THE ROLL CALL
THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES Burrows, the "Reliable" SENATOR BUR-ROWS of Michigan is one of the younger members of "the old guard" in the Senate. He is only seventy-two years of age and...
...The population had increased in four years from 81 1/2 millions to 87 1/2 millions...
...Of course, the purpose of the effort was to conserve the interests of the Michigan sugar factories and sugar beet growers...
...He referred also to legislation in the interest of wage-earners—the railroad employers' liability law, the hours of service law...
...And then without explaining why, or making any speech about it, he voted for the "Dutch Standard" provision of the sugar schedule—the trust's most powerful weapon for extorting profits from the public and building up its wealth and power to beat down its enemies...
...Carnegie proved that it averaged $15 per ton profit in 1908...
...Here his pride misled him for he declared, "the Secretary of the Treasury has promptly taken the necessary steps to give effect to this legislation, and banking associations are forming to avail themselves of its benefits...
...Also Senator Burrows rendered good service to the Sugar Trust in a speech against reductions in the duties on sugar...
...He did not tell how grave Republican Senators had "ducked" in and out of cloak rooms to prevent a quorum of the Senate to take up for consideration the bill limiting the hours of service of railway employees...
...He voted for the Committee increases in the lumber schedule and against all proposed reductions...
...And when a Democratic Senator moved to strike out a provision in the salt schedule which allowed the fisheries interests and the Beef Trust to import salt free for packing fish and meat for export, Burrows voted against it...
...Only once he voted against the Committee...
...He voted against increases of the duty on pineapples, and against Tillman's proposal of a tax of 10 cents on tea...
...He voted for the Aldrich increases in the cotton schedule and against all proposed decreases...
...He reverted to the panic, but did not disclose how or why Wall Street had made it...
...After the House had put iron ore on the free-list and Aldrich proposed a duty of 25 cents a ton, it was Burrows who came to the front in defense of Steel Trust profits...
...And the revision "made necessary" as shown by the work of the Committee, is revision such as will enable "Big Business" to realize the greatest profits...
...Also—and this was in the interests of the trust—he voted for the admission free of Philippine sugar and against amendments to restrict the quantity of such importation...
...Of course, the situation was carefully gone over and analyzed and it was planned to have things happen according to the "System" program,—unless a burst of enthusiasm should upset things...
...The Department of Agriculture had distributed 17 million bulletins...
...He pointed with pride to the Aldrich currency law of the previous session...
...He is chairman of the Senate Committee o n Privileges and Elections, which inspects the credentials of all new Senators, to see if they have been duly elected according to the rules of the game, and determines in the first instance whether they are to be seated...
...Once the crowd heard Burrows say "Roosevelt" and a roar went up in the galleries...
...This was an exacting job, to be done under critical circumstances...
...on hides...
...For it is fair to assume that this tariff revision is the revision Burrows had in mind—the revision he was for...
...In a few instances Senator Burrows voted against increases of duty...
...Which, when you first look at it, appears to say something...
...It was no mean effort,—to read to that convention the Statistical Abstract of the United States...
...The "System" did not want Taft, but on this point it acknowledged defeat, unless—and the alternative was a nightmare to the "System"—unless the convention should be stampeded to Roosevelt...
...In addition to this, Burrows is a member of the important Committees on Philippines, Naval Affairs, Postoffices and Post Roads, and Finance...
...The speaker pointed with subdued pride to the modest achievements and results of "the wise and beneficient legislation of the Republican Party...
...Looking to the future, he discussed banking and currency...
...The new Congress convened and the new administration was sworn in...
...On the remaining 120 roll-calls he voted always with Aldrich—always with the Committee...
...He voted for the Penrose amendment levying a duty on petroleum...
...When that was lost, he voted for the Curtis amendment levying a countervailing duty on petroleum...
...He voted to reduce the living expenses of working people by admitting free of duty old paintings and works of art...
...He decried it as the "natural and implacable enemy" of the beet sugar industry...
...The claim that free ore would close any Michigan mine or materially reduce its output was of course absurd...
...At any rate, the Republican party stood for re-election...
