Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-08-27
TWO CONGRESSES.
BITIEe CONTRAST BETWEEN THE
FIFTY FIRST AND FIFTY SECOND CON
DRESSES INSTITUTED BY Ex-sPEAK-
Err REED.

Congresses Contrasted," in the North
American Review. He says:
"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 ont of sight. They are useless alike
for conquest or for slaughter The num-
bers 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 1t the same time
fight itself.
"When the House of Representatives
of the Fifty-second Congress met, it met
as a mob, and has kept up that inter
esting form of organization ever since.
OF course, the Republican leaders could
have driven the enemy into compact
shape, covered them with reproaehes,
forced item 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 a
hopeless assortment of discordant differ
erces, as incapable of positive action as
it is capable Of infinite clamor."
He speaks of the cause for surprise at
the election of Mr.. Crisp for Speaker in
stead of Mr.. Mills, "then supposed to
be the embodiment of Democracy" but
''the determination of the leaders that
the patty should enter the next contest
remembered 10y principles pushed Mr.
Mills to the wall" OF the continuance
of this tpolicy of noncommittalism" by
the appointment of Mr.. Springer as
Chairman of the Ways and Means Com
mittee. he says:
"While Mr.. Springer has at all times
formed and expressed great variety of
opinions on 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-
fdence which the Democracy have in
Mr.. Springer. He has been Democrat.
The party can contemplate his work of
this session with the calm certainty that
there is no intellect so subtle, no mind
50 broad, no sympathy so delicate as to
detect therein the slightest trace of a
principle of economic science or system
of revenue, and the Democracy certainly
do enter the next campaign unembar-
rassed by their immediate past, and
with great power of being natural; that
is, Of being all things to all men,"
The history OF this Congress, he thinks,
will present all the dead level Of Dutch
landscape.
1.-THE only picturesque object which
will break the sky line will be Mr.. Hol-
man draped as statue of Economy,
standing on tie railroad crowned summit
of the Lawrenceburg embankment trying
in vain with spy-glass to find any trace
of the river the embankment was in
tended to confne. indiana, however,
and the appropriation will be in full
view.
"When the House met great hopes
were entertained that strict economy
would reign. The man whose reputa-
ton was the highest was placed at the
head of the Committee on Appropria-
tons, aud the great duty OF reducing to
an honest level all the expenditures of
the Government were entered upon. Mr..
Holman, the great high priest of the
new Gispeasation, disappeared from
mortal view fer many days, aud finally
reappeared with calm, stately, and
self-denying resolution prcclaiming the
principles CT honesty, just as though
they had been newly discovered, and
were, Tor the hfst time in the history of
the world, to be put into practice. 1t
was solemn moment. Everybody felt
that the high-water mark of human viz
tue had been reached, and, under the
awe inspiring impressions of that day,
they were treated as scoffers who sug-
gested that after high water came the
ebb. hate to tell the sequel; but, alas,
the scolfers were right. Never since
that hour have the Democracy looked so
grand, gloomy, and peculiar as on that
Pentecostal day when the Holman proc
lamation of economic virtue was admin.
istered to them, and they resolved how
bad others had been, and how good they
themselves would be. 1t Is sad to be
obliged to add that now, after the re-
suits have been reached, we find that
the squandering Republicans appropri-
ated 463 millions at the first session of
the Billion Congress-, while the
economic Democrats have appropriated
over 500 millions at the Grst session of a
Congress that certainly cannot be called
a Nickel Congress. Would it be in
the nature Of insult to the fallen to pro-
pose to the Honorable Mr.. Holman, of
Indiana, a sam in the rule of three2 If
the expenditure of 463 millions made us
of the Fiity-irsS Congress 'rascals,
what precise epithet would do justice to
those who have appropriated 800 mil
liors2 1t really begins to look as if this
country was too big to be measured in
come half bushels"
After reviewing the conditions con-
fronting the Fi!ty-tlrst Congress, the ac-
emulation Of the wolk of six years that
preceding Democratic Congresses had no.
done, aud tdc necessity that it should
be done, Mr. Reed remarks, with par
donable exuitatioa, that the Houze
samid shouts and outcries which already
seem strange AMI incompreaensible,
broke down the barriers of custom and
re established the right of the majority
to rule. This was its greatest achieve
ment, for which it will have name IL
history,
"Having thus assumed the reins o
mower, the minority became responsible
for what was done. Tney became re-
sronsible for the act Of 1920 relating Il
Inc purchase of silver Whether that
act, isolated from all the circumstances
Of 1890, was absolutely wise, is more
than l know. That it then and there
saved this country from the free coinage
for which every D mocratic leader was
then clamoring, and on which they are
now so silent, do know. If time shall
show that it ought to be repealed, that
viii IN no wise initiate against the wis
iom of passing it in 1890 They be-
came responsible for the refunding OF
the direct tax, just measure, which.
among other things, saved from bank
-uptcy the State of Kentucky, most, il
aot all, OF whose representatives voted
against it.
They became responsible for that
latest revision of the tariff, which is just
now rising so high above the SANDER: