WHO REPRESENTED YOUR INTERESTS?
Who Represented Your Interests? Regulars in Congress Claim Credit for Good Legislation. Angus McSween in the Philadelphia North American Tells What They Really Fought For WHAT about the last...
...pretense unprecedented in its extent and the vigor with which it is being waged has been inaugurated to cover up the true history of administration activities during the whole of the recent session of Congress...
...But the proceedings of the Congress from day to day absolutely refute these claims, and it is hardly possible that the public can be for long deceived...
...He realized in this contest that the Progressives had won...
...These and other questions are being asked every day throughout the country...
...The original draft tvas one of the most vicious pieces of legislation proposed, in Congress in years...
...This is the one bill that should appeal to the public, and because it is such the public should understand just how the legislation was framed, what efforts were required to overcome the sordid, greedy influences of the special interests and to whom credit is due for the success of these efforts...
...Instead of validating the Roosevelt withdrawals of power sites from settlement, it-tends to make them of doubtful, legality, and to leave large tracts open to the land-grabbing corporations...
...It had been urged in two messages by former President Roosevelt...
...This is far from what Cummins and the Progressives wanted, but it was such a decided gain for the public that it afforded general cause for elation...
...The next aggressive fight made fey the Progressives was for the long and short haul provision of the law, the provision which makes it unlawful for a railroad to charge more for a short than for a long haul in the same general direction unless for special reasons permission is given by the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...Second, the provision to legalize traffic agreements without the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission and to place these agreements above the anti-trust law...
...The House of Representatives adopted the provision...
...The Postal Savings Bill WITH regard to the consideration of the postal savings bank bill and the character of the law finally enacted, Mr...
...There is not of record so palpable an attempt as this to distort a platform promise so as to advance the purposes of great special interests...
...At the beginning of the struggle to prevent the passage of the President's bill, the Progressives concentrated their attack upon the tariff agreements section...
...As one Senator deserted Aldrich upon one proposition, and another upon another, because they were afraid of the public feeling they might be forced to encounter if they refused to support any of the progressive propositions, Aldrich surrendered in every case, to prevent the Progressives from making greater inroads upen his following...
...These circumstances must be borne in mind in order that the results of the fight may be appreciated...
...Not even the Aldrich interpretation of the tariff plank, so as to justify the character cf tariff bill he put through, compares with it...
...First the jurisdiction of the Court was limited to that now possessed by circuit courts...
...It was against this that Cummins and La Follette made their strongest and most telling arguments and the other Progressives did their mo.-t effective work...
...They proposed that the bare agreements between railroads, the agreement that all rates should be the same, should be submitted to the Interstate Commerce Commission for approval, but that the rates themselves should go into effect immediately and should not be affected by any adverse ruling of the commission respecting the so-called agreements...
...It bristled with* provisions which would have upset all RooseveWs good work for rate regulation...
...The proposition that the agreements should become operative twenty days after they had been filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission precluded the possibility that the commission could even ascertain their character before they had become effective, and afterward there would be little chance that the commission could by investigating one rate at a time ever catch up with the great number of increased rates which would have been put into effect simultaneously...
...The statements naade are supported by the records and by general knowledge of what was transpiring from day to day in Washington while the legislation was under consideration...
...But the provision was forced out of the bill by the persistent and able efforts of the Progressives...
...The enjoining power of the court is so restricted that notice and hearing are required before an injunction can issue, and, except in cases where irreparable injury would result, the injunction must be concurred in by three judges of the court...
...They determined they would make the bill one of service to the public, and they succeeded beyond their expectations, if not beyend their desire...
...Manifestation of opposition by the small but determined band of progressive Republicans at the very beginning of the fight caused the Attorney General to rush to Chicago and deliver a speech there for publication throughout the United States, declaring, as a personal representative of the President, that any Republican who would dare to oppose the provisions of the railroad bill ceased to be a Republican and was not entitled to consideration or support from Republican voters...
...Some of the concessions made were made in order to head off the general proposition to obtain a physical valuation of railroad properties for the purpose of establishing a sure basis, both for determining the reasonableness of rates and the true value of railroad capitalization...
...Now that the fight is temporarily over and the achievements of this determined band are clearly revealed in the legislation placed upon the statute books, the public is asked to turn from them and bestow the commendation to which they are entitled upon the President and the followers of Cannon and Aldrich...
