Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-06-12
For Member of Congress, James
l.. Martin.

longest term ever given any representative
from Vermont except Horace Everett, who
also served Ia years, and if Gen. Grout
had proved one of the greatest and most
influential legislators the nation had, it
would be fair question, under the prece-
dents of our politics, if it were not time
for a change; but as matter of fact he
has proved very commonplace one, un-
der whom the state has largely lost her
prestige and power of leadership she had
for two generations. There has never
been a time until within recent years when
Vermont's representatives were not every
where recognized as among the nations
foremost in statemanshp. How is it now
so far as Gen. Grout is concerned9 He
certainly is not prominent in debate, and
has not shown any great capacity to con-
struct, or influence, legislation. Looking
back over all these IA years, what great
measure of national Importance has been
associated with his name? To have to ask
the question ought to be enough to deprive
him of denomination. Committee posi-
tions are a good test of the estimation in
which members are held in Congress.
Probably there was never one in the coun-
try, and certainly there has never been one
from Vermont, who did not get better po-
sitions than Gen. Grout has after an equal
term of service. He is now chairman of
the committee on expenditures in the war
department, one of the minor committees.
OF the other committees of this rank those
on expenditures in the departments of ag-
riculture, interior, justice, navy, state and
public buildings are all held by men who
are serving their fourth year, and it is al
most a matter of humiliation to Vermont,
after keeping a man there IA years. that he
should be classed this way. He has, it is
true, been the chairman of the committee
on the District of Columbia, and it is said
could have had it again in this Congress if
he had wished, but that is a good ways
from a committee position of FIRST class.
OF the Republicans who have, Seen in
Congress the same length of time Mat he
has, Hit of Illinois is chairman 0t the
foreign affairs committee, Henderson, Of
Iowa of the judiciary, Dingley of MaPe
of the ways and means, and Boute lie A
the naval committees. When it comes to
the craftsmanship of any of the leading
committees Grout simply is not thought of.
Hepburn of Iowa, with only ten years
service, is at the head of the interstate
committee; Stone of Pennsylvania, with
only six years, of the coinage committee;
Walker of Massachuse nth only eight
years service, of the banking committee.
Judge Powers of Vermont, now in his
sixth year, was placed at the head of one
of the most important committees of this
Congress, that on Pacific railways. If
Gen. Grout were regarded as a man of
even ordinary strength by the congressional
standard he would have some of these
chairmanships which are now given to
men much younger in the service than he.
Just compare him with the great men
Vermont has had in the house in the past
with Rollin c. Mallory, the McKlsiey Of
his time, the father of the protective tariff
bill of 1929, against which Calhoun at
tempted notification, served only twelve
years. He had been in the House only
nine years when he became the leader in
that great tariff fight. Justin S. Morrill,
was in the House only twelve years, and at
the beginning of his fifth was chairman of
the committee on ways and means, the
Republican leader guiding the party with
the Morrill, tariff to the great policy of
protection which has been its glory ever
since. All through the war, when he had
served only two-thirds of CIRCUITS time, he
was guide and director of the legislation
that provided ways and means by which
the Union was saved. In his first six
years he carried through the bill for public
land grants that laid the foundation for
our system of agricultural colleges, and
though President Buchanan vetoed it Nor
rilPs leadership made it a law in 1862.
Poland, with only twelve years service
was, six of them, chairman of the House
judiciary committee, was, by common rec
ognition of his great ability, put in charge
of the great work of codifcation and re-
vision of the Federal statutes, work, as
was said in the Social Science convention
in Philadelphia, in 1915, entitled to rank
with the best in history. He was chair
man of the committee to investigate the
Kuklux outrages, of the Credit Mobilier, the
Arkansas election and other most impor-
tant committees of his time. William
Slade, with only twelve years service, and
in the first six of them focusing the atten-
ton of the whole country on his bold fight
against the slavocracy, Hiland Hall, in
ten years service re0rganizing the whole
post-office department, making speeches in
his first four years that were circulated all
through the country, as Whig campaign
documents carrying single-handed to tri-
umph his wonderful fight against the
fraudulent Virginia claims, are other illus
trations of the difference between the SER
vice of statesmen and w. W. Grout, all of
it done with less advantage from seniority
than he has had. And yet none of these
great men were allowed to serve the state
so long as Grout has already done. What
good reason is there why he should be con-
tinued longer in Congress, especially when
the results are so meagre?
James l.. Martin of Brattleboro, who
has, within few days, consented to be
candidate, has the mental equipment to
restore this prestige of the past to the old
Green Mountain state. A fine orator,
careful student of public affairs, strong
lawyer, one of the foremost jury advocates
in the state, brilliant in his supreme court
argument, a thorough master of parlia-
mentary law, a skillful manager of men,
and an excellent judge of what is practi-
cal in legislation, he could not fail to be-
come a great party leader in case the Re
publicans of this district sent him to Con-
gress. Indeed, it is safe to predict that
before he had been in the House anywhere
near as long as Grout has, he would be-
come speaker, an honor that has never
come to Vermont, and Vermonters would
have reason to feel proud of him. Mr..
Martin has been speaker for three terms
of the Vermont house, and many good
judges from out of the state, who have
seen him in the chair and noted the facil-
ity and alertness in which he handled and
despatched business, have testified that
they never saw it equalled. We might not
only reasonably hope that he would be-
come speaker after less than IA years of
service, but that he would come into his
tory as one of the ablest ones Congress
ever had. His capacity for constructive