Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-03-13
ESSEX County Arrala.
IsI,ni Pa,i, w., Friday, March 10, 1891.
The Fifty-first Congress.

intelligent business men and students
of affairs in this country shall have
had time to assert itself, we believe
it will be generally recognized that
the Fifty first Congress has done i
cycle of very strong legislative work.
Strong in the vigorous assertion
everywhere of the idea o.
Americanism, both as principle OF
decided nationality and as asserting
the rights of the people before the
world. American opportunities OF
every kind have been labeled "tor
Americans;" American prosperity
has been promoted, and, with single
notable exception, the rights of Amer
lean citizens have been protected
against organized aggression. And
the duty of free people to set the
world an example of morality and
conscience has been done in two es-
peciaIly conspicuous pieces OF
legislation, and in lesser degree IN
several other measures.
The right and duty of majority
rule was enforced in at least one
House by methods which, even II
they were an innovation upon musty
parliamentary presidents, and even
if they were attended here and there
by few mistakes in the course of
many hundreds of just and sound
decisions, were so plainly III accord
ance with common sense AZ TO cause
one to wonder why they had never
been adopted before. The result was
the transaction by the House Of
Representatives, at least, Of an
enormous amount of legislative
business. To this trenchant assertion
of the rights of the majority to
control the legislation for which 1t
will be held responsible by the
people, the success Of the Fifty,first
Congress as a whole is very largely
due. A timid compromising policy
would have made the minority
aggressive and have produced q
carnival Of log rolling and confusion
but comparatively little useful legis
lation.
The principle Of Americanism was
asserted, American markets were re
served for American producers anC
American business prosperity pro
NOTED, first, by the passage of thu
Mckinley bill. which was in reality
whole code Of new laws, of man,
of which it could be said that cacl
one created or enlarged ali industry
while many others of its provision
freed from taxation entirely import
Of articles which we do not produc
and which we need for immediat
consumption or for raw materials 70
established processes A singl
schedule of the bill freed from dut
all the raw material for the enol
nous sugar industry, as well as
few grades of the finished produc
cheapest to the consumer, while a
the same time providing for tn
encouragement of American produc
lilo" Of the same by abounty. Othe
schedules, notably The cotton
Moolen and linen schedules, brough
home to us processes for the mar
ufacturc Of the finer textile fabric
incident to our ascent in the scale {
civilization. Another, the iro
schedule, in a single clause mad
possible the revival of gre:
industry destined sooner or later
employ $4,000 or 10000 people-tl
lin plate industry. And past G,
perience, if not the experience
the four months elapsed since Il
bill became law, shows that til
result Of all these increases and ne
establishments Of industries will
the power to effect economies
production and to lower to Il
consumer the prices of the product
This increased protection to Il
American producer, and later on
the American consumer, was cInch,
by a well drawn Customs Admin
trative law, which might almost
entitled to a place among Il
measures which have decid,
tendency to sound morals, so strong
does it discourage fraud and und,
valuation. Nor were the hor
markets, vast and capable of almc
indefinite expansion as they are, t
only markets made available
Americans. The reciprocity clar
of the Mckinley bill, framed af,
tho plan suggested by Preside
Harrison himself, distinctly assert
what we might call the Nom
doctrine applied to markets: name