Evening star., 1909-03-10

Improvement of the Potomac river are
suggested as two committees which event
ually will harbor several Of the insurgent
strength.
The organization leaders are inclined to
think that these several propositions-the
boiling of the party caucus with its re-
suits; the indeterminat!on o: parry afn!!-
alton thereafter with its results: the coal-
tion with the democratic forces with rs
results and the proposition OF being an.
solu:ely ignored in the Distribution or
committee pie with It's results-wiH have
something TO do with reducing the insur-
gent strength below the danger limit be-
tween now and the 10Th of March
"Uncle Joe" May Change Course.
Mr.. Cannon is the first Speaker of the
House who ever recognized. formally and
almost officially. the recommendations OF
the minority leader with respect to com
mittee places for minority members
Probably as a result of this rules row.
Uncle Joe will return to the practice or
his predecessor and not consult the NIL
nority leader in the matter or committee
places. This seems 10 he the present OUT
look, although there are several elements
which may bring about Grange between
now and the conveninS OF the speclai
session.
In this connection ii is of interest that
leading democrat OF the House said TO-DAY
that admitting for the sake of argument
that the insurgents and the democrats. by
combining were able to defeat the organl-
zattion. that he did not expect TO see the
democrats stick together when 1t comes
to amending the rules along the radlcal
lines proposed by tine insurgents com
mfttee on committees and all thar sort OF
thing And this is probably correct. Tor
the democrats hope to have control or the
House some day. and. when in a ma
jority, the old and tried existing Reed
rules would undoubtedly look good to
them.
mo Let-Up," Champ Clark Says.
Representative Champ Clark OF Mis-
souri,, the minority floor leader. held
conference today with Representative
Gardner of Massachusetts, Representa-
tive Nelson of Minnesota and others OF
the insurgents. AT the conclusion Nj
Clark made the following statement with
reference to the fight for revision Oh the
rules:
"There Is no let-up, so far as ! Know,
In the effort to reform and liberailze the
rules of the House. The statement that
1t is an attempt to prevent tarin ,egisiao .s
tion is a lie. l don't care VINO MAKES Tic
statement: II is a lie.
.'The anxiety of the old stand-pat crowd
to expedite bill revising the tariff down
is the most pathetic thing that mas nap
pened in this world since Mark Twain
wept at the tomb of Adam. They nave
been dragged by the neck into the tariff
revision performance.
The statement that ever promised any
human being vote for calendar Wednes-
day is another lie. When 1t was first sug-
gested 1 didn't care anything in the world
about ii, one way or the other. 1 olu
not believe that 1t would amount TO a
row of pins. I probably said would vote
for 1t as very small step in the right
direction, but afterward the rules COM
mittee took the thing back and remodeled
it. and in the rules committee Mr.. VIII
,A,1t rfnh YIya0 q
turned down fiat The republican In
surgents turned up their noses at 1t ana
said it was a humbug and a fraud, SO
we concluded to line up against it and
vote against it, and ! am glad that we
did. There is not a living man who can
say that l promised to vote for 1T. using
the word promise in a fair and reasonable
sense.
Explains Absence Of Resolution.
so far as mouthing about refusing to
offer a resolution of thanks to Speaker
Cannon. he as we'll as everybody else.
knows that there was nothing personal in
it. Personally. 1 like him. He has always
treated me well, and l try to treat him
well. but he Is the very flower of this
system of bad rules and in the public esti-
nation cannot be disaSsociated from them.
The democrats have been making fight
for years to reform and liberalize these
rules. 1t Is no new thing with us. We
declared for it in the Denver platform and
we are going to stand by that platform,
no matter who gets mad about It, / be-
lieve In carrying out platform promises
like l believe In carrying out every other
promise.
only two days before adjournment
we lacked only FIVE votes of upsetting the
machinery of the House on this very ques-
ton OF rules. and We knew March that
we. were going to make another fight
March Is to liberalize the rules. If
March f. had offered a resolution thank
ing MIR. Cannon for his fairness. ETC.,
every one In the country would assume
that the fight to reform the rules had
been hippodrOme performance from the
beginning. / have lived ffty-nine years
without indulgihg in a hipprodrome per-
formance and / expect to live the re-
mainder of my life without indulging in
one.
THE fight to liberalize and reform the
rules Is on. 1t is fight to the f1nish.''
Claim Majority.
Representative Gardner, the big chief of
the ihsirgent tribe told a Star reporter
today that if there were any cold feet
among his followers he was not aware Of
il. He added that the insurgents could
lose several men from cold feet troubles,
or any other cause, and still have suffi-
cient strength to combine with the demo-
Gratis and overthrow the House machine
Mr.. Gardner intimates that March 10,
when the fight comes off. the insurgents
and the democrats will have clear ma
jority of five over the regular organiza-
tion. Representative Murdock insists
that the insurgents will have clear ma
Jority of thirteen.