Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1906-03-15
Won ! SIGNAL Victory.

Won Signal Victory.
The late Thomas Bracket Reed al
ways contended that even under the
code of rules bearing his name the
house could do as it pleased. A recent
| victory won in the house by Hon.
| Charles Randolph Thomas of North
Carolina was what Mr.. Reed would
have called vindication of his theory.
| The committee on ways and means
unanimously reported bill authoriz-
| ing the president to consolidate Gus
| toms districts. The intention Of the bill
was to get rid of certain ports which
| 10 not pay expenses. Such legislation
has been pressed by the secretary Of
| the treasury for years. Nobody appear
| ed before the committee to fight the
proposed legislation, so Chairman
Payne concluded that it would have
easy sailing through the house. which
turned out to be sad mistake on the
part of the Honorable Serene. He
arose one morning with an expansive
smile on his countenance and proceed
ed to blandly call the bill up. Thomas
politely asked him for few moments
in which to express his disapproval,
which Brother Payne bluntly and curt
" refused Mistake No. on his part.
The refusal got Thomas fighting blood
up, and he began fight which ended in
a signal triumph for him. He spoke
during the time he had in his own
right While he was speaking his
friends We're busy aligning members,
and when the vote was taken he won
by large majority and was the recipi-
ent of numerous congratulations. By
making his successful fight he took a
long step upward and forward in the
house. for there, as elsewhere, nothing
succeeds like success. The fact that
he had locked horns with and vanauish-
i ed the Republican floor leader was a
4 big feather in his cap, but the fact that
! he had rolled the Republican leader,
/ who was supported by the entire ways
and means committee, was feather
/ Of unusual proportions.
The SpeakersE7p and the Presidency.
The esteemed Philadelphia Inquirer
! in an article about the death of ex-
| Speaker David B. Henderson of Iowa
and his career falls into the error of
saying, 1T is a curious fact that no
/ speaker has ever been elected presi-
! dent, although many have aspired to
the honor" The trouble with that
statement is that it is not true, for
| James Knox Polk of Tennessee was
first speaker and then president. His
career was evidently not familiar to-
| the writer of the Inquirer editorial. 1t
| is curious fact, however, that only
one speaker became president and only
one reached the vice presidency, Schuy-
| Ter Colfax. Really the speakership is
the second Office in power in our gov
ernmental system. Especially has that
been true in the last fifteen years. At
/ first our speaker exercised much the
same functions as the speaker of the
house of commons, those of mod
orator but as the house has grown
/ in membership the speakers power
has increased, and his power has in
creased principally by reason of the
/ Increase in membership. From Muh-
lenberg to Cannon, both inclusive, sew
eral great men have welded the gavel
men who not only aspired to the pres
/ idency, but who would have graced it.
/ or course Henry Clay and James G..
Blaine are the two speaker presiden-
tfal candidates who are most frequent
liz spoken of, simply because in each
ease the efforts to become chief mag