The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-03-23
SOME VIEWS AT WASHINGTON
Cpy G. A. EpwARps)


The biennial fight on Tom Reed for this |
speakership has bobbed up again, as 1t
usually does at the end OF every session,
and in my opinion, 1t will go out OF sight
as quickly as 1t came to the surface when
the big fellow from Maine comes back here
next December.
The tremendous Influence welded by the
big speaker with the men of his own party
was never more clearly demonstrated than
II was In the second session Of the Fifty
fifth congress when the resolutions anent
Cuba were agitating the members OF the
house. Many republicans were in favor OF
passing the resolutions and were beginning
to kick vigorously and sweat under the
collar and make faces at Tom Reed They
held caucuses and threatened all sorts of
dire things, but Tom still sawed wood and
said nothing. You could hear these repub-
lioan "reconcentrados" talking in the hotel
Hobbies, and cafes and some were lusty-
lunged and vociferous in their denuncia-
items OF the car. They would even talk
that way while going up to the capitol, but
as they neared the sacred precincts OF the
out at their fingers ends and by the time
they got into the cloak room of the house
they were as limp as a rag. They would
hang up their hats, coats and baokbones
on the same hook and wobble into the pres
ence of their master like "a ielly-hsh The
sand in their crops was all gone and they
were once more the slaves of big Tom.
~
Now they are talking of beating him for
speaker again and this time there is an
administration end to the string. They
say that Mckinley has got knife up his
sleeve for Reed and will prod him with 1t
sure. The talk is that they will try TO
beat him with Hon. Jim Sherman of Utica,
n. y. That is not good story, because
the honorable Jim was recently appointed
and confirmed by the senate as one OF the
board of appraisers of the port of New
York. The position IL practically for life
and carries a salary of $1,000 year. 1t
is also understood that MIR. Sherman was
appointed to this position on his own soli-
citation and 1t Is not likely be Is going to
| give up dead cinch like that to try con-
| illusions with a buzz-saw like Tom Reed.
There must be something to the story,
| however. as Tom Platt has been very act
lively circulating the story that Mr. Sher-
man was too valuable a man to lose on the
republican side of the house. If they
| wanted to use Mr. Sherman they should
have thought of this before shaking the
| plum tree" for him. III bet six bits that
he doesn't give UP any job simply to please
Tom Platt and Mckinley and run the risk
of getting slammed up against the earth
so hard that he'll pop like a cannon crack
er Jim Sherman is level-headcd bust
ness man, and he knows which is the but
| tered side of piece of bread II this pyro-
technlc administration wants martyr they
Will, l predict. have TO look elsewhere for
him aud consider Jim Sherman out of the
running.
II they are determined to try conclusions
with Reed they will probably try to get
some Western man like Henderson of Iowa
or Hopkins Of Illinois. Both are strong
men and good presiding officers and very
popular with their fellow members, be-
sides, the West has not had a speaker for
many years and the big majority of repub-
licans In the next congress will come from
the West,
The story is here that Mckinley was
quite reluctant to enter upon a war with
Reed and that every effort was made to
bring about satisfactory agreement or
understanding between the speaker and the
president, but that all the overtures for
peace made by the latter we're spurned and
treated with contempt, so that there was
practically no other course open to Nc
Kinley but TO fight. IL ls said that Il
Is not now the intention of the administra-
ton to disclose its hand and trot out its
candidate, but that 1t can be set down as
an assured fact, that at what is regarded
as the proper time some man will be
brought forward by the president to an
tagonze Reed.
If such is the intention OF the president,
then the scrap will become historical.
There will be blood and hair and the
ground tore up" all around Washington.
The fight may, and in all probability will,
have an important bearing on the presi-
Dental campaign of next year. Reed hates
Mckinley and has contempt for him.
and Mckinley fears Reed and he has good
reason 20 fear him. There is a growing
belief that the republicans are getting
leary OF ronominating Mckinley next year.
on account of all the war scandals. and it
is believed that Reed is helping along this
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