St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-05
VALE THE FIFTY-THIRD.

OF w, to get Suf1c1ently out OF the
bitterness of our disappointment to
calmly consider the work of the con-
gress whose life has just ended and
to pass sober judgment upon it,. In
our present mood the only possible
judgment would contain the severest
censure We can see nothing but
magnificent opportunities prohigate-
ly wasted. In the hundred years of
party government behind us, we can
recall no instance in which party
came into power so rich in oppor-
tunity to demonstrate to the people
that it was capable of giving to the
| people a government ''of the people,
by the people and for the people," of
| reforming abuses that had long been
intrenched in power; of reversing
[ vicious policy of favoritism by gov
| eminent; of demonstrating to the
| people that this is a government for
| all and not for a few; and no preced-
| ing congress that we know of has
so contemptuously Sighted its oppor-
| tunitieS.
1t is with deep humiliation and
modification that Democrats, at the
end of their first period of complete
control, thus have to pass judgment
upon their representatives. 1t went
into power, this F'ifty-third congress,
with but one great duty to perform.
| For six years it's party had been
struggling against the vicious prop
osition that it is right to use the tax
|
rich a few at the expense of all.
| Even before it began deliberations
| long period of Wretched financial leg
| isolation eliminated in the panic
| which burst upon the country and
| presented it with a new and perplex-
| ing problem to solve in addition to
| the one for whose solution it was
| commissioned. The denunciation
| heaped by Democratic conventions
upon the eXtravagant profiigacy of
| Republican congresses laid upon it
| the duty of retrenchment and re-
| form.
These are the three great heads
| of opportunity which presented
| themselves to the Fifty-third con-
! gress when it assembled in special
session in October, 1893-the tariff,
the currency and economy. In what
manner has it answered eXpecta-
tons? Commissioned to eliminate
protection from the tariff save as it
was an unavoidable incident, it has
given us tariff professedly protect
i've. 1t met the currency problem
| by aboliShing one source of evil, the
| silver purchases, but has proven it
self incapable Of coping with the en-
tire problem. Inheriting from it's
| Republican predecessors a volume of
paper currency grown SO large as to
| threaten the stability of credit, it
goes out of existence leaving the
volume and the danger where it
| found it. Instead of retrenching ex-
| penses and reducing appropriations,
| it takes it's place alongside of the
Republican billion-dollar congresses.
This is the record, and no Demo-
crat can look upon it without humili-
| alton and apprehension - humilia-
ton that a confidence so generously
| repoSed has been so ignored, and ap-
| prehenSion as he turns and looks
! toward the future, of the long period
| that must elapse before that conf
| dence can be regained. Meanwhile
! the tendencies against which it has
fought for years are again in full
| effect by the restoration of party
which was made possible only by the
| blunderS of Democrats.
The congress is not alone to blame.
| The departure from the policy laid
| down at Chicago began when Mr..
| Cleveland indited his letter of &C
| ceptance and gave Eastern protect
| ed interests to understand that they
would be tenderly dealt with while
| giving 'freer" raw material and
sheltered from what he termed an
impossible free trade" The Will
son. bill was not Mr.. Wilson's,
but Mr.. Cleveland's, who, for
some unknown reason, feared
the effect upon his party of
strict compliance with it's prom
Use. This was lamentable and fatal
blunder. 1t encouraged every pro-
tected interest in the land to bring
| it's pressure to bear upon it's repre-
sentatives in the house and in the
senate to see that it was well taken
care of. It made the increase of pro-
lection possible in the. senate be-
cause it gave to the coal and iron
senators there the argument that it
was not a revenue, but protective
BILL and there was no good reason
why coal and iron should not be
| protected.
II furnished the preteXt for all that
was secured by the German act. 1t
| prevented the ways and means COM
mittee of the house and finance COM
mittee Of the senate from resisting
the appeals for increased protection
by answering that they were en-
gagged in framing revenue and not
a protective bill. For the failure to
meet the currency question and pro-
vide a suitable solution the Demo-
cratic congress is not wholly respon-
sible. The debate on the Sherman
! repeal bill and the subsequent cur
rency bill showed that among the
Republicans there was a division
|
existed in the Democratic ranks.
Still for Democrats, proud of the
tradition of their party as one of
sound currency and hard money
there is no consolation for the fail
ure of their own party in the knowl-
edge that equal division exists
among the Republicans
The house has won what of credit
there is in the session. It at least
has refused to commit itself to the
advocacy of free coinage, a policy
strongly in favor in the senate. Il
made short work of those two
schemes of jobbery originating il
the senate, the Nicaragua cana
scheme and the Hawaiian cable, an6
1t did its part towards relieving the
meat producers of the country from
the effect Of it's first mistake in pIac