THE POWER AND DUTY OF THE SENATE
Norris, George W.
The Power and Duty of the Senate Expenditure of Huge Sums for Seats in Congress Cannot be Justified; "Pay As You" Enter" Policy Denounced By GEORGE W. NORRIS (United States Senator from...
...Does he seek to deny to other people the right to make any attempt to enlighten the public upon the subject, while he devotes his great ability and his valuable time to the education of the pciblic...
...Must we therefore, in effect, disqualify him from becoming a candidate by permitting the rich man or the rich man's tool, to spend such staggering sums...
...Somebody must have the right to pass upon the admission of Mr, Smith and M*r...
...We have made it impossible for any citizen of the United States to become a member of the Senate unless he himself is many times a millionaire, or unless he sells out in advance to those who are billionaires and are willing to put up the money in order to secure the legislation which they want...
...Smith and Mr...
...They placed the responsibility upon the Senate itself, and whether it desires to do so ot not, it cannot shirk this duty...
...In other words, it made the Senate in such instances the supreme and fin<»l court...
...IT IS claimed by Mr...
...This official notice, it must be remembered, contains the testimony of two aspirants for senatorial seats from those States, and the Senate therefore will have the official notice of a certificate of election and the official notice of Ms own committee, and thero will be no need and no necessity and n» reasoa for referring the matter to a Committee...
...The literature sent out was not in a fair sense of the term, educational...
...In Illinois, $458,000 was spent to secure the nomination for Mr...
...Vare is not a question of expulsion...
...FLOOD SPARES BjIBLE AND RADIO When Mr...
...Vare...
...Vare, that additional evidence should be had, such a course can be taken, but there will be no reason for the swearing in of the applicant because his certificate of election, the evidence upon which he relies, is already officially questioned and denied...
...Second, even if we admit the truth of Mr, Beck's statement, there is no excuse for the expenditure of so much money...
...Unfortunately for him and the cause he argues, our constiutional fathers had a different idea, and they provided (Section 5, Article 1) in speaking of the House and the Senate that "each House shall be the judge of the election, returns, and qualifications of ita own members...
...The Senate already has official notice of what has happened both in Illinois and in Pennsylvania...
...The book and receiving set were side by side on a little table which floated with the floor waters and stayed right side up with remarkable equilibrium...
...The bible was not even wet...
...George H. Thomas of Leroy, Kan., returned to their home after a flood they found everything inundated excepting the family Bible and the radio set...
...Either directly or indirectly it will get into the hands of those who oil the political machine by the buying of votes, and thus bring about perversion of the verdict of honest people...
...If the Senate believes, therefore, what it has already declared, it follows, as night follows day, that its duty in the case of Smith and Vare is to exclude them, « « • PQSSIBILY the most conspicuous advocate outside of the Senate, of the claims of Messrs...
...The expenditure of almost unthinkable sums of money in behalf of these men has disqualified them, and they should therefore be denied a seat in the Senate from the beginning...
...They knew that to whatever tribunal they gave this authority, there was a possibility of its being abused, and inasmuch as that possibility would necessarily exist wherever the responsibility was placed, they thought it best to let the Senate settle its own difficulties and be the judge of the qualifications of its own members...
...Beck had been in the Constitutional Convention he would have perhaps been able t» provide that this body should be the Supreme Court or a District Court or an Executive official or some other official body outside of the Senate itself...
...It is worthy of note also, that both Mr...
...In the Newfoerry case, where $195,000 was spent to secure a nomination, the Senate declared that such expenditure was "contrary to feound public policy, harmful to the honor and dignity of the Senate, and dangerous to the perpetuity of a free government...
...Smith appeared in person before this committee and testified, and that the facts as to the expenditure of this money have been admitted by both of them, so that the taking of this evidence cannot be said to be ex-parte...
...It has to do with the qualifications of those who seek a seat in the Senate...
...It is clear also that the Constitution has given to the Senate the right to declare, as it fcas already done, that the expenditure of auch sums of money to secure a nomination disquali fies the recipient from a seat in that body...
...But when thus determined it had reference to the beginning of the term and not to anything that had happened subsequent thereto, and the vote when it finally came, was not a vote of expulsion but a vote as to the right that the Senator had at the beginning of his term, to occupy his seat, and hence no question of a two-thirds vote was involved...
