THE ROLL CALL

...A new committee on Insular Affairs was to be created...

...In this session, too, Cooper is found insurging in support of a measure to provide for an investigation of the Steel Trust armor plate monopoly, and the advisability of the erection of a government armor plate foundry...

...At the opening of the Sixtieth Congress Cooper was in the front rank of the Insurgents in the fight for revision of the House rules...

...At every crisis, he proved himself a soldier of principle, a Cooper of the coopers...

...Cooper fought the limitation and secured for the employees the right to a full recovery...

...Throughout the stormy debate, he was on his feet, defying the wrath of the leaders of his own party, as well as that of the Democratic majority organization, hurling his ultimatum in their teeth, "Sir, the pending bill is unfair to the government, and nothing can prevail upon mc to give it my support !" When finally the bill reported by the committee was forced to a vote, and the vote., were counted, it was found that a majority of the Members of the House, when they came to make their votes of public record, had voted with Cooper, and the bill was beaten...

...On Payne's proposed war revenue bill, drawn to subserve Special Interests, Cooper again insurged, and voted to make transportation companies pay their share of the tax...

...The official record of Cooflr's seventeen years ok service in Congress is an unimpeachable record cf fearless, able, aggressive and honest service to his constituency and the country...

...Nor can we nuke mention of his services for Progressive Republicanism outside of Congress, his effective support in Wisconsin's great struggle for the restoration of representative democracy, or his courageous championship of the "Wisconsin Idea" in the Ias>t Republican national convention, where he stood alone in the Committee on Resolutions, as many years before he had stood alone in the Committee on the Pacific Railroads, to fight the people's battles...

...He stood like Adam, the first man, in the infancy of a new world of Republican principle—destined to be the father of Insurgency in the House of Representatives...

...The corrupt Huntington lobby was there, doing business with the Democratic organization, the majority, and the Republican organization, the minority, as it had in the past done business with the Republican organization when it was the majority, and the Democratic organization when it was the minority—doing Big Business...

...A Democratic Speaker appointed him at the foot of the Committee on Pacific Railroads...

...Again in this Congress, Cooplr voted for popular election of Senators, voted against the McMillan bill, the beginning of the infamous Union Station Railroad graft in Washington...

...In this session, too, the Insurgents took from Speaker Cannon the appointment of the committee to investigate the conservation controversy, and gave the appointment of the committee to the House itself...

...Usually, they were dishonest, frequently villainous and unconscionable, sometimes corrupt and criminal...

...Moreover, he was profoundly impressed, as most new Congressmen are, with the sacred obligation of his office to safeguard the public interest...

...In that report, they pointed out that the bill reported by the majority of the committee, at the behest of the System lobby, was one to defraud the government and the people of the United States out of a public loan of $178,000,000, principal and interest, by subordinating the government claim to all other liens upon the property—liens aggregating more than the roads were known to be worth...

...For years the Steel Trust had been seeking to pass through Congress a bill to grant a federal charter for a company to construct a ship canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River...

...Cary said, "active, energetic men," they persuaded the people...

...It was an infractkn of party regularity...

...Of course, Congress was indignant—at Bristow...

...When the railroad employees' liability bill came before the House in this session, it limited the right of recovery of the injured employees to merely compensatory damages...

...Paul Railroad Company, John W. Cary wrote its history—a stirring history, in the making of which he had been from the beginning a conspicuous figure...

...An important rule had been brought in to facilitate its passage...

...Again Cooper insurged, though he was the only Wisconsin Member to support the motion...

...In the Fifty-seventh Congress, Cooper joined in the opposition to and voted against the "special facilities" appropriation of the postal bill, by which the railroads were paid subsidies under the pretext of expediting the mails...

...Again the record shows him true to the people in voting against the Vreeland and Aldrich-Vreeland emergency currency bills for Wall Street...

...The promoters were optimists...

...The means by which railroad promoters accomplished their schemes were many and ingenious...

...With a broad outlook, he pleaded not only for the protection of the government in its money investment, but also for the protection of the shipping and consuming public, tributary to more than two thousand miles of railroad...

...Being promoters and optimists, and being, as Mr...

...The opening of the Fifty-Sixth Congress f und this government with the Philippine problem on its hands...

