one in opposition
who may see fit to challenge him. The greatest general at the head
of their armies may be forced to fight a duel with a nobody. Such
ideas, such a system, keeps a nation in peril and makes every cause,
to a greater or less extent, depend upon the sword or the bullet
of a criminal.

--_The Press_, New York, July 16, 1888.

THE MILLS BILL.

_Question_. What, in your opinion, is the significance of the vote
on the Mills Bill recently passed in the House? In this I find
there were one hundred and sixty-two for it, and one hundred and
forty-nine against it; of these, two Republicans voted for, and
five Democrats against.

_Answer_. In the first place, I think it somewhat doubtful whether
the bill could have been passed if Mr. Randall had been well. His
sickness had much to do with this vote. Had he been present to
have taken care of his side, to have kept his forces in hand, he,
in my judgment, taking into consideration his wonderful knowledge
of parliamentary tactics, would have defeated this bill.

It is somewhat hard to get the average Democrat, in the absence of
his leader, to throw away the prospect of patronage. Most members
of Congress have to pay tolerably strict attention to their political
fences. The President, although clinging with great tenacity to
the phrase "civil service," has in all probability pulled every
string he could reach for the purpose of compelling the Democratic
members not only to stand in line, but to answer promptly to their
names. Every Democrat who has shown independence has been stepped
on just to the extent he could be reached; but many members, had
the leader been on the floor--and a leader like Randall--would have
followed him.

There are very few congressional districts in the United States not
intensely Democratic where the people want nothing protected.
There are a few districts where nothing grows except ancient
politics, where they cultivate only the memory of what never ought
to have been, where the subject of protection has not yet reached.

The impudence requisite to pass the Mills Bill is something
phenomenal. Think of the Representatives from Louisiana saying to
the ranchmen of the West and to the farmers of Ohio that wool must
be on the free list, but that for the sake of preserving the sugar
interest of Louisiana and a little portion of Texas, all the rest
of the United States must pay tribute.

Everybody admits that Louisiana is not