THE ROLL CALL
THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES "Steve" Elkins---Insurgent THE United States Sen-a t e is organized for the considera-t i o n, preparation, or suppression of legislation, into committees. Not...
...Legislation to fix the liability of railroad companies for injuries to employees has for years been strangled in Elkins' committee...
...During that time he was twice elected Territorial Delegate in Congress...
...They couldn't stand the pressure...
...This public demand happened to coincide with the selfish interests of New England which is a large consumer of these commodities...
...And now the conference report is in and perhaps when this is read the tariff bill will be a law and it will not provide for free coal, or free ore, or free lumber...
...The friends of the measure were organized beforehand, and after a skirmish which threatened to force a roll call, Senator Elkins allowed the bill to be diverted from his committee to the Committee on Education and Labor of which Senator Borah is chairman...
...Not finding in those parts any town that quite suited him, Mr...
...The "System" saw at once that here was a man admirably equipped to look after both...
...Senatorial courtesy was forgotten...
...When, after twenty years mainly in business but largely in politics, Mr...
...All legislation involving an exercise of these important functions of government must pass through the Senate...
...Unlike Aldrich, he would not needlessly get an associate "in bad" with his constituents...
...Then he removed to West Virginia, married the daughter of Henry Gassaway Davis, running-mate of the erstwhile Democratic candidate, Parker, and settled down to business...
...But his job is cut out for him by the "System" and he does it well, but economically, and with a due regard for his co-workers...
...There was a wide-spread public demand for free trade in certain important raw materials that are produced here cheaper than in important competing countries—particularly coal, iron ore, and lumber...
...Among the "buccaneers" of the Senate he is apostle of the creed "There's-enough-to-around...
...Presently he stopped "insurging...
...Senator' Clapp was detained from the meeting by a meeting of the Committee on Indian Affairs, of which he was chairman, but he left his proxy with Elkins and directed him to vote it in favor of the valuation bill...
...But these are the chief products of West Virginia...
...So "Steve" concluded that it was time for him to get busy, and he got busy...
...Now, when they have a bill introduced regulating their employment in the interests of their own safety and that of the traveling public, they first organize their friends in the Senate to secure, if possible, the reference of the bill to some other committee, where it may have a chance to be reported out...
...But a motion to report it, though made, was never put by the chairman...
...According to the view of the system that controls in the Senate, the function of Congress in regulating commerce is so to regulate it that the paths of "Big Business" shall be smooth and easy...
...Early in the present session a bill was introduced in the Senate to require the railroads, for the safety of employees and the public, to man their trains with sufficient crews, to do the work without unnecessary hazard...
...He is wise, sympathetic, and unselfish...
...He showed up New England's "close corporation" methods of making the tariff, "So that the profits and fortunes of her trusts and people may be swollen at the expense of the whole people...
...He talked of organizing a fight over the Committee assignments...
...The most potent of these influences is the chairman of the committee...
...As a result, the bill will be reported and its enemies will have to meet it in the open Senate...
...Elkins set up one of his own...
...He said that a Senator would not be heard in Aldrich's committee "hearings" as a matter of right...
...After the liability bill was put on the calendar of the Senate, McLaurin was obliged to go away but La Follette grabbed it up and by using roll call tactics pushed it through the Senate...
...Whether it gets through and in what shape, depends upon the influences that control in this committee...
...Senator Stephen B. Elkins of West Virginia was born in Ohio about sixty-eight years ago and he lived there until he graduated from the University, when he went to the Territory of New Mexico and engaged for a decade in the practice of law and politics...
...Railway employees have secured session after session the introduction of this legislation only to have it referred to the Committee on Interstate Commerce for perpetual interment...
...A majority of the Committee on Interstate Commerce concluded that the employers' liability bill and the rate bill would have to come out...
...But the railway employees out of twenty years of disappointment have learned something...
...Time after time during the session the matter was brought up in the Senate and a report of the bill demanded...
...Not counting those which are mere figures of speech, there are about thirty committees of the Senate...
...So under fire, Elkins allowed the valuation bill to be considered...
...If there is any "good thing" of the "System" that is more precious than the "good thing" of railroading it is the "good thing" of railroads and coal in combination...
...The Finance committee did not report in favor of free coal or free ore, or free lumber...
...But Elkins came not nearer than the cloak room to enjoy the "joke...
...Whatever of control is to be exercised by the federal government in relation to the great problems of business, of monopoly, of trusts, and of transportation, must be exercised under this grant of power to regulate commerce...
...In this position he has looked well after the trust committed to his charge...
...In the Senate it must pass through the needle's eye—the Committee on Interstate Commerce...
...It is this contrast in his make-up with that of Aldrich and Lodge that sent Elkins "insurg-ing" at the beginning of the tariff session...
...The town of Elkins, West Virginia, consists of "Son-in-law Steve" and his'n and "Father-in-law Gassaway" and his'n and their collieries, banks, trust companies, and railroads, and the people who do the work...
...It is headquarters in West Virginia for "Big Business" and "Big Business Politics" of all kinds and denominations...
...One class of legislation which the railroads are ever on the alert to prevent is that designed to better the position of railroad employees in their relations with their employers...
...But in 1906, public demand for railroad legislation had become determined and the "Big Stick" at the White House was making a noise that was distinctly heard on Capitol Hill...
...When the Committee met, Elkins tried to sidetrack the valuation bill for the consideration of a pet measure of his own to require shippers of explosives to pack them in such a way that they would not be liable to damage railway equipment...
