The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-02-28
WASHINGTON LETTER.

That the House of Representa-
tives has ceased to be a deliberative
body and has ciegenerated into a
mere machine doing the bidding
of a small number of men, by
courtesy called leaders but actually
dictators, has been appreciated for
Il number of years by those in close
touch with its workings, but never
in it's history have the high handed
and tyrannical methods adopted
by the present Speaker and his
colleagues to secure the passage OF
the war revenue repeal bill been
equalled or even approached. The
proceedings last Monday were a
source of humiliation to every
member of the House possessed of
sufficient intelligence to compre
bend their meaning.
Appreciatino that large contin
gent of their own party, and con
sequently of the Republican mem
bers, were urgent in their demands
for tariff reform and would seize
the opportunity to amend the
measure framed by the Ways and
Means Committee, approaching
their own inability as leaders and
intent on securing their own ends
and protecting the vested interests
whose money has long perpetuated
Republican rule, the leaders antici-
pated the introduction Of the reve-
nue. reduction bill by proposing
for adoption rule which not only
limited the debate on measure
calculated to reduce the revenues
of the Government by SIS, 900, 900
per annum, but positively prohib
tied the amending of the same in
any manner. Mr.. Richardson, the
Democratic leader, protested and
appealed to the rulings of Speaker
Henderson, but to no avail. Mr..
Henderson repudiated all known
authorities and declared himself
supreme. On an appeal FROM the
chair the rulings of the Speaker
were sustained by a strict party
vote. Mr.. Richardson, appreclat
ing the futility of appeals to logic
and patriotism and realizing the
the powerlessness of the minority,
requested anAimmediate vote and
the measure carried without one
minutes discussion of its' provi
sions, one moments deliberation,
and a precedent had been estab
lished of the gravest portent> to
tire future of the nation.
:. Simultaneously with the above
action of the House, the Senate
was establishing another precedent
which portends no good to this
country. The last named body,
on Monday, ratified the treaty by
which the United States purchases
tie Danish West Indies and in so
doing the argument was advanced
on the Senate that because the
Monroe doctrine precludes the
requirement of additional territory
on this hemisphere, and these
islands were tor sale, the United
States must purchase them. Would
the same argument apply to Hayti,
for instance, and to all the posses
sions of European countries in
South America n When European
governments have extracted, by
means of misgoyernment, etc., all
the wealth of those countries and
desires to be rid of the wrecks will
the United States have to purchase
them! This not party question
for the vote was practically unani-
nous for the ratification of the
treaty, but it IS a serious question.
Since the passage of the revenue
bill the House has accomplished no
important legislation. The Senate
has passed the bill providing for a
permanent census bureau and has
fixed upon next Monday for final
debate and vote on the Philippine
revenue bill. The Senate commit
tee on agriculture is considering
the oleomargarine bill and the in
dications are that it will pass. 1t
is quite probable that the commit
tee will eliminate the clause re,
lating the renovating butter for,
as Senator from Iowa pointed
out yesterday when | asked him of
the likelihood of the bills passing
the Senate, Congress has no au
thority to legislate in regard to the
manufacture of any food product
unless it is on the ground that it is
for the purpose of raising revenue,