SEVEN MEN HOLD KEY TO THE SENATE
Speers, L. C.
Seven Men Hold Key to the Senate In the Upper House a Group of Progressive Senators IVJay Decide Questions on Which Two Parties Divide. By L. C. SPEERS (Reprinted by Permission from New York...
...There are others, but these are the urgent ones...
...After the group pictures were completed, Senators Borah and La Follette posed for another picture . The Democratic progres- " sives, Senators Wheeled of Montana and Dill of Washington, were conspicuous by their absence...
...What we need is a law based on something other than a proposition the ultimate effect of which is increasing the farmer's debts...
...For more than a year, however, the enemy has been smiling in his direction...
...Another of the "Seven," Smith Wildman Brookhart of Iowa, has long been a thorn in the side of the faithful...
...Henrik Shipstead of Minnesota...
...But he is of the "Seven" and he will tell you himself he is going to stay there...
...If he votes with' the Democrats it means Vice President Dawes must decide the question at issue...
...Take the question of relief for our farmers...
...Also I think it might be wise to ask the Interstate Commerce Commission to give the reason why railroads seeking to reduce freight rates are not permitted to do so...
...The Federal Government should regulate and control in a way to prevent the fixing of prices and the improper exploitation of this vast power within the limits of our country...
...Watch them...
...Counting the six Republicans of the "Big Seven" as regular (and no man in Washington in his right senses would ever do that), the Republicans in this Senate are still one short of a voting majority...
...The Federal Government is a partnership acting for all the States...
...stand ready to kill the fatted calf for him and this despite the fact that he was sent back to the Senate on a platform that was anti-Coolidge from start to finish—one more anti-Administration even than the platform on which John W. Davis went down to defeat in 1924...
...In the front row were Borah, La Follette of Wisconsin, Norris of Nebraska and Frazier of North Dakota...
...For forty years and more we have listened to the slogan 'Help the Farmer,' and we have helped him so much that we have just about helped him out' of everything he ever had...
...the bills for the maintenance of the army an.r navy, especially the latter, which is expected to carry an appropriation for the construction of several new cruisers...
...I do not mean Government ownership, but I do mean control and the only organization powerful enough to control is the Government itself...
...Back of them, but not so irregular, stand Borah and Howell, with Mc-Nary of Oregon, Norbeck of South Dakota .and Johnson of ^California sympathetic on some of the legislative propositions which they are demanding...
...The commission was asked to approve a reduction of such rates and refused...
...Last but not least Congress ought to make a full and complete investigation of the power trust, giving publicity to the means by which this trust attempts to control legislation in the nation, in the States and la the municipalities...
...He will be 35 the 19th of this month...
...He was governor when the La Follette wing in Wisconsin named him as its candidate for the Senate to oppose Irvine L. Lenroot, who came to the Senate as a La Follette Republican and left it a Coolidge Republican of the stand-pat type...
...Congress ought to pass the Boulder Dam bill...
...Congress in passing tax legislation should retain on the statute books the present law taxing inheritances...
...Legislation should provide that this great_ natural asset shall not be monopolized...
...This leaves Shipstead, the Farmer-Laborite dentist from Minnesota, in such a position that he can vote a tie or vote a victory as he sees fit...
...These are a few of the things Congress, in my opinion, should do in the session about to start...
...Division of Congress SOME statistics are necessary at this point...
...The problem is to put agriculture on a par with other industries...
...That must never be...
...Their only course seemed to be a plea for mercy, a plea they never made...
...There was no Old Guardsman, s > brave as to suggest that...
...In, that„same campaign in which La Follette," Frazier, Brookhart and Ladd committed the political sin that is unpardonable, Norris, too, said a lot of nice things about La Follette and few, if any, about President Coolidge...
...He said at the time he did not care one whit...
...He has positive views as to what Congress should do in the course of the next few months...
...He is a "progressive" to the bone...
...The picture (on Page 1) was taken from the steps of the Senate Office Building facing the senate wing...
...There was a time not so long ago when the Republican majority in the Senate read two of them oat of the party...
...No free Government could live long if it gave its approval to so disreputable a precedent as that would be...
