New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-12-09
THO "LoGICS OF THE SITUATION"

We sympathize profoundly with our lachrymose
contemporary, "The Times" in its deep grief
over the defeat of its candidate for Speaker.
What no doubt adds to the bitterness of its dis
appointment and the poignancy of its grief is
the fact that it had so confidently assumed that
the selection of Mr.. Mills was the absolute and
inevitable logic of the situation. 1t had pointed
this out with painstaking industry day after day
in its Washington correspondence and on the
editorial page, and had so fortified it with ex-
tracts from Democratic and Mugwump news
papers and interviews with party leaders and
members of Congress that its position seemed
impregnsble. The zeal Of our contemporary was
such as TO excite the admiration even OF Repub-
licans and when it went so far as to say that
if its candidate should be defeated in spite of
the logic of the situation it was not unlikely
that many Of the persons who had kicked them
selves out of the Republican party would turn
round and kick themselves back. THE TRIB-
UNE felt constrained to say that rather than this
should happen all Republicans who set a proper
value upon domestic peace should turn in and
help elect Mills. Notwithstanding all this, Mr..
Mills was defeated, and the logic Of the situa-
ton which was so confidently relied on seems
to the ar-dmmed eyes Of our contemporary
to have been, in the simple phrase Of every
day life, utterly busted"
The truth is however-and, we presume, our
contemporary, looking mOurnfully over the recent
past, will recognize the fact-there were two
lOgics Of the situation. AS TO one of them " The
Tines was quite right From the point of view
of last years elections the logic of the situation
did seem to require that the Congress which, by
the consensus Of all Democratic and Mugwump
authorities, had been elected on the Free-Trade
issue and contained an overwhelming majority
of Free Traders, should elect as its Speaker the
foremost representative of the Free-Trade idea,
the author of the last bill formulated and offered
in Congress as the authorized declaration of the
palty's principles and policy. That did seem
natural, orderly, logical And it was also the
logic of the situation that the selection of Speak
er in this orderly sequence should be taken as a
direct lead to the nomination for tho Presidency
next year of the man who, it is admitted by both
friends and opponents, did more than any other
during his administration of the Presidential
office to make Free Trade the leading para
mount issue in National politics. "The Tines
was absolutely correct in its view If there was
any truth or sincerity in the opinion universally
avowed by its political associates that the cleo
ton of Congressman in 1890 meant the triumph
of Free-Trade principles as forced to the front
by Grover Cleveland and expounded by Roger
Q. Mills. A Congress so elected must, if it
would be consistent choose Mills for its Speak
or, and proceed afterward deliberately and I'M
finohingly to the next logical step, the nOmina-
ton of Grover Cleveland.
But that after all, was only the logic of last
years situation. There are no birds in last
years nest. Things have happened since then.
There has been another election, for one thing.
And that election has created another logic Of
the situation. 1t might, perhaps, be said that
it has created another situation. One in which
MIR. David B. Hill and the Tammany Society of
this town are the prominent factors instead OF
Grover Cleveland and the Mugwump Contin-
gent. This is the present situation. The sue
cess of the Democratic State ticket in New York
| i'm the late election, to which "Tbe Times" and
the Mugwump Contingent so generously con-
| tributed, meant Endorsement and approval Of the
| Tammany methods and the Hill dctatiOn in the
city and State, and their advancement to Ma
tiona control. These are hostile to the last de-
gree to the denomination of Mr.. Cleveland, con-
sequently hostile to the election of Mr.. Mills to
be Speaker The logic Of this years situation
pointed accordingly to the defeat of Mills and to
calling halt in the movement for Mr.. Cleve-
lands denomination. The result has been that
last years logic Of the situation has been, as be-
fore said "busted," and the logic OF this years
situation is, as it were, on deck. Let 1.-The
Times console itself. Its logic Of the situa-
ton was all right only it was trifie out of date.