The Savannah morning news., 1902-03-02
CAPITOL TYPHOONS
FAMILIAR STORM CENTERs IN
SENATE AND HOUSE.
SOME DESKS LIKE PIXIES PEAK
WHENCE EMERGE FREQUENT ELE-
MENTAL DISTURBANCES.

Cummings Says Cyclones Frequent
Iy Originate in TiIIman's Vicinity.
Tempest over Philippine Question.
The EoIus of the Bitter Root
Mountains Brief but Violent
Squalls in the House.
(Copyright 1902, by Amos ]. Cum
mings)
Washington, March Pixies Peak
Is not the only storm center in the
country There are such centers in
finance, in religion, in politics. and in
legislation. They give rise to none
tary panics. to religious awakenings,
TO political downfalls, and to material
changes in legislation. There are
indications that the White House will
soon become a storm center. The
isothermal lines lack the proper curve
and are prophetic of trouble. An area
of low pressure has given place to one
of high pressure, central at the other
end of Pennsylvania avenue. Political
weather wiseacres are on the qui vive,
and nearly all agree that the temper
ature is unsatisfactory. There are
also storm centers in the Senate and
House of Representa- lives.
Visitors to the Capitol usually spend
a few minutes in the galleries over
looking the Senate chamber. After
they are seated it takes some time to
overcome the awe incident to the visit,
but on listening to the discussions
they gradually reach the dead level of
life once more, and arrive at the con-
clusion that the dignitaries below are,
after ALL only ordinary mortals. The
personalities of those who have in
scribed their names on the scroll of
fame is easily ascer tained. Newspa-
per readers can readily pick out the
faces of Mark Hanna, Charles w.
Fairbanks, Chauncey NJ. Depew Will
liam NJ. Stewart, and John w. Daniel
They are as familiar as the faces of
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
If the visitor has a diagram of the
seats in the chamber, he has little
difficulty in naming any of the sem
ators present. Let him turn his eye
to desk SO. 1t is a point OF peculiar
interest. 1t stands near the main en-
trance to the hall. 1t is on the left
of the aisle, in the third row of seats
from the front There is nothing re-
markable about the desk itself 1t is
.I
plate bearing the name of the senator
who occupies 1t. While not differing
from the desks in its vicinity it is the
storm center of nearly all senatorial
discussions.
Twenty-Five years ago it sheltered
the august feet of Joseph E, McDon-
aid, of Indiana. Mcdonald was then
a prominent candidate for presiden-
tial nomination. Upon his retirement
from the Senate he was succ eeded by
a man who became Pre- sident of tho
United States-Benjamin Harrison. He
did not take the desk vacated by Nc
DonalS. That fell to John w. john
ston of Virginia, who spent twelve
years IN the Senate. In the Forty
eighth Congress the desk became the
property of the father-in law of Her.
man Oelrichs of New York city, the
Hon. James G. Fair of Nevada. Mr..
Fair seemed to have very little appre-
citation of its Importance foI he rarely
occupied it. Four years larer ii was
pre-empted by Henry w. Blair of New
Hampshire, who retained 1t until he
was no longer a senator. Samuel Pas
co of Florida. was the next claimant.
He turned it over to Stephen NJ. White
of California. cousin of the Hon. Will
liam Bourke Cochran of New York,
then member of the House OF Repre-
sentatives.
On Whites retirement the desk fell
into the hands of Benjamin T.. Till
man of the Palmetto State, who is to-
day its tutelar deity. From the lays of
Joe Mcdonald down to the debut of the
pitchfork statesman, the desk never
rose above the level of dull mediocrity
White occasionally made a vitriolic
squirt and Blair inundated the Senate
periodically with prosy speeches on
education and Oriental affairs. When
Tillman secured the seat, however,
there was a pronounced changed. He
made it the storm center of the cham
Der. 1t became the Pixies Peak of
legislation in the Senate. At unex-
pected moments ii was surcharged
with electricity. There were flashes
of lightning, followed by rolling thun-
der and cloudbursts.
During the discussion attending the
consideration of the Philippine tariff
bill this storm center gave rise TO a
tempest of unusual proportions 1t
aroused the apprehension of Joseph B.
Foraker, who promptly sounded his
fire alarm. Then the storm ragged in all
its fury. Tillman has espoused the
cause of Aguinaldo, and asserted OPEN
~ that all his sympatheties were with
the E'iliOir1nS in their CT, crOIa foy froo