Huntsville gazette., 1892-01-02
THE FIFTY-sEcoND CONGRESS
A Democratic Majority Handicapped By
IDexperience.

IDexperience.
The session of congress which began
on Monday, December Z, will be mainly
political in character. That is to say,
beyond such attention as must neces-
sarily be given to the appropriations,
the principal business of the seliate and
the house during the next eight or nine
months will be nareuvers for position
in the election Of November, 1892.
Theoretically this is not as it should
be. and practically it is more or less a
misfortune to the country; but it is in
evitable with the political situation
such as it is to-day, and the complexion
of the house such as was ordered by
the congress elections of 1890. The
winter, spring and summer to come
will shape in congress and define for
the country the issues on which the
presidential contest is to turn after the
nomin ations are made. We may add
that from the spectacular point of view
this preliminary struggle promises to
be particularly interesting to republic
ans. 1t involves within the democratic
| ranks in the Fifty-second house rivalries
| of persons and of policies, bitter already
in their present development, and
highly significant in their bearing upon
| larger politics.
The new house is body in which
the democrats are to the republicans
nearly as three to one. The party in
opposition to the administration not
only controls the house, but it controls
| it by more than a two-thirds majority
| over republicans and alliance men
| com bined. Almost one hundred of the
| democratic members, or nearly one
half of the majority in the house, are
new men, who served neither in the
| Fifty first nor in any previous con-
gress To that unprecedented extent
| the party in control is without the dis
| cipline of experience. There is reason
| to believe, moreover, that an over
| whelming majority of the democratic
majority go to Washington this year
| with their minds made up that the free
coinage Of silver is ar issue not to be
suppressed, all considerations of
expediency and all the hopes and pro-
! grammes of certain democratic candi-
| dates for the presidential nomination
| to the contrary Notwithstanding. Their
democratic constituents in the south
and west are demanding free silver;
| they were elected to force free silver
to the front; they apprehend that they
| will not be reelected next fall if they
consent to subordinate the silver ques-
ton to any other question now before
the American people, the tariff ques-
ton not excepted. With the senate
immovably republican, they reason,
any attempt to change the existing
tariff law would be nothing better
than folly; it would count only as a
| free trade demonstration, without
practical results; but free silver, in the
event of the election of a democratic
president other than Grover Cleveland,
| has not been shown to be an impossi
bility for the near future, and in that
direction all of our energies should be
expended. The extent and strength OF
this sentime MT among the western and
southern democrats elected to the Fiji.
ty-second congress is perhaps not fully
| appreciated at the east. 1t adds i'm
measurably to the perplexities of the
democratic Mulvaneys and Ortherises
whose duty it will be to whip the new
batch of democratic congressman into
fighting trim to meet the small but
splendid coherent minority under the
leadership of men like ex-Speaker
Reed.-Frank Leslie's Weekly.