...AISE WE then helpless...
...The Senate has in effect, already acted upon cases of this kind...
...He has written a book upon the subject...
...This so-called education is desirable only when the machine wants to nominate somebody satisfactory to itself...
...There never was and never can be any legitimate reason given for the expenditure of this money, and the claim by Mr...
...Vare spent his money for the purpose of sending to the people of Pennsylvania, engraved copies of the Loi-d's Prayer, that he gave it to the Y. M. C. A., or the Women's Christian Temperance Union, still it is unjustified and indefensible and is contrary' to ordinary common justice and decency...
...It is only the rich or those who are willing to mortgage their souls to the rich, who can expend the/ir money...
...It is true, that in other cases, Senators-elect who for one reason or another, had their right to sit in the Senate contested, have, upon the presentation of the certificate of election, beeu sworn into the Senate and the question involved then submitted to a committee, and the final issue determined upon the report of this committee...
...and the Senate, having no other evidence except the certificate, admitted the claimant until it was able to obtain such official notice upon the filing of the report of the Committee appointed to investigate the question involved...
...From its decree there is no appeal, and Ho court or other body of men can withhold its arm by injunction or other process...
...The object of the expenditure was to get votes...
...If his argument is logical and effective, it would be impossible, under any circumstances, to set tip a government of any kind...
...Is it wrong to build up public opinion against the seating of Mr...
...If we admit for the sake of argument, that Mr...
...There are two answers to this argument...
...Copies of the book have been sent free not only to members of the Senate who will pass upon these cases, but also to the leading daily newspapers of the country...
...It has been variously circulated, and to a great extent at least, free, to those who desire to read it...
...Vare are presented to the Senate, the Senate will therefore have in its, possession official notice on both sides of the question...
...The question is one in which every citizen of the Republic has a direct interest...
...Vare and Mr...
...In possession of this official evidence, the Senate can act without the necessity of such reference, and if it is claimed on the part of either Mr...
...First, it is not true that this money was used for educational purposes...
...The Senate in those cases took such a course because the only official notice it had of the election was the certificate' of election presented to the Senate of the applicant...
...It was in the main, a campaign of deception, of vote-buying, and of machine control...
...Beck, who according to the public press, is attorney for at least one of these claimants, has been devoting a great deal of his time and energy in an effort to influence p«ublic opinion...
...Of this amount, $800,000 was spent for the nomination of Mr...
...This committee took evidence in Pennsylvania and Illinois and has made a partial report, so that the Senate has now official notice of what happened in each of these primaries...
...In Pennsylvania more than three million dollars was expended by the various candidates...
...And yet Mr...
...The Senate would be derelict in its duty if it declared by its action that it would condone an offense of the rich which, in effect, denies the rights of the poor...
...Fortunately, when our forefathers framed the Constitution, they provided in that great instrument that the Senate should be the sole Judge of the qualifications and the election of its members...
...After the primaries, the Senate appointed a committee...
...A Smith and Mr...
...Some official or some body must have the right to pass on the disputed question of the admission of any claimant to a seat in the Senate...
...Beek, carried to its logical conclusion, simply means that no poor man can aspire to public office...
...To keep the public service free and open to all who desire to enter, is one of the principal objects in the limitation of the expenditure of money to obtain public office...
...If the political bosses want to educate the people or send them literature, they can do so when no campaign is on, but nobody has ever heard of their doing it...
...Smith and Mr, Vare, while it is a virtue and a blessing to use the public press in expressing opinions favorable to the admission of these men to the Senate...
...Beck has stated...
...The very amount of the money spent is, of itself, conclusive evidence of political corruption and the claim that it is used for educational purposes is a hollow mockery and a sham...
...And who contends that this declaration of the Senate in the Newberry case is either untrue or onjustified...
...Pay As You" Enter" Policy Denounced By GEORGE W. NORRIS (United States Senator from Nebraska) —~~5) HiK MCXRAL conscience of the nasi *§ tion was de*Plv shocked when it a learned from undisputed and adWi tffW mitted evidence that there had j \ IfcMi been spent in the Illinois and f-mdWH Pennsylvania primaries several L*^^lH millions of dollars in an effort to obtain nominations for candidates for the United States Senate...
