1890-11-26
Washington Letter.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Nov. Il, 1890.

Inc supporters OF kepresentatlV
Mills for Speaker of the next House
are somewhat disconnected by the au
thorized announcement that Represen
tative elect, Dan Lockwood, of NeN
York, is candidate for the position
The friends of Mr.. Mills had been con
fdently figuring on the active suppor
of ex-President Cleveland, but nov
they will be satisfied if they can secur,
Mr.. Cleveland's neutrality in the fgh
for the coveted honor of presiding ovel
the House. The reason for this sudder
change, appears to be that Mr.. Lock
wood claims, or some of his friends
claim for him, that he was the discov
erer and creator, politically speaking
OfGrOver Cleveland, and he will ask
his aid now, and that Mr.. Cleveland
cannot refuse without proving himself
guilty of ingratitude, the basest of all
crimes. Representative Springer, an
other candidate, thinks he also has
claims upon the ex-President.
But an attempt is now being made
to form a combination, which, if snc.
cessful, will probably settle Mr.. Lock
woods chances for the speakership.
The scheme is, to get Il majority of the
! Democratic members ofthe next House
| to agree that no citizen of the state
which receives the Speakership, shall
! get their support for the Presidential
nomination in 1892. This is bold
scheme, but the average Congressman
will lack the nerve to join it unless he
has positive assurance that it will sue
| ceed, and therein lies its weakness. 1t
looks like serving positive notice upon
Messrs. Hill and Cleveland, the two
| most prominent candidates of their
party, that New York can't have the
speakership and the Presidential NOM
inatiOn too, and while such notice
would probably reflect the sentiments
of fOur-tifths of the Democratic ReDre-
SentatiV9s-elect, the number who
would care, one might almost say dare,
to take part in such a notice, is small.
very small, indeed.
Great things are expected of Mr..
Blaine in the way of reciprocity in the
near future, but | must confess that |
don't see how he can do anything fur
ther than to set the ball to rolling.
New legislation by Congress will be
absolutely necessary before anything
really practicaI can be accomplished.
True, Mr.. Blaine may negotiate recip-
rOclty treaties, but reciprocity treaties,
like all other kind Of treaties, have to
be ratified by the Senate. and the same
men who brought about the defeat of
the Spanish and Mexican treaties a
few years ago are still in the Senate
and their influence is still powerful,
and one Of them-Senatnr Edmunds--
has stated in a public speech upon the
floor OF the Senate, that he regarded
MI Blaine's reciprocity ideas as
as chimeriCal.
That several reciprocity treaties will
be negotiated in time to be acted upon
by the Senate, "uriug the coming sholt
session, Is almost a certainty. The new
Spanish minister was selected by his
government for hat very purpose, and
although be only arrived here last
week, he has already opened negotia-
tiOns with Mr. Blaine. Negotiations
are also pending with several Of the
Central and South American Republics
and unless some unforeseen obstacle
turns up, will soon be concluded. Re
ciprocity would undoubtedly be bene-
ticial to this country, but it will prob
ably be some time before we get it on
large enough scale to be Of any practi-
cal benefit.
Everybody is curious to know what
course the Republicans will pursue at
the short session of Congress, and no
body seerss able to answer the conun
drum. Republican Senators and
Representatives, who are daily arriving
here, make bee line for the White
House as soon as the dust of travel is
removed from their whiskers, but when
asked what they propose doing when
Congress meets, they either refuse out.
right to answer, or else answer in such
a way as to convey no information.
1t Is evident that they have not fully
determined themselves what thev will
do and probably will not until some
sort of a caucus or conference is held,
and 1t is by 40 means certain that an
agreement can then be reached.
Mr. Wanamaker still shouts for his
postal telegraph scheme, and will come
out for all he knows how in its favor
in his annual report, in spite of the al
legged attacks of Jay Gould upon his
private business, because of his advo-
cacy of the postal telegraph. 1t is
hardly among the probabilities that
this Congress will act upon the matter,
but Mr.. Wanamaker is confident that
it will.