Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-12-19
CHAMP CLARK 5 LETTER
Especial Washington Letter.l


and thrown upon the political dust
heap. In its essence it is tyrannical
1t has forty clear majority in the
house over all, and yet on Monday,
Dec. 2, it railroaded through a resolu-
ton to adopt the Reed rules, vicious
system of despotism, without debate
mot exactly without debate, either,
for they did allow Hon. James D. Rich
ardson, floor leader of the Democrats,
five minutes to enter the protest of the
minority against the foul outrage, and
that five minutes grudgingly yielded
by Hon. John Dalzell. who had the
resolution in charge.
That Democrats are not alone in
kicking against these Reed rules is
shown by the fact that Colonel Will
liam Peters Hepburn. the veteran Re-
publican from Iowa, made a fight in
the Republican caucus against them
and was supported by forty other
members of a like way of thinking,
but Colonel Pete and his twoscore
followers got great churning up in
caucus, so that when they got into the
house they fell in behind Hon. John
Dalzell, bellwether, as meekly as a
lot of disreputable sinners at a bap-
tizing.
No Applause.
When President Roosevelt's message
was being read in the house. 1t was no
ticeable that. while some parts of it
were applauded, his recommendation
in favor of reciprocity was received
with painful silence on the Republican
side of the house, which is prophetic
of what will not be done by the major
ity in this congress. For all practical
purposes Mr.. Mckinley might as well
never have delivered his farewell ad-
dress" to the American people at Buff
falo. 1t fell on what Senator Joseph
Weldon Bailey of Texas was wont to
denominate "the leaden ears and hard
ened consciences" of the Republican
freebooters: The vast majority of them
have no more idea of loosening their
grip on the throats Of the American
people than they have of being trans
lated in chariot of fire after the man.
ner of Elijah. and if there ever was a
set Of people in this world who were in
no imminent danger of being translat-
ed it is this same Republican majority.
Like Ephraim Of old, they are Joined
to their idols, and, what's more, they
are glued to the business of pap suck
ing. They will have to be choked off
A Deserved Promotion.
Mr.. Speaker Henderson did gra-
cious and graceful thing in appointing
Hon. Oscar w. Underwood of Birming-
ham, Ala, to the place ON the commit
tee on rules held by Hon. Joseph w.
Bailey of Texas before that splendid
ate. For some years Underwood has
been the Democratic whip and he
has discharged the onerous duties of
that difficult and thankless position
with industry. fidelity and capacity.
He deserved the promotion. All Demo-
Gratis say SO. He is young man
looks like boy-and comes of the Ken
tucky Underwood family, which has
furnished one senator of the United
States and other statesmen to the coun-
try. Oscar w. Underwood is one of
the coming men in the party. In fact,
he has already arrived.
Richardson's Mot.
Hon. James D. Richardson of Ten
nessee, reelected floor leader of the
is one of the most graceful
and tactful of mortals, and therein lies
much of his success. In his speech be-
fore the Democratic caucus, accepting
the nomination for speaker. he was
felicitous. One of his hap
piest hits was. when in urging constant
of members. be said, 81
hope you will all be as anxious to at
tend the sessions of the house as you
were to be elected to the house." That
was decidedly neat and elected a
hearty round of applause from the
Democrats. His unanimous renomina-
ton to the speakershlp is compliment
of which any man might well be proud.
Vive Richardson of Tennessee!
Hot Haste.
IF 'twere done. 'twere well 'twere
done quickly" appears to be Mark Han
mas theory as to bis great ship subsidy
raid upon the treasury, for Mark is not
a fool. whatever else he may be, and
he knows full well that the American
merchant marine. despite the tariff on
materials, is growing SO
fast that unless he gets his spoon in
very soon q ship subsidy appropriation
would be such bold and preposterous
steal that even those Republican con-
gressmen for whom he bought seats in
the last campaign would hesitate to
vote for 1t. So Mark. being wise in his
day and generation. Is doing his best to
hurry up things and to rush his bill
through before the bottom falls en-
tirely out
How ridiculous and idiotic the whole
thing is! Here we are about to spend
s200.000,000 on an isthmian canal to
promote our merchant marine and
about $100.00O.OOO for the same pur-
pose in the form of a ship subsidy bill
when all that we have to do to take our
place once more among the nations
with great merchant marines is to take
the tariff off shipbuilding materials,
thereby giving our shipbuilders an
equal chance with the shipbuilders on
the river Clyde.
We are like the Spanish king who
suffered himself to be burned to a
cracking because it was against eti-
quette for him to move himself and
there was no servant at hand to move
him. In history he has been unani-
mously pronounced a great fool So
are we to spend $300,000,0 900 to sen-
courage our merchant marine when
we could have a great merchant ma
rine by the simple process of taking
the tariff off of few articles. what
fools these mortals bep' Yea, verify.
Republican Bugaboo.
Republicans are afraid to take the
tariff off shipbuilding materials be-
cause they live in terror of what Gov
ernor George w. Steele of Indiana,
present congressman from the Ninth
district, denominates tariff tinkering."
They lie awake Of nights inducing in
somnia by pestering their heads about
tariff tinkering." | am not certain
that Governor Steele invented that
phrase, but, if he did not invent it, he
has used it so much that it has become
his very own by user" The governor