Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-02-22

SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 22, 1890.
What IL the Full Extent OF the
Programme
The revolutionary action Of Speaker
Reed, followed by the adoption of the
new rules Of the House through his
arbitrary dictwns, leaves little doubt that a
very sweeping Republican programme is
about to be carried out. Precisely what
its scope is has not yet been disclosed,
bat it is matter of the first Importance
that public attention should be drawn to
the incubating process that is now going
ON. From every direction in the Repub-
ican press we meet the refrain, "What
are you going to do about it?" This is
familiar language. 1t was heard from
one William M. Tweed in the brief hey
dey of his fortunes. The st. Louis
Globe. Democrat exclaims exultantly that
all branches Of Congress are Republican,
that the object of the new rules is to
enable the majority to legislate, and it
assures its partizans that it will legislate,
and with no regard to the feelings of its
adversaries.
There is certainly nothing msaly-
mouthed about such plan. Roger @.
Mills announced what the Republicans
were going to do in the matter of rsmod-
cling the rules in an article in tho North
american Revisqv four months ago. He
asserted that the leaders of that orgeni-
zation had q radical scheme on foot to
deplete the national treasury and warp
the constitution of the United States to
. much greater extent than had been
yet practiced, and that the changing of
the rules was the entering wedge in such
q programme.
The first step 10 the new departure
viii probably be the unseating of all the
Democrats who can be thrown out even
ON the fimsiest pretexts, in order to in.
sure an easy, working majority indie.
pendent of the lame, the sick, the halt
and the blind, whose number is often
hard to,reckon upon, and independent
also of the occasional Republican Rep.
resentativs whose conscience might prick
him, although it would look as if it would
require "a ninety million magnifying
glass of double hextra power" to dis
cover such a Republican Representa-
tive-in the light of recent events. The
issue of the first contest shows that no
scruples of form or propriety will be al
lowed to stand in the way of this con-
summation. The spirit of old Thad
Stevens seems to have descended on
Speaker Reed. There are seventeen con-
tests in all. Should they all be decided
in favor of the Republicans there will be
a working Republican majority of forty
two in the lower house of Congress, in
stead of the eight with which they orig
inally started.
We have already intimated that the
Republican scheme contemplates serious
invasions of the reserved rights of the
States, already rstrenched to the point
of positive peril. The line of these
infractions was clearly indicated
by Mr.. Harrison in his last
message. Nothing could indicate more
clearly the determined purpose of the
Republican msjority in the House of
Representatives than the introduction of
bill to prevent any change in the lines
of the Congressional districts as they
exist now prior to the census of 1890.
This is departure in the line of Federal
absolutism so extreme that it almost
takes ones breath away. 1t was no. at
tempted even during the years which
followed the war. The right of the States
to constitute their own Congress districts
was never disputed before. This bill is
based upon an alleged purpose upon the
part OF the Democratic Legislature of
Ohio to re-district that common wealth,
which they have the clear right to do.
Ohio and New York have been notori-
ously gerrymandered by the Republicans,
and the Democrats of either State have
the right to repair the injustice when
ever they can. There might bs some
question as to the wisdom of the measure,
but there is certainly none as to it's JUS
tice, and Congress has no right to inter-
fere.
The presence in Washington of an i'm
menss lobby shows that part of the use
to which the new rules will be put will
be the passage of innumsrable subsidiz.
ing and other schemes, in which the
surplus, if there shall prove to be any,
will be blown in to jocund airs. Where
the carrion is there the vultures gather.
As long as either House Of Congress is
Democratic there ia no need for the at
tendance of these gentry. Their occu-
patton is literally gone. The veter
would do well to keep his eye on this
branch Of the subject. 1t will be fruitful
of further developments, or we greatly
mistake the signs of the times.
This is very grand and swelling pro-
gramms, but it is liable to miscarry at
some interesting stage of the game.
About two hundred and fifty years ago
there was in England q man who was
even more peremptory than Speaker
Reed. His name was Strafford, and his
schemes were so far-reaching and over
reaching and arbitrary that they lost both
his King and himself their heads, his
own going first. His plan was called
thorough" it was 80 sweeping and high
minded. The day has passed for cutting