Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-02-29
Hon. Thomas B. Reed.

When Mr.. Reed addressed the House on
retiring from the speakership in 1891 he
said eff our deeds TO not praise lis, our
words cannot" This short sentence,
crisp with simple Anglo-Saxon words and
direct as a straight line, might pass IN
needed, or be regarded as commonplace
statement, did it not give expression to a
prominent characteristic of Mr.. Reed S
own life. Conscious of his own strength
and despising pretense, he has ever been
content to be judged from what he has
done.
The acts Of the 5lst Congress are to-
day recognized as having been more note
worthy than those of any preceding Con-
gross for nearly quarter Of a century
OF these Mr.. Reed could say, but as a
matter of fact he has left it for others to
say, "a great part of these have been. ="
Indeed, that which this Congress did
would largely have been impossible but
for the famous Reed rules, fearlessly in
augurated and unflinchingly enforced. 1t
was Speaker Reed who made up the com
mittees that drafted the wise and i'm
portant legislation Of that House. includ-
ing the famous tariff measure which has
since born the name of Mr.. Mckinley
whom Mr.. Reed made chairman Of the
ways and means committee. But above
all it was Speaker Reed who applied COM
mon sense to an old privilege which had
grown into such an abuse, that legisla-
ton depended on the minority rather
than the majority. No other occupant
of the speakers chair underwent such a
storm of denunciation from his political
opponents, no other speaker ever passed
through such trying scenes and no public
man has ever possessed the courage of his
convictions in a greater degree or en-
forced q principle more innexibly or
wisely.
He not only made legislation possible
and placed the responsibility therefor
upon the majority, where it belongs, but
he established method of procedure in
counting quorum and in preventing
flibustcring that was based upon what
Is Familiarity known as common sense.
He ruled that q member could not be
present as an individual and absent as a
member. In the four years that have in
tervened there has been such a change in
public sentiment on this matter, Mr..
Reeds rules now appear to all so reason
able and so practical, that it is difficult
to conceive how that great Democratic
minority could have fought them so stub
bornly, SO bitterly even declaring them
to be a great step toward the destruction
OF our form of government, and assum.
ing rs beyond question that the supreme
court woulu refuse to sustain them. In
this mood they attacked the speaker al
most venomously. No one vcntured q
word against Mr.. Reeds personal integ
rity and honor, but he was pronounced
to be czar more tyranpical that any
Muscovite despot. Not only did the couri
sustain the quorum ruling but 50 did the
very men who had revled it and its
maker. In the SD Congress when tn,
Democrats had the President and quite
large majorities in both House and
Senate, Speaker Crisp and the Democratic
party were forced to make, what in etfec
was most abjeot apology by adoptins
the method of procedure Mr.. Reed had
laid down. A triumph so signal has SCI
dom been SO soon achieved. Speaker
Reed had appreciated the inevitable result
of "a great abuse, perhaps no earlier, but
more clearly than most others and he hat
the courage to uproot it, Theodore
Roosevelt truly said of this great achieve
ment: mot for many years has Their.
been a man In our public life to whon
the American people owe as great n deb
as they do to Speaker Thomas B. Reed
But in laying such emphasis upon thi
achievement because it is SO couspicuou
and its results so far reaching, care shoult
be had not to overlook Mr.. Reeds i'm
portant work preceding this event and j
is interesting as we'll as instructive t,
trace the steps by which he approachc,
and was equipped for this ordeal.