...insurgent as usual, voting on roll call after roll call against the appropriation of the people's money for the benefit of Big Business...

...At the opening of the present Congress, the Record discloses Cooper again leading the Insurgent band in the fight to break down the Cannon rules, and voting against Cannon for Speaker, while, of the few Insurgents who carried their opposition to Cannonism to the extent of voting against Cannon for Speaker, nearly all voted for Cooper, a fitting tribute to the Father of Insurgency...

...President McKinley had exhibited the keenest interest in the welfare of the islands, to protect them from the exploitations of Big Business...

...The;e mile stones are destined to become land marks in the nation's history, land marks whereon Henry Allen Cooper, by his deeds of coura'e and his words of conviction, has indelibly written himself— FRIEND AND SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE...

...Of all the Republicans on the committee, not one seconded his efforts...

...It was upon CoOPrR's challenge that publicity of the hearings of the committee was secured...

...Throughout the controversy over the railroad, and postal savings bank bills, Coopir was ever alert, fearless and aggressive in the championship of the public interest, opposing in the railroad bill the provisions and amendments to promote railroad monopoly and stock watering, said in the postal bank legislation, opposing the Dalzell resolution to gag and bind the House to put through a postal bank bill for Wall Street...

...When the urgent deficiency bill of this Congress was before the House, an amendment was offered by Dalzell of Pennsylvania, providing that the law for an eight-hour day should not apply to the Panama Canal...

...He stood alone in his party...

...Space decs not here permit a full chronicle of Cooper's many notable acts of public service in official capacity...

...They had helped to rear the party upon the foundation of a great principle...

...He voted for free lumber and free hldes and, due largely to Cooper's efforts, petroleum was put on the free list...

...They viewed a great future for the country—with railroads...

...Cooper's neighbors, when he was a boy, had invested in the optimism of railroad promoters—and regretted it...

...Again Cooper insurged, and was the only Republican in the House from Wisconsin who distinguished himself by opposing the measure...

...They might assume that he would "fall in line," would be "all right" When Cooper was a young man, Wisconsin had been a "Granger state...

...In the Fifty-fifth Congress, Cooper took for government by the people in support of a resolution to provide for the popular election of United State Senator...

...Millions of acres of land grants were donated in the aid of construction...

...The history of the Credit Mobilier is taught to every school boy, as a warning against corruption and wrong-doing in public affairs...

...It was the voice of authority, of System authority...

...In opposition to this rule, Copper led the Insurgent forces in demanding tariff revision in accordance with the Republican platform...

...It was a repudiation of paity solidarity...

...The railroad builders were captains of optimism...

...At first, he stood practically alone in the committee...

...Then President McKinley took a hand, and insisted upon the appointment of Cooper as the man whose ability and integrity could be depended upon to protect those who could net protect themselves...

...Again Cooper insurged, and voted against the Dalzell motion...

...To investigate it was to fight it, and to fight it, with Cooper, was to fight it hard...

...In the second session of the Sixtieth Congress, Cooper was among the twenty-nine Progressive Republicans joining in a resolution for reform of the Cannon rules...

...He had learned that a god of party regularity may have feet of clay, that the only safe guide for conduct of a public servant in the discharge of public duties is the guide of right and conscience...

...For it had a bill to be passed, a bill to beat the government out of its claims against the Pacific Railroads, a hundred and seventy million or more...

...Again the Pacific Railroads lobby was on the ground with funding bills to pass...

...When the bill came up for action in the Third Session, Cooper led the fight on the floor against the iniquitous measure, demanding protection for the public interest, protesting against favors for men who were criminals before the law...

...In this Congress, too, Cooper is on record against granting the demand of the Pennsylvania Railroad for an extravagant government appropriation for the building of its union station at Washington...

...Again we find him standing by the people in opposition to the program of the System organization to cripple President Roosevelt in his efforts to pre;ent frauds upon the public domain by depriving him of the use of the government secret service, and standing by the President against the System in support of legislation creating the Southern Appalachian and White Mountain forest reserves...

...He had learned his lesson...

...But this was "all right...

...Also, and most important, his integrity was proof, as that of many new Congressmen is not, against all the blandishments and the insidious attacks of money, power, and influence...

...The System organization was obliged to concede one committee appointment in the House to character, instead of servility, but the selection was imposed upon it from without...

