NEWS WORTH REMEMBERING
News Worth Remembering LAST Tuesday's elections brought many surprises, some notable victories for the Big Business—Big Politics combination, and a great deal of encouragement to the progressives...
...Gaynor was the "respectable" candidate on whom Tammany relied to carry through the rest of the ticket...
...Boston Adopts Important Reform Boston aroused interest throughout the country by voting in "Plan No...
...Labor Leaders Lose in Decision Samuel Gompers, Frank Morrison and John Mitchell were on the 2nd adjudged guilty of contempt of court in the Bucks Stove and Range Company case...
...Briefly stated, its provisions are as follows: Party designations are abolished...
...Chicago Police Baffled Thus far the Chicago police have been unable to discover the slightest clue as to the identity of the persons responsible for Bombs 33 and 34...
...5,000 signatures necessary for nomination...
...The city to be governed by a mayor and nine councilmen...
...Nomination by petition, thus doing away with caucus and convention...
...He said no plan will be submitted at the present session of Congress, but at the third session of this Congress...
...His plurality was 73,016...
...1." Boston thus becomes the first city of first magnitude in the country to abandon the old, unwieldy form of city government by mayor and council elected by wards and to adopt a modified form of the "commission plan...
...Cummins Defends Insurgents In a speech before the Marquette Club in Chicago on November 6, Senator Albert B. Cummins of Iowa accepted the recent challenge of Speaker Cannon and said the "Insurgents" were ready to fight and fight hard for the control of the party of Lincoln...
...It is said that States' Attorney Wayman will ask the next grand jury of Chicago to investigate the alleged alliance between certain members of the police force and the gambling fraternity...
...Taft in the South President Taft has been received most cordially on his trip through the South...
...2." This plan provides for a more centralized, more democratic form of city government...
...Eugene N. Foss, a Republican who ran for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket received an estimated vote of 175,164 to 187,131 for Frothingham, the Republican candidate...
...Senator Cummins declared that "it is plain that one of the first things we ought to do as a government is to fix a basis upon which the railroads may earn interest and dividends...
...Even the board of aldermen as well as the board of estimate, is figured to be anti-Tammany for a spell...
...Tom L. Johnson was defeated for mayor of Cleveland by Herman Baehr, Republican...
...The day has come for an inquiry into the qualifications of a Republican...
...The result is summarized by Sumner in the Chicago Record-Herald as follows: 1. Four lean and hungry years confront the Tammany tiger...
...Back of Heney were the good government leagues, the citizens who believed bribery and graft should be stamped out completely, and those workingmen who disliked Calhoun because of his attitude toward union labor...
...3. A board of estimate dominated by anti-machine men will control the expenditure of approximately one billion dollars during the ensuing four years, in addition to contracts aggregating $150,000,000 for rapid transit improvements...
...It is expected that the most important business of a tremendously great city will be conducted, for a change, on business principles...
...While Senator Aldrich did not state that this plan included a central bank, the trend of his discussion indicated that it was favored...
...I concede that the court had jurisdiction of the subject matter of the controversy and of the parties, but I cannot agree that the decree was rendered in accordance with the power of the court—a power limited by express provision of the constitution...
...I am willing to accept an arbiter, but it will not be Aldrich, it will not be Payne, it will not be Cannon...
...If I thought that Republicans intend to cower and shrink before these questions," he concluded, "and to take counsel only of those who are to feel the force of the laws which must be enacted...
...With respect to the currency issue, Senator Cummins said: "Any plan which subjects the volume of our currency to the power and judgment of a few men who may become selfishly interested in either expanding it or reducing it, is bad, and, if carried into execution, would enslave the financial world as completely as some parts of the industrial field are now held in bondage...
...Such a scheme, whether called a central bank, or any other name, is intolerable...
...Members of council elected at large and not by wards...
...Salary of councilmen, $1,500...
...4. The petty graft and the enormous "honest graft" that has enabled Tammany to sustain its supremacy year in and year out will be shut off temporarily, together with the power to fatten on protected vice...
...It is said that a "gambler's trust" has been paying one thousand dollars a month for police protection...
...Some Encouraging Results These two severe defeats to the reform forces, however, were to some extent offset by more encouraging reports from other cities...
...This tremendous loss to the party is explained by the dissatisfaction of the rank and file over the new tariff law and the failure of the party leaders in Congress to fulfill campaign pledges...
...massachusetts dislikes tariff law While the people were thus asserting their own right to rule in Boston, the voters generally in Massachusetts were registering a definite and surprisingly vigorous protest against the Payne-Aldrich tariff law...
...But the protest against the tariff law is unmistakable, and is generally clothed with much significance since Massachusetts is one of those states especially favored by the new law...
...Aldrich Talks on Currency On the same evening that Senator Cummins was discussing present-day issues before the Marquette Club, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, chairman of the national monetary commission was telling members of the Commercial Club of Chicago that a comprehensive, scientific plan for the changing of the American monetary system, both as to note issues and the organization of credit, is to result from the work of the commission...
...Bannard, Republican fusion candidate, came second, and Hearst, Independent, who cut heavliy into the Socialist vote, ended in the rear, twenty thousand votes behind Bannard...
