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Show ' The Battle In The House fl IV I ANY people have wondered why such a fl 1 VI clmax could come in the House of Repre-B Repre-B sentatives as was witnessed there last Sat- B urday. The reason is that there is no other just IS such body as our House of Representatives in jB all the world; no other body governed by such B rules; no other body where the speaker has such B power. B The Senate is composed of two members from B each state. Rhode Island has as many Senators B as Texas, though were Rhode Island pulled up fl by the roots and placed on the broad back of H Texas, it would not amount to "rising ground." "fl By the Action of a theory the Senate represents fl the states, where the smallest and poorest has B equal voice with the greatest and most populous. fl Thus in the Senate Delaware counts for as much B as New York. As Daniel Webster, in his most fl famous speech said: "This a Senate, a Senate or fl equals, of men of individual honor and personal fl character, and of absolute independence. We fl know no masters, we acknowledge no dictators. fl This is a hall for mutual consultation and discus-Si discus-Si sion, not an arena for ue exhibition of chain-B chain-B pions." rfl! But the House is made up of a body of men fl that go there as the direct representatives of the B people; they are elected directly by the people, I while the Senate is one remove away from the B people and is elected by state legislatures. But B the people are divided into parties, and that rul- B ing parties may have the power to enforce such legislation as it desires, extraordinary "powers B have to be given to the man who presides over fl the House, and at least a moral restriction is B put upon members to, on all normal -occasions, fl act with their fellow-partisans. In that way mem- B bers often vote for measures which they do not fl entirely approve of, subjecting their judgment B to the consensus of judgment of their party. But B the Republicans in the present House were B elected on a platform which promised the people ' B a new and lower tariff than the Dingley tariff. B When the present tariff was submitted to the fl House, a careful analysis of the different sched- B ules made clear that, while many reductions had fl been made, on many of the articles which most fl nearly concern the consumers of the country, and B articles which before were amply protected, pro- B nounced increases had been put on. Some of the fl Republican members were not only bound by 'B their platform, but by direct pledges to their own H constituents, and, moreover, their outraged sense 'H of justice caused them to refuse to support the vHj measure. They were at once put down as insur- B gents. When they tried to be heard the speaker -flj would not see them, and he, working with the W majority of his party, finally drove the measure ' thouglf and it became a law. But it left a world H of heart-burnings and awakened bitter crimlna- H tions. In addition, the speaker displaced them H n committees. So when the House re-convened in r)ecemDer last this antagonism soon revealed K itself. The majority of the Republicans in the ; House, ably backed by the speaker, instead of TWk trying to do away with the antagonism, and seek- ing to win back the recalcitrant members, tried to crush them. This naturaUy aroused" intensi-IB intensi-IB fled antagonism, the friction increased daily, un- ,l t!1 li culminated last Saturday in an open battle, il wnJcn was a daisy, and resulted in passing an order that new rules for the government of the S House should be framed, and that the speaker flHflBBBfiBBflflflHMHflBHHHfli should have no part in the framing. Then a motion mo-tion was made to oust (or accept the resignation of) the speaker. A part of the so-called insurgents, insur-gents, having been all the time earnest Republicans, Repub-licans, seeing that if that motion prevailed, tha logical sequence would be to elect a Democrat a member of the minority party in the House speaker, voted against the motion, and thus saved the speakership to Mr. Cannon. But he was too much enraged to appreciate this devotion to party principles on the part of those members, and taunted them with being defeated, which is an indication that he lacks the generosity and courage cour-age of a real hero and bodes more clashing in future. fu-ture. But the scrap somewhat cleared the atmosphere atmos-phere of the House, and we will all hope will lead to good results. In our judgment these are days when President Taft should be getting busy. |