New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-05-31
EFSDALL OF KENTUCKY.


which was extended to a home run by the gen
crous sacrifice of Jerry Simpson, of Kansas, who
kindly loaned him three minutes of his own
timc at the expiration of which Kendall sat
down on the homc-plat repeating some lines
written by Robert Burns, amid the humIlla-
ton and gloom that fell upon his great warm
heart" when he saw " his fair rugged Scotland
polluted by the coach-whcels of some ancient
Carnegie or Blaine" 1t was pronounced ei-
fort unquestionably what the Hon Amos Cum
mngs-an expert in Congressional cloquence-
calls "a set speech"
The subject, which under one of those pleas
ing fictions with which the House at times de-
lights itself was held to be under discussion
was the Postoffico Appropriation. The day
had been ushered in, so to speak, by a speech
from a Michigan member who started at the
reign of Ahasuerus King of Persia (B.C. 1861
touched lightly in a kind of pouch dropping
way upon the IIanseatic League. alluded
kindly to Charcmagne and not unplcaSantly to
the Stuarts, and AT the end of Il paragraph very
closely packed with historic references flut-
tered gently down upon the advent of the
postage stamp in 1910. This was followed by
a page or two of chopped-up debate the kind
Of minced craftsmanship on toast which this
Congress seems so fond of. and then Alr. Hen
dorson, of North Carolina. yielded fifteen
minutes to the gentleman from kentucky
The practice of yielding fifteen minutes, though
il does not date bacl, To- the time Of AhaSuoruS.
is quite ancient. According to Gibbon. IT was
very common at the beginning of the Christian
era. The pretorian guards whenever they
had a day off, which was frequently. had a
Nay of yielding fifteen minutes TO anybody
who wanted to be Emperor and was willing 10
set EN- up At the expiration of the time
they usually slew him. This wholesome prac-
tice is not followed in our day though no ono
knows why it was discontinued. The nearest
approach to it in the present Congress was the
case Of a member not long ago 10 whom some
body had yielded fifteen minutes, or perhaps
more. when it was discovered in less than five
that he wa, already slowed.
However, Kendall took his fifteen minutes.
and took them like a Kentucky gentleman
straight These. with jerry simpsons kindly
addition of three, made eighteen. In that time
he poured three columns into "Thc Record
Which shows nucncy. Beginning with the an
nounccmcnt that he was about 10 redeem a
" lit their banner in fire against the money
changers. the money-lcndcrS and the Shylocks
If Wall Street the tariffs Of the East and the
railroads Of the West he sailed into the
two problems with which We are confronted"
These are, " first, how 10 get more money into
circulation. and second, how 10 prevent what
we do get from following what we have gotten
into Wall street and Pcnn~y lvania." Let us
glance" said he. lat the history Of the past
and adorn our present lesson with the wisdom
il teaches He then proceeded To glance. In
the fifteen minutes yielded, or even in the
eighteen. which included Jerry Simpsons three,
he could hardly be expected TO 90 back to
Ahasuerls, but he dropped with both feet on
the British Government, which q" for centuries
has made war upon silver and dcbascd it," and
from that point slid easily and rapidly 10 the
time in 1873 when the Republican party
under the leadership Of Senator Sherman in
imitation of England secretly and clandcstincly
struck silver in the dark This, he said was
1.-THE dircst calamity ever inflicted upon the
American people by Congress"
But, he continued, "thc outraged and the
indignant have called a halt" We do not
understand this TO be the same halt that was
called by Kentucky some thirty years ago to
the Federal troops nor the one that Colonel
Watterson called just before President Hayes
was inaucuratcd This seems to be an entire
" new halt on different question. 1t is al
ways interesting to hear Kentucky "call a
halt" though it has usually happened that the
country was under too much Roadway to re-
spond. In this case Mr.. Kendall said he
thought it ought to be understood that the
onward movement of the masses will camp in
the saddle until the circulation is augmented
TO $50 per capita" This, we presume, refers
10 the Kentucky masses who ride on horse
back. II is the same movement, however, as
that Of the masses camping on benches around
the fountain in City Hall Park, waiting for
the currency to be augmented to so per capita.
These latter have sometimes succeeded just
prior to an election in increasing the circulation
from little more than n battered hat 10 two or
three dollars and a weeks board per capita.
They are very much outraged and very indg
nant at the way things are going, and are de-
tcrmned not to do a stroke Of work but camp
there or in the saddle or anywhere else, till
the circulation is augmented.
In the judgment Of Mr.. Kendall the Demo
cratic party, which "ncver failed to strike
blow for financial freedom" will presently come
into power and augment the circulation to $50
per capita. For, he says, "the hour of de-
liverance is at hand,n and the stars in their
courses are fighting the battles Of the poor,
plain people" The statement that the Dem
ocratic party "never failed to strike a blow
for financial freedom strikes us as being his
torcally true. At any rate, it was the Demo
cratic State of Mississippi that struck one Of
the earliest blows for financial freedom and
the party has been in the business ever since.
When it cannot strike for absolute financial
freedom, it rises up outraged and indignant
calls a halt, proclaims the hour of deliver
ancc, and offers to pay seventy cents on the
dollar, as it does now. Ii seems to us that this
....s.L4 La ,..idal, ai.s.l.4-