...A Legislative Monstrosity No sucn legisltive monstrosity had ever been proposed to the American congress by any administration as the bill drawn by Attorney General Wickersham and sent to the two Houses by the President himself with the announcement that it was his bill and he wanted it passed without amendment...
...4. Give the Attorney General full control over all cases before the court...
...In connection with this there are being exerted by the President himself and every special-interest representative who followed either Aldrich or Cannon the strongest efforts to persuade the public that what was effected for its good through the persistent, courageous fighting of the progressive Republicans, aided by Democrats in both Houses, was effected by the very men, including the President, who are shown by the records to have opposed with all the force at their command the very propositions for which they now claim credit...
...Such is the true statement of the new railroad law...
...It was offering the shadow of restriction and withholding the substance...
...President Taft sent this bill to Congress with his personal indorsement and asked that it be passed without amendment...
...Afraid of the People THE deliberate attempt, first to violate the party platform and then to give the railroads greater liberty to advance rates than they had ever enjoyed, was so clearly pointed out and proved that one organization Senator after another, fearful of the indignation of the people in their home states, began to waver...
...Cowardly Tactics "[IN some respects the records themselves are deceptive, for it was the practice of those who were battling for the special interests whenever they found themselves confronted by inevitable defeat to abandon their position, and by timely surrender prevent the records from disclosing through an actual count of votes the attitude of hostility to the public welfare which had been maintained...
...It is so far from being the President's law thp-t all the best features of it were bitterly opposed by him, and the men who forced their adoption were as bitterly denounced...
...It contained a joke provision to regulate the issuing of railroad securities...
...It legalized existing mergers between competing lines...
...Cummins could not obtaia the adoption of this, but he compelled the Aldrich forces to offer a compromise in the extension of the period during which the Interstate Commerce Commission may suspend rates from sixty days to ten months...
...Making a Bad Bill Good BUT the Progressives did not stop with their great victory over the allied forces of the special interests...
...The provision giving the court the power to authorize railroad mergers in violation of the anti-trust law was stricken out...
...The effect of this would have been to legalize the merger of the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads, against which proceedings were begun under the Roosevelt administration...
...At every stage of the fight on the bill Aldrich kept himself informed of the exact number of votes on each side of the chamber that he could rely upon...
...that the law requiring publicity of campaign expenditures is probably "the best measure the President urged upon Congress," although it would have been better to have provided for publicity both before and after elections instead of only after...
...Angus McSween in the Philadelphia North American Tells What They Really Fought For WHAT about the last session of Congress...
...Mc-Sween tells practically the same story as that told in La Fot-lette's while the bill was being debated, especially in the issue of July 9, 1910...
...When the regulars saw that postal savings had to come, they took good care that it was framed so as to serve the purposes of Wall Street...
...To this was added a provision that when a railroad has once reduced rates to meet water competition it cannot increase those rates without permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...It was an open attempt at intimidation, an appeal by the administration to the voters to turn against the men who were striving to protect the interests of the public, and a warning to the independents that they would be subjected to the aggressive hostility of the administration if they persisted in attempts to modify or change the iniquitous provisions of the bill...
...It had been frequently presented by the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...2. Give any judge of the court power to enjoin temporarily the enforcement of an order of the commission...
...Will This Record THE record of the last session of Congress shotvs that: The railroad law as passed is an excellent measure, but was forced through by the insurgents...
...The progressives made over this bill to one of service to the public, but were prevented by admiiiistration influence from putting in sotne very important provisions, among them being the physical valuation of the roads as a basis of rate regulation...
...It provided for a commerce court ivhich would have destroyed the usefulness of the interstate commerce commission, and made appeal to the higher tribunals impossible...
...It can therefore be seen that the adroit representatives of the railroads in framing a measure which seemed to contain something of possible benefit to the public, or which at least could be pointed out to the public as intended to benefit it, had carefully provided that no railroad interest should be hurt, while all the other provisions were designed to so increase railroad privileges as t...
...6. Give the court authority to set aside the anti-trust latv as it applies to railroad mergers...
...The bill itself, for which the President assumed all responsibility, is an absolute refutation of the claims put forward for and by the administration to credit for the law actually enacted...
...5. Give no right to the commission or to interested shippers to participate in any way in the proceedings...
