St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-24
The Star-Eyed Goddess Of Re-
form Alert to the Needs Of
the Hour.
An Incisive Review Of the
Work Before MIR. Crisp and
Congress.
Springer Sized Up in Connee-
ton With His Record in
the House.
No Uncertain Sound LiugerS
in the Kentucky Editors
Utteranee.

LOUISVILLE. KY, Dec. %. The
Courier Journal of tomorrow morning
will contain an elaborate review of the
speakers work and his committees.
Among other things, Mr.. Watterson'
will say:
For the first time in the history of the
Democratic party in congress is the
principle laid down that the organic
alton of the house is matter, not of
friendly rivalry, among friends, but OF
personal aggrandiZement and factionaH
power. A stronger man than Mr.
Crisp might have paused before giving
himself and his party over to
the assertion of this. Indeed we
had hoped for better things. No one
will deny the right of Mr.. Crisp to make
his own committees. But when he fixes
it as the rule of his arrangement to re-
ward those who supported him just to
punish his opponents, and in doing this
sends the tried men of the house to the
rear and brings the untried men to the
front, the country and the party have
the right to hold him to
Very Rigid Accountability.
for the consequences. If the results
yndicate his forecast, we'll and good.
If they fail to do so. which seems only
too likely, he will live to regret his own
election. Naturally the construction of
the ways and means committee monOpO-
Lies public opinion. The selection of
Mr.. Springer for chairman would not
be happy one if there were nothing
back of it. But, with the incidents of
the caucus fresh in the minds of the
people, it is positively unfortunate.
exposing both the speaker and the
chairman To whatever the ill-diS-
posed see fit 10 say about them,
ana thus giving the cause of tariff re-
form black eye on the the Threshold
of presidential campaign. For Mr..
Springer, personally, as we have re-
peatedly observed, we entertain moth
ing but friendly sentiments. He is a
man of exceeding earnestness and ae-
tivity. He is a Democrat without a
flaw. Two elements of leadership he
undoubtedly posses - intrepidity and
self-confidence. But Mr.. Springer has
not, during his sixteen years of service
IN congress, shown the peculiar capacity
to lead the house.
Lacking IN weight.
Energetic, courageous. honest, he has
been, but he has lacked, OF has seemed
to lack, the weight which commands a
following. He has never been q MEM
Der Of the ways and means committee;
it is not suspected that he has any large
and luminous view of the issue which
has become the absorbing aim of his
party. His selection shows too much of
the discharge of an obligation and a
preteXt to turn down and degrade a
man who has done eminent and efficient
work in great movement, and who has
engaged the confidence of Democrats
everywhere. Whatever Mr.. Springer
can do he has yet to do. We hate to
prophecy evil against him. On the con-
trary, it is our purpose to render him all
the aid we can in his difficult undertake
ing, and to support, if possible. his plan
of campaign. But we should not he
true TO ourselves, to the occasion and to
the party if we left these things I'M
written. OF the possible bearing on
national affairs outside of congress, Mr..
Waterson says: We shall not believe,
until we know more than we now know.
that this reconstruction of the ways and
means committee has been
Made With a Purpose
to belittle and subordinate the cause of
tariff reform by intrusting it to mex
perienced or inferior hands. We have
thus far relied upon the assurance of
Mr.. Crisp on that point; but if it should
turn out that these have been carefully
framed to mislead. and that the extra,
ordinary disclosures of the current week
point. as has been so often intimated, to
a deal of the regulation New York pat
tern between the new speaker and
his immediate hackers and Gov.
Hill and his immediate back
ers. by which Democratic prin-
clples are to be Esacrlficed to a con-
greSsiOnal and presidential bargain
then, indeed, will the hosts of Democ-
racy rise in their might, and in their
wrath scatter these impious deSpera-
does Of truth and faith like herd of
cattle. The future alone can deter
mine. Much will depend on the course
of the new ways and means committee
But the present is no time for mincing
words. 1t is a time for plain talk.
The new speakers organization of
theoretical and actual. 1t is an
experiment whose success or failure is
yet to be tested. IL starts out with the
clear and almost universal distrust of
Democrats in every part of the Union.
The overcoming of this and the eStab-
lishment of its claim OH
The Public Confidence
can only be achieved by the display of
great earneStneSS. perfect fidelity and
undeniable competency. The brain and
heart of the Democratic party, which
still lead, will submit to no equiv
ocatiOn. They cannot be made
to surrender their convictions
to temporiZing politics. no mat
ter how practically Mr.. Crisp should
from this time forward keep ever be-
fore his eyes the awful specter of
Keifer, and, if he has any hope of an
honorable future, should steer clear OF
the breakers. In conclusion, the fol-
lowing may be considered as a tender
of compensation to the new speaker: 1t
is our duty, not our choice, to say these
things. In the struggle over the speak
ership we took no part. Regard
ing it as contest among Demo
Gratis, wholly personal in its
character, we carefully abstained
from the expression of any individual
preference. We bring to the present
situation temper free from prejudice.
If The result shall prove disastrous to
Mr.. Crisp, no one will be more cha
grined than ourselves. Let us hope
that ii may not; that he has builded
wiser than we known, and that instead
of mere advehturer upon the sea OF
public life, which he now seems to be,
he will prove successful revolutionisb
and thereby a statesman and a patriot,
battling all our i'll forebOdings. and
49,