The Irish standard., 1902-12-13
A GREAT AMERICAN IS GONE.


A GREAT AMERICAN is GONE.
Last Sunday morning at Washington,
d. c., Thomas B. Reed, ex-speaker of
the House of Representatives died af-
ter weeks illness at the age of 63
years. In his death America loses a
man of pre-eminent ability and Maine
one of it's noblest sons. The highest
evidence Of his honesty in public life
is that after spending quarter Of a
century in Congress he retired poor
man and tried to make enough out Of
his law practice to leave his wife and
daughter enough to place them beyond
want. Men with itching palms and
incomparably inferior to Tom Reed
feathered their nests in politics, but lie
remained poor to the end. He was in
corruptible. Intellectually he stood
head and shoulders above the most Of
his Congressional contemporaries, as he
did physically; and morally he had no
superior among them, and yet during
his long public service he has left moth
ing behind in the way of legislation
by which he will be remembered by
future generations. He was the author
of the parliamentary rules which bear
his name; he edited Modern Elo-
quence" in ten volumes, contributed ar
ticles to the magazines, but beyond
that he has left no literary produc-
tions to perpetuate his name. He was
not even an orator like Geo. f. Hoar,
for instance, and none of his speeches
will ever find place in the school
books of the country.
Thomas B. Reed never looked with
favor OH the Philippine policy of the
Republican party, but unlike Senator
Hoar, he did not have the courage to
denounce it openly. He was too much
of partisan to be fearless American
patriot. When he found that there
was no chance for him to reach the
presidency he retired from politics at
the very time that his services were
needed to keep the republic in the Or
bit in which it had been moving from
it's birth until it was proclaimed to be
"a world power' by representatives of
plutocracy. After his retirement from
politics he did not, like Benjamin Har-
rison, use his pen in behalf of the Boer
republics nor say one word against the
inhumanity of the American troops in
the Orient He could have done it if
he wished, but he did not But, per-
haps, for New Englander, we should
not expect too much from him. Had
he been in the West instead of in the
East he would have been a bigger and
broader man.
Take him all in all, Thomas B. Reed
was fine specimen of an American.
Though very arbitrary as speaker of
the House he had many warm friends
among the Democratic members. He
and BOurke Cochran had many tilts on
the floor of the House, but after the
heated debate was over the two of
them would walk together arm in arm
along Pennsylvania avenue and laugh
like school boys. There was nothing
narrow or bigOted about Tom Reed,
though born in Maine. In the Courier
Journal, Henri Wattersom writes of
him as follows:
''He was dozen presidents in him.
self. He scorned the gaudy trappings.
He disdained the vulgar insignia. He
could stand his ground against myri.
ad Of bullics-bullies his equals, many
Of them his friends. all Of them mis-
taken as to him and his ruling-but he
could not get down to the self-abase-
ment Of putting the presidency of the
United States into the category of a
commodity to be dickered for. So he
stepped down and out, a radical, un-
doubling Republican, who could not be
anything but a Republican if he tried;
a Maine Republican, dyed in the wool; !;
Il Car, but not a hypocrlte, incapable
Of double-dealimg or rdouble-seeming, as
lofty as George Frisbee Hoar, with,
perhaps, his humanity only as his saw
ing grace in the hour of decision.
"Therc are some things even better
than the presidency. The great speak
er Of the House-wearing the mantle
Of Blaine without any of it's shreds
and patches-perfectly understood
what he was doing when he surren-
dercd TO his own heart. That heart
beat true to his party; he was not will
ing to fight against it. 1t beat true to
his little brood ut home; poor man,
he knew not when he might be taken
away. 1t seemed time to be laying by
something for Il rainy day. He was
timid only in love; he was coward
only in fidelity. The very cavalier Of
cavaliers: the Prince Rupert of Repub-
licans."
THE IRISH LAND PROBLEM.
There is every Indication that the
pr;%iS1, will %,1- ,,,> %I,o