EDITORIALS

...Defeat This Scheme...

...The Smoot bill has no such justification...

...It is a spirited story...

...It is an excellent choice...

...We would find ourselves far along the way towatd social justice...

...With a bureau like this constantly at the behest of state legislators, efficiency and uniformity of legislation would no longer be dependent upon the work of special committees,—restricted as they must necessarily be by brief service and incomplete1 data...

...As a result we may expect subsequent legislation in these three states to be more nearly in agreement than could possibly be the case if each committee had worked independently of the others...

...With such a library at the command of legislators in every state, most of the evils that follow hasty and ill-considered legislation would undoubtedly disappear...

...President Taft's selection of Governor Hughes must meet with the hearty approbation of the people...

...And Mr...

...Lawmaking would be put upon a really scientific basis...

...There may be, as Vertrees says, a conspiracy, but if so the American people want to know who are the "conspirators...

...We believe that the state as sovereign and the nation as landowner should cooperate to secure that protection but whether the states cooperate or not it is the plain duty of the nation to use its full power as landowner to prevent monopoly of water power and its excessive cost to the consumer...

...Incidentally, it comments upon the President...

...A Good Appointment BY HIS able investigation of the insurance scandals, by his fearless championship of direct nominations, and by his aggressive stand against corruption and dishonesty in government, Charles E. Hughes won the respect and confidence of right-thinking citizens everywhere...

...Taft has stated that the action of Glavis would have been proper and necessary had his charges been well founded...

...Scores of other names have likewise disappeared in that period of political flux~and~been well-nigh-forgotten, butThTworld're^ fuses to relinquish a name which gives identity to so much in the cause of human freedom, letters, art and music as does that of Poland...

...This bill was introduced by Senator Smoot of Utah...

...The action of the committee in refusing to let in the light is the greatest blow that has been struck at the administration by its "friends...

...It should be defeated...

...pass this child labor bill in Wisconsin and we will be put at a disadvantage with our competitors in neighboring states where children may be employed without restriction...

...Whether or not in "searching her sepulchre for a sword," as Hugo says, Poland shall yet rehabilitate herself, the world will still cherish her name and those of Pulaski and Kosciusko...

...The Smoot bill would give to the big water power interests precisely what they want and sought in vain from the last Congress and administration—absolute immunity from all effective federal regulation and control...

...the "gang," a combination of "official contractors, saloonkeepers, gamblers, public service corporation representatives and ward politicians," shorn of its power...

...The Public Has a Right to Know IT SEEMS almost unbelievable that a committee of the American Congress, organized to seek the truth, should deliberately turn its back and refuse to examine into a charge by far the most,?eiious of any that has been made against an official of the government since the famous Ballin-ger-Pinchot controversy took shape...

...the "vice trust" routed...

...Well Founded" THIS week's issue of Collier's contains an article entitled "The American Dreyfus Case: The Administration's Method of Crushing Glavis and the Truth...

...Write to your representative today...

...The report in question affects the validity of the whole Ballinger case...

...As a justice of the United States Supreme Court he may be expected to cherish the same regard for the rights of the people when they clash with the rights of mere property...

...It makes very plain the parts played by both Ballinger and Wickersham in the attempt to discredit the truthful and patriotic Glavis...

...New York, Wisconsin and Minnesota have had legislative committees at work upon the question of insuring workingmen against industrial accidents...

...The voters themselves in complete control of the city's affairs...

...The national government has at all times vigorously exercised the expressly granted power 'to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations concerning the territory and other public property of the United States.' (Const...

...George Kibbe Turner tells about Des Moines' experience with the commission plan of government...

...It is supported by an organized and vigorously conducted campaign in the West...

...It would put the users of water power completely in the hands of these big power interests...

...Self-Government IN THE current number of McClure's, Mr...

...The right of the states to regulate hydro-electric companies by the exercise of the 'police power' is unquestioned...

...One fell at Savannah, "pouring out his generous blood like water," as Webster said of Warren, "without knowing whether it would fertilize a land of freedom or of bondage," while the other lived to see liberty triumph on its new soil and to later shed his blood in its cause on many a hard-fought old world battlefield...

...Tardy as might seem this tribute to the services and sacrifices of these two world patriots, a century and a quarter after the great struggle in which they aided, its final expression after such delay is a recognition of the substantial character of their claim upon our gratitude...

...It is directly opposed to the best interests of the people...

...No genuine question of the constitutional rights of the states is involved...

...Will the President have the open-mindedness and the courage to proclaim the truth that Glavis was right, and his rebellion necessary, and that, in the attempt made to crush him, a wrong was done that was too characteristic of arbitrary power when its comfort is disturbed...

...For a century the name of Poland has not appeared on the maps of the world, yet it is still one with which to conjure...

...It is meeting with the vigorous opposition of the National Conservation Association, of which GlFFORD Pinchot is President...

...4, Sec...

...Are not the American people entitled to know the whole truth...

...Our efforts to secure state laws designed to remedy industrial and social ills have been to a large extent frustrated by our inability to get harmonious action among the several states...