...The Attorney General is nominally left in charge of all cases in the court, but the Interstate Commerce Commission and the shippers who are parties in interest are given the right to representation before the court in all cases, under regulations to be determined by the court and not by the Attorney General...
...His bill was one which would have given the railroads enormous power and placed the public in a position of utter helplessness...
...As drawn by Wickersham this provision would, briefly — 1. Give the court power to set aside the findings of the Interstate Commerce Commission upon other grounds than those involving jurisdiction and constitutional questions...
...Through the influence of the administration, Aldrich urns able to destroy a good postal savings bank bill and to substitute one of dangerous features, giving Wall street control of the people's money as never before...
...It is claimed for these that they are all redemptions of platform pledges and that their enactment is due to the efforts of the President...
...It creates a commission without powers, and gives the special interests $250,000 of the people's money to carry on the campaign against scientific tariff making...
...Every provision cited here was a provision so clearly intended to shut out the public and give the railroads tremendous advantages that the conclusion can hardly be avoided that the railroads which had prompted these legislative suggestions had little doubt that they would control both the Attorney General and the Court...
...For a few day?, during w!i:-.!i l'ie President sent for Senators he could influence, and v.-e.: them to do whatever Aldrich told them to, it looked as if the jugglery would succeed...
...placing telephone and telegraph lines doing an interstate business under the regulation of the law and placing many other restrictions upon the railroads, all for the benefit of the country, and all marking advancement toward the better regulation of Interstate Commerce which the public has a right to demand...
...To answer them the Philadelphia North American had its Washington correspondent prepare a thorough and accurate summary of the achievements of the last session, including the position taken by the regulars, by the progressives and by the administration...
...Will This Record Satisfy the People...
...In order to show how little truth there is in these assertions, the laws themselves are carefully analyzed, their good and bad features pointed out and the manner is which they were enacted described...
...But it was stricken out in conference, the House agreeing to the elimination, because Aldrich had declared it should never pass the Senate, and all legislation would have keen prevented had it been insisted upon...
...The land withdrawal bill, while presented by the President as a measure to carry out the Roosevelt conservation policies does more to make it possible to destroy them than any measure passed in years...
...that the bill providing for a bureau of mines "is an excellent bill," but there is danger that the directorship be given to a Ballinger man...
...The very advances in rates which the President stopped recently by an injunction, and which are now the subject of consideration by the Interstate Commerce Commission, would have been beyond the reach of any law...
...This program as now set forth consists of the railroad law, the postal savings banks law, the land withdrawal law, the appropriation to permit the tariff board to investigate the tariff question, the statehood law, the law providing for publicity of campaign contributions and the law establishing a bureau of mines...
...What part did the administration play in the struggle between regulars and progressives...
...He surrendered and consented to the elimi-i-.ation of the whole provision...
...3. Give no appeal from an interlocutory decree of the court to the Supreme Court of the United States...
...It is the one piece of legislation which marks an advance in the Btruggle for public rights against the great special privilege corporations banded together to control the government of the country and to levy tribute upon individuals and upon independent commercial enterprises...
...Other beneficial amendments forced into the bill in the same way and retained in the law place upon the railroads the burden of proof respecting the reasonableness of all increases in rates after January 1, 1910...
...This provision for a physical valuation "had been fought for in 1906 by Senator La Follette single handed...
...The railroad bill is the one piece of legislation which gives character and dignity to the achievements of the Congress...
...There has been no more effective discussion of public questions than were contained in the speeches of Senator La Follette, and no more splendid oratory than that of Senator Dolliver...
...But the Progressives never for a moment faltered in their fight, and as the country began to realize the character of outrage it was proposed to perpetrate, public sentiment came to their assistance...
...virtually set aside the Roosevelt law of 1906 and the court decisions which have made that law effective...
...He knew exactly when his strength was waning...
...The intended removal of the railroads from the reach of the anti-trust law, so far as rate agreements were concerned, and the provision that the court might set aside that law in considering proposed mergers of railroads, would have completely repealed, so far as the railroads are concerned, the only statute that the great law defying combinations are in the least afraid of...
...require the Interstate Commerce Commission to make an analysis of classifications and tariffs every six months to determine how they affect staple commodities and their transportation between the principal producing and consuming sections of the country...
