The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-06-25
Champ
Letter 2
Especial Washington Letter. ]

Especial Washington letter.
1N England they may not use the
expression soft snap,' but they
have the thing itself. The speak
ership Of the house Of commons
is most decidedly Of that nature. The
incumbent holds on till he dies or re-
signs No matter if the political COM
pleXion Of the house changes, the
speaker continues to WELD the gavel
and draw the salary, which is $4,000
per annum. If he chooses to resign,
he is entitled to a peerage and to q
pension of $4,000 a year Mr.. Gully,
who has just resigned to accept the
peerage and pension, has been speaker
for many years and appears to have
been as successful in that line as his
grandfather was i'll pugilsn. Here
our speaker holds for two years on 4
salary of 5000 and retires on no pen
sion Of course, when the political
complexion Of the house changes.
new speaker is elected. In England the
speakers duties seem to be wholly
judicial. With us his duties are large
ly political. very slightly judicial. Yet
we have as speaker men who are fully
equal mentally to the English speakers.
Some of the men who have presided
over the American house Of representa-
tives have been of the first rank. One
unsuccessful candidates for the presi-
dency, among them Henry Clay, James
G. Blaine and Thomas Bracket Reed,
have filed the chair at Washington.
One vice president, Schuyler ColfaS,
was an ex-speaker. Two speakers Ga
lusha A. Grow and J. Warren kiefer,
were defeated for reelection to con-
gress. Grow re-entered the house after
an absence Of thirty -four years, and
now Kiefer returns after an enforced
retirement of a quarter Of century.
The speaker of the American commons
has far more power than his English
prototype. He is easily the second Of
ficer Of the government in point OF
power Sometimes he seems to have
more power than the president himself.
SptuhSi NoAAoI CACIN ASCS OH CAC
power which bis position bestows.
Astonished.
One Of the most interesting Republic
ans in congress is Hon. Frank c.
Wachter of Baltimore. Like Yorick.
''he is a fellow of infinite jest" but he
is not in a joking frame Of mind just
now Colonel Roosevelt has Jared all
the humor out of him by proclaiming
that he is about to appoint Hon. Charles
J. Bonaparte to be secretary Of tie
navy. When Wachter heard this he
was so overwhelmed that all he could
do was to murmur, II am astonished:'
What he said when he recovered his
speech is not recorded. Perhaps, to bor
row an idea from Cushman Of Wash
ington. one would need asbestus paper
on which to set forth the hot language of
Wachter when he really expresses his
inmost thoughts on this burning sub
ject, for Wachter is fighting Repub-
lican and has no use for mugwumps
Indeed, he is not the only Maryland
Republican "astonished" at the eleva
ton Of Colonel Bonaparte. The aver
age Maryland Republican believes
with all his heart in William L. Mar
cy's dictum, ITO the victor belongs the
spoils," and he wants the spoils and
wants them right away. Now, if Colo
mel Bonaparte believes anything at all.
he believes in civil service-which is
the abomination of Maryland Republic"
ans; hence their bad case Of multi
grubs which produced the astonish-
ment Of my genial friend Wachter.
To be deprived of the spells or to have
them in driblets from the hands Of
Colonel Bonaparte, who was until re-
Gently Democrat, riles the souls Of
the faithful in Maryland, my Mary
land. There will be no pleasure in life
for them SO long as Colonel Bonaparte
handles the Maryland pie. Who can
blame Wachter ct al? The; have
borne the heat and burden Of the day.
They have fought tooth and nail for
Republicanism for, 10, these many
years when Maryland was hopelessly
DcAuoCIdtlC. lucy WOulu De S1meEnlDS
more or less than human if they did !
not resent the promotion of the man
who first and last has done them many
a bad turn. Perhaps-who knows?-
Colonel Bonaparte is an instrument in
the hands Of Providence to break up
the Republican party in Maryland, a
devoutly to be wished. |
So all good Democrats will exclaim,
'On with the dancer' When Wachter |
and his fellow stalwarts recover from
their "astonishment'' and timber up |
their linguistic guns things in Republic |
an circles are likely to sizzle some
what, but If Colonel Bonaparte fights |
as we'll as did his granduncle it is by |
no means certain that the Republican |
stalwarts will be able to do him up. |
Anyway, it is a pretty fight as it
stands. The more one studies the Re
publican Maryland situation, the more
ae admires the astuteness of ex-United
States Senator Louis Emory McComas
"a Arrvs