THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES Poindexter—and Why WHEN Judge Miles Poindexter decided to quit being a judge in Washington to go to Congress from the newly created third district of that state,...
...Poindexter is for a permanent, non-partisan, expert, tariff commission, "with full power to investigate and report all facts necessary to an enlightened tariff schedule, rather than the grab and barter system of Aldrich and Cannon...
...Speaker Cannon appointed him to membership upon the House Committee on Ventilation and Aecoustics, at the same time appointing one of his System-serving colleagues on the important committees on Merchant Marine and Fisheries and Rivers and Harbors...
...And the "Insurgents" counted Poindexter in, and Poindexter counted them in...
...Then was sprung the famous Fitzgerald resolution, the bipartisan scheme of System-serving reaction to defeat reform of the House rules, in which the voice was the voice of Tammany, but the words were the words of the Cannon machine...
...And there is nothing of the chameleon about Miles Poindexter...
...stands for the Roosevelt policy "of dealing with wealthy criminals the same as with poor ones...
...Thou givest bread to the hungry, but better were it, that none hungered and thou had'st none to give to him,—Saint Augustine...
...Nobody knows what a congressional conference committee is going to bring forth except, in a general way, that one's worst fears are invariably realized.—Kansas City Star...
...Poindexter is not merely an "Insurgent...
...There was no worry or anxiety for Poindexter in deciding what he should do in Congress, and there was no doubt for Washington or the people as to what Poindexter would do...
...The bench was no place to do effective insurging anyway...
...He voted for the House amendment requiring the physical valuation of railroad property, for the amendment to authorize the Interstate Commerce Commission to defend its orders in court, for the amendment to bring telegraph and telephone systems under the regulation of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and for amendments to extend the power of the Commission in the fixing of railroad rates and freight classifications, and amendments to strike out of the bill the provisions to legalize mergers, combinations and traffic agreements among railroads, and to promote the monopolization of commerce...
...If their election can be prevented, the System will prevent it...
...In contesting this great issue in the Federal Congress the people will need their Poindexters...
...Getting elected was a small matter...
...He denounced the making of the tariff by jobbery and graft...
...The System is fighting the election of every Progressive Republican who is a candidate for either house of Congress...
...The organized System is arrayed against him...
...In the great contest precipitated by the introduction of the Norris resolution for reform of the House rules, Poindexter was a power in the Progressive cause...
...The efforts of the System to defeat Poindexter's election to the Senate should only spur the Progressive Republicans of Washington to greater efforts to insure his election...
...In all of which Poindexter and Washington and the people are very fortunate...
...And again the name of Poindexter went down, in the roll call, against Cannonism...
...One, two, three, four, five times in the first day of his service, the voice of Poindexter rang out clear, firm, determined and unhesitatingly in defiance of the System and its machine control of the House of Representatives, in aggressive championship of Progressive Republicanism, and in accomplishment of the Poindexterian purpose...
...And he knows how to distinguish it fundamentally from Toryism and reaction...
...Poindexter had fairly clear ideas about these two purposes, viz: that the said two purposes were really and practically identical, that their achievement by Miles Poindexter was in the highest degree important—in short, was Miles Poin-dexter's real serious job in life, and that the proper way for him to do this job and do it thoroughly, was for Miles Poindexter to be a PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICAN— true blue and of the first water, not a Progressive Republican of the intermittent, passive variety but a real, "sure enough," fighting, militant Progressive of the variety labeled "Insurgent...
...Special Interests are fighting him...
...To put an end to this subversion of the people's government is the highest duty of Progressive Republicanism...
...He joined the Progressives in forcing amendments to the resolution for the investigation, to insure a full and fair investigation by giving all parties affected, regardless of the wishes of the committee, a right to be heard and to secure publicity of the hearings...
...Miles Poindexter took his seat as a member of the 61st Congress on the 15th day of March, 1909...
...He knows that, "Progressive Republicanism believes that these accumulations (of wealth) have become so vast that they exercise an undue and improper influence in legislation, while the Reactionaries contend, privately if not publicly, that accumulated wealth is entitled to special consideration, special influence and special favors at the hands of Congress...
...He is a leader among "Insurgents...
...stands for the "appointment of impartial and unbiased Federal Judges...
...It involved simply the task of conveying to the people of the district an understanding of the Poindexterian purposes and ideas...
...Having received this gratifying endorsement from the people he was surer than ever of the absolute correctness of his purposes...
...A Republican and a champion of protective tariff, he stood out undaunted and unafraid to oppose and vote against the Payne-Aldrich-Cannon upward tariff revision on its final passage in the House...
...His speeches were among the notable incidents of that memorable week...
...He had a "big lead" on that to begin with...
...Poindexter is for "the reorganization of the United States Senate so that the interests and the sections which have for so long entirely controlled it shall share their influence with the entire country...
