Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-10-17

Washington. D. c., Oct. 5.-The Dem,
ocratic landslide of 1892 which placed
Grover Cleveland for the second time
in the presidential chair marked the
failure Of the most extraordinary efforts
ever made by any party to perpetuate
itself in power. When the Republicans
came back into their own after the end
of the first Cleveland administration.
they left no stone unturned, so far as
legislation was concerned, to make
their power absolute and to prevent the
possibility of another Democratic presi
dent.
The first thing the Republicans did
under the Harrison administration was
to admit six new states to the union,
thereby subjecting themselves to the
charge that they sought to assure their
party of twelve additional Republican
senator's and twenty additional votes in
the electoral college. The house of
representatives was Republican by a
very narrow margin. The Democratic
members were unseated by wholesale to
give their places to Republican contest
ants, without regard to the merits of
their claims.
Then followed the attempt to enact
the Force bill It's authors and propo-
nents called it the Federal Election bill,
but it was so odious to the majority
of the people of both parties that the
name applied BY the Democrats stuck to
| it longest This bill provided that all
elections for federal offices, that is,
| representatives and presidential elec.
tors, should be under the direct control
of the federal government. That meant
| "carpet-bag' returning boards in the
south. supported by bayonets of federal
soldiers and pistols of federal deputy
marshaIs. and a ''solid south which
would have been solidly Republican. The
| fact that the negroes were not permitted
| to vote freely, or that their votes were
not counted, was the principal argu-
ment for the bill. and the only argument
which gave the cause a shadow of justi-
| fication.
Beating the Force Bill.
The Force bill was passed by the
house and went to a Republican senate
There the absolute freedom of unlimit-
ed debate gave the Democrats chance
| to fight the majority. The Republican
senators from the far west were not
| heartily in sympathy with the Force bill
advocates The western Republicans
| had long since ceased to wave the
bloody shirt" in campaigns, and the
westerners had known the bitterness OF
armed conflict The Democrats held
caucus aIIbE fdutus anu utttuth uPoh
their plans with the greatest care. 1t
was a matter of life and death to them,
and they knew it.
Southern senators of the old rebel
brigader" type-men of culture and poll
| ish--were assigned. man for man, to
| pay court to rough diamonds Of the
west who were colleagues on the other
side of that chasm marked BY the center
aisle Of the senate chamber. The talk
went Oh increasingly for days and nights.
The whole country was discussing the
probability of the senate's adopting a
cloture rule to limit debate.
Finally. about g o'clock one morning,
Senator Daniel of Virginia left his
crutches in the cloak room and shuf-
| fled on the floor Senator Vest of Mis-
souri, was speaking He had been speak
ing for hours and hours. Daniel whis-
pered to him Its all right. we have
enough votes TO beat it. Senator STRAIT
| ford of California is with us Let me
/ finish my speech. said Vest And he
went on to put proper rhetorical and
oratorical finish on the speech that was
meant for nothing but to gain time, The