Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-01-12
ABSOLUTE RULE.


Senator Palmer says congress reminds MN
of q hired man he used to have on the farm
ont in Illinois. 1T took him an awful
long time TO get down to work. says the
senator. "bnt when once started you could
NOT stop him with anything but dinner
horn" The long extra session accomplish
ed nothing but the repeal of the purchase
ciause of the Sherman law, and the session
of last month achieved next to nothing.
Rut now we are promised that things will
hum in the house at least. No one ex-
meets much of the senate. 1t is constitu-
tionally 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
die of the present month, and it so hap
pens that Speaker Crisp's will is law.
What the speaker says usually goes
1t is an odd fact that, though Mr.. Crisp
was singled out for promotion to the speak
ership largely on account of his vigorous
opposition to the SO called tyranny of
Speaker Reed, as speaker Mr.. Crisp rules
the house with every bit as much absolu-
tism as Mr.. Reed ever did. This does not
mean that Mr.. Crisp is by nature 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 a 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. 1t is now a well accepted fact
that the American house of representatives
must have leadership, and that in the Sc
lection of one of their number to fill the Of
flee of speaker the majority choose also one
who must needs be more or less OF dcta-
tor. 1t is mistake to suppose that MIR.
Reed was the discoverer or even the prophet
of rule by speaker. That sort of thing had
been going on for years in a mild sort of
way before Mr.. Reed took hold. What he
did was to improve upon the process, to
provide means by which the majority could
always rule and 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 Mr.. Blaine, Mr.. Colfax,
Mr.. Keifer, Mr.. Randall, Mr.. Carlisle had
as speaker been compelled to sit for many
weary days while the minority Kissed 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 i'm
proved vastly upon Carlisle, Randall and
Blaine, so Crisp has improved upon Reed,
in that he makes ma ority rule and speaker
control by virtue of the support of II RAZOR
ity just as absolute as Reed did and with
out resort to some of the harsh measures
which Reed as Il pioneer felt forced to en-
plo$ In four years, Observation-Disclosures 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 Il body organized to do bust
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 Endorsed 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 business body.
The Speaker Is Master.
Through his committee on rules the
speaker is absolutely master of the business
of the body, but only so long as he is able
to find majority to support him. Since
this is the foundation upon which the whole
American government rests, it is not likely
any one will arise to complain. Over in
England they are joining the procession.
Your correspondent while in London last
summer visited the house of commons and
saw the principle of majority rule carried
to fully as great an extreme as it has ever
been carried here under Reed and Crisp.
The difference was that Mr.. Gladstone, the
head of the executive branch of the govern
ment, was in that case the personal leader.
1t was as if President Cleveland were to
drive up Pennsylvania avenue from the
White House, enter the capitol, appear at
his place in the hall Of the commons and
crack his whip.
The speaker of the British house of COM
mons to this day occupies position SINH
lar to that which our speakers occupied in
the old times-that is to say, he is 1.-The
creature of the house" He has no power
save that which the house has conferred
upon him, ami it is his duty not to lead,
not to control, not to press this meas
ure forward into life and keep that one
back to its death-not to mold policies and
keep his party on the path which, in his
opinion, III SDOulu 1OllOW-DuG simply 10 acU
as the presiding officer, as the chairman of
the meeting, as the moderator of order.
as the mouthpiece of the chamber. He is
expected to do this with absolute impair
TALLY not only as between individuals, but
as between political parties.
A Comparison.
Between the American system as we
now find it and the English system as it
has slowly developed one may take his
choice. There are arguments in both direc-
tions. The English would be very much
shocked if their speaker of the commons
were to attempt to control that body and
shape its legislation. If he were to declare
one measure should be passed while an
other should never be brought to. vote
probably they would impeach him for
usurpation. If they had speaker who
was always contriving for the advantage
of one of the parties in the chamber and
had his lieutenants and favorites on the
floor who secured recognition through pre-
arranged plans and for the accomplishment
of agreed upon results, there would be q
howl of indignation throughout Great
Britain, Ireland Scotland ard Wales.
There would be letters by the bushel in
The Times, and the press would thunder
and roar.
The Old Tradition.