The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-06-19
THE VALUE OF INDEPENDEN CE
TO A PARTY.
[New York Evening Post. }

New York Evening Post.D
The recent session of Congress fur
nished a striking illustration of the value
of Independence to the. public man. The
member of the House of Representatives
who made the best reputation during the
six months was Mr.. Littlefield of Maine.
He was unknown to the country when
the Fifty-sixth Congress assembled, and,
indeed, had sat in the House only dur
ing the short session of the Fifty-fifth
Congress having been chosen as Mr..
Dingleys successor in the summer of
1899.
Mr. Littlefield won this reputation
not only by the display of uncommon
ability, but also, and much more, by re-
peated exhibitions of independence. At
the very opening of the session, in the
matter of the Utah Representative
right to IA seat, he took his stand against
the overwhelming majority of both par
ties in the House, and against an equally
pronounced popular sentiment, in main
tanning that the alleged polygamist ought
TO be sworn inland then expelled, If
proof of his guilt should be produced. A
few weeks later, when the whole power
of the Administration was employed to
force the passage of bill imposing a
high tariff permanently upon Porto Rico,
Mr. Littlefield followed the lead of Mr..
Mccall of Massachusetts, in demanding
that free trade which the President had
rightly declared it was ''our plain duty
to grant. Everybody who knows the
man knows that the Maine representa-
tive assumed his independent attitude in
each case simply because his conscience
required him so to act. But II an ambi-
tious man at the threshold of a Congress
sional career had considered how he could
best establish his reputation as menu
Der who would command the repect OF
both the House and the country, he
could not have devised better course
than the one which Mr.. idttletield pur-
sued.
A strong leaven of Independence is thus
shown to be the best policy for The indt-
vidual legislator. The assembling of the
Republican National Convention Illus
trates the truth that strong leaven of
Independence is also the best policy for
a party When the Republican majority
of the Ways and Means Committee, under
the leadership of Chairman Payne-there.
by the way, Is IA case which shows how
the lack OF backbone hurts man
brought in the bill which proposed
tariff of 20 per cent. ON Porto Rico, with
out any restriction of time, Mr.. Mccall
made minority report, which presented
the argument for free trade with great
ability and force. Mr.. Littlefeld, MIR.
Crumpacker of Indiana, and several 9th
er Republican Representatives fell in be-
hind Mr.. Mccall, and did their best to
defeat the imposition OF any tariff what
ever. They did not succeed in this, but
the movement thus started did force mod
ifications of the measure so great that the
heart was taken out of it. The amount
of the tariff was reduced almost half,
and it was provided that what remained
might be abolished whenever the local
government of the island should see its
way to sufficient revenues from other
sources, and in any event should cease
within two years. This was as near to
an absolute surrender of a principle
which had at first been pronounced indis-
pensable as could reasonably have been
expected of party.
Every politician in the land now per-
ceives how vastly better oil the Republic
cans are at the opening of the Presiden-
tial campaign by reason OF the radical
changes In the Porto Rican bill which
the independent members of the party in
Congress forced. If the measure had
heen passed as the Administration sought
so earnestly to have it, the platform-ma-
kers at Philadelphia next week would
have been in despair, and Republican
stump speakers would have shrunk in
dread from an issue which yet they could
not escape meeting. AS IL Is, 1t will be
hard to frame 'polnt-with-pride" reso-
luton, undoubtedly, but 1t will be pos