...They want him back...
...In the Senate of the Seventieth Congress the paper lineup is: 48 Republicans, 47 Democrats and 1 Farmer-I.aborite...
...Senator Norris, while averse to the title of leader, is nevertheless, accepted as the spokesman for the progressive group in Congress...
...He wa3 pleasant in conversation and pleasant on tha floor of the Senate...
...Water Power Regulation FLOOD control is another grave question before the Congress...
...In the rear row stood Nye of North Dakota, Howell of Nebraska, Blaine of Wisconsin and Brookhart of Iowa and Shipstead, the Farmer-Labor Senator from Minnesota...
...He has positive views as to what Congress should do in the course of the next few months...
...All of the seven are from the Middle West— one from Nebraska, one from Iowa, two from North Dakota, two from Wisconsin and one from Minnesota...
...Congress ought to pass a comprehensive flood relief law...
...Then there is the tariff...
...In the battle the late Senator Lfldd of North Dakota and his colleague, Senator Frazier, and Senator Brookhart deserted the Coolidge banner and swung to the support of the Wisconsin progressive...
...On paper six are Republicans, one is a Farmer-Laborite...
...Campaign Expenditures "A GAIN there is the problem of "campaign expenditures...
...In the Senate of the Sixty-ninth Congress the roster stood (again on paper only): 55 Republicans, 40 Democrats and 1 Farmer-Laborite...
...I believe a vigorously prosecuted investigation would develop all the facts...
...A few months after he was "disciplined" Robert Marion La Follette passed on...
...This is something needing attention...
...By L. C. SPEERS (Reprinted by Permission from New York Times, December 4, 1927...
...Washington expected to see a "Red" of the Russian kind—a real trouble-maker...
...It would mean the sanctioning of the buying and selling of public office...
...Gerald I...
...WThat kind of men are they ? First in line is George W. Norris of McCook, Neb...
...Again, it was asked to approve a 6 cents per bushel reduction on wheat to the seaboard and refused...
...If monopoly of water power is economically sound, then its control should not be in private hands...
...In a question involving character and integrity, how can you eliminate the question as to how the office was obtained ? Legislation must be enacted to limit expenditures...
...To seat those men would be one of the worst exhibitions cf the downfall of republican government that could be given...
...Frazier, too, was disciplined back in 1925...
...It should confine its reductions to the so-called nuisance taxes and the smaller incomes...
...Would Lower Rates "FINALLY there is the problem of trans- portation, by rail and by water...
...Three Years Ago and Now ALITTLE less than three years ago, it will be recalled, the Republican majority in the Senate indulged in what is going down in history as a "disciplinary spree...
...Robert M. I.a Follette...
...One other matter I think should receive the attention of Congress is the issuing of injunctions by courts of equity...
...He is generally conceded to be the most independent man in the Senate, not even excepting Borah...
...Nye, like "Young Bob," is a tireless worker and a speaker of ability...
...They may land him now and then, but on big issues he will stand by the colors of the "Seven...
...The olive branch was extended to him months ago...
...of Wisconsin...
...Blaine is for the La Follette policies...
...There are," he said, "so many things that ought to be done I hesitate to speculate on what may or may not happen in the session about to begin...
...These are theJ'Seven...
...His son, Robert Marion La Follette Jr., known to political Washington as "Young Bob", succeeded him and has never veered an inch from the course laid by his father...
...Like his father, Senator La Follette is a little fellow...
...otherwise the system of buying seats in the Senate will be progressive ami the day will come when all seats will be for sale to the highest bidder...
...What of the "Seven...
...Smith W. Brookhart of Iowa...
...It should provide for the Government Operation of Muscle Shoals, the sale of its power, giving counties and municipalities the preference, the income to be utilized for the manufacture on a large experimental scale of fertilizers, with a view to decreasing the present fertilizer charge against agriculture...
...He is an orator of no mean ability...
...Norris As a Leader BUT THEY did not read Norris out of the party...
...Blaine gave Lenroot a bad drubbing in the primary, and when the regular Republicans put up an independent candidate against him gave him a worse beating in the general election that followed...
