THE ROLL CALL
THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES Clark of Wyoming SENATOR CLARENCE D. CLARK of Wyoming was born in New York, educated and admitted to the bar in Iowa, and removed to Wyoming to engage in law and...
...He said that in Wyoming the highest wages are paid for mining coal that are paid in any state and, of course, he protested against reduction of the wages of the miners...
...In recent years at least, his contributions to debate in the Senate consist mainly in asking a few questions calculated to assist "System" Senators in their arguments or in gibes, more or less pointed, calculated to embarrass other Senators endeavoring to present arguments for legislation in the public interest...
...On the remaining 107 roll calls, Clark voted every time with Aldrich...
...In a similar way Clark seconded Senator Heyburn's argument against reduction of the tariff on lumber, declaring that there was no need to import Canadian lumber to supply the American market and conserve the American timber supply...
...When the rate bill was pending he voted against amendments to authorize the Interstate Commerce Commission, in its discretion and on notice and hearing, to prohibit interstate carriers charging more for the transportation of freight or passengers a shorter distance than they charged for a longer distance on the same line including the shorter distance...
...He voted against an amendment to provide for the valuation of railroad property as the basis for the regulation of railway rates and services...
...He is chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary...
...To the discussion of the rate bill, Senator Clark's contributions would fill scarcely more than a page of the Record...
...On one roll call, Tillman's tax on tea, he voted against the duty...
...President...
...A second quorum call was ordered...
...He voted against an amendment to disqualify federal judges, owning stocks or bonds of railroads or using free passes, from hearing and deciding railroad cases...
...A third time the quorum call was ordered and again Clark answered present...
...But even upon this proposition which reflected upon and threatened the prestige of the federal judiciary, of which Clark, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, was self-constituted guardian, his opposition to the Aldrich management was mild and brief...
...Still also Clark "not voting...
...In the tariff session he concerned himself in the debate with only three provisions of the bill...
...He voted for the Aldrich amendment increasing the duty on wire nails...
...He voted for all of the Aldrich increases of the cotton schedule, the increases on cotton yarns and cloth, the increases by redefinition and reclassification, the increases on cotton gloves and on mercerized and finished goods...
...On the roll calls where he is recorded as voting his record is overwhelmingly pro-"System," * * In the first session of the 59th Congress he voted with the Aldrich machine for the ship subsidy bill...
...He warned the Senate that "if the Payne bill as it came from the House should become a law, it would put out of commission one-half of the mines in the state of Wyoming...
...we will trust it according to the measure of its wisdom, in convention or out, and we know that when it comes to act responsibly, it has always given us good results...
...Again the roll was called for a quorum...
...He seconded Elkins of West Virginia in his opposition to a reduction of the duty on coal...
...Also he voted for the Aldrich rate on hides and against all the amendments, Republican or Democratic, for free hides and leather and leather products...
...Coal had been placed on the free list by the House, and the Aldrich committee reported a duty of 67 cents a ton, 7 cents less than the Dingley rate...
...Again "Senate leaders" had "ducked...
...Clark was one of the Senators who voted against the consideration of the bill...
...Senator McCumber offered an amendment reducing the duty to 40 cents a ton...
...Clark was among those recorded "not voting...
...There were 28 "Yeas" and 12 "Nays...
...Enough Senators answered "present" to constitute a quorum...
...In the first session of the 60th Congress, Clark voted with the Aldrich management to pigeonhole Senator Owen's resolution for a constitutional amendment to provide for the popular election of United States Senators, although the legislature of Wyoming had memorialized Congress in behalf of such an amendment to the Constitution...
...Of course, in making these assertions, Clark had the advantage of the Government experts in that the experts feel bound to submit in their reports an array of details and facts gathered in careful investigation and from which their conclusions are deduced...
...Clark interrupted Senator Heyburn to make this suggestion...
...On the motion to take the bill up in the Senate, a roll call was demanded...
...He voted each time for the Aldrich motion to postpone the vote on the income tax until the "System" management could frame up arrangements for its defeat...
...He voted against an amendment to provide a reasonable measure of liability on interstate carriers for the injuries of their employees incurred in the operation of interstate trains...
