EDITORIALS
Heckle Your Representative FREDERIC C. HOWE in the August Everybody's suggests that the voters heckle their representatives during campaigns this summer. "Heckle," he says. "Ask questions. If we...
...Still, we think not...
...James S. Sherman, now Vice-President, who ©ffered an amendment to the Deficiency Appropriation Bill, appropriating $190,000 to members of Congress, mileage for the second session...
...And he answers them...
...And the keen interest at the time manifested by the Speaker in this particular 4uty should qualify him as a very good witness...
...The official Record of Congress is a factor in this campaign...
...Get the truth...
...Scott did vote against it...
...The Gazette-Globe accuses La Follette's of "falsification of the Co)igressional Record," and its denunciation of our article on Scott is directed principally to three roll calls, viz., on the Congressional "mileag-e grab" of the 58th Congress, and on the duties on lumber and petroleum of the tariff session...
...Charles F. Scott, of Iola, Kansas...
...Without any more wavering, long may he wave...
...Privilege is bi-partisan...
...The proposal was rejected on a division...
...La Follette's reported that Scott did not vote against the "mileage grab" and the Record sustains La Follette's...
...He has not...
...Don't be put off with evasions...
...A representative who has served Big Business will not let his constituents heckle him, —if he can avoid it...
...The Story of the Last Session IN THE Philadelphia North American for July 4 there is an excellent article by Angus McSween, summing up the legislative achievements of the last session of Congress...
...Speaker Cannon's speeches are doing more for Insurgency than those of any of the Insurgents...
...Underwood and the leading Democrats, so far as the Record shows, were against it...
...It is the best general review we have seen of what really took place at Washington during the last session...
...Scott did not champion the countervailing duty in the debate, and he did vote for a duty in the roll call...
...It may be that the Clerk got the votes down wrong...
...Scott did not vote, and the Record shows that he was paired with a Democrat...
...That charge is a direct falsification of the Congressional Record which shows that Mr...
...Cannon, Sherman, and others of the Republican machine leaders were for the "mileage grab...
...Privilege works with both parties...
...They should require the same kind of pledges from all candidates seeking their votes...
...Your Health, Mr...
...The System press has protested loudly, although, with rare exceptions, it has lacked the hardihood to deny the Record...
...On page 214 of the Record of the tariff session, Scott is found in controversy with Champ Clark concerning the duty on petroleum, and what Mr...
...Noes, 47...
...If Scott's pair is to be counted at all, it must be counted in favor of the "mileage grab" and nat against it...
...39, Part IV, p. 3816...
...The next count on which the Gazette-Globe would indict La Follette's for "falsification of the Congressional Record," reads: "La Follette's article charges that Scott voted against free lumber on the roll call...
...Scott did not vote against the so-?alled 'congressional mileage grab' in the 58th Congress...
...Few persons are better qualified, by first-hand information, to tell the story of the last session—what was accomplished, how it was done, and to whom the credit belongs for whatever of public benefit there is in the new laws...
...Privilege heckles...
...The Record shows that Scott voted for free lumber while the tariff bill was before the House in every shape in which it was offered...
...know how he voted...
...For public reasons, too, we regret the occurrence and hope it may not recur...
...Heckle your congressman...
...Scott there said was not calculated to divert any votes from the Standard Oil duty...
...Replying at which, the Gazette-Globe says: "Mr...
...Another statement in La Follette's roll call on Scott to which the Gazette-Globe takes exception, is the following: "He, (Scott) championed the countervailing duty for Standard Oil in the debate, though he failed to stand by Cannon and the faithful forty-six who voted for the petroleum duty on the roll call...
...Of course, Scott was arguing for the petroleum duty not for the benefit of Standard Oil, but for the benefit of the "independents...
...For misrepresentatives of the people it is easier to run for office on pleasing promises than to stand upon the facts of the Record...
...it heckles, heckles, heckles...
...He was paired that day with Lever (Democrat, S. C) who, after the roll call and after having voted to strike out the duty, asked: "Mr...
...LEVER...
