Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-10-29
RULE OF THE REBELS.
Northern Democrats, Though in a
Majority in the House, Will
Again Submit to the South.
Important Com mittees Certain to
Be Headed by Rabid States
men From Dixie.
Northern Barbons viii Continue to
Act as Mere Doughfaces-Crack
Of the Overseer's Whip

The few democrats who happen to be
representatives In congress from New
England are making noisy protestatlons OF
what they will and will not do In the mat
Ter of the organization of the next house
of representatives. They protest too
much. They are making a record now
only to break it, as they have done before.
Acts and votes speak more than words.
Mr.. O'Nelll, Of Boston, Is reported to have
said that he will not vote for a democrat
who favors free coinage for speaker. That
is yet to be demonstrated. 1t is possible
that Mr.. 0 Neill is laundering too much
in the index Wait until the book shall be
opened. If MIR. O'Neill has made such
declaration, and shall abide by it, the in
dications are that he will be obliged to
bolt the democratic speakership caucus or
decline to vote for the party candidate.
Al present there is no democratic candl
date for speaker OF the next house who is
not In favor of free silver. The New Eng
land democrats will obey the dictates of
the southern leaders of the party in the
titty-second congress, as they have in all
former congresses. The efforts OF the
northern democrats, or mugwumps, to
assert their independence will be truitless.
They will be, as Henry Cabot
Lodge has so aptly described them,
the fly upon the wheel. The wheel
will 60 down into the mud and slush
and Sums of democratic machine pol
itics, and the northern democrat
with his fine words, will go round with
the wheel. They have done so In the past,
and the most certain prophecy of their tu
ture is their record. There is only one New
England democratic congressman now
here, and he Is actively engaged In the adj
vocacy of a southern candidate for speak
er. There is, for that matter, no reason
to dodbt that the sectional policy which
was pursued by the democrats when they
last had control of the house of representa-
tives will be pursued in the next congress;
or that the northern democratic congress
will submit again, as they did before, to
the absolute dominion OF the south. The
record of the democratic house is now his
tory. What was it? The interests of the
north centered largely at that time In the
committee on ways and means, the tariff
being the paramount issue; yet Speaker
Carlisle aboriously selected the leaders of
this committee from states where manu-
tactures had no existence. Here is the pre-
cious coterie OF democrats whom Mr.. Car
Isle put upon this important committee:
Roger q. Mills, of Texas.
Benton McMillln, OF Tennessee.
Clifton r. Breckenridge, of Arkansas.
W. G. P. Breckenridge, OF Kentucky.
Henry q. Turner, OF Georgia.
William J.. Wilson, of West Virginia.
William L. Scott, OF Pennsylvania.
William d. Bynum, OF Indiana.
Most OF them IN this extraordinary list
could not tell loom from a Jackscre !.
The tariff and silver are to be leading is
sues In the next congress. And the commit
tee ON ways and means, and the committee
on banking and currency and on coinage,
will be controlled by free traders and silver
men, and will be appointed by the demo-
cratic speaker to promote the interests of
free trade and free coinage. All demo-
cratic presidents will be violated if the
democratic congressman from the north
shall not all vote for that speaker, and as
sent to every appointment that he may
make without revolt OR open potest For
th.t are they democrats. And If the great
interests represented by the Northern
democratic congressman do not like it, what
ale they going to do about it?
The exposition of the committee on ways
and means In the last congress in which the
democrats had control is good ilIustra-
ton of what the democratic party means
by tariff reform. The ways and means
committee was made up by Mr., Carlisle,
the teacher of the tariff doctrine in It's
purity as 1t was defined by the confederate
constitution. And 1t is MOTTO be forgotten
that MIR. Carlisle was one of the chief
tutors of Grover Cleveland IN tariff mat
ters. Up to the time that Mr.. Cleve-
land came to Washington as president be
had never given the tariff question very
close study. Mr.. Carlisle committee was
made up OF five republicans and eight
democrats. OF course, the democrats were
expected TO be In the majority, as they
were IN the majority Of the house, and had
the responsibility. The republicans were
taken from states of great manufacturing
Interests, because they probably represented
those interests. But six OF the eight dem
ocrats were from the south. Three-fourths
OF the democrats ON The committee were
southern men. That is, the majority of
the majority. If Mr.. Wilson, Of West
Virginia, should not be counted as south
ern man, that would leave five, or still
majority, of the eight democrats, who
were located as follows: Mills of Texas
McMillin of Tennessee, Breckenridge of
Arkansas, Breckenridge Of Kentucky, Tur.
ner OF Georgia, or the practical majority
of the committee In the southwest, the part
OF the country where there is the least
manufacturing industry and the least prac-
tical knowledge on the tariff question.
Mr.. Cleveland and Mr.. Carlisle, and those
who were the guides of the party, or who
thought they were, went into the corner of
the country where the free-trade theories
are not made good by any knowl-
edge whatever, and selected the
great committee that tends to the
ways and means. And they added to the |
FIVE men, whose furtherest northern and |
eastern point was Lexington, KY, an In
diana man who was as wild ON the sub
ject of revenue as a woods-colt; and West |
Virginia man, famous for wild; and !
capitalist, rho has made
free trade fad, and to whom free trade
was very profitable fad, in view of the
fact that he owned ore beds in Canada,
and line of transportation steamers from
Canada to Erie, Pennsylvania, and ore
beds in Cuba, with large interest in the
line of steamers from Cuba to PhiladeI-
phia. This is an illustration of the man
ner in which the manufacturing interastc |