New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-09-26
COMING HOME TO ROOST

It is extremely interesting 10 read from day
TO day the views of our ncighbors, 1.-The New
York Herald" 1.-THE NcwYOrk World and
1.-THE Ncw-York Times" concerning the right
of maioritics to rule. the dut, Of mnorihes 10
submit. and the intolerable wickcdncss of oh
>trrction. We told our neighborS three years
ago that the chickens they then Matched would
come home TO rcOSt that for the wind they
were sowing the Whirlwnd they would reap
What is obstruction" now was free speech
then What is now a monStrOus and ntOler-
able resistance to the will of the people as
shown by the existence of Il majority for re-
peal was then recourse to parliamentary
forms" "Thc World- advised the minority in
the Senate three years ago that they would
" forget their constitutional duty if they - re-
Trained from resorting to every device to de-
feat" the will of the majority. 1t sad that
"no sacrifice was too great and no means should
be left unused for that purpose. 1T is to
silence the minority" said "Thc World"
thereby distinctly recognizing that the position
it stood for really was the position Of minor
ity, ito turn the people ont of court that
closure is suggested and if the Democrats
should not resort to every device to prevent
the outrage they would be betrayng a sacred
trust"
All these views were warmly sustained by
the other Democratic newspapers. The
Timesn which is so anxious now for the adop-
ton of closure, described closure then as "a
gag law" and applaudcd "thc tactics of the
minority'-it also recognizing that the Demo
Gratis were minority" in defence of the right
of debate" "Thc Times" has no patience now
with Senatorial speechmaking. but when the
measure before the Senate was one it desired
to defeat instead Of one it wishes to adopt. il
thought that ga body like the Senate which
was especially created in order that all action
by Congress should be sobcrly and ntelligcntly
reviewed, needs every reasonable opportunity
TO develop the views of all members who may
have them" and whatever shut of the flow OF
these views was an assault on one of the most
valuable safeguards of free Institutions Our
neighbor "The Herald" denounccS the Senate
daily now in double leads for precisely the
course which it described three years ago as
"dignifed, deliberate and useful Ii would
allow of no closure then. The minority 1t
said-agan the recognition that the cause for
which it pleaded minority cause" the
minority demands that the customs, traditions
and usages which have governed the Senate
for hundred years shall not be tempered
with" and the maiorty's attempt TO resort TO
closure it loudly denounced as an attempt ." to
cut off debate, gag the opposition, refuse TO
recognize them when they take the floor, and
push the question TO a vote by the brute force
of superior numbers"
All this was complete justification Of the
anti-rcpeal party in the policy it pursucs to-
day. 1t cannot be said that one code OF law
and morals is to apply to a measure we like
and just the opposite TO measure we don't
like. The Democracy has itself to blame for
the fact that it can now do nothing with all its
clumsy, ovcrgrOwn majority, unless, as Speaker
Crisp has done, by driving roughshod through
its own record and its own express rules. 1t
must accept the humiliation of an utter failure
to redeem, not only those of its pledges which
it never intended 20 redeem, but those also that
it profoundly desires. or it must accept the
humiliation of an acknowledgment that the
course of obstruction it pursued three years
ago was mjustifable.