CANNONISM: WHAT IT IS

...HAVE you seen the Speaker...

...Speaker Reed insisted on counting a quorum when a quorum was present...

...They not only have not opposed this rule, but without exception, defend it...

...The Speaker in his denunciation of the men, does not even deny that he could have brought about the exact legislation which they demanded...

...The truth is that the Insurgents have never made any such demand, and this claim by the Speaker is not only unjust but also unwarranted by the facts...

...that in the last Congress there were introduced 39,000 bills in the House...

...It is to retain this power that the Speaker and his machine have been in desperation driven into a combination, the result of which have, affected, and will in the future affect, all the important legislation of Congress...

...The real facts are that no one has attacked the rules in this particular...

...Cannon Sets up "Straw Men'* IN THIS same magazine article the Speaker does an injustice to the Insurgents when he, in effect, claims that the Insurgents of the House were asking that the committees of the House be appointed in the same manner that the committees of the Senate are appointed...

...The men who made these propositions to the Speaker were neither fools nor idiots...

...The result of this would be to turn over the legislation of the Nation, as far as the House of Representatives is concerned, to one man...

...They invariably make a defense in some particular where they have not been attacked...

...and in the other hand he carries a sword of destruction by which he can mete out punishment and death to those who refuse to obey his mandates...

...When the roll was called on this motion, it was found that the victory so recently won, had been taken away by a combination of the Speaker's machine and Democrats...

...The Speaker's lieutenants charged the Insurgents with being Democrats during the fight on the adoption of the^ rules, but the ink was hardly dry wherein the charge was written down before tthe Speaker and his entire machine were not only found in combination with Democrats, but also following in the lead of Democrats in their combined efforts to save the power of the Speaker's machine...

...The fight made by the Insurgents had been so fierce and they were organized so well that when the vote was taken on the adoption of the rules of the 60th Congress for the 61st Congress, the motion was defeated...

...This method of argument by the Speaker only shows how unfair and unjust the defenders of the Speaker's machine are...

...No member of the House on either side, claims that the ruling was wrong...

...This one change would at any time, have settled the fight over the rules had the machine been willing to concede it...

...Those who were not chairmen and who were in any way prominent in the fight, were taken off the important committees, where they had been for several years, and put upon insignificant and unimportant committees that seldom, if ever, have a meeting...

...The Speaker labors at conn-siderable length to defend Speaker Reed in making this ruling...

...At the very first meeting of one of the important committees of the House, to which a new member had been assigned, he was astounded to hear one of the older members of the committee inquire of the chairman if he had seen the Speaker in regard to a particular bill that was then under discussion...

...At the beginning of the special session of the 61st Congress, when the fight took place between the Insurgents, on the one hand, and the Speaker's machine, on the other, over the adoption of the rules for that Congress, it was discovered that entrenched behind the rules of the House were all the special interests and combinations which have occasion at any time to ask legislative favors at the hands of Congress...

...By what course of reasoning can any intelligent man justify the Speaker for using his official position in punishing fellow members for pursuing a course that every sensible man must admit was within the limits of their constitutional right...

...For the first time it was then disclosed that Tammany—the greatest of all Democratic machines—and the Speaker—the head of the greatest of all Republican machines, had a common ground upon which to stand, and this ground was behind the entrenchments of the House rules...

...An entire chapter might be written in this connection regarding the method by which the countervailing duty on petroleum was put in that bill after the Republican members of the Ways and Means Committee had unanimously decided that petroleum should go on the free list...

...The Real Issue THE INSURGENTS who have been fighting for a change of the rules, put their demand in writing and introduced it as a resolution...

...They had a right to expect this, because in the last Democratic national convention held at Denver, that party had pledged itself to the country that it would revise the rules of the House and take away this abnormal power of the Speaker, if given the opportunity...

...Tammany, a democratic organization, would under no circumstances come over to the Republican side of the House to help a Republican machine retain its power, unless the Republican machine had either already in some way paid for this cooperation, or had made a definite promise to pay for it in the future...

...It la against this power that the insurgents hare been, and are, making their fight...

...The Speaker has given these illustrations in making his defense of the House rules...

...It had been the custom prior to this ruling, for -a member to remain silent in his seat when the roll was called and the record would then show he was absent...

...Of course, it does not require much of a mathematician to see that at this rate the House would never be able to accomplish anything...

...Everybody, as a matter of fact, admits that it was right and there is no disposition whatever to make any change in the rules in this respect...

...For Value Received" IT WOULD be interesting also to note the reward received by these Democrats at the hands of the Speaker when he appointed the standing committees of the House...

...These men had by their course practically said that they believed the Speaker had too much power delegated to him by the rules of the House...

...Norris told how the Speaker's control over legislation was brought about, and gave some striking illustrations of the czar-like power of c a n n o n.—EDITOR'S NOTE...

