Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-20

the majority on its good behavior, ad-
VoCatng i'm good faith the policies
which it processes, ever ready to take
advantage of the mistakes of the ma
jority party and appeal to the coun-
try for it's Vindicaton.
From time to time heretofore the
majority has become the minority as in
the present case, and from time to
time hereafter the majority will be-
/ come the minority. The country be-
lieves that the Republican party has
a majority of forty-fOur in the house
of representatives at this time, yet
such is not the case.
"The present speaker of the house
has, to the best of his ability and
judgment, co-operated with the Repub-
| iean party and so far in the history
Of congress the Republican party has
Of this congress the Republican party
has been enabled by a very small ma
iority, when the the test came, TO legis-
late in conformity with the policies
and the platform of the Republican
party.
such action of course begot criti-
! cism-Which the speaker does not dep
recate--on the part Of the minority
party.
Says Majority Against Him
"The speaker cannot be unmndful
of the fact, as evidenced by three pre-
vious elections, to the speakership, that
in the past he has enjoyed the conf
dence of the Republican party of the
country and of the Republican men,
bers Of tho house. But the assault
upon the speaker Of the house by the
minority, supplemented by the efforts
of the so-called insurgents, shows that
the Democratic minority. aided by a
number of so-Caled insurgents, con-
Stituting Is per cent of the majority
party in the house, is now in the ma
iority, and that the speaker of the
house is not in harmony with the ac-
tual majority of the house, as evil
denced by the vote just taken.
There are two courses open for the
speaker to pursue-one is to resign
and permit the new combination of
Democrats and insurgents to choose
speaker in harmony with its acts and
purposes the other is for that eombi-
nation to declare a vacancy in the Of
flee Of speaker and proceed to the
election of a new speaker.
After consideration at this stage of
the session of the house, with much
important legislation pending, involv-
ing the pledges of the Republican
platform, and their capitalization into
law, believing that his resignation
might consume weeks of time, in the
| reorganization of the house, the speak
er, Delng IN harmony with hepuDllcdn
policies and desirous of carrying them
out, declines by his own motion to pre-
cipitate contest upon the house in the
election of d new speaker, a contest
! that might greatly endanger the final
passage of all legislation necessary to
redeem Republican pledges and fulfill
Republican promises.
viii Not Resign
This is one reason why the speaker
does not resign at once, and another
is this: In the judgment Of the present
speaker a resignation in and of itself
is confession of weakness or mistake
or an apology for past actions.
1.-THE speaker is not conscious of hav-
ing done any political wrong. The
same rules are in force in this house
that have been in force for two decades.
The speaker has construed the rules
as he found them and as they have
been construed by previous speakers
| from Thomas b. Reeds lncumbency
down to the present time.
Heretofore tho speaker has been
member of the committee on rules
| covering a period of sixty years, and
the present speaker neither has sought
new power nor has he unjustly used
! that already conferred upon him.