Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-03-08
CONGRESSMAN BAILEY
Tells What He Thinks of H,.
 publican Colleagues. 1's-
In His Breezy Way the Ter.. g.. Chats About Facts Which smaa Ever Voter in the Countrv
 should Know.

the faneiful political perform , : ,,.,s1 ss. se the republicans during the pressnt st' oi sion. : ses-
 In the first place the house and country received notifcation e 'ne Speaker Reed that nothing sbo,,ld 1,a ,a done by this congress. That, sent;,s ,a os was echoed by the republicans af t.'tpe st senate. and therefore at hotb ana ''le the capitol they began to do notbina v V an energetic manner. 'n
 All went merry as a marriaoo to,, until President Cleveland offaraa ys'a business suggestion to congress ana there was furry in the eamn. of a,,n ards and sluggards. It was like dnaa ping queen bee into hive of dronas The republicans were all stirred 'ss and dreadfully agitated. They stonnap doing nothing, and began to tbinL Out of the cavernous reeesses If +hais aggregate intellect there was evolved the idea that they must put Cleveland in hole. That was manifestly the rs, publican mission.
 "As soon as they stopped dojno nothing and started te put Cleveland io a hole, they quarreled as to the meth ods and means. Even assailing CIeva- land, small business though it was. was doing something, and the republicans didn't know how to do it. They finally concluded to pass couple of bills and send them to the white house whera they would be vetoed, and thus. after all, nothing would have been accom- plished, and Cleveland would have all the blame. It was transparent po- litical game. But the people have been so often deceived that the republicans expect to deceive them again.
 "The funny part of it all was the sur prise which awaited the farcieal bills in the senate. Up to that time the silver republicans had been as willing to do nothing as the gold republicans had been. But when it came to issuing gold bonds, it was necessary for the silver republican senators to keep their records straight at home in their min. ing states, and so they smashed the bond bill with a silver amendment. Doing nothing was a good joke. Doing something was rather serious. It de- veloped party split of large propor- tions.
 'If the republicans had possessed just little bit of wisdom, they would have stopped with their bond bill, and returned to their previous dctermin- ation to do nothing. But Senator Morrill,, of Vermont, has been in public life for nearly half century He is nearly 90 years old, and comes of gen eration of sincere and honorable men. He assumed that, having passed tariff bill in the house, the republicans meant to pass it in the senate, and hence he called it up for passage. Then the silver republican senators deliberately bolted from their party, and voted against the consideration of protec- tive tariff bill Senator Merrill tried a second time to secure the passage of the tariff bill: and again the silver senators bolted from their party.
 ''These scenes of recent occurrence were running through my mind whenI referred to Shakespeare's play of Much Ado About Nothing;' and you can now see the application.
 q never before knew of party play ing the zany in this manner. l never heard of a party deliberately outlining policy of inaction. The people of this country are taxed beyond all reason for the support of congress; and they have a right to expect their public servants to do something, or at least try to do something. It costs about s6,o0o beach day to pay the salaries and running expenses of congress. Just think of that! It costs $4200O each week to keep congress running. The people of this country are paying that expense out of their hard earned wages There is no income tax, and the Tlcn men escape taxation in that way, while the poor people are compelled in rent clothing, food and fuel to pay prices which enable property owners to pay taxes: so that all of this expense of the congress comes out of the plain peope.
 Every republican representative ana
 I,L senator knows as we'll as do wnae it costs to keep the congress running They all know that it is an outfsse upon the people to have congress m ses, sion, and deliberately determine to oo nothing. But, knowing these iacr' the republicans, as matter of parry policy, determined to do nothlng' anu after President Cleveland exposed 1hen1 in his ringing message of last pecsii' Der, they tried to fool the peopie' p1s have simply fooled themselves .,...
 II wish that you could place epsss facts in simple narrative manner ps, fore the people; so that they may knoH of what stuff the republican parry z made. wish that you could get eness facts before the people on every qua ter section of this country MY that the republican farmers ana p.ssi .s's;r smiths would not want to g've sas votes to a party of inertia and ol s'd py litical tomfoolery. If the pcolle .0a the be made to understand all aoooo .:sr %aa shameful folly of this winter sssa, ,s,ast of congress, they would arise al,suu, ,,;as,, in n revolntion and hurl the rcpAp''es