Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-03-16


Democracy, and therefore for the conn
try, If the Economist prevails in the
councils of its party.
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 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
do 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 a 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. 2 on his part
The refusal got Thomas fighting bloc
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 were 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 vanquisll-
ed the Republican floor leader was a
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 a feather
Of unusual proportions.
The Speakership 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 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
10 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
ornamental system. Especially has that
been true in the last fifteen years. At
drst 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
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
ldency, but who would have graced it.
OF course Henry Clay and james G.
hn f1p0
tial candidates who are most frequent
ly spoken of, simply because in each
case the efforts to become chief mag
lstrate of the republic continued some
thing like quarter of century. Clay
was an active candidate from 1924 to
1s48 and receptive candidate before
the earlier and after the later year.
Just what there is about the speaker
ship which initiates against the incum-
bent's being promoted to the higher
place nobody seems to know. The
chances are that William Mckinley
was sadly disappointed when Reed de-
feated him for the speakership, but he
was started straight to the White
House when Reed made him chairman
Va eAS SoAAAAAAlIS0 VI dAu LlSdAo.
It's ten to one shot that he would
never have reached the White House
II he had been elected speaker.
It is said that Reed could have had
the vice presidential nomination at st.
Louis in 1895, but that when it was
suggested to him he scornfully rejected
It and thereby threw away his one
chance of becoming president, for had
he accepted it then in all human prob
ability he would have been renominat-
ID and reelected in 1900 and would
have succeeded Mckinley just as
Roosevelt did.
Thurlow Weed, pretty good authority
In such matters, says that the Wings
were anxious to have Daniel Webster
for their vice presidential candidate
back in 1910 and in 1S48, in both of
which years they were successful, but
that Webster would have none of it.
In either case he would have reached
the presidency, on which his heart was
set and the missing of which imbitter-
ID his life.
AL