Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-05

| llcan majority OF the House. Already silver
seems to be climbing TO par with safety to al
the interests of the country.
There was also another promise to be kept
made long ago and often renewed. For years
righteously that there could not be in repub
| lie duty more sacred than the duty of uphold
| ing the right of every citizen to participate in
| government Who has forgotten, the ring
| among the unforgotten on the Heights of Arl'
| ington? "The people have made up their
minds that they will have loyal Government
and an honest ballot and q fair count"
The House of Representatives. true to ito
duty, has passed bill which, when 1t becomes
law, will give to the people of the United
states the suffrages of millions 1t will enable
votes to be cast and to be counted as cast.
AN ENORMOUS HUBBUB.
What an enormous hubbub has been raised
about that simple bill. There has been nothing
like it since Walter Scott described the upris-
ing of the virtuous people of Alsatia on the ap.
proach of Sheriff What is this bill on which
SO many interesting epithets have been rained!
1t is simple proposition to have United States
supervisors to see that United States elections
Quoted; that all honest votes shall be
cast and honestly counted as cast. If
there be any man in this country
years before he will look like those who pro-
claimed the divine origin of slavery. That the
Democrats now denounce with violent epithets
Republican measure is no new fact in their
history. So prosecuted they the saints When
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that this land
could not be permanently half free and half
slave, the Democracy OF my younger days all
declared that he said SO because he wanted his
sister to marry a negro. So when the Republic
ans of our day proclaim that in q Republic
L000.0O0 Of voters can never be permanently
disfranchised, the Democrat of our day shouts
negro domination" and "bayonets."
The speaker next referred to the opening
of Oklahoma and the admission of the new
States. He cited further as creditable legis-
lation ofthis Congress, the measure to re-
lieve the stress on the Supreme Court; also
the bankruptcy bill, the meat inspection
bill and the lard bill. Every bill presented
by organized labor had been passed, and
State control over license had been pre-
served bv action of the House alter the
original package decision. The mails had
been closed to lotteries and before the end of
this Congress, the speaker expected the
passage of the tonnage bill. Then Mr..
Reed continued thus:
LARCENY OF TIME.
EVERY inch of our progress has been con-
tested by the opposition. Highway robbery of
time has been abolished; petty larceny has
not Only strong, vigorous public sentiment
prevailing among all the constituencies will
ever do that We spent two months and half
in organization, in the preliminary struggles to
settle the right of the majority to control, and
in determining the rules of the House proceed
ngs. We were forced to spend more time on
contested elections. Our loss of time from
contested elections will not be less than 20
days.
One other cause of the loss Of this will be
surprise. perhaps, to the community at large.
No man would regret more than to be thought
wanting in all proper respect for the dead and
all proper reverence for departed comrades
and for the feelings of surviving friends. yet
by the method which the House shows this
respect and pays this reverence is very costly
to the nation Since the election of this
and one Senator. One among them has been
most famous men of the House, William ID.
Kelley, the great champion of protection:
Samuel j. Randall, heart of oak and will of
iron, the strongest face in half a century, and
Samuel Sullivan Cox, at once brilliant and
laborious- When they have paid due rever-
and their companions not less than q working
days will have to be counted.
THE LOSS OF A MONTH,
This means almost an entire month of time.
When John Bright died the English House
thought it could best honor his memory by 60
ing on with the business of the country. These
losses which have enumerated could not per-
haps be helped without greater reforms than
can be hoped for in many years But what is
about to be described could be avoided by
either the commonest patriotism or healthy
public sentiment in the House.
1t ought to be known all over the United
States that with 300 members it takes %
minutes to make a roll call. Whenever the
yeas and nays are ordered it means a loss of
half an hour. Now the session of the House
two years ago lasted one month and a half
longer than the present session thus far
During that session of two years ago there
were 226 roll calls. of which Sc were recorded
during the long flibustering against tho direct
tax bill, leaving but 40 which were seemingly
legitimate.
Isay these I4O were seemingly legitimate for |
have no doubt that 100 would have fully COM |
piled with the demands of the Constitution. |
One hundred roll calls would have been more |
than ample for all proper purposes for the |
whole OF this session. And yet we have had |
400. Three hundred of these have been utterly |
useless. mere wauton waste. A legislative day, |
exclusive of the reading of the journal, is a |
then mean 25 legislative days Think of % |
legislative days wasted in mere useless calling |
over of names and all done to waste time with /
the public business unfinished.
PROSPECT FOR THE FUTURE.
But in closing what 1 have had to say, it |
would not be Just to rest the claims of the |
House upon ever the catalogue of its great |
deeds. What the House has shown the coun-
try that any House can do is worth a princes |
ransom. Henceforth promise cannot be ex- /
cused except by performance. Henceforth |
great measures cannot be lost and nobody |
know what has become of them. Party re- |
sponsibiIty has begun. and with il also the |
Of the people, for they can no |
onger elect Democratic House and hope that |
The minority will neutralize their action, or |
Republican House without being sure that it |
will keep its pledge.
If we have broken the precedents of an hun
1red years, we have set the precedents of an
other hundred years. nobler than the las.
wherein responsibility will wait on power and |