...To forestall such a contingency, the "System" needed a chairman who would act as a wet blanket...
...He acted against the tenets of protective principle and for increased profits to the interests exploiting Philippine labor in voting for the admission of Philippine cigars and against amendments to restrict that importation while thousands of American cigarmakers were walking the streets in search of work...
...Possibly the Senator from Michigan did not recall that little performance, or maybe he did not know about it, for the Record shows him continuously absent "during the acts," until the "old guard" had finally capitulated, when he came in and voted with the rest to allow the bill to be considered...
...And now we know what Burrows meant when he talked about tariff revision in the National Convention...
...For election purposes it was found better to define the tariff revision pledge of the platform as revision downward...
...Such must not be permitted to happen...
...But the "System" has found him most "reliable" and his promotion in the organization has been rapid...
...Senator Burrows was put in the chair...
...In the Senate he spoke seldom but when he did it was always in support of the bill— in support of the higher duty or of the bigger profit for "Big Business...
...Free ore threatened to reduce trust profits because independent steel companies could bring in ore from their Cuban mines at that much less cost per ton...
...He is only seventy-two years of age and has been a Senator only a little over fourteen years...
...But he did not tell how he and others among the party leaders voted to defeat, and did defeat, measures which would perfect the rate law and make it an effective measure...
...Next to Roosevelt himself, the "System" feared most the injection of any Roosevelt or progressive ideas into the platform...
...Flocks and herds had increased by so many millions...
...There was no excitement and no enthusiasm...
...He voted for the increases in the woolen schedule and against every proposed reduction...
...The Senator painted in the strongest language the disreputable misconduct of the trust...
...For Burrows is next to Aldrich on the Finance Committee...
...But he also voted twice against amendments to put hides and manufactures of hides on the free list...
...This was a vote for a lower duty but for higher profits for "Big Business...
...On the duty on hides there was a conflict of powerful interests, and Michigan with the rest of the Middle West was for free hides...
...And it was successful...
...Then came the tariff session...
...There must be no excitement, no enthusiasm, nothing to interfere with the precise and scheduled movements of the machine...
...and the Interstate Commerce Commission had said that rate discriminations were not so common as they had been...
...But when you look at it again you realize that it does not...
...Excepting as above enumerated, his vote was always for the highest duty proposed and against every reduction proposed...
...Out of 123 votes Burrows failed to vote but twice...
...Out of 123 yea and nay votes on the tariff bill in the Senate, this was the only time Burrows differed from Aldrich...
...He was second on the Committee that framed it...
...He said he regretted that the duty could not remain at 40 cents as under the Dingley law...
...The Post-office department had extended the rural route service to include 793 counties, but it was humiliating that Congress had failed to appropriate a ship-subsidy to the shipping trust to carry mail to South America...
...On the Committee on Finance he ranks next to "Boss" Aldrich himself,—is, in fact, his most immediate "associate...
...Only now and then someone started a little applause to vary the monotony...
...He even voted for duties the Finance Committee did not have the nerve to recommend...
...But it quickly subsided as the intelligence was passed back that Burrows had said that the thing which had added most to the fame of Roosevelt was his "persistent and irrevocable refusal" to accept the nomination for a third term...
...He mentioned the tariff revision...
...Partly on this pledge for downward revision the party was re-elected...
...He claimed for the party credit for legislative achievements of the Republican Congress...
...There were 950,-000 pensioners on the rolls of the Interior Department...
...With free ore the steel trust would make probably only $14 per ton profit on its output, whereas Mr...
...The Department of Justice had done great work in carrying proceedings to the Supreme Court whereby the constitutionality of the anti-trust law and the rate law were tested and established...
...When the "System" organized the business end of the last Republican National Convention it selected Julius Caesar Burrows of Michigan to make the "key-note" speech of the convention...
...Burrows voted against the Committee amendment to put a duty of 15 per cent...
...It is true that one association was formed under the law, but "associations" there are not, even now, and the Secretary of the Treasury is still "taking steps...
...He said, "the Republican party stands for such a revision and readjustment of our customs laws as changed industrial conditions may have made necessary...
Vol. 1 • August 1909 • No. 34
