THE ROLL CALL

The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES Norris—Who will not Quit LAST March, the daily press in great black headlines and full page reports, startled the country with news of a revolution in the House...

...And the country said, "Who is Norms...
...When the Bill c.^me before the House, he offered an Amendment to strike out the "special facilities" item...
...In the cities, throngs gathered about the bulletin boards to read despatches "from the front...
...Norris was among the first to undertake seriously and systematically thorough-going reform of the House rules...
...Nebraska should stand by a progressive Republican who is not a quitter...
...He had been always interested in questions affecting the welfare of the common people...
...Objection was made that the Census resolution had been reported by a committee, whereas the Norris resolution was offered for the first time from the floor of the House...
...The Speaker had ruled the census resolution to be in order, notwithstanding the "calendar Wednesday" rule...
...Speaker, I present a resolution made privileged by the Constitution...
...Applause...
...In the House, the machine has learned to know Norris of Nebraska...
...He refused to guide his official action by the System precept that "the machine can do no wrong...
...It is true that during Norris' first two terms in Congress he did not accomplish much in the way of legislation, but he was constantly striving—and learning...
...Speaker, that we are not left to settle this question without any outside influences...
...Do your worst...
...so that we have had a combination of the Senate, the Cabinet, the Executive and the Knights of the Iron Duke, all combined in an assault upon that little band of 'insurgents.' "We stand, Mr...
...A few days later, his name appeared among the twenty-nine Republican members joining in a resolution for the revision of the House rules and the establishment of a "calendar Tuesday...
...The following day, the resolution, although not before the house under the rules, was again urged for consideration under constitutional privilege...
...An excerpt will indicate the fearless manner in which he stated the demand for rule reform and characterized the opposition to that demand: "There will be no change in tnc rules that will be satisfactory or produce satisfactory results either to the House or to the country that does not take away from the Speaker the right to serve on the committee on rules and the right to appoint all the standing committees of the House, (Loud applause...
...A few years ago, Honorable George William Norris was a country judge in Nebraska...
...During this first session, Norris devoted himself to a study of Congress and the things that Congress was doing,—and how...
...It is to be regretted, Mr...
...The only way that the Speaker could avoid the issue was to refuse to rule, and this gained him onl/ a postponement and presented the novel spectacle of the officers of a legislative body, claiming to act under the authority cf the majority in that body, conducting a filibuster through three days and two nights to prevent a majority of the members from exercising their will...
...He had been always, by environment and inclination, of the common people...
...Also, the people of the United States are learning to know Norris of Nebraska...
...By the second session, he had learned how Congress did things and something about some things that Congress was doing...
...The "insurgents" were defeated, but out of that defeat they learned much...
...senators, cabinet officers, and, I regret to say, the President, have all been working in behalf of the Speaker and his machine...
...He found that the Department was evidently opposed to the appropriation as much as it dared be, and that it was an expenditure for which the people were getting nothing of value in return...
...The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES Norris—Who will not Quit LAST March, the daily press in great black headlines and full page reports, startled the country with news of a revolution in the House of Representatives...
...But in the end there was only one way out, and Norris would not quit...
...During the vacation, members of this House have been worked upon by the various departments of this government, especially what is known as the 'insurgent' part of the house...
...Always he had been a worker, a man of action and, when occasion demanded, a fighter...
...He went on through that session and the next, and the next, and those that have followed, challenging bills and provisions of legislation upon their merits, applying to them the test of public interest rather than the test of party regularity—never mere considerations of machine subserviency...
...The country, moreover, likes the acquaintance better than does the House machine...
...Before that, he had been a prosecuting attorney...
...Later came the attempt of the machine, by means of a resolution amending the census act, and claiming constitutional privilege over the rules, to destroy the "calendar Wednesday" rule adopted as the result of the "insurgent" fight at the beginning of the session...
...It was announced that the heretofore arrogant and impregnable autocracy of the House was fighting its last fight, fighting from its last stronghold...
...But the Insurgents and the Democrats had the votes to reverse him...
...Norris turned upon the System management the arguments which the I-Iouse leaders had been making in two days' controversy to force a consideration of the Census resolution on the ground of constitutional privilege...
...We will not surrender...
...and hence, a student of public affairs...
...Many of them protested...
...If we are to be punished for standing for a principle which we believe to be right, then let the lash be unfurled...
...Other men who had gone to Congress before him had learned the same thing to their disappointment...
...Again he "came back" and worked and voted to cut out the "special facilities" graft of the railroad...
...Norris arose in his place and announced: "Mr...
...He worked for an anti-pass amendment to the Hepburn rate bill...
...This time, the Speaker refused to rule and the House voted to consider the resolution and passed it— voted in effect that, as the census was required to be taken by the Constitution, a resolution amending the census law should be privileged notwithstanding the rules of the House would prevent its consideration...