...Every Insurgent who was a chairman of any committee was removed from such position...

...Those who have stood by the rules have denied this argument, and have said that while the particular rule gave to the Speaker a great deal of power, at the same time no Speaker would be so unreasonable as to use that power to punish members of the House who exercised their own judgment in voting upon different propositions and refused to follow the leadership of the House machine...

...He was still more astounded when, at that meeting, a motion was actually made and passed instructing the chairman to have a conference with the Speaker and to ascertain whether he would permit the passage of the bill in question...

...Assuming Cannon's statement to be true, it is quite evident that they believed the Speaker possessed the power which they have ascribed to him...

...At the beginning of any Congress he has it within his power to cut off the political head of any member, by depriving him of appointment to his favorite committee...

...It is interesting to note the class of Democrats who voted for this motion...

...It would likewise be illuminating, if space permitted, to trace the history of some of the items that were later put in the tariff bill, and to show the circumstances connecting them with this fight over the adoption of the rules...

...In one hand he carries the key to the political pie counter, by which he is enabled to reward the faithful...

...No one has asked for any change in this regard...

...It Is to retain this power that the Speaker and his machine have been in desperation driven Into a combination, the results of which have affected, and will in the future affect, nil the Important legislation of Congress.—CONGRESSMAN NORRIS, When the true history of this part of the recent tariff bill: is written, the American people will be surprised to discover that the Speaker's power was sufficient to put this product of the Standard Oil Company in the protected list, even though all the members of the Ways and Means Committee were opposed to it...

...If it be admitted that the Speaker was right, in the use of his official power to punish fellow members because they did not agree with him, then it logically follows that the member who comes to Congress must smother his own individual ideas and individual convictions whenever they are in conflict with the ideas of the Speaker...

...The Speaker by virtue of this power, to a great extent, holds the political life, the political hope, and the political salvation of every member in the palm of his hand...

...This argument, made by the Insurgents and denied by the so-caiied regulars, has been absolutely clinched by the action of the Speaker in the appointment of the committees of the House of the present Congress...

...The Speaker then goes on to defend Tom Reed and the change in the rules he brought about...

...In this way, if a quorum were actually present, the records would show the fact, although the members might refuse to answer to their names...

...A rush for freedom would perhaps mean that many of them would escape, but they know that this guard is armed with a repeating rifle and that in case of an on-slaughs, many, if not all of them, would bite the dust...

...Even if we admit for the sake of argument that the Insur-gents in demanding a change of the rules were wrong, what excuse can be offered on the part of the Speaker for using his official position to punish members for having the courage to follow their conscientious convictions...

...Even the Speaker himself, in a magazine article printed recently, made an elaborate defense of the rules along this line...

...It became evident then that this great Democratic organization of the City of New York was vitally interested in having the Speaker retain the power vested in him by the rules...

...It was found when these appointments were made, that every man who had been in any way prominent in opposing the Speaker's machine, had been punished and discriminated against by the Speaker in the appointment of committees...

...Clouding the Issue THOSE who defend the rules that give to the Speaker this great power, always seek to avoid the real point at issue...

...This ruling of Speaker Reed has been followed ever since, both by Democratic and Republican administrations of the House...

...The impression that the Speaker desires to convey is that if these people who are trying to secure a change of the rules, known ordinarily as "Insurgents," were successful, that the House of Representatives would become an unmanageable body without any control whatever, from any source, and that thereafter no business could be transacted...

...For the first time in the history of the country, the machine of the Speaker had gone down to defeat...

...Somewhere, sometime, in some way, it must receive its pay for this unholy alliance...

...Everybody admits that in a body as large as the House of Representatives, there must be means, sometimes severe perhaps, by which debate can be controlled and discussion abruptly closed...

...Cannon Throws Some Boomerangs IN THE defense of the rules made by the Speaker in the magazine article referred to, he tells us of a New York publisher who had fought the House rules, and then in the face of suck defiance of the Speaker's authority, had the audacity to send his confidential agent to him asking for an appropriation of $50,000 from the Federal Treasury for his "own pet project" In the same article he tells us of another publisher who came direct to the Speaker's room in person with the proposition that he would turn over to the Speaker the entire press of the coun-try if the Speaker would enact for him one particular piece of legislation...

...This was practically the same motion, made now by a Democrat instead of a Republican, and followed the other motion within a few minutes...

...It is against this power that the In-surgents have been, and are, making their fight...

...Standing upon the breastworks built around the House of Representatives by its rules, is the Iron Duke, clothed with an authority and power greater than any other individual...

...the Speaker had, by this action, done two things—he had given the he to the argument made by those who favored his machine wherein they claimed that this great power had not been and never would be used by the Speaker to punish members, and second, he had absolutely demonstrated that the claim made by the Insurgents was true, that, by virtue of the Speaker's great power, men were punished for following the dictates of their oivn conscience, and were rewarded for following the leadership of the machine...