...We have given the volume and page of theae disputed roll calls, in order that the Gazette-Globe, and others disposed to challenge the accuracy of La Follette's Roll Call may familiarize themselves with the Record...
...He is asked all sorts of questions by his audiences...
...In Volume 44, at p. 1294, of the Record, Scott's vote will be found recorded against this amendment— against free lumber...
...WHEN an elderly gentleman, being hot under the collar, suffers a physical collapse, all humane persons feel sorry...
...It may be that Scott did, as the Gazette-Globe says, "vote for a duty on petroleum in the roll call...
...He will invite it...
...The substance of Mr...
...Question him...
...it pledges all candidates...
...Speaker, I desire to know if the gentleman from Kansas (Mr...
...We are sorry because of the indisposition of Speaker Cannon on the occasion of his first Chautauqua address...
...And that's why most candidates for office serve Privilege...
...It was proposed that Congress pay itself mileage for this session, notwithstanding this fact...
...If we cannot have direct government, let's make it so uncomfortable for our delegated government that it will have to represent us...
...At the time fixed by the Constitution for the first regular session, Congress adjourned and immediately re-convened in regular session, no one having had either occasion or opportunity for travel between sessions at the expense of the public treasury...
...One of these exceptions was the July 1C issue of the Gazette-Globe, of Kansas City, Kansas, challenging the accuracy of La Follette's Roll Call on standpatter Congressman Scott, of Kansas...
...Otherwise he might as well give up the fight...
...We have stated them without fear or favor...
...No matter about parties...
...In giving to the people the records of Congressmen, from official sources, La Follette's has had, in some cases, the duty of reporting misrepresentation of the people by their Congressmen and Senators...
...We wish there were space enough to give it all...
...That vote is recorded in the Record of the 58th Congress, Vol...
...The vote on this amendment was the only record vote on this proposition throughout the Congress...
...There was no record vote...
...McSween is Washington correspondent of the North American,—a Republican newspaper,—and is one of the very few reporters who are permitted to print truthful and uncolored accounts of what really happens...
...We hope you will read it...
...On the first count the Gazette-Globe says: "Another charge in La Follette's article is, that Mr...
...ask the candidates who want to succeed him...
...Let us see...
...And the voters in this country should demand the same kind of an accounting from their representatives...
...We have stated the facts fairly, though unequivocally and positively...
...In the British Isles a candidate for office is heckled by the voters as a matter of course...
...Ask him why And not only the old congressman...
...Speaker...
...The 58th Congress was called in special session November 9, 1903, to ratify the Cuban Treaty...
...A representative who has served the people faithfully will not fear this heckling...
...The Speaker...
...Scott), has voted...
...So when a candidate asks you for your vote, make him tell you why he should get it...
...The truth sometimes hurts...
...Ask how he voted on all critical questions, and don't let him fool you...
...Denying the Record SYSTEM Congressmen are finding the way to reelection rough and troubled...
...On page 1300, Part II of the tariff session record, occurred the roll call on the motion to strike out the countervailing duty on oil—the only record vote taken on the petroleum duty— and Scott is recorded as not voting...
...We suggest that the Gazette-Globe doubtless will be able to get access to the Record in the public library in Kansas City, or doubtless can obtain the Record by addressing Hon...
...The Record shows that after some amendments for free lumber had been voted down, an amendment was offered providing for free lumber from any country or island of the Western Hemisphere...
...Then I desire to change my vote from 'Aye' to 'Present.' The vote stood, Ayes, 322...
...In the third session the "mileage grabbers" were on hand again, headed by Hon...
...Anyway, we have Speaker Cannon's testimony in support of the correctness of our statement...
...McSween'S article is printed on another page of this magazine...
...Mr...
...The amendment was adopted and the bill passed late at night March 1, 1905...
...This is good advice...
...Ask him, for instance, how he stood in the fight over the Cannon rules, the conservation measures, the Wickersham railroad bill, the tariff bill...
...If people heckled their representatives, representatives would quickly begin to serve their constituents...
...The Record d^es net show that Scott opposed it in any manner or that he voted against it...
Vol. 2 • July 1910 • No. 30
