The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-02-23
MR.. REED AS SPEAKER.
What They Say in Washington About
the Coming Congress.

the Coming Congress.
Mr.. DingIey Will be Very Prominent
in Financial Notwithstanding
/ Points Will Not Be Involved This
Time.
Thomas B. Reed, for the second time
in the Speakers chair Of the House of
Representatives, is the subject of more
speculation just now than any other
public man in America, says the Wash
ington Star. That he will occupy the
chair again nobody questions, but the
past few days are thought to have
opened up most interesting inquiry as
to how he will develop in the new Cir
cumstances and under the great pressure
that will surround him.
| General expression in Washington goes
to show that Mr.. Reed has a great many
friends and ardent admirers in both
political parties. Repeated reference is
made to his pluck and his wit, and no.
body appears to dispute the palm with
him for. debating power. His reputation
on those scores is thought to be secure.
But comparison is instituted between
the duty that confronted him and the
am bition that filed him when he took
the chair before and the duty that con-
fronts him and the ambition that fills
him now.
INTHE FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS.
The case is stated in this way: When
Mr.. Reed took the House gavel in the
Fifty-frst Congress the one overshadow-
ing necessity. was to institute prompt
and an orderly method of transacting
public business. The old method stood
not only repudiated, but despised by the
country. There was sharp demand for
a change, and to this task. with con-
| summate skill and equal courage, MIR.
Reed addressed himself. His success was
extraordinary. He showed the way from
start to finish, though not without some
trouble now and then in bringing his
4 followers up to his own advanced
4 scratch, and he handed the result over
4 to the Democracy with prediction that
1 the new method would stand the test
of experience. II the presidency was in
Mr.. Reeds eye at that time it did not
obscure. nor even confuse, matters i'm
mediauly at hand. Gen. Harrison was in
the White House making pronounced
impression on the country, and even
then reasonably we'll assured of renomi-
nation, and SO at least six years must
intervene between the credit that Mr..
Reed was then to acquire and any direct
personal consideration OF it by Repub-
lican national convention. Mr.. Reed,
] therefore, proceeded with singleness of
purpose to definite object, and achieved
i gleat triumph.
THE PRESENT CASE.
the present case? No parliamentary
! points are now involved. The rules that
Mr.. Reed projected and applied in the
Fifty first Congress will be applied in
the Fifty fourth. Their author, it is
pointed out, will find them adequate to
every purpose. or can easily amend them
IN any necessary minor particular.
His recommendations on that subject
are not likely to be questioned by his
party in the House. The important
proposition will be business itself, and
not the method of transacting it, and it
will relate to the tariff, the currency and
to foreign affairs. Will Mr.. Reed show as
definite purpose on those subjects as
he did on the subject of parliamentary
| law? 1T will be necessary for him to
show his hand, and SO far he has never
| failed to do that. In the composition of
the committees alone he will be obliged
to take very definite ground on all of
the leading propositions. His party is
not united on the currency question, and
that alone will probably give him several
anxious half hours. And then there is
the presidency just ahead. 1t is not
denied, of course, that he is an avowed
candidate for his party's nomination for
that Office. He is even thought to be
decidedly in the lead in the race. But
his rival aspirants are strong men. and
he cannot afford to make break of any
kind. His dangers and his opportunities
bearing ON this race will be about equal
in the Speakers chair. The returns will
be large for whatever of success he may
achieve, and the penalties are likely to
be severe for whatever blunders he may
commit. The prediction is that he will
be pressed hard at times, not only by
the Democrats. VINO naturally will try
to score at the expense of the opposition,
but by the friends of the other Repub-
j lican presidential aspirants. The argu-
ment is that as Mr.. Reed will be endeavor-
ing to advance his own presidential for
tunes by impressing his views of legisla-
ton on the House, the friends of Nc
/ Kinley, Harrison, Lincoln and Allison
will not be idle, but, while not pushing