The Portland daily press., 1892-08-06
TWO CONGRESSES coNTRAsTED.
A Congress Which Did and Congress
Which Did Not.

Whenever an army is like the famous
army of Xerxes, essentially barbaric, it
matters not how far the ranks stretch
across the field of vision, or how far off
on the horizons edge they pass glitter
ing out of sight They are useless alike
for conquest or for slaughter. The
numbers only emphasize the failure.
They hasten its downfall, and serve only
to astonish children in story books that
so many could be conquered by SO few
Wherever discipline or unity of purpose
is lacking, numbers may be one of the
elements of disaster. No army can fight
the enemy if it must at the same time
fight itself.
When the House of Representatives of
the Fifty-second Congress met, it met as
mob, and has kept up that interesting
form of organization ever since. OF
course the Republican leaders could
have driven the enemy into compact
shape, covered them with reproaches,
forced them to train, and otherwise have
made an army of them. Then there
would have been much glory won by
the said leaders among the unthinking,
but the exhibition would have been lost
to the world of Democracy, as it really
is hopeless assortment of discordant
differences, as incapable of positive
action as it is capable of infinite clamor.
AS the American people are about to
enter upon the great Presidential strug-
Oio IF 1909 in 5Nbinb is iuun1vnd NOT
merely the Chief Magistrate of the
country and his possible SUCCESSOR not
merely the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives, but all the legislation and the
progress of the United States for at least
four years, it may be well to see what
has been the result of a Democratic
House, powerful beyond any in our his
tory, capable of overwhelming their
opponents by the terrible vote of three to
one. Surely such a House ought to have
been an example of what an ideal
Democratic House would be. for they
had only to settle within the bosom of
their own party what they would do,
and their vast majority enacted them to
act without the slightest heed to the
small minority the people had seen fit to
send to represent the principles which at
the last Presidential election had been in
pitched battle victorious over all. With
such a majority we had right to expect
some display of those principles which
enable a man to say, Il am Democrat
and still think himself decent. But if
we did entertain such expectations they
have all vanished, and in the heat of the
summer sun we watch the perspiring
Democratic patriotic engaged in the only
work his House of Representatives has
ever undertaken, the work Of trying to
find a day of adjournment, which, when
it comes, will again land him on the
stump with principles to let suitable to
each locality, and hampered by no deed
done OF policy established; the same old
Democratic maverick never branded I'M
til the day of sale and not even then
indelibly.
When the House met, we all naturally
expected that the man who represented
the latest phase of Democracy,-wh
is called ''Tariff Reform" by the judic-
ious and Free Trade by the courage
ous,-Mr. Mills, the Representative from
Texas, then supposed to be the embodi-
ment of Democracy, would be chosen to
represent the party of which he had
been the mouthpiece for years. But the
tendency. Of DEMOCRACY towards chaos
was irresistible. The determination of
CiiO lOetuOio olibo ulO pdl ~ olioul1 SdoOl
the next contest Remembered by prin-
ciples pushed Mr.. Mills to the wall, and
gave the place to Mr.. Crisp, of Georgia,
whose superiority over Mr.. Mills in
evenness of temper has not been SO
marked as we had all hoped.
The rest of the organization was made
in furtherance of this plan of non-com-
mittalism. Mr.. Springer was placed at
the head of the Committee of Ways and
Means instead of Mr.. Mills, who, by all
usage, was entitled to it, and to whom it
could not have been refused unless the
party had come to determination to
announce change of policy from
straightforward tariff reform, a remedy
as broad as the alleged disease; to a
piecemeal work which would declare no
policy and leave the future to every
body's hopes. Mr.. Springer was, under
these circumstances, very appropriately
placed at the head of the committee.
While Mr.. Springer has at all times
formed and expressed great variety of
opinions on a great variety of subjects,
he has never been by his friends or his
enemies regarded as in the least degree
bigoted. History has justified the con-
fidence which the Democracy have in
Mr.. Springer. He has been a Democrat.
The party can contemplate his work of
this session with the calm certainty that
there is no intellect so subtle, no mind
so broad, no sympathy SO delicate, as to
detect therein the slightest trace of a
principle of economic science or a sys-
tenn of revenue; and the Democracy
certainly do enter the next campaign
unembarrassed by their immediate past,
and with great power Of being natural,
that is. of being all things to all men.
All this is, undoubtedly, shrewd polit-
ical management, but at the expense of
all that is manly, open, and fair. Mr..
Mills and Mr. Carlisle managed far other
wise. They laid before the people of
the United States their example of tariff
reform and manfully hung out their en-
sign, and did open and generous battle.
If they were conquered, they at least
knew that the people did their work
with eyes open, knowing what they did.
Tariff reform may mean all sorts of
things. Under the leadership of Mills
and Carlisle the Democracy proclaimed
what they meant. The Democracy of
this Congress, under Mr.. Springer, have
been trying in all ways to keep from the
people what they mean, and propose to
fight the next battle without any flag
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