The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-20
quay. SULLIVAN AND WEBSTER.

QUAY, SULLIVAN AND WEBSTER.
The gentlemen referred to in the
! headline are Matthew Stanley Quay OF
Pennsylvania, Timothy DRY Dollar
Sullivan OF New York, and Daniel
Webster of Massachusetts. And the
least of these, we are now asked to
believe. is Webster. Heretofore school
children have been taught that Mr..
Webster, whom death has happily
saved from knowledge of the
comparison. was one Of the foremost
of American orators and statesmen.
His speeches are even to this day de-
claimed by budding genius as MASTER
pieces of reasoning and rhetoric. And
yet ii is solemnly asserted by Judge
Pennypacker of Pennsylvania, who is
the Republican candidate for Governor
of mis- state, that Senator Quay is
greater than Webster" and the Hon.
Mr.. Sullivan, who is a candidate for
Congress from one of the New York
districts, assured his constituents in a
speech the other night, II am better
fitted TO represent you than Daniel
Webster, II he was to come back on
earth"
As a matter of course, the relative
depends upon the point of view Of the
Observer Judge Pennypacker is the
candidate of what is openly asserted
to be the most corrupt political ma
chine in the United States, which
means in the world; and Senator Quay
is at the head of that machine. 1t is by
his brains that it is run. Daniel Web
ster never had any such machine He
probably couldn't have managed one
like it if it had been ready made and
placed to his hand. So far as the in
formation goes, Quay has him skinned
to DEATH" to employ the vernacular,
in the matter of shaking the plum
tree" and securing valuable franchises
for political friends. Webster might
have been able to use finer language
than Quay can, but in these modern
days of practical politics, fine words
butter no parsnips," or relatively none
in comparison with the number of
parsnips and the amount of butter
that Senator Quay by underground
political methods, has been able to pro-
vide for himself and his friends. In
consideration of all of which facts, it
may be that Judge Pennypacker is
perfectly sincere when he declares that
Quay is greater than Webster. Web
ster might not have risen to the
hight of pleading the statute of limi-
tations in a certain contingency, and
Re might have baked at the padding
of the Philadelphia registration rolls
with $4,000 fraudulent names as a
means Of winning an election; where
fore Mr.. Webster must take a back
seat.
And Mr.. Sullivan was no doubt
equally honest in estimating himself
superior to Webster as a representa-
tive of a downtown New York dis
trict. In Mr.. Sullivan's opinion the
man who represents" his district in
Congress ought to be a replica, so to
speak, of the average voter of that
district. He ought to be in thorough
they want" He ought to be able to
converse with them in their own
idioms and slang, and in Washington
he ought to devote himself to getting
things" for them. 1t is extremely
doubtful if Daniel Webster would have
measured up to the hight of Tim"
Sullivan in these particulars in a down
town New York district. Why, he
wouldn't have known the meaning of
graft" and "cinch." and 'hunch," and
the like, words indispensable in the
downtown New York politicians vo-
cabulary. and possibly in his practice
also. And another thing in Mr. Sui
livan's favor, asserted by so reliable an
authority as the Evening Post, is that
he never took a drink of liquor in his
life and does not smoke. Now, Daniel
Webster was extremely fond of bran
dy, and sometimes drank more of it
than was good for him. His last words,
II still live" are said to have been
prompted by the desire for a drink of
brandy and the doctors orders that if
he were still alive at the end of half
an hour he should have another table
spoonful of the precious fluid On the
score of temperance, therefore, DRY
Dollar" has the advantage of Webster,
according to oft-repeated arguments
that the man who INDUCES In strong
drink is not the equal of the man who
does not.
The status of President John Mitchell
and the United Mine Workers, in
view of the conditions of the coal strike
settlement, seems to be matter about