Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-08-16
WORK OF CONGRESS.
REVIEW or THE SESSION BY CON-
GRESHAM WILSON.

II
Possible-Conservatism on silver-what
Congress Did Not DO.
The work of the recent session of con-
gress has been ably summarized by Hon.
| William L. Wilson, of West Virginia, as
follows:
The fundamental creed of the Demo
cratic party is that we are to work out our
prosperity more by individual effort than
by laws of congress. 1t Is not believer in
high government or in plentiful legislation.
1t seeks to confine federal legislation in
the field prescribed for it by the constitu-
ton, and it seeks to contine all legislation
| in limits where it cannot invade the indi-
| vidual freedom of the citizen. To Judge a
Democratic house, therefore. we must con-
| slider not the quantity but the quality of
| the work it has done.
With an adverse senate and an unfriendly
| executive, it would have been mere bravo
| do for the Democratic house to enter upon
| any thorough course of reformatory legis-
| lation. 1t sought to relieve the burdens of
| the taxpayer and to stimulate American
| industry and commerce by repeating the
most oppressive taxes of the Mckinley bill
| Having decided through its committee to
| attack that bill in detail rather than by
| a general revision, it passed in turn six
| tariff bills as follows: Putting wool on the
free list and reducing the duties on wooden
| goods; putting binding Irvine. cotton ties
| and cotton bagging, as also machinery for
making cotton bagging, on the free list;
| repeating duties on silver-lead ore and tin
| plate, and limiting the amount of wearing
| apparel that can be brought into the coun-
| try free of duty. These six bills make nm
| n substantial measure of relief, and they
| carry the benefits of tariff reform home to
| the ~orking people of the country They
l a f011 lx,0 L:
had not the senate shown its determination
| to ignore all of them. They led to n de-
| bate, especially the wooden and tin plate
| bills that evoked a large number of very
| good tariff reform speeches, excellent con
| tributions to the campaign of education
| Any attempt to throw ridicule on them as
not being q substantial fulfllment of DEM
| ocratic promises to the people is met by an
| assertion of a prominent Republican men,
| Der of the ways and means committe that
| they amount to n virtual repeal of the
| Mckinley bill.
In the amount of its expenditures this
| house has not been able to reduce as much
| as it expected the appropriations of the
| tifty-first congress, because it could not
| repeal the laws of that congress that added
so enormously to our annual budget To
be frank, the dependent pension bill of Mr.
| Reeds congress added many millions to
our yearly appropriations, and, as all men
know, pension legislation never goes back
| ward. So with the subsidy and bounty
| bills of that congress, which this house
was powerless to repeal.
But while it has met honestly the re-
| quirements of these laws the house has
been in the main careful of its own ex-
| penditures. 1t has passed no new public
building bills. 1t has passed fewer private
| bills carrying appropriations than any
recent congress, and its private pension
bills have been more carefully scrutiniZed
| to separate the good from the bad
On the silN question the house declined
to pass the Bland bill and refused to take
up the Stewart bill. Even those who be.
| lieved that there was in these bills some
| potential benefit to the people must admit
that the Democratic party could not have
committed itself to free coinage at tho
| ratio proposed in those bills without
throwing away every prospect of success
in the presidential campaign and becoming
for the time being almost a southern and
sectional party. 1t was the highest politi-
ca sagacity, whatever might have been the
merits Of the proposed legislation, to avoid
step certain to disrupt the party and
with that disruption firmly and perma-
nently to seat In power the protected plu
| tocracy. with full opportunity to plumber
| the people with new tariff bills and to sub
juEate them With force bills. The present
house does suffer in any point in com
parison with the last. 1t has bad a code of
| rules and an administration of it's rules
that did not become autocratic or partisan.
and the rights of its small minority of Re.
publican and third party members have
been uniformly respected.
II has been notably free from acrimoni-
o1S debates, and it's records nowhere show
the passionate and indignant protests of "A
wronged minority which marred the pro
| Ceedtngs OF the last house.
l have never known a house In which
there has been less buncombe partisan de
batting or one in which there was less
effort to manufacture campaign material
on the eve of "a national election.
Ii the house has been thwarted hy the
senate in its general work and in its efforts
to lessen tie burdens of the people it has
given proof of its desire to do both. and
has been always tender in adding new
charges upon the treasury
It did not increase taxes. 1t passed no
subsidy bill. 1t voted no bounties. IT.
passed no bills to overthrow elections in
the states. 1t vacated no Republican seats
for Democratic contestants, except in one
case, and that upon a practically unani- |
nous committee report. 1t did not rob the |
minority OF their rights or servilely sur
render its own rights into the hands of its
speaker and It's committee on rules If
under firm discipline and recognized lead. |
ership 1t might have done all that it did |
more expeditiously and have added other |
and even wiser measures of relief and re- |
form, it still kept its work fairly abreast
with the progress Of the senate. and it |
showed once again how much safer for the |
country and how much nearer to the people |
is a Democratic house than one which rep
resents the great special interests Of the |
country. Those interests demand legisla-
tion for their own benefit. and demand it |
so imperiously that parliamentary law,
traditional usage, all the safeguards OF free |
legislation and of free elections must go |
down before them. The people of the coun-
try cannot again safely trust the bouse of |
representatives to the Republican party.
What Fixes Wages?
Republican protection is justified by its |