...The Speaker thus wastes a great portion of his time in defending the rules where there has been absolutely no sign of any attack and where there has been absolutely no complaint whatever...

...It is true that as the bill finally became a law, petroleum was left on the free list, but this change was made afterwards and met with the determined opposition of the Speaker...

...In all the fight the Insurgents have made against the rules, they have never once in any respect whatever, made any claim that they desired to amend the rule which the Speaker has labored so hard to defend...

...In several recent public speeches made by the Speaker, he tells the country that one of the great newspaper publishers promised to give to him the support of all the newspapers of the country, in his candidacy for the Presidency, if the Speaker would push through Congress the particular legislation which this publisher desired...

...The new member was surprised that it would be necessary to take such a course, but he was more surprised that the old members of the committee, who had served in Congress for many years, seemed to look upon this procedure as a common one—to take it as a matter of course that the Speaker's consent was absolutely necessary, and that the legislation desired could not be had without such consent...

...If this course is desirable, then as a matter of economy the Constitution should be changed, and instead of electing members to the House of Representatives the power ought to be delegated to the Danville, Illinois, Congressional District, or some other individual district, to transact the entire business of the House...

...Can you get recognition...

...This victory -won by the Insurgents, while important and of itself a great moral success, was nevertheless, of short duration...

...He goes on to tell that there are 391 members of the House...

...Shall We Have One-Man Rule...

...They were leaders, according to the Speaker's own story, of the particular .branches of business in which they were engaged...

...In other cases members who had by long and continuous service reached nearly the top of important committees, were taken from the top and placed at the bottom...

...If it were summed up and put in one sentence, it could be expressed in a demand that the rule empowering the Speaker to select the standing co7nmittccs of the House be changed so as to deprive the Speaker of that power...

...and then he makes a computation to show how much time it would take if each of these 391 members used one minute in making a speech on each one of these 39,000 bills...

...Cannon Saved by Democrats IT was found, however, that entrenched behind the rules of the House were Democrats as well as Republicans...

...One of the arguments made by the Insurgents against the wonderful power of the Speaker as given him by the rules, lias been that every member of the House is in constant fear of the Speaker's power...

...If the Speaker did not possess this wonderful power, why would the wise men of the country hound him in his private office, praying that he bring about the enactment of the particular laws in which they were interested...

...Speaker May Reward or Destroy GONVICTS laboring within the walls of a prison know that there is but a solitary guard standing between them and the freedom of the outer world...

...it was found when the committees were announced, that not only had the Insurgents been punished, but that every man who had originally started out as an Insurgent, and who had left their ranks and finally voted with the machine, had been rewarded by impoitant committee appointments...

...There had never been an instance before, when the House had been organized at the beginning of Congress, whether it was Republican or Democratic rule, when the Speaker's machine had been defeated in the adoption of its rules...

...THIS power (to control lemulation), which the speaker himself has practically admitted that he possesses, la too great and too far-reaching to be In the possession of any man, regardless of his ability, hla patriotism or hla wisdom...

...In this way the minority were frequently able to have the records show that no quorum was present, when as a matter of fact, many more than a quorum were actually there in their seats...

...If this course were pursued by an ordinary lawyer in the trial of a law suit before a country justice, he would be condemned by the entire community as a pettifogger...

...No one of intelligence ever thought for a moment that Tammany would come to the relief of the Speaker and his machine at this critical moment, unless there was something in it for Tammany...

...In the fight which the Insurgents have made no reference whatever has been made to this particular ride, and at no time have any of the Insurgents ever demanded a change of the rule...

...Will the Speaker consent...

...He merely added an amendment to the motion which had just failed, in order to make it in order as a parliamentary proposition...

...This power, which the Speaker himself has practically admitted that he possesses, is too great and too far-reaching to be in the possession of any one man, regardless of his ability, hia patriotism or his wisdom...

...Speaker Reed decided that when a man was in his seat the records should show that he was present even though he didn't answer to his name...

...Every Tammany member except one voted for it...

...While the Speaker may never demand in so many words, that any particular action be taken, yet, every member of the House knows, that, at all times, the Speaker has been able and is able to control the action of a very large portion of the House through the power that the rules give him by which he can take off the political head of any member who becomes too independent, and by which he is able to reward any other member who is good and follows the leadership of the machine...

...The Insurgents had counted on the support of the Democrats...

...As a matter of fact, if they all be true, they furnish the best of reasons why the power given ihe Speaker by the rules, should be taken away...

...The question might well be asked: Why did they go to the Speaker...

...These are common expressions between members of the Hou?e of Representatives when talking to each other in regard to particular bills which they are anxious to have enacted into law...

...As soon as this motion to adopt the old rules had failed, the Speaker recognized a Democratic member who moved to adopt the old rules with a slight amendment of minor importance...