THE ROLL CALL
THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES A Body Blow for Cannonism GANNONISM is tottering to its fall. The past week wrote large on the Hall of Representatives the warning of impending doom. Cannonism...
...HUBBARD (la...
...The Speaker with this power can make or unmake the public careers of the men upon whom he confers or from whom he withholds committee appointment, preferment or promotion...
...It has been the demand of the Progressive Republicans of the House and of the country that the Speaker shall be deprived of the power of appointing the committees of the House...
...Y.) GOOD (la...
...The vote is a repudiation of Cannonism...
...KOPP (Wis...
...GRONNA (N...
...The result is that the committees and the men who control them are dominated by the Speaker...
...It will go on...
...HINSHAW (Neb...
...MADISON (Kan...
...Things that move not can not long exist...
...To that little handful of Progressive Republicans who, repudiating the bad leadership cf the Cannon machine, made successfully the opening charge in the great battle of this Congress in behalf of the people, all honor...
...POINDEXTER (Wash...
...It is a vote of want of confidence in the cannon-System management of the House...
...We give here their names: AMES (MASS...
...Especially to Representative Norris, of Nebraska, who led that charge, all honor...
...Y.) PICKETT (la...
...MURDOCK (Kan...
...KENDALL (la...
...The Speaker's power to distribute committee places, carrying with them influence and position, is the means of building up a personal machine subservient to the wishes of the Speaker...
...Nor shall the Aldrich machine of the Senate, by coming to the aid of the Cannon machine of the House and accomplishing for Cannon and his cohorts what they could not achieve for themselves, obliterate the record of this vote...
...NELSON (Wis...
...MILLER (Minn...
...NORRIS (Neb...
...But those who understand the nature of the Cannon domination of the House and the power and ramifications of the Cannon machine, will understand that the vote was decisive and emphatic...
...The victory of the Progressives was as signal as it was unexpected...
...The fight of the Progressive Republicans of the House of Representatives upon the Czarism of Cannon is the fight of progress...
...LENROOT (Wis...
...LINDBERGH (Minn...
...HAYES (Cal...
...The seat of power, the very source of the Speaker's autocracy, lies in his right under the rules of the House to appoint the committees of the House...
...FISH (N...
...Cannonism is reactionary...
...The House works through its committees...
...VOLSTEAD (Minn) WOODS (la...
...It is a great beginning of a great contest...
...To the people it is irresponsive and irresponsible...
...It stands pat...
...MORSE (Wis...
...Cannon, by appointing to the chairmanship of important committees of the House the servitors of Special Interests, insures a program of legislation to subserve Special Interests...
...The appointing power of the Speaker determines the character of the committees, and the character of the committees determines the character of their work...
...COOPER (Wis...
...LOVERING (Mass...
...That the demoralizing Czarism of Cannon and the "Me-too-ism" *f the Cannon machine shall be abolished...
...Legislation in the House is controlled by the committees...
...By this vote a standing issue, well-defined in the public mind, was decided against Cannonism in its very stronghold...
...Such a vote in the Parliament of England would drive the Ministry out of power...
...Of the momentous events of last week at Washington, in many respects the most significant and important was the vote in the House of Representatives in which the Progressive Republicans of the House, supported by the minority, amended the resolution for the Ballinger investigation to deprive the Speaker of the power of appointing the House members of the investigating committee, and conferred that power upon the House itself...
...It has life...
...It was a vote in repudiation of Cannonism...
...It will achieve...
...Being done once, it can be done again, and again, until instead of being the exception it may become the rule...
...It was a vote in assertion of the most important and most fundamental right demanded by the House Progressives as a fundamental reform in Government...
...Stagnation is death...
...DAVIS (Minn...
...PARSONS (N...
...That the committees of the House shall be appointed by the House...
...D.) HAUGEN (la...
...Under such a condition the House organization represents Cannon and the Interests that he represents...
...It matters not whether the Cannon machine shall, by a rallying effort, by the wielding of the party whip, by the pressure of subtle influences, be able in the appointment of the investigating committee to defeat a fair and representative choice by the House of the members of that committee...
...The vote, to be sure, was close...
...It has virility...
...Under such a condition individual independence can not exist, and statesmanship and patriotism have no place...
Vol. 2 • January 1910 • No. 2
