The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-02-16

precedented in that district. where the
vicious practice of rotation in office"
so long maintained. There is no more
sense in rotation in office than there
is in rotation in the guilds. AS well
say that as soon as man gets to be a
good shoemaker. he should drop that
trade and turn blacksmith, as to de-
cree that when a man has well served
a constituency in congress he should be
made to take up something else. Your
new member is at great disadvantage,
unless he has gained eminence before
he gets to congress, as was the case
with David Dudley Field. and as is
the case with Philander c. Knox. The
old member. by sheer force of senior
ity, gets desirable committee assign
ments. The rule is that the new men,
Der must take years "to spell up" TO
a place where he can be of practical
use in the real work of congress and
solonism.
Congress cannot be, and if it could, it
will not be, stampeded by conflagra-
ton of the Potomac river, a piece of
incendiary work perpetrated by a new
member, even if that member were a
Tom Marshall. William ]. Bryan
found that out though he did set Lake
Michigan afire and stampede Demo-
cratic national convention after he left
Tom Reed was during the life of the
f, FOrIy-sixth congress, his second term.
Nobody then supposed that there was
In him the making Of half the man he
became, and that he would not have
been had rotation held good in Maine i
| The same was true of Dingley and
Boutele and is true of Hale and Frye.
Experience in the legislature is what
discipline and drill are in The army.
u
Adamson is one OF the most popular
men, personally, in congress-in the
class with Allie James on the Demo-
cratic side, and Fred Lands on the
| Republican side. Everybody halls him
| as Charlie" 1t is a habit Georgians
have-"Bob" Toombs. Ben Hill.
ALEC" Stephens, Joe" Brown, Jim"
| Griggs, and so on. This diminutive of
a Christian name is usually a tribute
to the heart and the good-fellowship of
the man. Give me a match, joe" said
the little Gauvouche, of Pennsylvania
avenue, and who needed a better in
| sight into Joe Blackburn's character
| its democratic openness and open
hearted fellOwship-than that familiar
| ity discloses?
1t was on the Dingley tariff that
Adamson made his maiden effort. and
| it was not only a characteristic speech
| but an able argument. John Sharp
Williams never flew at the throat Of
a subject more accurately or more VIC
| iously. 1t was no such speech as Car
isles against the Mckinley tariff, and
! ii was even more radically different
| from Aldrich's in favor of it.
X
| One day the great Toombs made one
of his terrific assaults on a bill Of
Judah P. Benjamin to dispose of some
public lands in Louisiana. Benjamin.
| began his reply with this: 1T is evil
| dent that the senator from Georgia is
not familiar with the principles of the
/ civil law that maintains in Louisiana"
to which Toombs roared i'm retort:
THAT is possibly true, and if famil-
lar knowledge of it incapacitates me to
| recognize stealing when IL is right be-
fore my eyes. l pray God / may always
remain as ignorant of the civil law as
am this blessed minute"
| Adamson did not understand the
PHILOSOPHERS of the tariff as expound-
ed by Adam Smith, the free-trader. and,
George Bentham, the protectionist.
Few do; but like Toombs. Charley dis
tinctly saw the stealing in the bill and
| pointed 1t out in some delightfully."-
| blunt passages. 1t was a most sue
| cessfui beginning, and Adamson from
| that day had the respect of congress
as well as the good will of every MEM
Der who made his acquaintance.
When he came here he succeeded in
retaining in their positions several la
dies whom Mr.. Cleveland had appoint
ed pOstmasters in his district. He de-
feated the nominations of four negro
pOstmasters out of five in his district.
He broke the red tape of the circum-
locution Office, had the Chattahoochee
river cleared of distractions and thus
gave the mills of Columbus cotton
weeks sooner than they otherwise
would have received it. Later he got
an adequate appropriation in the river
and harbOr bill for that important
stream. His popularity was as great
with the heads of departments as 1t
was with his associates on the floor, and
| TO please him many Democrats were
! restored TO the Blue Book i'm his dis
trict who had been turned out at the
beginning of McKinley's first term. He
had the good sense to oppose the Span
ish war, though the Democratic side of
the Fifty-fifth congress took the hys-
terics every time the word Cuba was
pronounced during a sitting. despite the
fact that it was a foolish war, the pros
ecution of which was bound to add
strength to the Republican party in the
nation. He got a fish hatchery at Bull
lochville. and it is claimed that there
are more delicious pan fish in his dis
trict than any other can boast. Item
Jim Griggs says that amt so. that his
district can beat it.
But the best work of Adamson was
as a member of the committee on in
terstate and foreign commerce. OF
course, his work in that council is
buried in the secrets of the committee
room, but his unfailing good sense, his
love of justice and his great capacity
for instantaneously discovering the sa-
lent point of a question. rendered him
invaluable s a counselor to his asso-
ciates on this committee. In the house