...In a speech at Savannah, Georgia, the President warned the people against haste in demanding a change in the Constitution...
...Behind Fickert were the party machine men, the grafters and their friends, the tough element, the interests that benefit directly and indirectly from corruption, and the conservative businessmen...
...Foss devoted his whole campaign to the tariff issue...
...Senator Cummins' address met with cheers from his audience...
...In Toledo, Brand Whitlock, the noted reformer, was elected to serve a third term as mayor...
...Our struggle will not be to exclude anybody from the Republican party but upon the principle involved we ask no quarter and shall give none...
...Governor Eben S. Draper, Republican, was re-elected by the narrow margin of 8,382 votes...
...If a mistake is made and disaster follows, it will not be a mistake of the insurgents, but of those misguided autocrats who are attempting to make the people believe that black is white, and that a broken promise is a full performance of a sacred obligation...
...He advocated more effective railroad legislation...
...one of the most fundamental wrongs still remaining to be righted has to do with the capitalization of railroads...
...He opposed the central bank plan...
...After asserting that our anti-trust law is a "miserable failure," Senator Cummins said: "I am in favor of strengthening the anti-trust law so that any concentration of capital, whether it be in corporate form or otherwise, that will have the effect of destroying or impairing substantial competition, shall be unlawful, and I am in favor of a graduated tax that will make it unprofitable to so enlarge a business that it will occupy the entire field to which it belongs...
...In 1908 the Republican plurality was 60,156, and in 1907 it was 112,579...
...Gompers went to Washington when he heard of the decision and said he would remain within reach of the court...
...In a speech at Columbus, Miss., he said that he would be in favor of woman suffrage if he were convinced that "all the women desire it, but when they desire it I am in favor of giving it to them, and when they desire it they will get it, too...
...The experiment has given rise to a great deal of newspaper comment, mostly favorable, and the people will watch eagerly the outcome...
...He asked for the support and sympathy of the South for his administration, but disclaimed any intention of appealing for votes...
...Term of office for mayor four years, subject to recall at the end of two years...
...Members of the street commission and all department heads to be appointed by the mayor, subject to civil service test...
...Salary of mayor, $10,000...
...Heney asked for support in order to continue his prosecutions against the men responsible for debauching the city government until every guilty one had been caught...
...He called the anti-trust law a "miserable failure...
...He spoke of the complexity of the subject and invited discussion and study...
...Charles M. Fickert, his successful opponent, took the position that the graft prosecutions should be dropped, the slate of the past wiped clean, and good resolutions made for the future...
...The usual spasmodic activity following the throwing of all bombs to date, is stirring the police...
...Subsequent reflection has confirmed this view...
...Most notable, perhaps, was the crushing blow delivered to Tammany Hall in New York...
...Over forty five thousand dollars was paid to one company for work in excavating "shale rock" in the construction of a sewer, and it is now alleged that there never was any "shale rock" taken out, and that, furthermore, the contract was illegally awarded to this company, which seems to have found favor with the engineering department of Chicago...
...While Judge William J. Gay-nor, a Democrat, was elected on the Tammany slate, still the board of estimate went to the anti-Tammany forces...
...Johnson's defeat after three terms in office, during which time he put through many reforms, is accounted for on the ground that the people were tired of the long traction fight and wanted it settled...
...Bigger graft is being charged in connection with the public works of Chicago...
...Chief Justice Sheppard gave a dissenting opinion in which he said: "I have heretofore expressed the opinion that much of the injunction order was null and void because opposed to the constitutional provision concerning freedom of speech and of the press...
...An effort will be made to appeal the case...
...if I thought that we would listen to that shibboleth of decadence, 'Let well enough alone,' I would doubt the perpetuity of free institutions and question the capacity of man for self-government...
...The Mer-riam commission, which is attempting to straighten out Chicago's business administration, promises a full investigation...
...Portions of Senator Cummins' speech follow: "Let it be understood, once for all, that we accept the challenge and are ready for the fight...
...He said the new tariff law was not a fulfillment of party pledges...
...The campaign was exceptionally bitter and desperate because the grafters, both big and little, felt that it was a matter of life and death to stop the prosecutions against them by defeating Heney...
...and that "all rates over which Congress has jurisdiction and that can be committed to the Commission for supervision should be reviewed as parts of one great system...
...This result is partly due, it is said, to the unpopularity of Governor Draper's veto of an eight-hour law desired by the labor element...
...2. Boss Murphy of Tammany Hall must measure swords with the subordinate leaders to prove his ability to retain control of the organization...
...Francis J. Heney was defeated for district attorney in San Francisco...
...Crap games" and pool rooms are being "raided" and the small fry generally are suffering, but "the men higher up" do not seem to be disturbed...
...News Worth Remembering LAST Tuesday's elections brought many surprises, some notable victories for the Big Business—Big Politics combination, and a great deal of encouragement to the progressives everywhere...
...This plan was voted in against the opposition of the old-line political bosses and machine politicians, who had a substitute of their own known as "plan No...
...The decision was handed down by the District Court of Appeals, affirming the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia...
Vol. 1 • November 1909 • No. 45
