The Republican journal., 1909-10-28
Attention was called at the time to t

Attention was called at the time to the
report of the Boston finance commission
on the rock crushers operated by that
city. and the recent sale Of some of the
plants invites return to the subject.
1t was shown that political jobbery was
manifest in this as IN other departments
of the Fitzgerald administration; that
the crushed rock cost the city many
times what it could be bought for, and
the commission recommended the sale of
the crushers and the buying of crushed
rock in the open market. These recon-
mendations were adopted; but for the
eight crushers which cost the city about
$500, 600, and had been operated at an
annual loss of about 500, 900, the largest
offer received was Sc, 900. Five of these
crushers have since been sold at prices
ranging from 81, 800 to S3,815. One
years under an agreement by which the
Rowe Contracting Company pays to
the city fifteen cents per ton for all stone
quaYried and crushed, and delivers to the
city ii the Brighton district crushed stone
or screenings for the sum Of 95 cents
per ton during the term Of this lease.
Herbert Bruce Fuller, A. NJ, LII. NJ.
author of THE Purchase of Florida, !"
has written, and Little, Brown & Co.,
Boston, have published, book on The
Speakers of the House. in which is traced
the development of power by the presid-
ing officers of the national House of
Representatives from 1889, when the
Speaker was merely a moderator, to
1909, when the Speaker is the most po-
tent factor in American legislative life
and second in power only to the Presi-
dent. Henry Clay is pronounced the
greatest of Speakers of the House, "the
incarnation of the American spirit, /" but
James G. Blaine is declared to be the
first and typical American. Kerr, Ran
dali, Keller and Carlisle are disposed of
in one chapter. Gear Reed and the
Revolution take up many pages, and
Reeds character is analysed to his
praise. Crisp and Henderson are de-
scribed and twenty-five pages are devot-
ed to Speaker Cannon. The revolt
against Cannon and the Fitzgerald
amendment to the rules are discussed.
and in this connection the author says:
For the rules may in some measure ia
cilltate the mannerin which the Speaker
now dominates the House and its con-
duet, but they are not the real source of
his power. 1t has been the personal force
of the Speaker himself, backed by the
strength Of the group about him, which he
has made powerful, that has constituted
the chief element of his dictatorship.
Only the most radical revision could de-
stroy this edifce." The author notes
that out of thirty-fve Speakers of the
House, only one, Polk, ever became
President and he asks: "Why did not
Clay, Blaine, Carlisle, Read and Cannon
realize their final ambition? Has it been
because the nature and function of their
office has bequeathed to the public per-
Verted idea of the personal attributes of
the incumbents? Is it because their
committee assignments and their parlia-
mentary decisions have ranked in the
hearts Of their powerful colleagues? Is
it that with their elevation to the Speak
ership they have been removed from the
debates of the floor, and the opportunity
Of leaving their personal impress upon
public measures? Reed was the Speak
er but the Mckinley tariff bill made
President of the member whose name it
bore. -