Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1890 — SPEAKER REED SPEAKS. [ARTICLE]

SPEAKER REED SPEAKS.

■ His Views On the Questions that Have Been Considered in the House. Speaker Reed delivered a speech to 5/00 of his constituents al Me., on the4th. We make extracts: “Parties have their years of depression and their years of exaltation just as individuals have their moments of depression and of good cheer. Parties have periods when they dp great work and periods when they seem to have no other hope than the mere preservation of existence. Since 1874, when the Republican party first halted in its great duty of preserving the liberty and equality before the law for all citizens of the United States, a Republican House of Representatives has been rare. This has not been because there is not a Republican majority, but because by frauds too apparw ent to be denied, by ballot-box stuffing too notorious to be disputed, twenty-five seats in the House have been wrested from us under the open, defiant declaration that the Southern Democratic white man shall not only rule the black man of the South, but the white man of the North.” Then he charged that for years the Democrats had been-preparing for the time when they should be beaten by making . rules under which a minority could control legislation. He justified the rules' adopted under his supervision. On the tariff bill he said: “We promised the people that the tariff should have fair and exhaustive treatment}; that the principle of protection should have lull recognition, and in three important bills we have kept the promise to the hope. By the administrative bill a wise and dis* criminating effort has been made to secure to our manufacturers and merchants . the complete benefit of the rates ’ of duty imposed by law. By virtue of that bill we hope we have made valuations and duties alike in all ports. Two years ago the Democracy in the House admitted 1 that owing to the change on the methods of manufacturers the whole woolen industry was tottering to a fall unless woolens’ and worsteds were put upon a footing of j equality. Nevertheless, for the purpose of adding to the votes of the Mills bill, 1 which could never pass, they sacrificed the 1 j woolen industry, which needed immediate* attention. Without delay and withouti waiting to strengthen their own tariff bill by the support of the worsted men, Major! McKinley and Governor Dingley pushed! through the measure of justice which has' rescued so many of our woolen mills from !

disaster and ruin. “But these bills, useful as they are, were: , but the' forerunners of that tariff bill over: which the Senate is now pouring the multitudinous waves of oratory. The McKins ley bill was not made in the closet, was not the product of one man who tried to know 1 everything. If a tariff bill was ever the results of the beliefs of the whole people! of the United States, the McKinley bil-l Was that bill.” On the force bill the Speaker said:

“There was also another promise to be kept, made long ago and often renewed. I For years the Republican party has de-J dared most righteously that there could 1 not be in a Republic a duty more sacred; than the duty of upholding the right of every citizen to participate in government. ■ Who has forgotten the ringing words of thatgreat soldier so soon to lie among the; unforgotten brave oh the heights of Ar-' lington: ‘The people have made up their i minds that they will have a loyal govern-I ment and an honest ballot and a fair, count.” The House of Representatives,, true to Its duty, has passed a bill which, when it becomes a law, will give to the' people Of the United States the suffragesof millions. It will enable votes to be cast, and to be counted as cast: When an enormous hubbub has been raised about that simple bill. There has been nothing like' it since Walter Scott described the upris* ing of the virtuous people of Alsatia on theJ approach of a sheriff. What is this bill on which so many interesting epithets have ! been raised? It is a simple proposition to have United States Supervisors to see that United States elections of United States officers shall be honestly conducted; that all honest votes shall be cast and honestly counted as cast. IlFthere be any man in; this country who opposes this bill, there will not be many years before he will look like those who proclaimed the divine origin of slavery. That the Democratsnow denounce with violent epithets a Republic can measure is no new fact in their history. So persecuted they the saints. When Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that this land could not be permanently half free and half slave, the democracy of my younger days all declared that he said so because he wanted his sister to marry a negro. So when the Republicans of our day proclaim that in a republic one million of voters can never be permanently disfranchised, the Democrat of our day shouts, “Negro domination” and “Bayonets.” Mr. Reed deprecated the waste of tim in eulogies on dead members, in roll calls and contested elections, but suggested no remedy. He had nothing to say on pen* sions. In conclusion, he said: “But in closing what I have had to say,it would not be just to rest the claims of the House upon even the catalogue of its great deeds. What the House has shown the country that any House can do is worth* prince’s ransom. Henceforth promises can not be executed except by performance. Henceforth great measures can be lost and nobody know what has become of them. Party responsibility has begun and with it also the responsibility of the people, for they can no longer elect a Dem ocratio House and hope that the minority will neutralize its action, or a Republican Hoijpe without eng sure that it will keep its pledges. If we have broken the precedents of a hundred years, we have sot the precedent of another hundred years nobler than the last, where the responsibility will wa < i power and wherein thapeople who, w >rfuli knowledge that their serr ants can apt, will choose those who will worthily carry out their will.” Author—“ You return everything I offer.] What can I send you rtlat will be nc-eptaJ ble?" Editor—“A year s subscription.”—’ Epoch. v J