The Penn's Grove record., 1911-03-31
xii PENNs GROVE. N. j.. FRIDAY. MARCH 81. 1911.

important the committee the larger the
majority. The committees of the next
house will be organized in the same
way. except that the majority will be
Democratic. Party lines are stricuy
drawn, and as the minority Is utterly
impotent, it is just as well to let eacn
faction go off into a corner and ffocK
by itself.
However, that is a bit of DEPRESSION.
While the country at large looks on the
present zee as ending April a, II
will in a sense end March 20. On that
day the ways and means committee
will report its selection of chairmen OF
the various committees-a matter OF
vital Importance in congressional pro
cedure, but little understood by the
public at large. Perhaps the impor-
lance of chairmen will be materially
decreased in the coming session, for
under the new rules 1t will be impossi-
BILE for a chairman to delay or defeat
legislation by carelessly putting a Dill
in his pocket and inadvertently leaving
that particular coat at home for a Few
weeks. Such things have happened only
too frequently.
March % begins the series of formal
hearings before the United States
monetary commission of which ex-
Senator Aldrich is chairman. Wash
ington will be filed with f1nanciers that
day. The American Bankers associa-
ton is scheduled to be heard first. the
central topic for discussion being the
proposed plan for a central bank form
ulated by Mr.. Aldrich. There will be
plenty of arguments against this plan,
most Of! them emanating from distin-
guished bankers, but 1t Is a curious fact,
showing how greatly the trend of popu-
lar thought has changed since 1896,
that thus far there have been no re-
quests for hearings from any of the
radical currency reformers who in that
period were SO plentiful and SO vocif
erous. There will apparently be no free
silverites or greenbackers asking to be
heard.
VvCf0 LILO 6SftOSsd =
So for the busy men In Washington
statecraft the recess is practi.
cally over already. And apro-
pos of the recess some people
are laughing at the Hon. Champ Clark
and his trusted lieutenant, Oscar I'm
derwood. When the Sixty-first IN
gres was drawing to a close these
statesmen were sorely %disquieted by
the report that the extra session would
be called within 48 hours. This did
not suit their plans. 1t would take
time to prepare for the organization of
the new Democratic house; time to
prepare the "popgun" tariff bills which
are designed to trot along with the
reciprocity treaty. So they determin-
ed to throw themselves upon the mercy
of Taft, and shoulder to shoulder the
veterans marched up the avenue to
White House. The president was ge-
NAL, as he always Is, accommodating,
as he is whenever possible. Would 80
days recess do? 1t would, indeed. So
it was ordered and the Democratic
leaders marched away again full of
satisfaction with the concession won.
Mark the sequel. Congress adjourned
and scattered to the four corners of
the country. Within t~wenty-four hours
Taft had issued the orders for the
massing Of practically all our military
and naval force on the frontiers of
Mexico. None was left in Washington
to criticize or to question. Had con-
gress been in session 1t Is doubtful
whether SO costly and perilous an or
der would have been issued. If 1t had
been, the oratorical thunder from SEN
ate and house would have deadened
the possible roar of our guns along
the Rio Grande. But congress is gone.
Taft has a free hand for thirty days
and as the United States never moves
backward the time for protest will
after that be past. People laugh at
Champ and Oscar and wonder whether
SO smiling and genial a man as Taft
ever studied the meaning of the verb
ITO bunco."
A Democratic PerpIexity.
Regular visitors to the galleries of
the house of representatives during
the last decade will remember-if
they were observant-a stocky nan
whose hair, such as is left of 1t, is
red, leaning on one elbow over the
corner of the speakers desk and OBJ
serving the struggle on the floor with
the same air of superior wisdom that
"Bat" Masterson puts on when look
ing upon a prize fight. This was-and
is-Asher c. Kinds, chief parliament
tary clerk to the speaker. Kinds
knows more about presidents and
parliamentary law than any ten men
in the house put together But he
knows something about politics as
we'll, for he discerned long months
ago that the Democrats would carry
the house, and therein the wisdom OF
Kinds, always exerted for the Repub-
lican use and in behoof of the Repub-
lican party, would be no longer in de-
mand. So the astute Asher goes after
the congressional seat OF n OF his
friends, gets it, and will sit on the
floor of the house next session instead
of confidently advising the speaker as
to points of order.
Now what will embarrass the Demo
Gratis in this situation is this. Champ
Clark, a good parliamentarian, but as
yet untried in the speakers chair, will
be confronted on the floor by Uncle
Joe" Cannon, a past master; Jim
Mann, than whose there Is no more
alert intellect in congress, and Asher
Kinds, to whose manual OF ~precedents
every disputed case will necessarily
be referred.
Who is to lean ~confidentially ver
the speakers desk now and advise
him? Sixteen years of unrestrained
Republican domination OF congress
have left no Democratic parliamentary
clerks In office and as we have not the
English system of a non-partisan
speaker the politics of the speakers