Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-01-15
LsneciaI Corresnondence.1 l

Special Correspondence.l
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 9.-Congress intends 70 get down to business in earnest this time. Senator Palmer says congress reminds him of hired man he used to have on the farm put in Illinois. Ut took him an awful .ong time to get down to work,'' says the senator, "but when once started you could not stop him with anything but dinner horn." The long extra session accomplish sd nothing but the repeal of the purchase clause of the Sherman law, and the session of last month achieved next to nothing. But now we are promised that things will num in the house at least. No one eX- poets much of the senate. It is constitu- ;ionally slow and seems to think haste would be unbecoming to its dignity. But in the house Speaker Crisp declares the new tariff bill shall be passed by the mid dle of the present month, and it so hap pens that Speaker Crisp's will is law. What the speaker says usually goes.
 It is an odd fact that, though MT. Crisp was singleS out for promotion to the speak ership largely on account of his vigorous opposition to the so called tyranny of Speaker Reed, as speaker MT. Crisp rules the house with every bit as much absolu- tism as MT. Reed ever did. This does not mean that Mir. Crisp is by nature a tyrant, for he is anything but that. He is, rather, one of those mild hammered, easy going men who seem to be so soft and yielding, and who still have their own way about pretty nearly everything of importance.
 There Must Be Leader.
 The speaker controls the house not through love of power, but because the genius of our legislative institution requires some control, and if there is to be control of any personal sort the speaker must be that person. It is now a we'll accepted fact that the American house of representatives must have leadership, and that in the se lection of one of their number to fill the of fee of speaker the majority choose also one who must needs be more or less of a dicta- tor. It is mistake to suppose that MT. Reed was the discoverer or even the prophet of rule by speaker That sort of thing had been going on for years in mild sort of way before MT. Reed took hold. What he did was to improve upon the process, to provide means by which the ma jority could always rule and a minority never, and to insure to the speaker not only the right but the power to control so long as majority stood at his back. MT. Blaine, MT. Colfax, MT. Keller, Mir. Randall, Mir. Carlisle had as speaker been compelled to sit for many weary days while the minority hissed def- ance at them and blockaded all roads to action.
 A Steady Advance.
 The work which Speaker Reed began Speaker Crisp has finished. As Reed inn proved vastly upon Carlisle, Randall and Blaine, so Crisp has improved upon Reed, in that he makes majority rule and speaker control by virtue of the support of a major ity just as absolute as Reed did and with out resort to some of the harsh measures which Reed as pioneer felt forced to em- ploy. In four years, ,therefore-thanks toa speaker from the far northeast and one from the south, to the Republicans and the Dem ocrats-the American house of representa- tives is now body organized to do busi- ness, with the majority able to control and at the same time to take all responsibility. This revolution could not have been so quickly and quietly effected if the good sense of the country had not indorsed it. The American people are intensely prac- tical They are business people. They like action, movement, results. The house as it is now organized satisfies the people because it is a business body.
 The Speaker Is Master.
 Through his committee on rules the speaker is absolutely master of the business