New-York tribune., 1891-12-19
MILLS FOR SECOND PLACE.
CRIsp'S FRIENDS SAY HE CAN HAVE 1T.
WHAT WILL THE TEXAN COLONEL SAY s-HnNrs
orA BARGAIN WITH SPRINGER

WHAT WILL THE TEXAN COLONEL SAY s-mNrs
OLA BARGAIN WITH SPRINGER.
Washington, Dec. Is lSpecialJ. -" Colonel Mills
can have the second place on Ways and Means
and the craftsmanship of another good committee
-say Commerce or Postoices and Postroads ~if
he will accept them," said friend Of Speaker
Crisp to q Tribune correspondent to-day. He spoke
so positively TO produce the conviction that he
believed his statement to be absolutely correct
What response Colonel Mills will make to such
an offer il it has been or shall be made is an in
tercsting question. Almost all of his friends will
answer that he ought TO regard such an offer as
an affront to be resented rather than as favor
to be accepted They will say that while he could
not afford to decline the chairmanship OF Ways
and Means If il should be offered to him, neither
can he afford, in justice either 10 hn,-
self or the cause of tariff reform which
he represents in a sense which no other Democrat
in Congress does, to accept subordinate place
on that committee. To place him under tho
command Of say Springer, would seem to them
as absurd as it would have been for President
Lincoln to have placed one Of Grants division
commanders in authority over him at the out
set Of the campaign which ended at Appomattox.
And yet if Mills is TO he put in Second place it
must follow, say Colonel Alillss friends, that
Springer or some other Northern Democrat-per-
haps Cultivate, of Ohio-is to be placed at the
head and will be the nominal if not the actual,
leader of the majority.
The Texans friends will declare, further, that
while Colonel Mills might properly enough accept
the craftsmanship or any other place on any other
committee, his obligations to his party and
his self-respect alike forbid him TO consent
10 serve as member of the Ways
hot
of chairman. II is pretty safe to predict that
Colonel Mills will not accept the second place on
Ways and Means, and Speaker Crisp's friends
say that the craftsmanship will not be offered 10
him. II is hardly probable that they are mis-
taken in regard TO that OF course if Mr. Springer
is made chairman of Ways and Means. the friends
of Colonel Mills will declare that it is the result
of bargain. Indeed, they are already proclaim
ing this so that there shall be no danger Of mis-
taking or misunderstanding their attitude. For
example, "The St. Louis Republic" Of yesterday
contained this editorial paragraph:
1t is entirely useless for Speaker Crisp and his news.
paper mouthpleces 20 befoe the minds OF the people
with reasons and sophistical arguments. IL Mr..
Springer is made chairman Ways and Means Com
mttee Of Mr.. Mills it will not be because Mr.
Mills trusted carry ou. the views of his Dem
ocratic colleagues tariff reform. but because Mr..
Springer promised the ehsrmanshp in exchange for
the votes that elected Mr. Crisp Speaker That is the
real reason and Mr.. Springer promised the place
could be relied TO out the views OF
the German Hin reaconlsts in the legislation to be at
tempted under the leadership Of the Ways and Means Com
mttce.
The editor Of The Republic has thus placed
himself where he can say. If Springer is ap-
pointed that it is the result of bargain; and
II somebody else is appointed he can still assert
that the bargain made, but that Speaker
Crisp refused 10 pay the price which Judge
Crisp agreed to pay for the Speakership.