The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-10
WASHINGTON CAME
 OF POLITICS IS ON "Time" Will Not Be Called Till Next November WILL BE ALL TALK Many Statesmen Will Arise, Plead for the Dear People at Home and
 Then Send Them Copies
 of the Speeches
By RoDERIcK CLIFFORD

and TJncle Sam as timekeeper, the great ouadrennjal game of national politics
 has been started here. Time VIII not
 be called until November next. when the people of the United States will elect Prsdent and another Congress.
 'In the meanwhile statesmen will come to the bat. strike out, make safety l in either the House or the Senate. Every player will have his eyes on party sue 1 cess in 1912, and from the President of | the United States down to the most op- scure member of Congress there's gong | to be the most desperate contest that the national capital has seen in many year. l Congress meets for the purpose of
 passing laws, but every four years it's
 members have another object and that
 is to make campaign material that can
 be used to advantage when the final ap- 1 peal to the country is made during the | hot summer months Many a states
 man will arise in his place in the House
 and the Senate during the next few
 months, plead eloquently for the people and then order the public printer to send I him up about 5000 copies of that particu-
 lar oratorical effort.
 l Representative Mann, the minority l leader of the House, showed the trend of | things when he reached Washington the other day, cast critical eye over the
 legislative situation, summoned the news paper men and gave out a statement in which he lambasted all democratic plans 1 and aspirations. Twentyfour hours aft l erward Representative Underwood, the
 democratic floor leader, reached the cap
 itol, noted MT. Manns remarks and l promptly gave out an interview in which | he observed that MT. Mann was all wrong
 and that the democratic House would show the country thing or two as soon
 as it's machinery was oiled.
 According to Mir. Mann, who was speak 1 ing for the voter, the country has been | put on the blink by the democratic | House of Representatives with it's pecu- | liaI-to the republican viewpoint-ideas of tariff revision. The dark cloud of na tional disaster is looming on the horizon, thinks MT. Mann He sees nothing but woe and regret facing the nation if the democrats are to be left in control of any branch of the government Repre- sentative Mann wore a long face, for
 public view, and gave out about as pes- simistic prophecy as a politician ever furnished a waiting public.
 The very next day, Representative un- derWood, wearing a glad smile, descended
 upon the capitol. The country is to be congratulated. according to the Under
 wood view, that there is at least one | brauch of the government under the
 domination of the democrats. Those ster- | ling patriots will act as a check to re- publican extravagances, will pass laws | that will relieve the people of the un- | just burdens that have accrued through ] years of republican misrule, and alto gether will perform in such a credtabe l manner that the country will elect dem oorats to every office from constable to
 President in the glorious year of 1912 | It's all game of politics. Perhaps Mr. Mann doesn't believe all he says Per | maps MT. Underwood is stretching things when he sets forth the claim that the democrats are going to be the saviors of | the nation in the time of great peril and | stress.Bu they have to say these things, anyway.
 | The campaign text books must be filled within the next few months. If the vot- | ing public believes half the things that | 1t hears, it means success for the favored party, and the great flow of words on | the part of the leaders will not have been | in vain.
 air is going to be releasec on the floor of the House of Representatives and | the Senate of tRe United tSates, where | skilled. official reporters are paid to | take down every word uttered by pers-
 piring and indignant statesmen. A democrat will arise and picture the ini- quties of the republican party. It is a
 wonder, he will observe, that the coun- | try has gotten along at all when voters
 will be so foolish as to elect republicans
 now and then. He will denounce the | republican party from the time it was | formed up to the present moment, when | it has the nerve to again appeal to the
 country for support. No language will be too harsh for the democratic ora
 tor, and he will use everything permit ted by the parliamentary rules of the
 body in which he may happen to be speaking. Perhaps the speech will be some 20,G00 words, but every word will | be reported; they will adorn the pages l of the Congressional Record next day
 and within few days the burning elo-
 quence of the protesting dmocratic ora l tor will nave been read at Squash Center | and Podunk Corners.
 | The republican orator in the House
 and the Senate will go through the same performances making desperate effort to out-do the preceding speaker. He will | point with pride to the fact that the
 republican party has been in control of | the national government practically ever | since the Civil war. The increase in
 population, the height of the skyscrapers, | the size of the cotton crop, he will claim to be tribute to republican wis | dom and foresight.
 | He will turn to the voter-through the Congressional Record-and tearfully ask | if he is not content to let well enough alone. Never before, according to the | speaker, nas the country been confronted with such perils as confront 1t today. | The speaker will naturally lose sight of l the fact that the same statement was
 made in 1904, 19Oo 1S96 and on back since | the beginning Of the government
 | And the average voter is expected "to fall for it." He will grow excited as he | reads where democrats and republicans l have been at one anotherS throats here | in Washington. He will wonder how i boodshed was avoided and he will not know that after the oratory was over and after the speech had been carefully re- l vised before going into the Record, the | aforesaid democrat and the aforesaid republican locked arms and wandered together toward the nearest refreshment emporium.
 Nobody Breads the approaching session of Congress like the official stenogra- pl,ers of the House and the Senate, Mill lions of words will be uttered, If the ses-
 sion drags along far into next suninier as Is now expected. Many of these Words have been uttered before, but that does not lessen the labors or the worries or the official reporter, the medium through which the wrought up orator reaches the "peepu'
 The signs are ripe for n great session of talk and little legislation. Whatever may be I'le final result, each party VIII go to the hustings next summer and
 will tell the public that things would