The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-08-16
THE THRONE OF KING CAUCUS.

Senator DUBOIS OF Idaho, lately inter-
viewed, said to newspaper man that there
is no danger Of the Force bill being passed.
Further, he remarked:
The senators from California. Nevada. Mon
tana and IGaho all Republicans are against
| the Force bill. Others are opposed to it, and
the people OF the northwest don't relish such
legislation When the bill was up the iegisla-
ture OF Idaho would have passed resolutions In
| structing her senators to vote against il had
not telegraphed that such action was unneces-
sary. There are many southerners in Idaho
who have allied themselves with the Republic
can party They would desert If there was any
danger OF a Force bill But they know there is
no such danger.
But what difference does all this make
with the radical and aggressive Republi-
cans, who are in the majorityl A few Re-
publicans, ike QUAY and CAMERON, urged
their party to temporarily forego the pas
sage OF such measure on account OF its
effect in the north upon the elections. but
they have been explaining and apologizing
ever since. Should the Republican party
once more attain power in the House, King
CAUCUS would soon settle the Force bill.
The minority would be dragooned and bull
dozed into it. ss they were into the passage
of the MCKINLEY bill, against which 8
number protested but were brought into
camp by the party whip.
There is no tyrant more domineeriDg
than q Republican caucus and the record
On the MCKINLEY bill will long stand as an
example OF its cruel despotism. The
House majority favorable to monopoly and
the power OF combined capital was pre-
carious, with q margin SO narrow that
gush of Independence might destroy it
without ceremony. After disposing of all
/ the contrasting Democrats. whose seats
were given tc defeated Republicans, they
brought forward this MCKINLEY bill, of
which so much has been written and said.
For years they had been promising that
the war tariff should be modified and re-
duced, and the peoples taxes diminished,
but no sooner had Congress met than the
protected industries whose managers had
had the ''fat" fried out OF them TO elect the
Republican ticket, were on hand for
their reward. They wrote out what
they wanted and Mckinney put
the items in his bill, which, cover
ing 200 printed pages, raised the war duties
on $50 articles of ordinary use and necessity.
Hardly was one-fourth of the measure
read in the House when debate was shut
of and the whole matter sent to the Senate
where Republican senators of six new
states, admitted for the purpose, were on
hand to help railroad 1t through that body
by the same summary process. The rules
of the Senate existing for century were
twisted into new forms in order to stifie
the voices of the opponents CT the odious
measure or to prevent amelioraticn of its
most rigorous provisions. In spite of these
precautions. however, some notifications
were permitted, whereby the bill was sent
to conference committee of six individ-
uals, or one man for more than 10000, 900
Inhabitants of the United States interested
in the enactment. OF these six, four rep
resented the prohibitory taxes, and as in
sects around an electric arc lamp the rep
resentatives OF the CARNE6IEs, the
SPREcKLEsEs, the ARMoURs and the agents
of every manufacturing trust combine or
monopoly, gathered at the doors of this Sc
cret iunta to further the favored interests.
The result is known. The people rose,
and at the succeeding elections buried out
of sight the audacious party which had
dared, in the face of even its own profess
sions. to so cringe before the grasp
ing tariff masters. not sparing even
MCKINLEY himself in his congressional
district. But have the Republicans
needed the lessona Did they not take up
MCKINLEY, nominate and elect him gov
ernor Of his state, where their partisan
majority enabled them to override the pro-
tests of the peoples Did not the president
who signed the bill in his next annual mes
sage glorify the achievement, and is he not
now before the people for reelection,
mainly on this issue? Bills have passed
the House repeating some of the most OBJ
jectionable features of the prohibitory
tariff act, but not one of them has been
even taken up for consideration in the Re-
publican Senate.
And this is the party which deems it
strange that Democrats believe their op-
ponents would if they could obtain a ma
jority in the House, pass q Force bill, to
which they are committed by their Mime
apolis platform, by the messages aud
course of their presidential nominee, and
by all the traditions and precedents of the
reconstruction days. Nor is there any
thing in the record of Senator DUBOIS since
he went to Washington to show that he
would not follow the behests of his party
in this as docilely as he has done in other
cases.