The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1894-09-05

view Of Congress and the Administra-
ton
| And now they have gone, this Sen
ate and House Of Representatives, gone
with only three months more Of un-
happy life left in them. What are we
to say? One year of almost continu-
Gus session, and what have they done
and how have they done it? The Re
publicans cannot view the language of
reprOaeh, of the invectives or abuse.
The whole vocabulary has been ex-
hausted by themselves speaking Of
themselves. We cannot hope To equal
in commenting ON the Senate the tire
mendous and effective words of the
President of their own choice If we
were to search the whole dictionary of
diatribes we could not equal the charge
of party perfidy and party dishonOr"
made by the President against the Sen
ate and received by the House of Rep
resentatives with. its 100 Democratic
majority with cheers and applause.
If we were to comment upon the
President and his act'Nt' we could not
Use language half 80 damaging as DEM
Ocratie Senators used in open Senate
with uDlifted hands assey erating the
truth Of personal betrayal a-,d personal
bad faith. If We were to con mcnt upoa
the House of Representative and its
leaders we should he d.em,,. guilty of
gross partisanship five used even their
own words in describing their own ac-
tiOns; whata condition fora partisan
critic to be in to be obliged in common
| decency 10 Use softer words about his
enemies than they do themselves. And
the enemies are not saints in embryo,
beating their breasts and cOnfessing
| their tTan>gr,ssiOns 10 reach the height
of sainthOod through the depths of sin.
Oh, no (. they are simply earnest men
standing by the broken system of
whole country and trying to tell who
destroyed it, and, having met success,
we obviously cannot Use any language
of reproach or passion. Earlier and
for that purpose-wOrthier hands have
gathered all those laureIs. All We can
say l. that all the three sides, the PreSi-
dent and Senate, have told the truth
about each other and the House about
itself.
With this simple expression of faith
in their veracity let Us turn to a slight
review of what they have done. There
Is no doubt that this review will be a.
distasteful and unsatisfactory To the
majority of honest Democrats ~ to Re
publicans themselves. Whatever good
there has been done has been spoiled in
the doing. Ifthe House had yielded to
the dictates of Il lOng-denOunced COM
mon sense and adopted proper rules, il
was only after all sound precedent had
been violated in the attempt to avoid
the necessity. If the Congress had re-
pealed the purchasing clause of the
Sherman act, it was only done after
such long delay is has deprived the
country of any advantage the repeal
might have given il.
Nor has the mystery of the collapse of
the compromise and the connection of
the President Herewith ever been clear
ed up. Whether he consented to that
compromise or not i not for ME to say.
That is Il family secret, but it il no fam
lily secret that the compromise was not
repudiated until after the Republican
members We're sounded and II was clear
that they would have no part or lot in
il.
Such misunderstanding a. these be-
tween the President and the Senate if
Republicans would have caused SEN
sation rs of burned wooden among the
people. But the Democracy has limi-
tatiOns as to morality very much en-
larged. That party seems to realize
what General Butler said in jest, THAT
nobody was truly unassailable until his
character was gone"
The Tariff bill of ''perfily and dis
honor" has become law, and an inter
esting law il Is. How Democratic
Senate believing in the platform OF the
party could have passed il having
hundred majority, i simply incompre-
heasive. How the President could have
permitted il to become law is simply
an impossible study i'm human nature.
How can the country reconcile this
action with its former estimate of him |
Hewas deemed by very large part of /
the pcople a. "A man of sound common !
sense and of great will-pOwer. His
reputation for good sense certainly had |
a shock in the ease of the Sandwich Is !
lands. And this i more likely To suffer /
from the contrast between the letter to |
Wilson and the surrender TO German. |
| was not one of those who expected |
such result. Surrender was i'm recap |
itulation. He ought TO have handed |
in his side-arms and signed the bill.
If he did not consent, then by both !
House and Senate he has been pro
nounced to be not even a factor in the /
transaction. Hereafter the President, /
instead ofstanding on IL Mugwump and /
unreal pedestal, must he rcckoned with |
the rest of them, and the regret will /
not all be from the Democratic side.
The truth about the Wilson bill is that /
il was foolish bill when il went out of /
the Ways and Means Committee and 4
was made still more foolish in the 1
House. Ii has neither policy nor prac-
tice and yet il has been erected into /
golden slab 70 be worshiped by party |
conventions, and that, too, with the /
consent and approval of their own
Moses.
The Senate bill has had some regard |
To the business of the country in spots,
but it will prove failure like the other,
though not To the same degree. The
strikes in Fall River, New Bedford and
elsewhere over the cotton schedule, |
said To be the best ever made, shows, as
a prominent Deulocratic capitalists, |
put il, that "labor has got To liquidate."
Stocks have liquidated-that is gone
down one-half-exeept sugar. Labor
is to do the same. But there will be |
this difference, stocks are submissive,
laborers are not.