RADIO CONTROL IS FOUGHT BY LABOR UNIONS
ROLL CALL on Men and Measures FOR more than seven years James Couzens has been a senator from the state of Michigan. Throughout these years he has boldly chosen his own policies and his own...
...Mellon and the administration failed In large part in 1924, and they failed because of the formation of a temporary coalition of Independent Republicans and Democrats, to which Senator Couzens —in spite of his recent entrance into the .Senate—contributed greatly...
...SENATOR Couzens not only opposed the fundamental principles of the Mellon plan, but was outraged by the maladministration in the Bureau of Internal Revenue, as indicated by evidence submitted to him...
...His common-.sen.se point of view has led him to oppose extravagant ship subsidy plans and 'to favor, Instead, government operation of the merchant fleet owned by the government at the end of the world war...
...He has applied his standards equally to the administrative and the legislative branches of the government...
...It became apparent that although the general public was not being informed, individual manufacturers benefiting from particular tariff rates were learning the course of affairs...
...Consistently Senator Couzens has maintained that the greatest burden of taxation should be borne by those most able to bear it, so that the economic status—and the purchasing power — of the great mass of the people would not be Impaired...
...Often, and on virtually every major issue, the position to which his independence of judgment has led him has coincided with the program of the Progressive Republican senators...
...Senator Couzens' immediate predecessor was Truman Handy Newberry, whose loyalty to the Old Guard had been unquestionable, and whose excessive campaign expenditures had been a national scandal...
...When Senator Couzens' second session in the Senate began In December, 1923, the stage had been set for the enactment of the Mellon tax plan — with its general policy of cutting down, so far as the administration dared, the structure of graduated income tax rates and estate tax rates which progressive minded members of Congress had established after many years of battle over federal tax policy...
...Thereafter, Senator Couzens became chairman and succeeded in demonstrating that many of the charges had been well founded...
...Trapp was elevated to the governorship in 1923 when, as lieutenant governor, he succeeded Gov...
...And, in 1928, he was one of the senators who voted for the La Follette resolution declaring that no president ought to seek a third term of office...
...In the summer of 1929 Old Guard members of the Finance Committee proposed to withhold from the public all knowledge of the tariff rates which they were drafting, until such time as they were ready to spring the completed bill upon the Senate...
...The outlook upon economic problems which he brought was so practical that he readily found it possible, when good business judgment so indicated, to support public ownership of certain monopolistic public utilities...
...In spite of this repeated demonstration of his outstanding ability In dealing with tax matters, the Old Guard forces In the Senate succeeded until 1927 in keeping Senator Couzens out of the Finance Committee in which tax and tariff bills are drafted...
...TRAPP WILL AGAIN RUN FOR GOVERNOR I Special to The Progressive) OKLAHOMA CITY—Former Gov...
...It ought to be a good deal of satisfaction to a person to be connected with its management.—E...
...When early in the Sixty-eighth Congress the selection of Senator Cummins to be Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Committee of the Senate was blocked successfully because of the reactionary stand on railroad problems which Cummins had assumed, Progressive senators for many ballots supported Couzens as their candidate for the chairmanship...
...The inch~>«ndence of Senator Couzens has been the more striking because of its contrast with the attitude of other senators whom the state of Michigan has sent to Washington—faithful cogs in the reactionary machine of the Old Guard Republicans...
...He supported the enactment of corrupt practices legislation, and voted for the exclusion of Smith and Vare...
...M E. Trapp of this state has announced that he will seek his former office again this year, and will enter the Democratic primaries...
...ON nil electrlr power issues, Senator Couzens has stood squarely for the program advocated by Progressive senators...
...Senator Watson, an opponent of the investigation, was made chairman of the select committee but resigned during the summer of 1924...
...I do not recollect of having used any money to better advantage...
...19.1—I have taken La Follette's Magazine for a number of years and have been well pleased with it...
...It was under his sympathetic chairmanship that the Senate Committee on Education and Labor in 1928 and 1929 studied the problem of unemployment...
...In 1928 he voted for the Swing-Johnson bill relating to the construction of Boulder Dam...
...NEXT to matters of tax legislation, Senator Couzens' name has been identified most prominently with the field of legislation relating to interstate commerce...
...This aversion against secret government Included the secrecy of Senate proceedings...
...Jack Walton, who was removed by impeachment...
...Throughout these years he has boldly chosen his own policies and his own courses of action, without regard to the dictates of party caucauses or the whims of presidents...
...He voted In 1925 for the Norrls resolution for an investigation of the interrelations between the General Electric Company »nd other power companies, and In 1926 he supported the original Walsh resolution providing for a senatorial inquiry into public utility propaganda and financial operations...
...Although not elected then, he did become chairman of this powerful committee at the beginning of the present Congress...
...On the other hand, where every act and record of a public official Is subject to inspection by his employers, the public, there is always the restraint which Is helpful to clean government...
...The findings of the select committee led to important changes in the system of tax administration when the revenue act of 1926 became law...
...Secrecy in government affairs," he has said, "is usually a badge of fraud, an inspiration or inducement to commit fraud...
...Balking at this Seantor couzens insisted that if the pledge of secrecy were to be violated in industrial instances, the committee had no right to withhold Information from the country at large...
...Finally, however, they had to give way, with the result that his understanding ol tax and tariff questions could be used to still greater advantage during the tax debates of 1928 and 1929, and during the consideration of the pending Hawley-Smoot tariff bill...
...The interest which Senator Couzens has shown In economic problems of this character has not overshadowed a constant interest In humanitarian problems and the specific problems of labor...
...111., Jan...
...Always has he gone his own way, insisting that legislation should be sound and yet at the same time adequately protect the Interests of the entire country for which it was enacted, and always insisting that government should be carried on in a way which would leave no doubt of its integrity...
...A GOOD PAPER [Elmhurst...
...I like The Progressive and realize that there 16 considerable work to get cut a publication of its standard...
...Throughout the various phases of the battle over Muscle Shoals, he has always taken the publlo side of the fight, and has uniformly supported Senator Norrls' brave campaign to bring about continued public operation of Muscle Shoals...
...As chairman of the committee, he has labored unceasingly on the drafting of adequate and sound legislation to deal with the growing regulatory problems relating to radio and other means of electrical communication, with the result that his bill for the creation of a Communications Commission will probably be submitted to the Ben-ate very soon...
...WITH equal consistency, he has maintained that the proceedings In tax cases and tax refund cases should have ample publicity...
...Legislation to better the status of women and children, and to safeguard the interests of working men generally has had his support-throughout his term in the Senate...
...This time Senator Couzens again defended ably the position on tax policy which he had taken during the debate of 1924...
...Newberry finally resigned before his term expired...
...In February, 1924, Senator Couzens introduced his resolution for appointment of a select committee to investigate these charges against the Internal Revenue Bureau...
...The virtual abolition of secret executive sessions in the spring Of 1929 had Senator Couzens' support...
...During the last Congress he successfully prevented action upon the then pending railroad consolidation bill, on the ground that it inadequately protected the general pub-lie and the users of the railroads...
...But, when the Coolidge government for its own political purposes sought to prevent the seating of the Progressive Senators Nye and Brookhart, Senator Couzens was not afraid to go against the wishes of the President...
...B. Hardy...
...Although bitterly fought by Mellon and by the Coolidge administration, the investigation went forward...
...In his place came an able business man who had, however, also shown an ability for public affairs during a distinguished service as street railway commissioner, police commissioner and mayor of the city of Detroit...
Vol. 1 • February 1930 • No. 9