...On the parliamentary question Norris had the machine leaders checkmated...
...On this amendment, the House had an opportunity to vote and over the protests of the Speaker and Dalzell and the arch-standpatters of the House, the Norris amendment was adopted by an overwhelming majority...
...During that initial contest of the present Congress, Norris made a notable speech...
...Before that, a poor boy working his way through school and college...
...Of course, the machine voted his amendment down, but NOR-ris was neither intimidated nor discouraged...
...Immediately upon the passage of the Census Resolution, Mr...
...Norris pointed out that if a resolution to amend the Census law was in order contrary to the rules of the House, because a census of population was required by the Constitution, then a resolution to amend the rules of the House should likewise be entitled to privilege, for the Constitution authorizes the Houses of Congress to make rules for their own government...
...The portrayal of events in Congress from day to day held the attention of the people as the story of a great conflict...
...Throughout the stories of the bulletin boards and the headlines and the messages ran the name of norris—norris of Nebraska...
...I would rather go down to my political grave with a clear conscience than ride in the chariot of victory, a congressional stool pigeon, the slave, the servant and the vassal of any man, whether he be the owner and manager of a legislative menagerie or the ruler of a great nation...
...Norris took a prominent and aggressive part in the contest...
...When, in the session just closed, the resolution came before the House providing for an investigation of the Pinchot-Ballinger conservation controversy, Norris saw another chance to press the fight against Cannonism and he got in an amendment requiring the appointment of the investigating committee by the House instead of by the Speaker, as desired by the System management...
...In the second session of the Sixtieth Congress, he introduced a resolution for this purpose, and made a speech attacking the control of House organization and legislation by the Speaker...
...We will not be intimidated...
...During the previous day's discussion of the census resolution he had engaged in a colloquy with Olmsted, of Pennsylvania, the Speaker's favorite substitute presiding officer, and secured from Olmsted an admission, in effect, that if the census resolution was privileged under the Constitution its privilege did not depend upon its having been reported by a committee...
...Speaker, for a principle and we are not willing to trade off that principle for political pie or even for political life...
...Norris found that Congress was appropriating for alleged "special facilities"—whatever that might be—$142,000 a year to the Southern Railroad in the Post Office Appropriation Bill...
...So, when the House managers "slipped" in the tariff session in their effort to force a twenty-five per cent, ad valorem duty on petroleum, Norris was ready to take advantage of the parliamentary situation and put in an amendment reducing the duty to one per cent, instead of twenty-five—-practically free oil...
...Cannonism is doomed," "House czarship tottering to its fall," cried the headlines...
...This resolution served as the basis for cooperation among the Progressives of the House...
...The Cannon machine saved itself from humiliating defeat only by an alliance with the Tammany Democrats, though, in order to maintain their position, they were obliged to adopt the Fitzgerald subterfuge embodying a crumb of rule reform—the "calendar Wednesday" rule...
...Also Norris took determination anew, and one determination in particular—to let pass no opportunity to renew the attack on Cannonism...
...At the opening of the Sixty-first Congress, the Progressive Republicans were on hand to make their first stubborn fight on the Cannon rules...
...That Norris should protest was inevitable...
...The great fight was on...
...that, in fact, the organization of the House and its rules were designed to keep the power to legislate in the hands of a small group...
...Before that, he had been a lawyer...
...And Norris learned much...
...That he should be ready to go to the root of the evil and protest against the System itself was logical, though it required, perhaps, more courage and determination...
...Of course he would rule the resolution out of order...
...Just so a little time before, the Cannon machine in the House had asked, "Who is Norris...
...The newspapers all over the country in the last few days have circulated reports that if we are defeated in this fight, we are going to be punished, first by loss of important places on committees, and, second, by losing from the executive department of the government patronage that heretofore has been given to members of the House...
...He took his seat among the Republicans, and was appointed on two good committees, Public Buildings and Grounds, and Election of President, Vice-president, and Members of Congress...
...The machine reckoned without its host and on an appeal from the decision of the Chair, the Progressives and the Democrats reversed the Speaker's ruling...
...It was up to the Speaker to rule...
...He supported legislation limiting the hours of service of railroad employees...
...The System was learning to know Norris...
...When the Fifty-eighth Congress convened on the Ninth of November, 1903, George W. Norris answered to the roll-call of the House as a member-elect from Nebraska...
...It crystallized the demand for revision of the House rules...
...He had protested against bad measures which the Sybtem produced ever since he came to Congress...
...But Norris was prepared in advance...
...Noreis had both...
...Repeatedly, he urged the passage cf a resolution for a Constitutional amendment providing for election of United States Senators by the people...
...Norris appreciated keenly enough the apparent fruitlessness of efforts to legislate in the public interest, and he came to study why this was so, and he found that in the House, substantially all efforts to legislate were fruitless except those of a little group of men, "the leaders" of the organization...
...Any other proposition that may come in here will only blind the real situation, (Applause...

Vol. 2 • July 1910 • No. 30


 
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