...Citizens and mupicipalities bought stocks which preved worthless, and even fanners, thousand...

...He voted in the interest of the public safety, and of the safety of the men who operate the railways of the country, in voting against the amendment to destroy the bill limiting the hours of service of train operatives...

...of them, along the right of way were induced to mortgage their homestead;,—and many lost them as a result—to invest in the "green goods" of these captains of optimism...

...Of course, the promoters were to own the railroad's when built, and to charge the people—the farmers in the country, and the merchants in the towns—who furnished the means of building the railroads, "all the traffic would Lear" for whatever transportation service they might require...

...Of thirteen Members on that Committee, Cooplk was the last and the least in rank and responsibility...

...In every relation, he justified the public confidence...

...Rights of way were given freely...

...To persevere in such a course of public service in the face of the recognized and established order, in defiance cf the political "powers that be" has required a courage of the highest order, an armer of civic integrity without a flaw...

...The history of Huntington and his band of "respectable" crooks shows that they only pretended to build a railroad, as a fraudulent device to enable them to steal millions...

...Cooper joined with two Democrats in a minority report, a minority report in which they were supported by the report of the Wilson Committee of '73, and by Governor Pattison's report of the Pacific Railway Commissicn...

...They sent him to the State Senate and his services to his constituents were faithful and well rendered...

...After this, Insurgency was easy for Cooper...

...Speaking of the humble beginning of the road, and the early struggles of its promoters, he wrote, "There were many active, energetic men ready to engage in the w*rk, but without money...

...where be went before a hostile convention with a message of PROGRESS, a message for an honest revision of an iniquitous tariff, a message for regulation of common carri-ers that should be efficient, a message for the election of Senators of the United States by direct vote of the people,—messages cf Insurgency, of principle, of right...

...When Cooper came to Congress, the House was Democratic, but the System, then as now, was bi-partisan...

...Then followed the first regular session of the present Congress, the session which was made memorable by the victory of the Insurgents under the leadership of Norris and Cooper in securing the first substantial advance in reform of the House rules...

...On another occasion, we find him opposing a bill to facilitate land grabbing in South Dakota...

...Again the System was doing business—with the Republican majority this time...

...The next Congress was Republican, with Thomas B. Reild as Speaker...

...By the adoption of this rule the fate of tariff revision in the House was settled—settled for the Interests...

...And they were ready to build the railroads, provided only that the people— the farmers in the country, and the merchants in the towns— and their local, state and rational governments would furnish the necessary money and credit...

...The majority of the committee reported the Pacific Railroads funding bill, as the railroads wanted it...

...pleaded that the welfare of the entile country as affected by the transportation charges of a great, transcontinental trunk-line railroad built with public money demanded that any legislation, looking to the settlement of the Pacific Railroads' indebtedness, should be fair to the government and the people, that it should "limit fairly the amount if capital," that it should provide for "strict government supervision," allowing investors only "the right to receive an honest return upon an honest investment...

...Laying his hand, in his customary dominant manner, upon Cooper's breast, he said, "You will oblige me by not opposing this rule...

...It mattered little to Cooper that, during all the years of his Speakership, Speaker Reed never, when he could avoid it, would recognize Cooper upon the floor of the House...

...In the railroad rate legislation of the Fifty-ninth Congress Cooper was conspicuous in the people's right for efficient railroad regulation, proposing and forcing through amendments to strengthen the bill...

...In the tariff session, the real test came upon the Dalzell rule, which limited amendment of the tariff bill in the House to five designated items, leaving the duties on the thousands of other items, that go to make up a tariff, to be made by the System Committee on Ways and Means, and swallowed whole by the House...

...So it came about naturally when the Pacific Railroad funding scheme came before the committee of which Cooper was a member, that Cooper proceeded to investigate it seriously and thoroughly from the standpoint of the public interest...

...In the face of this storm of protest and denunciation, Cooper's sens of fairness and justice asserted itself, and, almost alone in all the Membership of the House, he arose and demanded fair treatment for a public servant whose only offense had been the exposure of wrongdoing in high places...

...Later, he forced the adoption of a provision in the resolution providing for an investigation of the ship subsidy lobby which required that the proceedings of the investigating committee should be public...

