St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-03
THE NEXT CONGRESS.

When Gov. MERRIAM made the state
ment at Duluth Saturday. as reported
by his organ, that his election was re-
lieved of all doubt. and the only ques-
ton is as to the size Of the ma jority, he
was nut following the theory upon
which his party has acted, not only in
this state but all over the country.
fhe governor would be glad to turn
over his salary for two years. term to
any institution that would guarantee
his election. 1t Is the old game of
bluff. The Tribune yesterday pub
lished a table Of the results claimed, as
alleged, by the pest Informed RepublI-
can authorizes, showing the election of
$50 Republican congressman to l4S DEM
ocratic. 1t is possible that such a cou-
| putation has been made by Republi-
cans at Washington, but it Is waste Of
labor. All the party, or rather Mr..
REED, needs in the first instance is a
bare quorum. The majority can then
De enlarged as in the present congress,
by seating all Republicans who are
thoughtful enough to come as contest
ants. But the most hopeful Republi-
cans can see no chance for more than a
majority of two or three, and those with
any character for honesty concede from
five to ten Democratic majority. eau
tious Democrats do not feel confident of
more than ten or fifteen majority. In
view of the nearnesS of the election,
mere partisan claims may soon be made
to look very absurd, but if there is not
a moro Qnnhatia condemnation, oF fno
Republican policies than has been pre-
missed by these calculators. it will afford
most alarming evidence of the
power of money and prejudice
to override the interests of t he
masses and the strength of irrefutable
argument. There should be. however,
no such unworthy distrust of the peo-
pie. The course of the last congress
made it virtually impossible for another
body like it to be elected by the people.
The force bill, and the luminosity to the
South exhibited, will insure the leaving
out of most of the Republican members
from that section, although the Repub-
licau candidates in Tennessee, Texas
and other states have utterly repudiated
the measure. This spirit in congress
aud bill checked the tendency to align
on new issues IN the South. This. even
more than tariff reform, has aided the
Democrats in that section. The twenty
or more Republican members from the
South will be reduced to a half dozen.
probably. In the West the tariff
rIunstroSity has caused such revolt
that even the bulldoziug of REED and
the mediation of BLAINE will not force
it down the popular throat. The DEM
Ocrats, both West and East. have held
steadily to this issue. and the result in
the congressional voting will be very
nearly clean-cut -McKinleyism and
tariff reform. There is no precedent
for the struggle that is being made by
the Republicans in Kansas, Iowa, Ne
braska, Minnesota and other Western
states to escape defeat. In the East
they are in equal peril. Massachusetts,,
Connecticut, New Hampshire and
Rhode Island are on the brink, and the
party is likely to 20 over the breast
works in some of them. There should
be no abatement of effort to put this
state in line with the forces of progress
and popular rights.