Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-15
TERMS OF THE DISPATCH.
PITTsBURG. SATURDAY, NOV. Is, 1890.
REEDS COMMENTARY ON BLAINE.

Among the many attempts of Republican
leaders TO explain what recently struck
them, the most characteristic ard at the same
time the most stunning is one which is re-
ported by the correspondence of the Boston
Tr0Ueller as coming from the immediate
personal circles of the Hon. Thomas B.
Reed. The Speaker has not so far fully de-
clared himself in propria persona, but to
judge from the VIEWS of the person who is
vouched for by the correspondent as being
Mr.. Reeds next friend, it seems possible
that Mr.. Reeds silence is chiefly due to the
difficulty which be finds in framing Ian
gusge that is adequate to the occasion.
According to this exponent of the Speak
er's views, the Achan in the camp who pro-
duced defeat, the Judas who betrayed his
party masters, is known to the nineteenth
century as James G. Blaine. "Blaine is
the one man in America who is most to
blame" "Dawdling in the Senate" which
body actually spent three months on the
tariff bill after the House had spent seven
months on the same measure, is, according
TO the Reed theory, the main cause OF the
disaster, for which the bad man from Maine
is responsible. The temper in which Port
land Republicanism finds itself results in
laying a share of the blame on the unfortu-
nate Mckinley. Mr. Reed wanted the
tariff bill passed in February eff Nc
Kinley had been of the Randall stripe
rather than of the Carlisle pattern, such a
thing as the delay on the tariff bill would
never have occurred, " and ''the members
would have had ample time to look afterth
fences" But Blaine is the chief villain, for
the explanation from the Speakers circle
returns to the fact that "Blaine's attack on
the Mckinley bill, was an attack on the Re
publican party in Congress, an attack on
Major Mckinley and Speaker Reed" and
this indictment OF the Secretary of State
winds up with a darkling hint, that day.
will come"
OF course this is conclusive as to the
Speakers utter repudiation of any such idea
as that the people do not indorse the dicta-
torship of a party which turns its avowed
constitutional principles upside down for
party advantage, or is dissatisfied with a
party policy that proposes to maintain
favor ''by doing our own counting"
or has expressed anv dissent from
the practice of deciding election contests
so as to make the seated member represent,
not the voters of his district, but the ma
iority vote in the House. That the people
can object 10 such bold acts of partissuship
is not within the Speakers philosophy
That school of political ethics can only see
that its canons are violated VIXEN member
OF the Cabinet dares to have opinions of his
own, or a coordinate branch of the Legis-
lature takes the trouble to investigate for
itself the legislative programme prepared
by the leaders of the House, whose arbitrary
partisanship formed the most ultra feature
OF the events which led up to the recent
landslide.
All ihiS is extremely interesting, and it is
more interesting from the disclosure which
it makes that to the Speakers circle the bit
terness of Republican defeat is not so great
as the bitterness of the fact that it puts Mr..
Blaine far in the lead of Republican states
manship. September seemed to put Mr.
Reed on top, but November has over
whelmed him so completely that he can
only console himself by sharpening in Sc
clusion the knife with which he intends to
let out the life-blood of the elusive but far
sighted Blaine when the time shall come for
doing that act effectively. There is prom
Use of lively times in the relations of the
two Maine men before they are done with
each other.