Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-09-29

cry, and they are still at his heels.
HOW BASE IS INGRATITUDE!
For his share in the 1883 campaign Mr..
Wanamaker was made postmaster gen.
eral as a personal concession to Sen
ator QUAY and his colleagues of the
national committee, who presented only
this one request to the president-elect.
And Mr.. Wanamaker had no sooner
taken his seat at the cabinet table than
he began to establish his own machine
in Pennsylvania. antagonistic to the
plans and purposes of him by whom he
was called from the secluslQn of mer-
chandizing to public life.
And still moralists write of gratitude
and poets sing of 1t!
What of Senator Quay's services in
the senate? No Pennsylvania who has
occupied a seat in that distinguished
body has ever done so much for his
native state as Senator Quay.
He is not handsome man. He would
not take first prize at a beauty show.
One of his eyes is little too much out
of plumb for that. Nor would he wake
the echoes if called upon to address an
audience filing the Coliseum Of Rome.
Or the Madison Square Garden of New
be a success as an itinerant stumper,
striding up and down the state, heap
ing abuse upon his enemies. No; he
hasn't the voice or the lung power for
that. Like the greatest Democratic
statesman of the last half of the Nine
teenth century. Samuel J. Tilden, Sen
ator Quays voice is soft and reaches
scarcely above whisper; consequent
ly he has rarely occupied the floor Of
the senate during the IL years he has
been there
MEN WHO TALK AND MEN WHO
ACT.
The fact is, the great orator" period
in American legislation has passed
away, never to return. it is to be hoped.
The talking men in the present senate
are those who have the least influence.
No one ever listens to them any more.
The writer of this homely sketch was
an officer of the United States senate
for several years. During this period
he listened TO one speech only-the
brilliant philippe delivered by Presi-
dent Pro TEN ingalls, when he left the
presidents chair to eXcoriate Senator
voorhees,, of Indiana. Upon every other
occasion the writer of this sketch i'm
mediately left the senate chamber
whenever senator arose to make
set speech, and pretty much everyone
else did the same thing. including the
speakers colleagues.
While the orator was talking to
empty benches the silent. working SEN
ator was busy in the committee room
or cloak room, planning. scheming and
arguing with his fellow members to
secure legislation for the benefit of his
constituents. In this latter phase of
legislation the all important one at the
close of the Nineteenth century, SEN
ator Quay was an adept. No one will
ever know the full measure of his ex-
traordinary services in behalf of the in
dustries of Pennsylvania. Sarely these
things have not so soon passed out of
the minds of the people of Pennsylva-
mia. The rowing band of verbose ora
tors" now at large in the common
wealth, endeavorlng to poison the minds
of the people, would be pleased to have
them forget these things.
A MEMORABLE ACHIEVEMENT.
His first memorable achievement was
in securing the passage, in 1880, of the
Mckinley tariff bill. 1t had been hung
up in the senate all summer, the DEM
ocratic opposition preventing it's com
ing to vote. Only a politician like
Senator Quay could have effected the
arrangement whereby action was ex-
pedited and an early vote taken, when,
of course, the bill passed. This meas
ure was of inestimabe advantage to
the immense and diversified interests
of Pennsylvania.
HIS SKILL AND ADROITNESS.
This is what the Bulletin of the Amer
lean Iron and Steel Association, one of
the most conspicuous trades organs in
the United States, said in reference to
Senator Quays connection with the
Mckinley bill:
Both in the senate and in the COM
mittee of conference Senator Quays
assistance was invaluable in securing
the adoption of the rates of duty which
We're embraced in the Mckinley bill as
it passed the house. His effort to Sc
cure the retention of the original Nc
Kinley rates We're in the main success
full But this was not the only service
Senator Quay rendered to the indus
tries Of his state and the country in
connection with the Mckinley tariff
bill. The bill was jeopardized in the
that year, the so-called force bill
which Republican senators were de-
termined to pass, and which Demo-
cratic senators, who We're in the minor
ity, We're determined to defeat by OBJ
structive tactics. or, in other words, by
talking the bill to death. If this scheme
of the Democrats had been carried out,
they would not only have succeeded
in defeating the force bill but they
would also have prevented the passage
of the Mckinley tariff bill through the
senate. as the time consumed in kill
ing the force bill would have pre-
vented the consideration of the Nc
KinIey bill Senator Quay had the
skill and adroitness to rescue the Me-
Kinley bill from this serious dilemma
by securing the adoption of an order of
business which gave it the right of
way over the force bill Thencefor-
ward the Mckinley bill had plain sail
ing in the senate"
1t was chiefly the passage of this
measure that gave us our magnificent
preSidapt whose nama II bora and who