St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-24
THE HOUSE COMMITTEES.

The selection of the house committees
for the present congress has been task
filed with unusual difficulties, and for
this reason it is not possible TO tell at
once how well Mr.. CRISP has done his
work. The Democracy has an over
whelming majority, but composed for
the most part Of untried and lneXperi-
enced men. Apart from what has been
disclosed by tie preliminary fight over
the speakersbip. there have been few
data at hand from which to accurately
determine their predictions or their
fitness for one position or another; and
now that they have been assigned, their
names suggest little TO the great public,
which must remain in doubt as to the
result until enlightenment comes with
the future.
The unfortunate attitude of Mr..
MILLS has added materially to the COM
pleXity of the situation. He is not the
first man who has been worsted i'll such
a contest after having attained prom
inence in his panty which seemed to in
sure his promotion. SAMUEL q. RAN
DALI, as clear-headed, honorable and
| valiant a statesman as ever sat in the
! house of representatives. after having
! presided over several congresses, gave
| way in 1885 to the great Kentuckian
| whose views on the tariff problem were
| more in accord with the DemOcracy'S
programme. OF him no one can say
that he suffered in prestige. or did less
| effective work thereafter for his coun-
try's cause. But Mr.. Mills cast Of
mind is of the make or break order;
and, while he is able, strong and patri-
otto. he admits of no compromise, and
leads TO victory or a defeat which nei-
Their invites nor welcomes quarter.
The immediate effect OF the Texans
| mental complexion was TO impart great
bitterness to the struggle for the chair.
And this has been naturally followed by
his own personal displacementiand the
| discontinue OF his conspicuous adj
herents. Mr.. MILLS is popular in the
| Northwest, ana the GLOBE would have
been glad had events so shaped them
selves that he could have been offered
and accepted his old place at the head
of the ways and means committee.
Under ordinary circumstances this
place would, have been accorded him.
But it became impossible when his can
didacy was made to represent extreme
measures, to which the majority of the
party expressed its dissent by its choice
of Mr.. CRISP for the speakership. it
would have stultifed the significance
of the victory, had the direction of
tariff legislation been delegated to a
man completely out of sympathy with
the prevailing view, and SO outspOken
in his opinions as to make their modif-
cation a thing not to be thought of.
A good many advantages will result
from Mr.. SPRINGERS premiership, if it
is proper to apply this word 10 the posi-
ton which he will hold First of all, he
is a Northern man, and this will diSarm
the criticism which would have been
widely and forcibly made had the two
first places in the new congress been
filed by men who had sided with the
Confederacy. Besides this, lie is man
of moderate opinions, strong in debate,
fruitful in resources, coOl-hcaded, amia-
bic, and at the same time alert and
vigorous. The minority will find him
hard to confuse, and the raw majority
which he will have to guide viii find
him captain firm and wise. If, how
ever, MI. MILLS or anybody else has
qualities of leadership better than his,
neither precedent nor the written or
unwritten rules of procedure require
that he should yield in this regard to
the chairman of the ways and means
committee. Mr.. RANDALL led the
Forty-eighth congress, although he was
a member of the committee on appropri-
tons; and years before that Gen. GAR
FIELD made the committee on banking
to which Mr.. BLAINE had relegated
him, the most prominent one III the
house. The GLOBE suggests that, when
Mr.. MILLS health is restored, he come
boldly out of his retirement and show
his caliber by labOring stOutly at Mr.
SPRINGER's side for the Democracy
and the nations good.