New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-01-10
COTRTESY OF The SENATE"

II is said that Senator representing Sldte
whose principal, if not its only, product is Sill
ver has given out the information that he can
in any emergency talk for six weeks upon a
stretch on the silver question, and has an
nounced his deliberate purpose to make
speech covering that length OF time should IL
be necessary in order to defeat any bill repe'i-
ing the Silver-Purchase act. Considering 'hd'
this Senator represents much smaller mum
her of voters than any other member OF inc
body whose action he proposes to parayze oS
his six weeks 1ux of figures and expectora-
ton of speech that he is only one OF eish'a
eight members of the Senate, eighty seven OF
whom were certainly sent there for some other
nurpose than to listen to him continuously Tor
six weeks; that the bill which he proposes to
defeat by this unprecedented expenditure OF
lung power is one that both the great parties
believe should be passed, if their pubic pro-
fessons can be trusted and that the bill m
tended TO be repealed is Il confessed failure
satisfactory TO no one and believed by large
majority of the people affected by 1t to be
mischievous in its operation and rulnous Ill It's
results-considcrng all this. it is mild Inquire
Of speech to say that this statesman ex-
bbits what seafaring men call "the cheek OF
= right whale and the early missionaries used
to describe as the brass-mounted self-aSsulancc
of heather god.
Tho remarlabls feature of this threat, how
evor is not in the estimate the Senator puts
upon his own capacity fer pumping the pcrmu-
tations of the vocabulary into The ears OF the
Senate and the pages Of 1.-The Congressional
Record or upon the Senate's powers OF endur-
ance il is in the fact that there is nothing
in the rules of the Senate or any statute, or
the common law or the Constitution or custom
or tradition or anything else TO prevent IL.
Under what is called the courtesy Of the SEN
ater he can wind up his mouth to run six
weeks or six months and nothing on earth
can stop him till his wind gives out And as
he comes from a State where gust mat blows
q twelve mule team off its feet Is called i
"Washoe zephyr" there is small hope that 4
six weeks pull would exhaust his supply. Tn
der the courtesy Of the Senate he can keep
going while time lasts Men may come and
men may 90. but he can run on forever. EyciN
thing else may Stop-eNcept the purchase oi
,ilver-and he can continue until IN" exhaustion
Of all the silver mines in the ~icrIas and the
Rockies obyiatcs the necessity for his holding
the floor. Only when the last ounce OF silver
is dumped into the Treasury vaults need be
begin 10 think of his peroraton
II is the courtesy of the Senate Very
beautiful. isn't it? More beautiful than the
fine courtesy of Lord Hay at Fontcnoy when
he said. Gentlemen OF the French Guard. fire
first" or than the chivalric politencSs OF the
Connie d'Autcrochcs when he replied " Sir.
we never fire first please 10 fire yourselves.
For after all there was firing on both sides at
Fonienov. Dy "the courtesy Of the senate
this one Senator not only fires first but keeps
on firing. and the Senate sits and takes it-eA-
ocpt in 50 far a. il OCzcS out INTO inc coaK-
rroms-without ever firing back. They do these
thing, differently in the House. II Is possible
there for two or three men 20 block the wheels
under the bcneiccnt rules 80 much landed by
Democratic statesmen But no one man j.
permitted 10 swing open cave OF the winds
and wreal, himself upon expression tor siA
week, on a stretch They have 10 do II there
bv RELAYS and tactical manocuvres, and skip
ujnr from one motion 70 another like the wick
cd flea when no man or any other man pursu-
eth. That j, because they are destitute OF
"courtesy" in the House.
ON the whole we hope the Senate will not
be deferred by this threat from going right
along and making effort at least TO comply
with the popular demand. 1t is worth while to
make the experiment Worth while 10 find out
whether any one man under the courtesy OF
the Senate" can stop all legislation and all
business by making six weeks speech. II
would be interesting, too. purely as an cNhibi-
ion of vocal power, physical endurance and
the possibilities of the mother tongue.