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A Questionable Practice

A Questionable Practice image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
March
Year
1899
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The pernicious practice of appointing U. S. senators on commissions upon the work of which they will have to pass as senators is finely illustrated in the case of ex-Senator George Gray. of Delaware.
He served as a member of the peace commission and has just been appointed a United States district judge by President McKinley.
According to reports at the time of his appointment upon the commission, as its democratic member, he was much averse to accepting it. He was also strongly committed against the acquisition of the Philippines. He came back with his previously well settled convictions on that subject changed and voted for the ratification of the treaty.
Now he has been made a United States district judge by a president of the opposite party. This appointment is sure to be looked upon by many as a reward for his action as a member of the peace commission, and his change of front on the Philippine question with a view to this reward.
This may not be true at all, but the circumstances surrounding the matter lend plausibility to the idea.

During the 12 years Mr. Gray has been a member of the senate he has established a reputation for probity and high character.
He is also regarded as a most scholarly man and one of the ablest constitutional lawyers in the senate.
Nevertheless the circumstances surrounding his appointment to the bench are sure to be hurtful. They engender the thought of a bargain. And even though the character of the man will not warrant the idea, the thought will not down.
His explanation of his change of position on the Philippine question is reasonable and but for the later appointment might carry much weight.
But the combination of circumstances are harmful. The Argus believes the senate acted wisely in ratifying the treaty of Paris, but in doing this it was acting, in a measure at least, as a court and those who negotiated the treaty should not have passed upon their own work.

All indications point to a studied effort on the part of the republican administration to make an inroad into the solid south next year.
There has already been, since congress adjourned a considerable exodus of statesmen to that section. It would not be surprising, should the effort succeed.
The late war has healed the last of the sores left over from the civil conflict and reconstruction days. Indications are not wanting that the president has a pretty strong bold upon the people of that section.
Then the peculiar kind of a campaign for which Mark Hanna is noted also has its influence.
He is already in the land of alligators and while there ostensibly for rest, be always has his weather eye out for the main chance.

                                                                                    ____________________

What has come over the dreams of the senate causing it to pass the obnoxious Atkinson bill by a unanimous vote?
Political expediency is probably chargeable with its passage. The members have long since demonstrated their unwillingness to pass any taxation measure because of any obligation they owe the people.
But they have a wholesome fear of being turned down.
As the approaching state convention threw the house into a congestive chill and caused it to rush the Atkinson bill to its passage, so the campaign now no set the senate to quaking and caused the bill, with certain amendments, to pass that body of statesmen without a dissenting vote.
Thus does expediency accomplish what party pledges and principle utterly fail to bring about.
Apparently the amendments made by the senate are not of much importance.
They indicate a good deal of pettishness towards hizzexcellency but seem to effect the principles of the bill but little.
They indicate a solicitous regard also for the corporations which are supposed to be in such great danger from the ogre who sits in the executive chair.
The amendment requiring the governor to appoint the member of the tax commission while, the legislature is in session, when no such provision is found in any other statute, is petty.
The amendment reducing the salary of the members of the commission is of doubtful wisdom.
A salary of 5,000 would undoubtedly secure better talent than the $3,500 salary. Such a commission should be composed of the best ability obtainable.

                                                                               ____________________

In personnel the ticket named by the democratic convention Wednesday is an admirable one. The candidate for supreme justice as well as the candidates for regents are all well known in this city.
They are gentlemen of high character, ability and learning. They are the peers in every respect of their opponents on the republican ticket.
Mr. Barkworth is no stranger to the people of the state. He has had experience in the legislature where he was the leader of his party on the floor of the house and he has twice been his party's candidate for congress in the second district. He is thoroughly conscientious in all he does, is a brilliant campaigner, able, aggressive and fearless.
He is scholarly, knows the law and is an able advocate. Personally he is well liked and stands well at the bar. He has come up from among the people, and is in sympathy with their aspirations and ambitions. His leanings are all away from trusts in as great a degree as Judge Grant's are toward them.
Should he be elected, there need be no fear that his decisions would be influenced by anything except his own sense of right and justice.
His temperament might lead him into error, but his decisions would be honest.
The candidates for regent are both graduates of the university and are successful in their callings. They are little known to the state at large, but here where they were known in college days and in the communities where they now live, they are regarded as upright, honorable men, possessing trained and disciplined minds which have won for them success in their private affairs.
The interests of the university would be altogether safe in their hands as members of the board of regents.

                                                                               ____________________

There are indications that Thomas B. Reed is not to have entirely smooth sailing in his candidacy for the speaker ship of the new congress.
Mr. Reed is a strong man and he has made an able speaker. But he has the disposition to encroach upon the prerogatives of the house, and party subserviency is so great has been able to practically gather into his own hand the entire power of the house.
The majority originally permitted this great power, a power which none of his predecessors ever exercised to be yielded by the speaker for the purpose of throttling the minority, but the speaker has not stopped there, he has unhesitatingly used this autocratic power to stifle the voice of majority whenever it manifested a disposition to legislate contrary to the personal views of the speaker.
In acting as a censor of legislation and a dictator of republican policy he has more than once protected the people from the wild extravagance of congress and other harmful tendencies.
It must be conceded that his reign in this respect has much to its credit.
Nevertheless he is exercising powers which it is dangerous to entrust to any man under our form of government.
No popular representative body can long retain its proper character under such control as Mr. Reed has usurped. It is most humiliating if immediate representatives of the people have become so lacking in the sense of their duty to the people, or have so lost the indispensible virtue of honesty and common sense as to make such despotism necessary in order to properly guard the interests of the public.
There are indications, however, that the house is becoming restive under the yoke which the majority first made for the necks of the minority, and is getting ready throw it on.
The Czar has not hesitated to ruthlessly cut off from consideration administration measures and the spirit of rebellion is strong within its ranks.
The Chicago Tribune and the inter Ocean have already ranged themselves in opposition to Reed's reelection.
The opposition to him seems as yet to be largely confined to the west but it appears "to be spreading.
Those who are friendly to the Nicaragua canal and the Pacific cable see in the speaker an insurmountable obsticle to their plans.
Again, the small republican majority in the next house of representatives and the speaker's well known opposition to the administration's plans of expansion, are causing anxiety.
It will take but few members with the courage of their convictions to throw down the Czar.