...The President made apparent his realization of the differences between the platform declaration and the purpose he wished to advance by ignoring the wording of the former and placing himself upon record as advocating the legalization of railroad agreements without the approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...Every one of these provisions was either eliminated altogether by the House and Senate as a result of the fight made by the Progressive Republicans, aided by the Democrats, or they were so modified as to m^ke them harmless...
...The chief claim made by the President and those with whom he has allied himself is that the Pesident and his supporters put through a remarkable legislative program, thus redeeming all the pledges of the party platform and fulfilling all the promises made by the President to the American people...
...Splendid Fighters it HERE has been no such splendid leadership shown in M. either House of Congress in many years as that of Senator Cummins in the fight over the railroad bill...
...Thus it is possible for Aldrich to assert that the provisions in the railroad bill forced into it by the progressives and Democrats were agreed to by the organization supporters of special privilege, and the records do not disclose how stubborn was the resistance before the reluctant agreements were forced from them...
...Satisfy the People...
...Other Important Measures WITH regard to other important measures, Mr...
...McSween points out that the platform pledge was kept as to statehood for Arizona and New Mexico...
...In vain Aldrich and Elkins, aided by the active efforts of the Attorney General and Senator Root, and the comforting assurances from the President himself that he would do anything in his power to force through this provision, tried to counteract the effect of the progressive attack by jugglery and misstatement...
...First, the provision for a commerce court...
...Was it a success or a failure—from the people's viewpoint...
...It took the railroads from under the anti-trust law, and would have permitted them to make what rates they pleased tvithout any effective check...
...that the land withdrawal aet is "no less defective than the postal savings bill," and "will prove to be the most serious blow" yet given the conservation policy, because "it absolutely ignores all withdrawals made up to this time, and if, when rewithdrawals are made, under the provisions of the law, it develops that representatives of the water power trust and representatives of the Morgan-Guggenheim syndicate and of other grasping combinations have located claims upon the lands withdrawn by Roosevelt, then those claims will certainly have to be adjudicated in] the courts...
...Yet, when this concession had been forced from the unwilling Aldrich, and the bill had gone to conference, President Taft urged that the suspension period should be reduced by the conference committee to six menths, and the reduction would have been made had not the House cenferees declared that if there were r.ny juggling with the provision the House would retire from the conference and adopt the Senate bill as it had passed that body...
...He says: A Campaign of Deception '* A CAMPAIGN of deception and false _r...
...Nor have any men fighting in any battle for public rights against the grasping forces of Special Privilege ever demonstrated more courageous zeal, more intelligent or firmer grasp of the problems presented or more unflagging determination to maintain the fight against whatever hazards than were shown by these three and the handful of others, Borah, Beveridge, Bristow, Clapp and Dixon, who composed the progressive faction in the Senate of the United States...
...If this provision of the President's bill had gone through as the President wanted it to, there would have been no provision of the new law or the old law, which could have interfered with rate advances in any manner likely to cause the 'lightest interferences with railroad exactions, or which could effectively relieve the public from railroad extortion...
...These provisions were stubbornly resisted by the Aldrich forces with the President's approval, and were yielded to only when it had become obvious that the Senate would adopt them despite Aldrich and the President...
...McSween's article is given here in very condensed form...
...The fight to prevent the legalization of the tariff agreements as proposed by the President led to the introduction by Senator Cummins of his amendment declaring that no increase in rates shall become operative until approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission...
...Fourth, the provisions for so-called regulations for the issuance of stocks and bonds by railroad companies, "The chief purpose * * * was to legalize all existing capitalization of railroads and make subject to investigation only new additions...
...It must be obvious to any one that any reduction of the time that rates may be suspended for investigation by the commission means only the greater number of rate increases that will go into effect without any investigation at all...
...This means that the rulings of the commission upon rates can be set aside only when it can be shown that the commission has exceeded its jurisdiction or that its order will have the effect of actually confiscating the property of the railroad without due process of law...
...From a permanent injunction issued by the court an appeal can be taken to the supreme court...
...The very audacity of this proposition is giving it force...
...The tariff commission laxv is a gold brick...
...This statement was used by Aldrich and Elkins in the Senate committee on interstate commerce as a reason why no amendments to the measure could be considered by the committee...
...Third, the provision that if one railroad had acquired the control of another railroad, it should be permitted to purchase all the remaining stock of that road...
...This is a gain for the public of enormous importance...
...Are the laws it passed good or bad...
Vol. 2 • July 1910 • No. 30
