The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-01-28
WASHINGTON LETTER.

| That Speaker Cannon is doomed to
defeat in any attempt to continue in
his present position of power and
that the Insurgents and Democrats,
as at present constituted, have a
clear working majority in the House
of Representatives, was made evil
dent during the past week of excite
ment at the Capital.
1t is conceded by many of the
Republican leaders that even though
the Speaker persists in his deter
mination to carry the fight to the
finish, he will be unable to muster
enough votes in the next House to
again wrest victory from his foes.
SO large a number of representatives
of his own party have expressed
their intention to pledge themselves
to their constituents at home to vote
against his reelection, that his sue
cess seems out of the question. A
very large Republican majority in
the sixty-second Congress would not
alter the situation for the reason
that the newly elected members
would also be against him. Then,
too, there are indications that the
old organization which has four
times made Cannon Speaker is slow
ly dssolving into a new alignment
of forces.
Particular indications of this sit
uation have manifested themselves
on the surface in announcements Of
candidates. for the Speakership.
Representative Olmsted, of Pennsyl-
vania, one of the staunchest support
ers of Cannon, has seen the hand
writing on the wall and run up his
lightning-rod. Representative Dick
ema, Of Michigan, has issued state
ment declaring that Cannon and
Cannonism are done for, that the
delegation from his state will not
support the Speaker if he seeks re-
tention, and that, therefore, he is a
candidate. Other announcements of
a like tenor are expected. Perhaps
neither Olmsted nor Diekema will be
elected, but they have squared them
selves with their constituents.
In Washington it is power that at
tracts the allegiance of men, and
none are so quick to detect the be-
ginning of great change in this gov
ernment of public opinion as those
who hold office because of that opin-
ion. These stoTm-petrels of Ameri-
can politics, the politicians, have de-
cided that the country has made up
its mind unfavorable to Cannonism
and are acting accordingly. They
are trimming their sails. Now-a-
days the demonstrations of approval
of Uncle Joe" in the House are few
and far between and the terms used
in referring to him are more formal,
if not more severe. 1t is considered
that the political disease from which
he is suffering is mortal Consider
able time will elapse before the next
Speaker is chosen, but only a few
months before the nomination and
election of members of the sixty-sec-
ond Congress.
Hence the effort at this early date
is to discover upon whom the mantle
of Cannon will fall and to get on the
band-wagon. Now that Senator Bur-
ton and General Grosvenor have left
the House, Ohio has no man who
looms up as possibility. When
the last contest was on, Serene E.
Payne and James s. Sherman, now
Vice-President, made it impossible
for New York to unite ana enabled
Illinois to carry off the prize. Payne,
who is Republican floor leader and
chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee, is lacking in sufficient
personal popularity with his col
leagues and is thought to be out of
it. Pennsylvania has Olmsted, able
lawyer, and John Dalzell, member
of the Committee on Rules and
famous as a high protection stand
patter.
The two men who loom up larg-
est in the calculation are James r.
Mann, of Chicago, chairman of the
important committee on Interstate
and Foreign Commerce and now re-
garded as the strongest man in the
Illinois delegation outside of the
Speaker, and Jim" Tawney, chair
man of the Committee on Appropri-
ations. No member of the House
stands closer to the powers that be
than Mann. None work harder. He
has taken the place, held by Hol-
man of Indiana a decade ago, of
watchdog of the treasury" He
scrutinizes every piece of legislation
and surprises everybody by his
knowledge of bills his colleagues
try to slide through quietly because
.s.,s
fused unanimous consent to the con-
sideration of so many measures and
has thereby inspired the hostility
of so many of his colleagues that he
would be out of the running, were
it not for the fact that, they like
him personally and believe that his
motives are always of the best.
Tawney is more popular than any
other Republican in the House.
Having charge of the appropriations
of the government and, therefore,
having the means of gratifying or