...TpHE question to be met in the case of Mr...
...It must meet it...
...Beck that it was educational is unworthy of one having such a high standing before the American people...
...The most of it, as shown by the evidence taken by the Senate Committee, was in reality used to buy votes...
...It was not a campaign of education...
...In the case of Smith and Vare, the facts are different...
...The truth is, it is a physical impossibility to confer power upon any body of men, without at the same time conferring upon them the right to abuse that power...
...Smith and Vare is the Honorable James M. Beck, former Solicitor-General of the United States...
...Beck and others, that particularly in Pennsylvania, even the expenditure of $800,000 was not an excessive amount, because, it is argued, this sum was spent and could well be spent in an educational campaign^ and that it would cost a large amount of money, merely for postage, to send campaign literature to all the eitizens of the State...
...Who has ever contradicted the solemn declaration that the expenditure of such sums of money is destructive of human liberty and will break down every barrier of protection to the rights and the liberties of the ordinary citizen...
...If Mr...
...Beck exist, abuse the power and the discretion thus given them...
...The expenditure of such huge sums for seats In the United States Senate cannot "be justified unless we desire to turn over that great legislative body to the multi-millionaires of the country who are willing to buy legislation the same as though it were merchandise sold for cash to those who are willing and able to pay the price...
...Does he desire to have one side remain quiet and say nothing that might affect public opinion, while he himself preempts that field...
...Smith or Mfr...
...As the Senate has truly said, the expenditure of such huge sums of money is "contrary to .sound public policy, harmful to the honor and dignity of the Senate, and dangerous to the perpetuity of free government...
...In a recent article Mr...
...Beck's principal argument against giving the Senate the right to pass upon the question, is that the Senate might, if it had this right, arbitrarily keep men out of the Senate without any valid reason whatever...
...If this practice is to be condoned then we have placed seats in the highest legislative assembly Of the world, upon the auction block, and we have, by indirection, defeated every fundamental principle that underlies our government Structure...
...Vare must be seated and the precedent thus established is carried to its logical end, the country will soon discover that the Senate is not a club of millionaires, but a club of multi-millionaires, or what is still wor.se, a chub of the tools and slaves of multimillionaires...
...A certificate of election is prima facie evidence of what it purports to be...
...If it does, it will stultify itself and toake itself the laughing stock of the country...
...and Mrs...
...If he does not believe that public opinion should have anything to do with the question, why has he been continuously publishing and broadcasting his theories and his ideas on the subject...
...It must decide it...
...Smith and Mr...
...Benjamin Franklin found that the 4th of March fell on Sunday fewer times than another date during the next two centuries, so that was the date chosen for the presidential inauguration...
...Is there no way under our Constitution by which the Senate can maintain its standards pure and undefiled as the representative law making- body of a free ami patriotic people...
...I presume our forefathers knew all that Mr...
...As a matter of fact, everybody knows that huge sums of money never have been and never will be fairly and honestly expended in political campaigns...
...When the certificates of election of Mr...
...Smith...
...Beck says: 'The issue is not a matter which public opinion should decide...
...Vare to the Senate, if their right to a seat is questioned, and whoever that may be, or whatever body it may be might if conditions stated by Mr...
...Beck has written articles which have appeared in the public press in advocacy of the seating of Messrs...
...What can be said for the poor man who wants to engage in an "education" campaign" He is denied the right because he does not have the money himself and is not willing to mortgage his legislative soul to those who have...
...The contention made by Mr...
...It is one torhere the rights of those who believe in freedom and self-government are directly affected...
...In the face of this record, can the Senate seat either Smith or Vare...
...Vare and Smith...
...If Mr...
...It is the only tribunal provided for in the Constitution that has jurisdiction, and under the same instrument, this jurisdiction is final and from its decree there is no appeal...
...m IF WE take this step we have nullified every effort made by our forefathers when they laid the foundation of the Republic, and have established a Government not based upon the consent of the governed, but dependent on the power «t those who have the money to buy and the Trill of those who are ready to sell...
Vol. 19 • January 1927 • No. 1