...And in this Congress, thirteen years ago,Cooper joined forces with Hupburn of Iowa in an effort to reform and liberalize the rules of the House...

...The Pacific Railroad bill was, in due course, again reported from that committee...

...While Cooper had no prejudice against railroads, as such, he had inherited rather strong prejudices in favor of common honesty...

...Cooper went on, voting against System bills, voting against the party leaders, the Speaker and his henchmen, Dalzell of Pennsylvania, Siier-man of New York, and Cannon of Illinois, and their kind...

...But this time the System was watching Cooper, and Speaker Reed did not re-appoint him on the Committee on Pacific Railroads...

...Town, county, city, state, and federal bonds were issued and placed to the credit of promoters...

...At this time, System financial interests cf the country were living in dread of possible progressive currency legislation which might not be in the interest of Wall Street...

...Born and reared in Walworth County, educated in letters a::d in the law, he practiced his profession among the neighbors of his boyhood...

...In this Congress, he voted also against System interests in voting for an appropriation for a government gun foundry to afford the government some protection against the extortions of the Steel Trust...

...Cooper was born a Republican, his forebears had been of the founders of the Republican party...

...In the committee, behind closed doers, his protests and his struggles were in vain...

...Later, removing to Racine, the nearest lar^e town, he was chosen District Attorney and twice re-elected without exposition...

...During these seventeen years, he has been progressive,—not intermittently, but constantly and consistently...

...He stood for the people and against the Interests, against the System amendment, supported by Tawney and the other Cannon leaders, to strike out the provision in the appropriation to enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust law, prohibiting the expenditure of public money for the prosecution (persecution) of labor organizations...

...When ship subsidy came before the House, in the 59th Congress, Cooper was fount...

...Now Cooper was to learn, as a rude shock, the sad lessen that party regularity was not always a virtue...

...For seventeen years, Cooper has represented the people of the First Congressional District of Wisconsin, in the lower House of Congress...

...Reared close to the soil, Cooper grew up with profound respect for the dignity of labor and keen sympathy for the interest of those who work with their hands...

...They sent Cooper because they knew him well, and knew that he was honest and able...

...To this Committee were referred the bills of the Pacific Railroads...

...The System had Tawney of Minnesota slated for the Chairmanship...

...Twenty years later, the first district of Wisconsin sent Henry Allen Cooper to Congress...

...But it was a magnifi-cent triumph for principle and honesty—for Insurgency...

...For two days, the House of Representatives devoted itself to the rending of Bristow, and the calling of names...

...He had heard a little of the Credit Mobilier, and a little of the Pacific Railroads, and he knew that it was always a good maxim to "watch a railroad...

...And he continued to oppose it, year after year, until its continuance in the postal bill became impossible...

...The little city of Burlington, where cooper first hung out his shingle as a lawyer, had been "held up" by a railroad...

...The Pacific Railroads legislation is a black stain upon the national honor...

...In the early days in the West, these words might be fitted as an unvarying formula to nearly every railroad enterprise...

...To make things sure, the House Committee on Banking and Currency had been stricken from the list of privileged committees of the House, so that it would be unable to press legislation in the public interest...

...But Cooper was insurgent, and he followed the dictates of his conscience and opposed the measure as he had done before...

...One day, in the Fifty-fourth Congress, a motion was made in the House, to restore this committee to its privileged rank...

...But as a minority Member of the House, he was entitled to some committee appointment...

...With the majority and the minority leaders in the House "right," and with the majority, if not all, of the committee on Pacific Railroads "safe," the System lobby concerned itself little or none with the new Member at the foot of the committee—at first...

...That they spent a half a million dollars through one agent, at the time of the great travail of our government, to corrupt the people's representatives is Congress, and secure the passage of a single measure was but ore shameful item in the long saturnalia of graft and thievery which was reduced to public record ley the investigation of the "Wilson committee" in 1873...

...Here we can point out only the mile stones which mark the principal stages in the long and useful career of a man still young in vigor of heart and conscience, and not yet advanced in years...

...He did not need to study far to discover that, behind its forms and disguises, it was a steal...

...And, for ence, the System nodded...

...In this Congress came to light the Bristow investigation of corruption in the Postoffice Department, exposing a shameful intimacy between the grafters and System Congressmen...

...In the Fifty-eighth Congress, