The times., 1898-11-13
OF Two Evils.

In giving currency to the report
that the Hon. Marcus A. Hanna
was inclined to think that Mr.. Thomas
Bracket Reed, of Maine, would look
better on the floor of the House than in
the chair, we doubtless correctly indi
Gated the sentiment of the uncrowned
Republican king while giving too little
thought to his policy.
Everybody. who is anybody, knows
that the Hon. Thomas Bracket Reed
has been thorn in the side of the Ad-
ministration during the life, so far of
the Fifty-fifth Congress. He entered
upon his duties in that body with
holy sense of grievance. His inner
consciousness was full of memories, and
they We're not nice ones as far as the
Hon. Marcus a. Hanna was concerned.
In fact, the autocrat of the House had
blood in his eye when he seized the
gavel, and he could not help thinking
whose knobby proboscis he would like
to proud with it.
If the Hon. Thomas Bracket Reed
had started in with the idea of making
an unpleasant object lesson of Repub-
lican rule he could not have acted more
intelligently. His serene indifference to
the Constitution, the law of the land
and the rules of the House was some
thing bslow reproach. His success in
forcing legislation desired by his own
coterie of friends and hackers was ad-
mirable, and must have been WEAKNESS
TO the flesh of his hated rival. mod
est and retiring statesman like the Hon.
Dollarmark Hanna, does not like to see
another handling the interests of sugar
magnates and the life insurance trust.
because everybody knows, or ought to.
that those interests belong in the reg
ularly organized campaign pot; but, no
matter.
Things now are different. Hanna
himself. with such efficient aid as he
could get from Alger, has been almost
able 10 put a Democratic majority in
the House of Representatives. II it re-
quired a Reed to manage that body when
it was lush with the insolence of over
whelming Republican power, how much
more will ii be vital to maintain the
same kind of influence when the margin
for illegality and audacious parliament
tary crime has been reduced nearly to
the vanishing point?
1t is. therefore, appropriate that the
Hon. Dollarnark Hanna and the Hon.
Thomas Bracket Reed should compose
| their differences. AS a matter of fact
they have done so. The obese Speaker
hereafter will be considered in all the
golden things that count to make public
office conduce to private contentment.
/ Instead of an enemy on the floor of the
| House. which would be highly incon-
venient. Mr.. Hanna will have a friend
presiding over the majority.
! Our Republican magnates never make
the mistake of long quarreling among
themselves. They argue, logically, that
| there is loot enough to go around, and
not one of them would fail to pass a
| long division. We are quite confident
| that the Administration will back the
Hon. Thomas Bracket Reed in his am
bition to be once more Speaker, and
that he will govern the next House
with the same humorous brutality
that has marked his suppression OF
the present one. We have not the re-
motest desire to complain. AS an eco-
nomical plant for the manufacture OF
Democratic votes in 1900. we are unable
to conceive of anything better than the
Hon. Thomas Bracket Reed.