...At another time he seconded Senator Heyburn's contention that the Republican party was not pledged to revise the tariff downward, that it was only pledged to revise the tariff in accord with "protection" and according to the abundant wisdom of the Republican management in Congress...
...He ridiculed the cost of production figures of the government experts, declaring that "of all the wild guessing that is done on the cost of production in this country, the wildest guesses are made by the government experts...
...In the same Congress, Clark paired in favor of the Foraker resolution to suspend the commodity clause of the Interstate Commerce act...
...His reflections and innuendos against the Forest Service, and his jibes at the progressive policy of conservation of natural resources are fair samples of his contributions to the "deliberations" of the Senate...
...He spoke and voted against the provision for the creation of a court of customs appeals...
...And it practically ceased when the machine majority voted the provision into the bill...
...He voted to re-enact, with the Aldrich increases, the woolen schedule of the Dingley law...
...He gave as another reason for opposing this scheme, the reason which concerns the consumer, namely, that it was the purpose of this court to impose, by judicial construction, higher tariff duties than Congress enacted, something which the existing federal courts refuse to do...
...The "Yeas" were 31, the "Nays" were 10...
...On 82 roll calls where the issue was clearly presented between the higher and lower duties, Clark was "not voting" 12 times...
...THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES Clark of Wyoming SENATOR CLARENCE D. CLARK of Wyoming was born in New York, educated and admitted to the bar in Iowa, and removed to Wyoming to engage in law and politics in 1881...
...Clark answered "present...
...Again there was no quorum voting...
...Even here his record is not very satisfactory for the reason that too often, upon examining the roll call on important measures with reference to which you wish to know his position, you find him recorded "not voting...
...In the last five sessions of Congress, three measures of legislation have overshadowed in importance all others...
...Four Senators had "ducked" into the cloak room...
...A third roll call was ordered on the motion...
...And there are times when the business before the Judiciary Committee entitles it to a place in the first rank...
...The vote was 29 "Yeas" and 15 "Nays...
...and the verdict was something more...
...But Clark voted "Nay" to the last...
...Senator Clark's record must be found in the main in his votes on the roll call...
...On the woolen schedules, he voted for the Aldrich increase on wool wastes and shoddy and he voted against the Dolliver amendment reducing the duties on wool tops, yarns, cloths, blankets, flannels, women's and children's dress goods, and against the Dolliver amendments to assess duties according to the wool contents of cloth, and to equalize duties on wool according to the shrinkage...
...Still no quorum voting...
...that we had in reserve an inexhaustible supply of timber for the indefinite future...
...Clark voted for the Finance Committee amendment to restore iron ore to the dutiable list after the House had put it on the free list...
...He voted against the Dolliver amendment to correct the absurdity of the "basket clause" of the metal schedule, and against the Cummins amendments reducing the duties on scrap iron and on the principle articles of iron and steel...
...He voted against Aldrich twice, against the Customs Court and against the free admission of works of art...
...Although only 15 senators had the hardihood to vote against the consideration of the bill, the bill could not be taken up on that vote because less than a quorum had voted...
...The Senate, it would seem, should have a right to expect from the chairman of so important a committee the benefit of valuable counsel and advice upon the legal and constitutional questions involved in great measures...
...The purpose of the Foraker resolution was, by suspending the commodity clause, to permit them to do these things...
...His attitude in the main was that of one not disposed to question for himself the work of Aldrich and his "associates" of the Finance Committee, nor to offer information upon the questions raised by other Senators in the course of discussion...
...A roll call was ordered to determine the presence of a quorum...
...He voted also against the La Follette amendments to adjust the wool schedule along similar lines...
...A second roll call was ordered on the motion to take up the bill...
...Clark voted against the McCumber amendment...
...After an hour spent in roll calls and quorum calls, the Senator behind the bill evidently being disposed to stay behind it as long as the "Senate leaders" were disposed to keep up the fillibuster, the "leaders" finally concluded to let the bill come up for consideration...
...To the great constitutional argument upon the court review provision of the bill, he contributed nothing at all...