...The party caucus has no power over them and "regularity" is just a word, nothing more...
...He is "Henry" to tha stand-patters now, and "Henry" can have almost anything he wants if he only will come into camp and help the sorely troubled majority out of the big hole it is in...
...John J. Blaine of Wisconsin...
...Instead, he was modest, retiring, kept his place as a "good freshman," and in due course of time the members began to like him...
...There is flood control, relief for the farmers, a law to limit the powers of the courts in the matter of injunctions, tax reduction, possible equalization of the tariff, legislation to end forever huge expenditures in political campaigns, the power problem, freight rates and so on, indefinitely...
...When the Sixty-ninth Congress convened the Old Guard, led by Senators Watson, Moses, Reed of Pennsylvania and Edge, went to work...
...No more need be said...
...The Opposition of Norris 4f-pHE SENATE," he said, "should purify A itself of the charge that Senate seats can be bought by refusing to permit Smith and Vare to be sworn into office...
...In the Spring of 1925 they kicked him out of the party organization and some months later they catapulted him out of the Senate, and by so doing made him both martyr and hero back home, with the result that he came charging back to Washington with the biggest majority of his turbulent career...
...The group numbered nine and included Senators Borah of Idaho and Howell of Nebraska, who have been hopefully listed by the Republican leadership as fairly amenable to the party lash...
...Norris was too powerful in the Middle West, he was too hard a hitter and too able a debator...
...legislation affecting the Federal Reserve...
...When the Government was organized it was a union of States, entitled to equal representation in the Senate...
...The late Senator La Follette had made the race for the Presidency Senator George Norris, while averse (o the title of leader, is, nevertheless, accepted as the spokesman for the progressive group in Congress...
...opinion, so far proposed which may do this is the McNary-Haugen bill...
...Nye of North Dakota...
...We should limit and define the powers of these courts in the matter of injunctions...
...I am for adequate control, but I am going to depend largely on what expert engineers say as to the form that control shall 'take...
...He smiled his thanks and continued of the "Seven...
...He says so himself...
...My mind is open, the only proviso being that control must be adequate and not made the football of politics...
...the alien property problem...
...Farm Relief Measure C C x-^ONGRESS ought to pass a farm re-lief measure that will give the farmers of the country the benefits of the pratective tariff at present enjoyed by all other classes of citizens...
...They need him just as they need all the others of the "Seven...
...On all these questions the "Seven" will be heard from and on the final decision they will exercise telling power...
...He was the first Non-Partisan League Governor of his State and is the man who retired Porter J. McCumber, who gave his name to the existing tariff law, to private life...
...I am not prepared to say now whether amendment or repeal is the remedy...
...They have the balance of power in all matters where party lines hold...
...The "Seven" will be cared for when it comes to assigning committee places...
...Thjs control is important, for control of power means control of industry...
...But on the big issues he will stay "progressive," for he is and will remain of the "Seven...
...Senator Moses of New Hampshire passed on his way to the Capitol while the nine were being posed by the photographers...
...These are the seven men whose potential powers are so great in the session of the Senate that begins tomorrow: George W. N.orris of Nebraska...
...If only they will enter, they will be welcomed with open arms into the very sanctum of the Old Guard...
...On any question on which the lines of the Republican and Democratic parties hold, they can swing victory either way...
...The question of the control of the power resources of the nation is still another question worthy the most serious thought...
...He attends no party caucuses and ha votes his convictions and it makes not the slightest difference what the party chieftains think about it...
...In addition there are the various bills of all shades and degrees for the relief of agriculture...
...Being in a position almost unique in the legislative history of the nation, what Senator Shipstead has to say at this particular time is of more than passing interest...
...The continued development of our inland waterways is certainly one answer to this problem...
...They ask no favors and they give no quarter...
...Shipstead's Popularity TODAY SHIPSTEAD is the most popular man in the Senate...
...Incidentally he is a nephew of the late "Bill" Nye, the humorist...
...all Senators were to receive the same salary out of the same funds, namely those of the Government itself...
...SEVEN MEN are in a position to exercise an absolute balance of power in the Senate of the United States, which convenes tomorrow...