...In the last Congress Senator Fulton of Oregon introduced a bill for the big lumbermen of the Northwest, who had been pinched by an unwarranted advance of freight rates, to provide that the railroads should not advance rates without a hearing before, and the approval of, the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...He alarmed the leaders...
...The Committee on Interstate Commerce is looked upon by the "System" as a reliable vehicle—a sort of truck— for carrying forward its enterprises in this direction...
...These facts are mentioned here because they have a relation to this story of the "Insurgency of Elkins...
...The bill to prevent excessive hours of labor for railway employees in the operation of trains was in this way "shunted" to the Committee on Education and Labor, of which Senator Dolliver was chairman, and was reported to the Senate, and, after a stubborn fight in both Houses, became a law...
...It is no test of the statemanship of a "System" Senator to "get things" for the "System" when the people are not looking, as often they are not...
...He had been told, he said, that he "might be permitted to do so if I should just come under the yoke, be good, be obedient and servile and promise to report every morning at a certain place to which all roads in the Senate lead and there get instructions...
...he has not the assurance of a New England Senator...
...He declared, "I am not for protection in spots but protection all around...
...The author of the bill canvassed the members of the Committee and got a quorum for that purpose...
...But it sometimes tries every resource of the Chairman of the Committee on Interstate Commerce to stave off legislation distasteful to the "Interests" but demanded by an organized public sentiment...
...Elkins lost control of his committee and had to allow the majority, composed of Roosevelt Republicans and Democrats, to report the bills...
...He denounced the present methods of tariff making, as "unknown and unheard of...
...The bill went to Elkins' committee—and stayed there...
...The liability bill was reported by Senator McLaurin, a Democrat from Mississippi, and the rate bill was given to the impetuous Tillman of South Carolina, in the frank hope that his handling of the bill in the Senate would antagonize so many Republicans that the bill would be defeated...
...I then asked, If I promised all these things, in addition to being heard before the Finance Committee, would I have a chance perhaps once a week, in open Senate, to make a motion to adjourn...
...He "insurged" right and left...
...Its importance may be judged by the fact that Aldrich in appointing himself on committees selected this as one of his three committees...
...He said he was told in answer "You might get permission once a week to move to adjourn, perhaps...
...For more than three years there has been pending before Elkins' committee a bill to provide for the valuation of railroad property as a basis for fixing rates in accordance with the consistent and repeated recommendations of the Interstate Commerce Commission for a dozen years...
...He was still promising at the hour of adjournment when his absence from his seat and his failure to "make good" were made a jest in the Senate...
...He proceeded to take the lid off— a little—and to uncover Senate methods and Senate management as he knew them from the inside...
...He characterized the chairman's conduct before the committee, and in plain language...
...Every effort has been made to secure its report, but without avail...
...With the aggrandizement of federal control, the enormous commercial development of the country, and the coming of modern industrialism, the scope and importance of the power conferred in these few words has been widened and increased beyond any possible dream of the framers of the constitution...
...But he got far enough to make his point and to make the Finance committee see it and incidentally to let the rest of the Senators see some other things...
...It was his position and importance in the Senate organization that made the Senate and other people take notice when he did it...
...Also New England had "hogged" three places on the Committee of Finance...
...Elkins arrived in the Senate, the "System" looked him up in "Who's Who" and read that he was "Largely interested in coal mining and railroads...
...He broke loose in open Senate...
...It looked as though the bill might come out by a majority of one vote...
...The Fathers in setting up our government provided that "The Congress shall have power * * * to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states...
...But the volcanic Tillman was on hand and did some exploding on his own account...
...At one time the chairman of the committee said he could not get a quorum of his committee to consider the bill...
...I might be heard and have a chance to defend the interests of my state...
...He may some day have to account to his constituents in West Virginia and so he sympathizes with his fellow Senators who may also have to account...
...But this proved a bad guess for the bill passed and became a law—the only legislation of first class importance in the public interests that has got away from the Committee on Interstate Commerce since Elkins has been at the throttle...
...Of this number, six or eight far outrank the rest in importance, and control the great bulk of the Senate business...
...He has even failed in that task on occasion when the public sentiment was organized and emphasized by the activities of a now famous "Big Stick...
...Of these six or eight, one of the most important — perhaps the most important next to the Committees on Finance and Appropriation— is the Committee on Interstate Commerce...
...For "Steve," as he is called by his friends in the Senate, prefers to be square...
...In some instances they have succeeded...
...He said he was willing to stand for the extravagant protective duties on the products of New England but he wanted the "good things" passed around...
...Also he had his colleague, Senator Scott, "insurge...
...He even put himself into communication with the Progressives— the outcasts of the Senate...
...Calls for the "regular order" and motions for executive session were interposed to cut him off...
...He attacked the committee organization which excluded from participation in tariff making the entire South, Republican and Democratic, with its twenty-four million people...
...So it put him on the Committee on Interstate Commerce and he became chairman of it...
...Instead, he substituted a motion to refer the bill to the Interstate Commerce Commission and he voted Senator Clapp's proxy in favor of this motion...
...When Elkins had delivered himself of what he thought was enough, he stopped...
...These were drastic methods and only to be used as a last resort and then only when success was reasonably assured...
...Time after time, Elkins met these demands with assurances that he would report the bill...
Vol. 1 • August 1909 • No. 31
