THE ROLL CALL
THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES A V ote fodr the "System" IT WAS dur-in g the "morning hour" of a day in the early part of a session of Congress. A few spectators were in the galleries of the...
...In the Senate, Dick is not much of a warrior...
...These bills are general, special, public, and private...
...He voted always for Aldrich's motions to table amendments proposing reductions of duty...
...News despatches state that Paris turned out a few weeks ago to see the guillotine at work...
...He introduced amendments proposing to increase the duties recommended by the Finance Committee and thereby set the stage for the playing of that tragic farce of Aldrich objecting to a tariff increase...
...They doubtless appealed to President Taft and helped form his determination to insist that the tariff conferees report for free lumber...
...President—" when Aldrich broke in and called for the consideration of the next paragraph of the bill and the "steam-roller" proceeded, scarcely allowing the Senator from Ohio time with scant digni y to take himself out of the road...
...In the ladies' gallery two women were talking in loud whispers...
...Whereupon the reading clerk proceeded, even more rapidly and stentoriously, to read the titles of the bills introduced by the Senator from Ohio...
...A bill to create a Civil War officers' annuitv honor roll...
...A bill for the relief of the estate of David Doe...
...A bill to provide campaign badges for service in certain campaigns in the Spanish War...
...Presumably the Senator from Ohio did not know there was a limit...
...Aldrich was there in the Senate to tell him what the "System" wanted him to do and he looked to Aldrich...
...But these demands of the people of Ohio, the recommendation of her state legislature or the declaration of the state Republican convention could make no appeal to the "System's" Senator from Ohio...
...Oh, that one," said the other, "I'm sure I don't know...
...As for the private bills, the ingenuity of the Senator from Ohio is exceeded only by his industry in this field of statesmanship...
...A bill to erect a statue of Edwin M. Stanton...
...Both Ohio Senators voted against it and curiously enough it was defeated by just two votes...
...A bill to erect a memorial structure at Fort Bunk, Ohio...
...A bill granting a pension to William White...
...He is one of the kind of Senators, Dolliver had in mind when he pleaded with his colleagues not to be bunch of "intellectual come-ons...
...Anyone who knows enough about Senate business to discharge the duties of messenger to the Senate Committee on Disposition of Useless Papers could have told the Senator from Ohio that the Committee on Pensions could not report half that number of bills for any Senator...
...Now, such demands might appeal to some statesmen in Congress...
...He voted 121 times on provisions of the tarriff bill and all but four of his votes were with Aldrich...
...In Ohio, as in other Central and Middle Western States, public sentiment demanded of Congress that the tariff be taken off lumber...
...Then the Vice President announced in quick, stentorian voice, "The Senator from Ohio introduces the following bills...
...asked the second...
...A bill granting an increase of pension to John Jones...
...On several occasions he voted for higher duties than the Finance Committee would recommend, including the Penrose and Curtis amendments proposing duties on petroleum...
...The names, of course, are fictitious, but the list is none the less representative of that genius which combines more ways than were ever before discovered of asking for something from your Uncle Samuel for someone who did, does or may wear a uniform and who votes in Ohio...
...This monopoly, said Senator Beveridge, "has probably not been exceeded in the atrocity of its practices by perhaps any other similar concern in the country, unless it might be the Standard Oil Company, even if the things that are alleged about that corporation are true...
...Over half of them were private pension bills...
...He was Senator from Ohio but not Senator for Ohio...
...Still the "attack on Boston" seems rather tame in comparison with the recent spectacular attack on the consumer...
...Only one of these four could give Aldrich any offense...
...Sounds as if the editors had got a few paragraphs from a mediaval history mixed up with their "copy...
...I wonder who that Senator is," said the first...
...On the 82 roll calls where the issue was drawn clearly between higher duties on one hand and lower duties on the other, he voted every time for the higher and against the lower duty...
...He handed a bundle of papers to the page, to take to the clerk's desk, said a few words that could not be...
...that one with the long hair," replied the first...
...A bill granting an increase of pension to Charles Clark...