...By profession he is a country editor, and as such waged an unrelenting warfare on tho Harding and Coolidge Administrations.' The-Ncwest Progressive THE seventh and newest of the progressives is John J. Blaine of Wisconsin...
...He was a radical, but not an unreasoning one...
...investigation of the so-called power trust...
...The party whip snapped, and out of the party went the elder La Follette, Ladd, Frazier and Brookhart, and a short time thereafter a sufficient number of the Old Guard united with the Democrats to throw Brookhart out of the Senate and vote his seat to young Dan Steck, the Democratic Legionaire...
...It is a vital question today, and will be until it is settled right...
...The Senate should complete the investigation started several years ago in the matter of the lease of the Teapot Dome Naval Oil Reserve...
...Being from a State normally Republican, and on top of that being naturally gcod-natured, Shipstead is expected to help the Administration whenever it is consistently possible for him to do so...
...Lynn .1...
...as a third party candidate...
...Four years ago he came to Washington, the first Farmer-Labor candidate to be elected to the Senate...
...He is safe now, and if he will be good Watson, Moses, Reed & Co...
...Gerald P. Nye, of North Dakota, who succeeds Senator Ladd, is one of the youngest men in the Senate...
...These are, in my opinion, the big problems Congress should lose as little time as possible in attending to...
...It has now developed that Fall received only a small part of the loot and an investigation should begin to ascertain who got the rest of it...
...As matters now stand these courts have gone too far in assuming jurisdiction and are issuing injunctions to such an extent that government 1 y injunction is displacing government by law and abolishing the guarantees the Constitution provides for the protection of us all, regardless of our status in life...
...La Follette Undeviating AFTER Brookhart comes Lynn J. Frazier, the big, slow-talking, senior Senator from North Dakota...
...a possible effort to pass an anti-third term resolution and campaign fund legislation...
...Next to Norris on the roll of independents is Shipstead, the Farmer-Laborite from the State of Knute Nelson, Secretary of State Kellogg and Moses Clapp...
...Secondly should come a flood control system which will meet every phase of this Mississippi Valley flood problem, the gravity of which cannot be exaggerated...
...The only bill, in my Senate Progressive Group Poses for Movies THE Republican Senate Progressives disclosed their strength before the moving picture cameras...
...First it s-hould pass emergency legislation for the relief of destitute victims of the great flood of 1927...
...Ah," said he, "we know who they are now...
...The States have a right to say what the qualifications of the representatives whom they send to Washington shall be...
...So they let him stay in the camp, although he was then as now practically out of it...
...And Norris is still Chairman, and no matter what kind of cyclone strikes other Senators, Norris, unless every sign fails, will hold on to his important job as head of the powerful Committee on Judiciary...
...But when all is said and done, they are Senators of the United States, and seldom, if ever, in the history of the Republic have seven men held so powerful a position in the upper branch of the Congress...
...Today the tables are turned...
...They made him Chairman, of the Committee on Agriculture and when Borah resigned as Chairman of the Committee on Judiciary to assume the Chairmanship of Foreign Affairs, Norris succeeded him...
...Frazier of North Dakota...
...What the farmer gets out of tho tariff now, he is compelled to pay too much for...
...Take coal for the Northwest as an instance...
...I have my guess, but I will keep it to, myself for the time being...
...Whether it will or will not do them the future alone will answer...
...In few instances is tariff protection for agriculture effective, and it is a matter that should be attended to...
...But Shipstead was not that sort of Senator...
...He did not make himself a nuisance, as some of his critics had said would be the case...
...Congress can do this...
...The Kind of Men They Are THE REAL power of the "Seven" will be shown when the vote is called on legislation of major importance, such as tax reduction, farm relief, the repeal of certain sections, or the amending of other sections, of the railroad law...
...It is not equalized as it stands...
...They are sometimes called radicals, sometimes they are dubbed progressives, and now and then, when the opposition gets angry, they arc labeled "Red...
...Congress ought to pass a law simplifying our judical procedure, making delays such as now exist impossible, and thus make possible-speedy justice in the United States...
Vol. 19 • December 1927 • No. 12
