The Portland daily press., 1892-08-16

ready; he can only mend it by reducing
the wages of the men who work in ship
yards to the English standard.
The most charitable view to take OF
some of the assertions which the Hon.
Darius H. Ingraham is making in his
speeches is that they are due to igno-
rance. We should be reluctant to believe
that his misstatements are Intentional.
In his speech at Westbrook Saturday,
among other things, he said:
Although sufficient Democratic members had
been ele ted to give that party the majority The
Republicans. BY parliamentary devices, sue
:eeded iii getting control, and proceeded to
eject members who had been elected by ma
jorites of thousands, in order to give the Re-
publicans working majority.
The statement that the Democrats
elected a majority of the House of the
r'ifty-frst Congress, and the statement
that the Republicans succeeded in get
ting control of the House by parliament
tary device are both absolutely untrue.
The roll of each House is made up by
the clerk of the preceding House. The
roll of the House Of the Fifty-first Con-
gress was made up by the clerk of the
Fiftieth Congress, who was Democrat.
That roll showed a clear majority for the
Republicans, and MI. Reed was chosen
Speaker by reason of that majority.
There was no parliamentary device what
ever employed. When the minority I'M
lertooh to paraiyze the legal majority BY
.cfHsing to answer to their names and
5hns breaking a quorum, Speaker Reed
,lYlered the clerk to count the members
present whether answering to their names
II not. II this is the parliamentary de-
vice" which Mr.. Ingraham has in his
head, it is only necessary to say that it
las since received the sanction of the
highest court in the land, which has de-
Jared that a present quorum is all the
quorum that the constitution contem-
plates But this device was not en-
ployed to give the Republicans ma
iority of the House. They had that
when Congress met. 1t was employed to
prevent the Democrats from paralyzing
chat majority. 1t is true that the Repub-
licans did eject several Democrats whose
names had been placed on the roll of the
House, but it is not true that they had
been elected by thousands" as Mr.. In
graham declares. AS matter of fact they
had not been elected at all. They had
stolen their seats by various devices,
which the Southern Democracy know so
well how to employ. AS matter of fact
tie Fifty-first Congress decided the con-
tested election cases with conspicuous
fairness. Seventeen reports were made,
nine of which were in favor of Re-
publicans, seven in favor of Demo
Gratis, and one in favor of a Democrat
who was elected by the farmers Ali
ance. Thirteen of these cases were
reached and decided in accordance with
the report of the committee. Four cases,
those of two Republicans and two Demo-
Gratis, were not passed upon. Contrast
this with the performance of the last
House, which, though it contained an
overwhelming majority of Democrats, de-
liberately rejected the report of it's cleo
ton committee, Of which a majority were
Democrats, and ousted Republican
whom that committee declared was
elected, in favor of a Democrat whom the
committee declared was not elected, on
the demand of David B. Hill.
MIR. REED AND THE INTERESTS OF
THE DISTRICT.
One of Mr.. Ingraham's campaign argu-
ments consists of the statement or insin-
uation that the interests of the district
have not been looked after by Mr.. Reed
as they should have been. With this is,
of course, coupled the promise that Mr..
Ingraham will, if elected, get for the
district many things which Mr.. Reed has
not or cannot get. Let us look for mo-
ment at the things Mr.. Reed has done for
the district. Portland has always been
solicitous about her harbor facilities,
and from time to time she has needed
the assistance of the national govern
ment to keep the access to her wharves
convenient for the English steamers and
other large vessels. 1t is the duty of the
Congressman from this district to use his
influence in the House of Representa-
tives SO that such Improvements may get
the largest possible share of whatever
the House appropriates for such pur-
poses. Let us see how we have Jared.
From the foundation of the govern
ment up to the present time the national
government has appropriated for Port
land harbor improvements $576, 000 and
of this sum S269,000, or nearly one-half,
has been appropriated since Mr.. Reed
began to serve the district, and by
Houses of Representatives of which he
was an influential member. This very
year Portland harbor's appropriation is
$4,000 This showing does not include
what has been appropriated since 's6 to
give Portland another water front on the
Back Bay side of the city. Including
this years appropriation Back Bay gets
$4,000
Since Mr.. Reed began to serve the dis