Arizona republican., 1912-02-05
Political Reform.

The enthusiasm or the refOrmer lS likely to depend considerably upon the point of view. It looks SD easy. to the man on the outside. to correct abuses. real or imaginary. that he Is apt To sink his good judgment be- low the level or his zeal and make promises and assertions such as wise men are not in the habit of making And if il falls out that he eventually lands in the seat of authority it sometimes happens that the ghosts of these promises rise up 10 plague him.
 That is what is happening just now in the house of representatives which. as everybody knows. is in the control of a good sized democratic majority. This democratic majority ie having it's troubles. and no small part of the same are due to the ef- fulgent promises which it handed out when it was in the minority and, for all it or anybody else could see at the time. was likely to remain in the minority for a good many years to come.
 All of us remember the shouts that used to go up against Cannon and Cannonism. All or us remember how oIr good friends. the democrats. used To tear their hair and swear to high heaven that if they ever got the chance they would everlastngly swat the monster of oppression that was literally strangling the life out of free government. We remember how they tearfully acclaimed day after day. We remember that they assured the country they were positively aching for chance to do something for suffering humanity And then they used to point to the immoyable form Of Uncle Joe and say with deep and fcrvid emotion, That is the cZar who is blocking all our attempts 10 -iv, the people of this country the reforms Of which they stand in need"
 One of the most insistent com plaints of these well intentioned statesmen was that bills were strangled in committees. Give us the chance" they said. and We will see to it that all bills are reported out and that all bills receive atten- tion Just give us the chance and we will show you what can be done"
 We'll they were given the chance. They got it sooner than they eX- pected They got it while all these promises were warm on their lips so soon in fact that the country hadn't had time to forget. They got that chance so soon that it was up to them to make good-they simply couldn't sidestep those glittering promises
 Well. the democrats waded in. They made Champ Clark speal<er-rather they gave him the right to sit in the speakers chair. He has no par ticular responsibility and ne can do very little He IS good deal of a figurehead. But all that didn't mat ter very much and Champ makes about as good d fisurehead as any body.
 But our good friends had another job on their hands and that is where the trouble comes m. They had promised that all bills should be re- ported out of committee-they said these bills must come out post haste They adopted the practice of having discharge day. day on which bills must be reported if they have been considered or not.
 So it happens that the bills have been coming out of committee. EV- cry ~discharge day" they were dis charged in piles, in bundles. in bales There seemed DO end to them. Ther' were bills of all shapes. sizes and previals conditions of servitude. An'