...Through the two sessions of Congress that have passed during his first term, Poindexter has pursued unswervingly the path of militant, Progressive Republicanism, In the roll calls and in the debates he has been found ever in the forefront of the fighting...
...He denounced the accession of the House in the "fixing" of the tariff by Aldrich for Special Interests...
...the second was to represent also the people of the United States...
...It will likewise be the important issue of the next Congress, and the next, and long after the men who have given it their names, shall have passed from the stage of public affairs...
...The Progressive Republican part of the job was easy for Miles...
...The election of Poindexter to the Senate from Washington would be a gain of one vote for the people and the loss of one vote to the System in that body...
...That it should be so was inevitable, unless Poindexter's character should be changed...
...Poindexter knows that the System is and what it is, and he understands the attitude of Progressives and Reactionaries toward it...
...Poin-dexter's place in the House should be filled by the Progressive Republicans of his district...
...The House was convened and a roll call was ordered for the election of a Speaker...
...To have them the people must elect them...
...And Miles beat his Democratic opponent almost two to one...
...Forthwith a roll call was ordered on the previous question on the adoption of the Cannon rules, and the second official act of Poindexter was a vote against Cannonism...
...Big Business is contesting his election...
...stands for "strong and effective government control of railroads...
...Poindexter understands that the "fundamental difference between the Progressives and Reactionaries is that the former stand for the American principle of Equality, while the latter stand for special interests of vast accumulated wealth...
...He defines the difference between virile, honest...
...The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES Poindexter—and Why WHEN Judge Miles Poindexter decided to quit being a judge in Washington to go to Congress from the newly created third district of that state, he was moved to that decision by two definite purposes...
...The record shows Poindexter voting on roll call after roll call to strike out provisions of the bill inserted for the benefit of the railroads and to incorporate amendments in the public interest...
...These things being decided the decision was unalterable...
...Progressive Republicanism and System-serving, reactionary politics as "The difference between a veal Republican and a bogus class system...
...the choice by the House of its committees, including the Committee on Rules, and the restriction of the authority of the Committee on Rules within limits consistent with House self-government...
...Poindexter came to Washington knowing precisely what he would do, and he did it...
...Not only does Poindexter understand and know Progressive Republicanism fundamentally, but he is an informed and aggressive champion of those issues which are phases of the fundamental, underlying struggle for progress, independence and honest representation of the people in government...
...They are but different names for control of Congress by the System for Special Interests...
...The endorsement simply changed this certainty to an eternal verity...
...A roll call was then ordered upon the Clark resolution for reform of the House rules, and the fourth official act of Poindexter was a vote for the overthrow of Cannonism...
...In the debate he met and bested the veterans of the Cannon machine...
...His undaunted and aggressive fighting contributed vastly to the victory which the Progressives gained and he was one of those determined and clearheaded "Insurgents" who, on the last roll call, voted to unseat Cannon from the House Czar-ship...
...His course as a member of Congress has not pleased them...
...Poindexter stands, as a Progressive Republican, for the conservation of natural resources and the extension of the forest reserve system of the Government...
...a reorganization of the House of Representatives, so that that branch of Congress, at least, shall be, as it was intended to be, responsive to public opinion,"—a reorganization involving self-government by the House of Representatives as a substitute for the present government of the House by the Speaker...
...He denounced and voted against the Dalzell special rule by which the Payne tariff bill was forced through the House without fair opportunity for amendment...
...In Washington, Miles Poindexter is a candidate for United States Senator...
...Immediately the vote recurred on the adoption of the Cannon rules, and the third official act of Poindexter was a second vote against Cannonism...
...And Miles Poindexter's first official act as a Member of Congress— an act in conformity with the Poindexterian purpose and the Poindexterian idea of the achievement of that purpose, as announced and overwhelmingly approved by the people of his district—was a vote against Cannon for Speaker...
...He is a Progressive Republican who knows why and what Progressive Republicanism is...
...Cannonism in the House is Aldrichism in the Senate...
...In the enactment of the Commerce Bill of the past session, the Poindexterian purpose was consistently, constantly in evidence, challenging the right of the Cannon machine to enact legislation for Special Interests...
...Cannonism in the House and Aldrichism in the Senate are one issue...
...As for the fighting part, he was just aching to get into it...
...In behalf of the Roosevelt policy of conservation and in behalf of government of the House by the House, he cast his vote to prevent and helped to prevent the appointment by cannon of the committee to investigate the Pinchot-Ballinger controversy...
...He was certain of it before...
...stands for "competition in trade, as against the machine policy of monopoly...
...He checked his luggage, not his convictions, (as so many do) at the railroad station, and with long Poindexterian strides he sped directly to the camp of the Insurgents, and registered: "Count me in...
...That issue has been and is the most vital of this Congress...
...The first of these Poindexterian purposes was to represent the people of the new Washington district in the House of Representatives...
Vol. 2 • July 1910 • No. 28