...In the debate upon the tariff bill Senator Clark spoke seldom and briefly, and his remarks altogether, measured either by the space which they occupy in the Record or by the intelligence which they can fairly be said to have added to the discussion, were little if any more important than his participation in the consideration of the rate bill...
...On the final vote there were 38 "Yeas" and 11 "Nays" making a quorum, and an overwhelming vote for the consideration of the bill...
...His fourteen years' service in the Senate have been acceptable to the "System" management...
...He voted for the Aldrich amendments increasing the House duty on boots and shoes...
...Clark's record in connection with the important legislative measures of recent years is conspicuous principally for its barrenness...
...And they came out from behind cloak room doors and Democratic pairs and voted...
...This time also Clark was absent on the quorum call...
...In the Senate debate upon the currency measure, Clark's voice was not heard once...
...The matter has been brought up several times as to the verdict of the people upon the revision of the tariff...
...A fourth roll call was ordered upon the motion to take up the bill...
...I should like to suggest to the Senator from Idaho, if the verdict in the last election was not a verdict, that the tariff should be revised according to the Republican system of protection, rather than revised according to the Democratic system of a tariff for revenue only...
...When an effort was being made in the Senate in the 59th Congress to force the consideration of a measure to promote the safety of employees and travelers upon railroads by limiting the hours of service of railway employees engaged in the operation of interstate trains, Clark was among the Senators who joined the fillibuster of the Senate leaders who sought by "ducking" into the cloak rooms to deprive the Senate of a quorum and prevent the consideration of the bill...
...Also in the last Congress Clark voted against the appropriation for Roosevelt's Country Life Commission which was recommended by the Department of Agriculture and which was being urged by Senator Dolliver and others interested in improving conditions of farm life...
...Out of 127 roll calls, Clark was recorded "not voting" on 18...
...Unfortunately Senator Clark recognized no such obligation in making these broad assertions to the Senate...
...Turning then to the Senate roll calls for Clark's real record on the tariff bill we find that he voted with remarkable consistency in support of the Aldrich program...
...The purpose of the commodity clause was to prevent railroads from owning and operating coal mines and dominating other lines of production...
...ON the remaining 69 roll calls, out of the 82, he voted always against the lower and always for the higher duty...
...He voted for the Penrose and Curtis amendments restoring duties on petroleum—amendments for which even the Finance Committee were not prepared to stand sponsor...
...He voted for the bill on it passage in the Senate and voted: with Aldrich on each vote upon the consideration of the conference report...
...These three measures were the railroad rate bill of the 59th Congress, the emergency currency measure of the 60th Congress, and the tariff bill of the session just closed...
...He voted for the Aldrich amendment...
...Again Clark was recored "not voting...
...Even the income tax to the Constitution he voted against referring to special conferences and in favor of reference to legislatures of the several states, where the "System" hopes divided interests of legislators may accomplish its defeat...
...You will search the Record in vain for a statement setting forth in any full, frank, or satisfactory way his position on great measures of national policy...
...There were 30 "Yeas" and 9 "Nays...
...To which Heyburn replied: "Yes, Mr...
...He voted for the Aldrich maximum tariff and against the Culberson amendment to have the President's board of advisors under the maximum tariff provision, non-political appointments...
...The verdict of the American people was 'We will trust the Republican party...
...The Judiciary Committee is an important committee, not perhaps one of the most important, but it ranks first in importance after those few committees that have charge of the great body of important legislation...
...He voted the Aldrich program to defeat the income tax...
...He was elected in 1895 to the Wyoming junior senatorship which had been vacant for two years by reason of a dead-lock in the Wyoming legislature...
...He objected to the creation of a new special tribunal in the federal judiciary system which would outrank in salary and perhaps in importance all federal courts except the Supreme Court of the United States...
...He voted against the Dolliver and the La Follette amendments to create a permanent, non-partisan, expert tariff commission...
...He voted for the substitution of the corporation tax for the income tax amendment and voted to exempt bond holders from the corporation tax...
...On one phase of the tariff legislation the Senator from Wyoming opposed the Aldrich program and is entitled to credit...
...He voted for the Aldrich rate on lumber and against the McCumber amendments reducing the lumber tariff...
Vol. 1 • November 1909 • No. 47