...Practically, the result is often just the opposite...

...They have now been fully proved...

...Shall the American people be forced to the unwelcome conclusion that there is something in the implied charge of Attorney Brandeis that Secretary Ballinger was the author of the report of the Attorney General dated September 11, 1909, in which Ballinger is exonerated of all wrong in the Cunningham claims scandal, and upon which it is alleged that President Taft acted when he whitewashed Ballinger in a letter dated two days later...

...The Smoot bill is known as Senate Bill 7132...

...Turner has touched upon the vital spot in this new system when he asserts that, through the initiative, the referendum and the recall, "at any time, any day in the year, the people can discharge their representatives, or they can take any question of consequence out of their hands and decide it themselves...

...In thus seeking to turn over to the various states the control that now reposes in the national government, these interests have but one end in view...

...to escape from all interference in their control and use of the nation's "white coal mines...

...But there is the matter of uniformity...

...THERE is now pending in the United States Senate a bill which, if enacted into law, would grant to the states all water power sites now owned by the federal government...

...It gives one a fresh grip on his faith in popular government...

...Vertrees, attorney for Ballinger, hotly declared that the seeking of information on these charges is a part of a conspiracy against President Taft...

...position as follows: "In 1626 Charles I. wrote to the House of Commons: 'I must let you know that I will not allow any of my servants to be questioned among you, much less such as are of eminent place and near to me' Mr...

...Through the offices of the American Association for Labor Legislation these committees early got together and have ever since kept up the closest relations...

...3.) "There is grave danger that this bill will pass...

...Charles McCarthy's legislative reference library idea, first put into practice in Wisconsin and now spreading to other states, marks the most advanced point yet attained along the line of scientific law-making...

...Your officers believe that the nation is morally bound to exercise for the general welfare its constitutional power to dispose of and regulate the public domain...

...Long strides have been taken in this direction in recent years...

...Every citizen should oppose this plan...

...Western promoters and their powerful financial backers in the East may be expected to favor it...

...Polish Heroes GOMMEMORATIVE of the services of Pulaski and Kosciusko to the American cause during the war for independence, two of the finest and most imposing statues in the land will shortly be unveiled at the national capital to perpetuate the name and fame of these Polish heroes...

...These names, which America would claim as her own, but must share with the whole world of freedom, touch a peculiarly responsive national chord...

...Such a grant to the states would be a revolutionary departure from the uniform practice of more than a century...

...The machine destroyed...

...The water power interests oppose state control just as vigorously and for the same reason that they oppose federal control...

...This is in a large measure due to haphazard methods of making the laws...

...More and more are we coming to appreciate the necessity, of applying scientific methods to law-making...

...What Des Moines has done other cities can do—and, as a matter of fact, are doing...

...For the federal government to surrender its land title to power sites and thereby the control of their present and future use, is to shirk its duty to the people whose property it holds in trust...

...Must the American people be compelled by this committee of Congress to believe that their Chief Executive had knowledge of any possible juggling of dates, or that it was even done at his direction...

...Thus are progressive states hampered by their less progressive neighbors...

...It abdicates national power and shirks national responsibility in a matter of the utmost importance for all time to the well-being of the nation and the individual citizen...

...The Smoot bill adds nothing to the police powers of the states...

...By a vote of seven to five the committee decided to refuse the request of Brandeis for papers that would establish his charge of an attempt at a wholesale deception of the American people...

...Hitherto land grants to the states have been made only as a fund in aid of education, internal improvements, and the like...

...Regulate us by law in Illinois," says Business, "and we will move to Indiana, where no regulations are imposed...

...It is a scheme by which the powerful interests hope to get possession of water power sites now belonging to the people, upon easy terms and without restrictions in the public interest...

...During the past year we have observed at least one encouraging effort to secure uniformity...

...It is becoming apparent, too, that we cannot hope to make substantial progress unless some means is found of bringing about uniformity in state legislation...

...Any suppression of facts in an investigation weakens to that extent the confidence of the public in it and the body conducting it...

...What must be done to lessen legislative blundering and to promote legislative efficiency, is a pressing problem...

...Why the President...

...As governor of New York he defied the machine politicians in such a way as to make progressive Republicanism in that state popular and "respectable...

...A Legislative Clearing House) PROFESSOR KINSMAN'S article in this number of La Follette's deals with an important subject...

...Theoretically, the end of all legislation is social justice...

...The vigorous exercise of that right is essential to the full protection of the public interest...

...To quote from a recent bulletin sent to members of the Association: "Its main purpose is the transfer to western states of all powers and responsibilities of the national government with respect to water power development on lands owned by the nation...

...At all times he has given evidence of democratic sympathies...

...Here is where such a central legislative clearing house aa Professor Kinsman suggests could be of immense service...

...And shall the equally unwelcome conclusion be forced upon the public that this famous report was really written several months AFTER the date that it bore on its face to cover up what Glavis' article in Collier's Weekly made very plain...