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Show A Good Scrap B A SCRAP like that in the House of Repre- B sentatives last Saturday has many compen- B sations in the public mind. The country B had about concluded that the hook worm had B taken possession of Congress, or that the sleeping r sickness had become epidemic in Washington. j B The country had a reason for this belief. It had - a good many. It will do no harm to mention a , fl few of them. ijl (1) The Panama canal is being hurried to com- M pletion, but were it ready for business today, we H would have no ships to pass through it, save a few M war ships, and they would have to take along H some chartered foreign ships to supply them with i M coal, and Congress does not seem to be doing M anything to restore to the country its lost mer- M chant marine. M (2) By our legislation of 1873 and 1893 we have closed quite half the ports and peoples of the H world against our exports, and by the same legis- I lation we made it possible for the Orient-to sup- H ply us with iron, steel rails, cotton and woolen II cloths and a multitude of other articles, at one- 1H tenth what our own artisans can supply those lH things for, and when these facts have been laid jfl before Congress, the sleeping sickness has seemed ill to suddenly seize the whole body of both houses, 1H and the only response which the President has H seemed able to make has been to smile. HI (3) Wo heard two years or more ago, that a Ml committee was engaged in drafting a currency H system for the country, and that the chairman of SB that committee, Senator Aldrich, had expressed jnH the wish that he might be able to present a sys- ll tern of finance for the country that would be so RH nearly perfect that it would act like moving the , IB previous question and shut off all further debate Hfl There are some people who have been ungener- IB ous enough to express the belief that the Senator 9M has both the hook worm and the' sleeping sick- flS ness. II (4) Every little while some gentleman throws off his drowsiness long enough to rise and express Ifl the conviction t iat the government ought to con "5 Berve our natural resources ,and no other gentle- man has had the strength to express the opinion pi that every such gentleman is the lineal descend- "As H ant 61 sires who made their fortunes grabbing H everything right and left, timber lands, water H power, coal and iron mines, marble quarries, H building stone quarries, phosphate beds, oil lands, H salt marshes, soda beds, mineral springs every- N thing in and out of sight, and that the gentleman's HB present solicitude is an inherited fear felt by his H ancestors that some other natural grabber would H, get ahead of them. H Hence the story of that scrap last Saturday H was welcome news. It was an indication of red H blood still in the veins of Congress, that the hook H worm had lost its hold and that the sleeping sick- H ness could be shaken off if the remedy was only H drastic enough. H That the dignity that should pertain to that H august body was cast aside for the time did not H matter. When the cyclone is sent to clear the H air, it has not time to stop and pick out the trees H that It was going to rend. And then there was a H) world of good sense in the reply of the old Mis- H sissippi doctor who was told by a man that he H had been insulted by one' beneath him, one who H, was no gentleman, and asked what he should do. H The reply was, "When a man in Mississippi needs H licking, we lick him and inquire into his pedigree H The country had about reached the conclusion H of the woman whom a neighbor tried to sympa- H thize with after her husband had blacked her eyes. B "Don't do that," said the afflicted wife, "I don't H need It, I am glad of It. I rejoice over it on ac- H count of my children. I did not think the low- B down cuss had the spunk to do It." Seriously, it B was a good thing. Parties are necessary in a re- H public, and parties have to enforce rules to pre- H serve their organization and maintain their work- H ing front; but when partisanism degenerates into B tyranny) until a man's honest opinion is made an B excuse for oppression and attempted opprobrium; B then it is time to take on the thought that after B all the people are supposed to rule this country B through their representatives and when they are B insulted or ignored, then the people are insulted B and Ignored, and it is time for an insurrection. |