The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-01-25
STRUGGLING AGAINST FATE.


to record the events OF 1901, he will
doubtless put down rs among the most
remarkable things of tho year the doings
Of the state legislatures and chose OF the
expiring tifty-first congrcss. The bare
statement of facts, without any COM
ment, will be enough to make future
generations reflect upon the events of
these days with a heart full of thanks
giving that their lot was not cast among
us. Looking backward they will see the
party which controls the legislative and
executive departments Of the govern
ment seeking to perpetuate itself in
power by the use of the military and n
horde OF m%ercenary election officers; and
this after the party and it's methods and
its principles had been overwhelmingly
repudiated at the polls. They will see
the majority in the United States senate
following in the course OF the lower
house, declaring that minorities are use-
less and revolutionary and have no
rights whatever; that the day Of states
manship had passed and the era OF
brute force reestablished. They will
see the house OF representatives com-
posed Of one man and a minority, and
the one man assuming to choke of
financial legislation demanded by the
majority of the people of this country.
All this will be a portion OF the history
Of the party Of discord and rancor, which
kept itself in power on one occasion by
stealing the presidential chair, and
which died in a fierce struggle to retain
it's grasp on the public offices.
So much for congress. In many states
throughout the union scenes equally
bad will have to be recorded. The
people OF New Hampshire elected a
democratic majority to the legislature.
Acting under Instructions from William
i. Chandler, AMI in f%urtberance Of a
conspiracy Matched by that man Of un-
savory record, a clerk OF the former
house. q mere hireling, assumed to elect
a legislature of a different political com
plexion and thus stole another United
States senatorship--the third in less
than two years. The legislature of
South Dakota, hitherto republican,
has passed out of the hands
Of that party, and the balance of
power is held by a new element former
ly unknown in the domain of national
politics. The man elected to the
United States senate from South
Dakota will get there by the aid OF in
dependent votes. The usual means en-
ployed in such cases by those who be-
lieve that whatever is is right will
doubtless not be missing in this case.
The legislature of Kansas is practically
deadlocked on a. proposition similar in
many respects, but under circumstances
which offer even less excuse for failure
to act promptly. In the election Of 1890
the question of whether or not John J.
Ingalls, should be returned to the United
States senate was made a direct issue.
The people said he should not. Yet
such is the love of power and the uncer-
tainty as to whether the legislature will
carry out the expressed wish of the peo-
pie, that the man who was openly re-
pudiated is making a desperate struggle
to retain his seat. II he succeeds, it
will be an instance OF a representative
body telling the people they did not
know what they were about when they
declared they had enough of the agnos-
tic and rhetorical statesman. The situa-
ton in Kansas is reversed in Illinois,
where the election of John NJ. Palmer
to the United States senate was made a
direct issue by the democrats. They
won on it, and now, through the uncer-
tainty of the independents, the question
is whether the legislature will obey
the wishes of the voters and elect
Palmer, or choose Oglesby, a republican
and a millionaire.
In Nebraska the same desperate fight
against giving up power was witnessed.
A republican governor. by tactics hither-
to unknown, sought to hold on to an Of
fee TO which a democratic successor had
been elected. The only things he sue
ceeded in getting were a case of brain
fever and the scorn of all decent men.
After reading the story of the repub-
lican struggle against d~isintegration in
1891, the man of the future can close up
his history with the reflections: .'They
lied a%-kicking, but they died very dead"
ARMY Discomfort.
Students OF our army system have