Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-27
EAGER FOR THE GAVEL.
Ten Democrats Anxious to Fill Speaker
Reed s ShOes-W no They Are
Judge Crisp, OF Georgia, and Els Fight With
BIount-A rontest " b;ch Promises to
Divide the Majority.
Correspondence Of st. Paul Dispatch

| opened us eyes yer, AMI tnere are ten
full-tiedged candidates for speaker of the
| next house. 1t is natural, of course,
| that great results shout be followed by
| great expectations, aud the long array
of parliamentary talent that offers itself
| for service when congress meets a year
hence is not out of proportion to the Dem
| ocratic majority i'll the next house At
| the beginning OF the Fiftieth congress
there we're but four candidates for
| speaker-the Big Four-R-ed. Mckinley +,
| Cannon and Burrows. By the rule of
| three perhaps this number was excessive,
| considering that there was then 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 az candidates
for the next speakership represents a
diversity of talent and of geographical
claims that lends an exciting interest to
the contest. The South presents six
mrn-Rogrr Q. Mills of Texas. William
Henry Hatch OF Missouri, james III.
Blout ana Charles 4. Grasp of Georgia,
Benton Clay McMillin of Tennessee, AMI
william Campbell Preston Breckinridge
Of Kentucky. The West offers William
Mckendree Springer OF Illinois, William
ID. Bynum OF Indiana, aud Joseph II.
Ou'hwaite 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 canii-
date. Personal fitness, rather than
geoGraphIrai claims, seems to be the
Impulse which sends the various can Ii
dates into the speakrrship arena.
OK the nine Mr. Nils is the oldest with
the frosts OF ffty-ei years on his
closely clipped mus.ache aud sparse hair.
Next in age Is Gen. Haich, who 10. fifty
seven. Then comes Mr.. Springer, who
is fifty -four, and following him Breck n
fiige ami Blount, who are tfty-three,
sfith only a month between their birth
8ays. Mr.. Cultivate is nearly forty
ffine, and Prof. wilson is forty-seveu
e4nd Judge Crisp ami Judge McMlliin are
forty tive, the former beng from jan
uary to September the senior of the lat
ter. Mr.. Bynum is the Youngest of the
ten. He Was 1orty-four last June.
In seniority of service in the house Mr..
COu-
,efess in 1873. with the Forty-third con-
IeTess, lead all the rest. When their
~present terms expire they Will have had
the experience of eighteen jears in the
body over which they are ambitious to
preside. Mr.. Springer first congress
Tas the Forty fourth, and he can point
TO sixteen years of very lively expert
ence on the floor and in the committee
room. Judge McMilln an Gen. Hatch
have been in the house since the begin
ming of the Forty-sixth congress, making
the full term of service OF each up to
March 3, 1891, precisely twelve years.
Professor Wilson aud Judge Crisp are in
the eighth year of their service as mem
beTs of congress, Mr.. Breckenridge,
Mr.. Cultivate and Mr.. Bynum have
seen but three congresses assemble and
organize.
Every one of the nine are lawyers.
Blount, Crisp and McMillin have been
judges. Breckenridge 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. Brpckin-
ridge began life as country editor.
Cultivate taught AL Ohio high school at
twentv-four and for five years was a
pedaCogue and law student at the
same time. Crisp Was II son of a "strol-
ling actor, ami made his way up TO the
bar by hard work in dozen different
occupations. Gen. Hatch was farm
er's boy aud has been farmer all his
lifn ttOup hp 81 m tod n he bar
in 1854 and has pTactcsd law off and on
ever since.
Three of the ten, Mills, Hatch aud
McMilliu, were born in Kentucky; two,
,Bynum and Springer, were born in In
diana. MIR. Breckenridge was born in
MARYLAND when his father, the famous
Robert j. recknridge, was pastor OF
the Second Presbyterian church OF B H.
tm0re. Judge Crisp YVES born 10 Eng
land while his parents We're on a visit
there. Professor Wilson was born in
what is now West Virginia, and Bynum.
Outhwhite and Blouut were born il the
states they in part represent in congress
But two of those ten candidates have a
record and standing that might project
them into the presidential arena in 1892.
Mr.. Mills, as the leader of his party in
the great tariff debate of lSSS-S9- 80, en- |
JOYS a national emlnencD that Is un II, d
videdly his own. Mr.. Springer, by MS 7
activity all along his career in congress, |
has placed himself in the for-groun OF |
national affairs. He killed the third |
term idea dead as a smelt in 1876, |
when he introduced r-so uti0a that !
WIS passed by 233 yeas TO Is nays, de- |
clariug that the precedent of rsrring |
from the presidential Office after the |
second term has become part OF ths |
unwritten law Of the republic, and that |
Gen. Grants candidacy was unwise, UNI |
patriotic and fraught with peril to our |
free Institutions. He WAS OH 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
sth:es-not quite rs de. however, as
the Republicans managed TO pull Il.
During the long debate on the tariff in |
the Fltiieth congress Mr.. Springer pre-
sided nearly all the time over the COM
IN tee OF the whole, and proved his sig
mai ability as Il pariiamenturiau. He Is
an afahle, iov.al man, while Mr.. Mills
is usually IN dead earnest aud not un-
frequently Displays All irri;uhility that
would do him no good in the speakers
chair. Springer is quick in eXpedieuts