Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-26
EAGER FOR THE GAVEL.
Ten Democrats Anxious to Fill Speaker
Reeds Shoes-Who They Are.
Judge Crisp, Of Georgia, and His Fight With
Biount-A Contest Which Promises to
Divide the Majority.
Correspondence Of ct. Paul Dispatch.

that was born November 4 has hardly
opened Its eyes yet, and there are ten
full f1edged candidates for speaker OF the
next house. 1t 10 natural, of course,
that great results should be followed by
great expectations, and the long array
of parliamentary talent that offers itself
for service when congress meets g year
hence is not out OF proportion to the DEM
ocratio majority in the next house. At
the beginning of the Fiftieth congress
there were blu, four candidates for
speaker-the Big Four-Rped. Mckinley I,
Cannon and Burrows. By the rule of
three perhaps this number was excessive +,
considering that there was then a Repub-
lican majority of but seven. By the
same rule ten candidates is moderate
when the Democratic majority is nearly
twenty FIVE times that OF the Republicans
year ago.
The ten Democrats who have either
announced themselves or been brought
forward by their friends as candidates
for the next speakershfp represents a
diversity of talent and Of geographical
claims that lends an exciting interest to
the contest. The South presents six
man-Roger Q. Mills of Texas. William
Henry Hatch of Missouri, James H.
Blout and Charles I. Crisp of Georgia,
Benton Clay McMiilin Of Tennessee, and
William Campbell Preston Breckinridge
of Kentucky. The West offers William
McKendree Springer of Illinois, William
ID. Bynum of Indiana, aud Joseph IL.
Cultivate of Ohio. Another candidate,
william Lvne Wilson, comes from West
Virginia, middle ground that is neither
North, South, East nor West. The
Eastern or Middle states have no candl-
date. Personal fitness, rather than
geographical claims, seems to be the
impulse which sends the various candi-
dates into the speakership arena.
OF the nine Mr. Mills is the oldest with
the frosts OF ffty-eight years on his
closely clipped mustachs aud sparse hair.
Next in age Is Gen. Hatc&, who Is fifty
ssren. Then comes Mr.. Springer, who
is tifty-four, and following him Breckin-
ridge and Biount, who are fifty three,
with only a month between their birth
days. Mr.. Cultivate ID nearly forty
nine, and Prof. Wilson is forty-seveu
and Judge Crisp and Judge McMillin are
forty five, the former being from jan
uary to September the senior of the lat
ter. Mr.. Bynum is the youngest of the
ten. He was forty-four last June.
In seniority of service in ths house Mr..
Mills and Mr. Blout, who entered con-
gress in 1873, with the Forty-third con-
gress, lead all the rest. When their
present terms expire they will have had
the experience Of eighteen years in the
body over which they are ambitious to
preside. Mr.. Springer's first congress
vas the Forty fourth, and he can point
- nf fr-.,I ,ri
ence on the floor and in the committee
room. Judge McMillin and Gen. Hatch
have been in the house since the begin
ming OF the Forty-six tn congress, making
the full term OF service OF each up to
March 3. 1891, precisely twelve years.
Professor Wilson aui Judge Crisp are in
the eighth year of their service as MEM
6ers Of congress, Mr.. Breckinridge,
Mr.. Cultivate and Mr.. Bynum have
seen but three congresses assemble and
organize.
Every one OF the nine are lawyers.
Biount, Crisp and McMillin have been
judges. Breckinrilgs has been a pro-
fessor of law in Cumberland university,
Tennessee. All are self-made men.
Mr.. Mills was for several years post
Office clerk and studied law behind the
little glass boxes. Professor Wilson
while teaching Latin in the Colum bian
university at Washington studied law
and was admitted to the bar. Breckin-
ridge began life as country editor.
Cultivate taught An Ohio high school at
twenty-four and for five years was a
pedaEogus and law student ut the
same time. Crisp was Il son of "strol-
ling actor, - ard made bis way up to the
bar by hard work in dozen different
occupations. Gen. Hatch was farm
er's boy and has been a farmer all his
life, though he was admitted to the bar
in 1854 aud has practiced law off and on
ever since.
Three of the ten, Mills, Hatch and
MoMilIin, were born in Kentucky; Two,
Bynum and Springer, were born in In
diana. MIR. Breckinridge was born in
Maryland, when his father, the famous
Robert j. Breckinridge, was pastor of
the Second Presbyterian church of Bal
tlmors. Judge Crisp was born in EuR-
land while his parents were on visit
there. Professor Wilson was born in
what is now West Virginia, and Bynum,
Outh white and Blount were born in the
states they in part represent in congress.
But two of those ten candidates have
record and standing that might project
them into the presidential arena in 1892.
MIR. Mills, as the leader of his party in
the great tariff debate of 1SSS-S9- 80, en-
joys national eminence that Is undi-
videdly his own. Mr.. Springer, by his
activity all along his career in congress,
has placed himself in the Foreground OF
national affairs. He killed the third
term idea dead es o smelt In 1876,
when he introduced q reso ution that
was passed by 233 yeas to Is nays, de-
clarinR that the precedent of retiring
from the presidential office after the
second term has become a part OF the
unwritten law Of the republic, and that
Gen. Grants candidacy was uuwise, uu-
patriotic and frsught with peril to our
free institutions. He was on the Joint
committee that patched up the electoral
commission in 1851. As chairman of
the committee on territories he opened
the door for the admission of the new
sta:es-no; quite IS wide, however, as
the Republicans managed to pull it.
During the long debate on the tariff in
the Fiftieth congress Mr.. Springer pre-
sided nearly all the time over the COM
mittee Of the whole, and proved his sig
nal ability as parliamentariau. He is
an affable, jovial man, while Mr.. Mills
is usually in dead earnest and not uu-
fropuaDfsu diapioys mn shot