| Show A GLAD GOODBYE At high noon today the Fiftyfirst Congress Con-gress will go out of existence and the announcement an-nouncement of its death will be accompanied accom-panied by a sigh of relief which will ascend from every state every territory and every city within the confines of the republic It has occasionally happened that the going out of a Congress has been tho occasion of quite general rejoicing butt but-t is believed that the popular verdict is the sense of relief over the expiration of the Fiftyfirst is keener than has ever before been experienced for this has been the most vicious the most lawdefying the most reckless desperate and extravagant of all the Congresses since the founding of the Union For the first timo in the history of the nation it was publicly asserted as-serted that the House was not a deliberative delibera-tive body That branch of the national legislature was handed over o the control of the speaker upon whom was conferred powers never before exercised by a presiding pre-siding officer of an American legislative body and to the shame of that officer it can be said he used his autocratic power like an autocrat The result has been that there is a question as to the strict legality of many of the acts which will go into the books It would tae columns to enumerate all the wrongful proceedings which have characterized the House during the past fourteen months but all will bs carried in their minds by the American people who will in time impose im-pose proper punishment upon the perpetrators perpetra-tors One of the acts of which this Congress has been guilty is the MCVINLET bill a law which will take millions every year from the masses with which to enrich the monopolists mo-nopolists and those who form trusts aQd combinations The people promptly set the seal of disapproval on that act last November Novem-ber when they voted almost out of existence exist-ence the party which is responsible for the robber tariff This Congress has been generous to the degree of recklessness in the matter of pensions Millions have been squandered in this way not as just rewards for meritorious and patriotic services but as sops to voters thrown by tricky politicians and unprincipled demagogues Another piece of bad legislation was the silver bill which provides for the early discontinuance of the coinage of silver dollars dol-lars and makes the government a party to speculation in the white metal It was a bad law which was repealed but an infinitely in-finitely worse one which was made to take its place Many honestly elected Representatives have been denied seats which were arbitrarily arbi-trarily given to minority candidates who would help to swell the reckless and desperate des-perate majority Fortunately all the bad and vicious legislation legis-lation attempted was not successful By the shrewdness of the minority and the patriotism pa-triotism of a few members of the majority some of the worst bills were defeated and the country will be spared the tyranny which was intended Not the least occasion of the popular rejoicing re-joicing over the death of the Fiftyfirst Congress is the widespread belief that never again will the Republican party be in control of the executive and legislative branches of the government The people feel that the party has outlived its usefulness useful-ness that the revolution which it set out to achieve and which seemed necessary to strength and permanency of the repub lie has been accomplished and there is nothing left for the Republican organization to do except to go to decay and out of existence ex-istence |