...The Ohio State Legislature memorialized Congress for free lumber...
...At such times Aldrich's treatment of Dick suggested how much better it is to "insurge" a bit, a la Elkins, if you are a "System" Senator and want to be accorded a chance to make a play for a home interest not on the Aldrich program...
...He voted for every outrage proposed by the Finance Committee, from "Dutch Standard" to the Cotton Schedule increases, except twice when he missed voting at all...
...The other three votes were for duties that Aldrich did not care about and Dick's voting for them was probably not regarded as a breach of discipline by the "Boss...
...A bill to readjust the pay of Civil War soldiers on a gold basis...
...heard in the gallery and sat down...
...The cash register trust sells cash registers all over the world and, because of a high tariff duty, has been able to charge the American purchaser about twice as much as it charges the foreigner for the same article...
...The Republican State Convention in Ohio last year declared for free lumber...
...exclaimed the first, as the senator in the third row arose and beckoned for a page...
...Dick started to protest, "But Mr...
...A bill to place Prank Brown on the retired list of the Army...
...a thousand and Dick voted for the Aldrich amendment...
...But he didn't...
...A man who had killed his mother was publicly beheaded...
...An example of Dick's alacrity in the service of Ohio trusts was his voluntary defense of the cash register monopoly...
...Dick's part in the tariff legislation consisted mainly in "standing by the Committee" and introducing a few amendments asking higher duties for some Ohio interests...
...And he put into the Record a list of 170 cash register "firms which this concern has either forced to the wall or forced into its arms...
...The general legislation proposed must be ahead of the times for it fails to impress the Committees to which it is referred...
...Aldrich brought in an amendment to put the duty back to $1.50...
...The first one was in favor of a Democratic amendment to subject kip and calf skins, which were free, to the same duty as, Aldrich proposed for heavy hides...
...The House had reduced the duty on lumber to $1 per thousand feet...
...A bill to erect a public building at Squashville, Ohio...
...He voted for a motion by a New England Senator to refer the Philippine tariff amendment to the Committee on Philippines, of which he was a member...
...Contemplate that list, gentle reader, and ponder well the constructive statesmanship of Senator Charles Dick of Akron, Ohio...
...Which Senator...
...So he looked not to Ohio to determine his course in legislation...
...Also he voted against every amendment offered (and some were offered by Republican members of the Finance Committee) to reduce the Aldrich rates...
...Beviridge proposed an amendment to reduce the duty to 15 per cent...
...Of course, the introduction of it serves to endear the Senator from Ohio to the proposed beneficiaries and this is possibly one of the purposes of its introduction...
...During the last Congress he introduced about ninety private bills, mostly proposing benefits for ex-soldiers...
...It may be that the Ohio legislature when it comes to choose a Senator at the end of Dick's term will decide to have a Senator from Ohio and for Ohio...
...A bill to correct the military record of James Green...
...A bill for the relief of Henry Smith...
...He is going to make a speech...
...The second was for a Democratic amendment increasing the duty on pine-apples and the third was in favor of Tillman's 10 cent tax on tea...
...A bill to promote Robert Roe on the retired list of the Army...
...When Dick wanted to propose the restoration of the House rate on gypsum lock, which the Finance Committee had reduced, Aldrich cut him off curtly, declaring, "There has got to be an end of this business (he almost said nonsense) at some time...
...He looks like the actor who played Hamlet in the show that came to Greenville last winter...
...That tall Senator with the military 'strut' who has just walked down to that desk in the middle of the third row on the Republican side...
...Presumably he was not baiting anyone...
...The moral of which being that a "System" Senator of the Dick calibre sits in the Senate for the purpose of voting with Aldrich and should learn to accept the answer of the "Big Boss" and not try to do "stunts...
...A few spectators were in the galleries of the Senate—"seeing the menagerie," a s Tillman says...
...A bill to increase the pay of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and the Revenue Cutter Service...
...A bill for the relief of the heirs of John King...
...Oh, look...
...A bill to extend the franking privilege to officers of the National Guard...
Vol. 1 • September 1909 • No. 35
