The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-09-14
CONGRESSIONAL BRAwLERs.

1t is frequent complaint on the part Of
q certain portion Of the press that political
newspapers do not exhibit sufficient respect
for Congress and Congressman. The law
making branch of tho government is daily
r;diculed and held up to scorh by the press
of the minority party, and individual MEN,
bers of Congress, both Senators and Rep
resentatives, are spoken of in terms which
should only be applied TO hlackguards and
criminals The argument is that this course
necessarily degrades in the esteem of
the people the men who make
the laws, and consequently casts
odium upon the laws themselves,
whereas people should be taught to look
upon lawmakers as the ahlest and purest
men in the nation, and to respect the
statutes as the devislngs of wise and hon
est men for the protection and government
of the masses.
Theoretically the complaining press is
correct, practically it is an ignoramus and
clearly wrong. If Congressman were
chosen as they should be, if the wisest and
best men were selected, and if their cleo
ton were the result of the honest choice of
the honest people, it would be cruel to
criticlse, abuse, condemn and vulgarize
them as the political press persists in
doing. But the best men are not nominated,
elections are not honestly conducted and
the tally sheets do not represent the
voice Of the people. The qualifications of
the candidate for the important duties at
taching to the Office are seldom taken into
account by nominating conventions. The
low cunning. the dirty trickery of the
candidate in securing control of the pri
maries and conventions more often secure
nominations and elections than the quail
ties required in legislator. The very
things which should keep a man out of
Congress place him there. Because of this
blatherskites instead of statesmen, black
guards rather than clean and honorable
gentlemen sit as Representatives and Sen
ators. If our law makers were what they
should be, they would all be referred
TO with respect even by the opposi-
ton political press, and the masses
would entertain an entirely differ
ent opinion regarding the so-called
statesman. So long as unclean men and
dirty blackguards go to Congress, the news
papers will score them and neither they nor
their friends will have any right to COM
plain of ill-treatment by the press. SO long
as the debates in Congress are conducted on
low and vulgar lines, and members indulge
in the profanity and nastiness which no.
body expects to encounter outside the
slums, it should not be expected that the
people will have much respect for the great
making Institution or the men compos-
ing it,
We have heretofore referred to the dis
graceful proceedings in the House
on the afternoon of August 81,
when Representative CANNON, the re
cognized parliamentary leader of the
Republicans, told with his own mouth what
low bred fellow he is, and others simil-
arly though in less degree of vileness, ad-
vertised their vulgar instincts and training
The full and true account of the disgrace
full scene has never been told in print aud
never will be, for the reason that no news
paper in the country is dirty enough to
print the account. Besides, the publish
ers who should admit the language that
was used to his columns would promptly
be sent to prison by those same people who
are blamed for not showing proper respect
for Congressman. Enough may be related,
however, to show that the press and
people are not far wrong if
they sometimes refer to Congressman
as hlackguaros, and look with suspicion
upon the laws enacted by such men. The
remark by CANNON. which precipitated
the dissgreeable scene, was too nasty to be
,.S,,aofa5 nj Mt fbo,
everybody in the gallery left, while many
of the more decent Representatives were
al once upon their feet, entering their in
dignant protests. One member demanded
that the words be taken down, but the
speaker knew that it would not do to dis
figure the journal with them. and therefore
declined to recognize the outraged gentle
man. 1t SO happened that the wife OF Con
gresham MAscN, of Illinois, was IN the
gallery, which fact made her husband, on
the floor, wildly Indignant He made des
perate efforts to got at CANNON, but
friends held him back by main force, com,
polling him to content himself with hurl-
ing epithets at mis- colleague. the language
he used being little less vile than that
of CANsoN. A correspondent who
WAS present quotes MASON as saying
ssYou wouldn't have said that if your
family had been in the gallery. and you
wouldn't have said it at all IL you hadn't
been a. dirty tramp" and so on,
winding up, as CANNON protested to break
his wrath, that his words had been mis-
understood: ''You're a----lying son of
a--." This excited CANNON so that
his friends had to hold him, or he would
have climbed over the desks to hit Mason.
The dispute was going on ali over the
Republican side Of the chamber, the men,
bers expressing their opinions in language
both inelegant and vigorous, when
WILSON, of Washington, struck BEcKwIrn,
of New Jersey. In an instant a score of
members were rushing at each other and
for time it looked as If the Republicans
would engage in a general lrnockdown.
The sergeant-at-arms had difficulty in
establishing anything like quiet. The cor
respondent explains the collision between
the members named as follows:
It seems that BEcKwIrH who had a private
grievance against CANNON for naming him
among the absentees in his resolution yester-
day.. had said TO LEHLBA0H as they watched
mason and CANNON, that MASON was quite
eight. No he isn't said WILSON, CANNON
lis right What have you got to do with it.''
demanded BEcKwrTH oh" said WILSON,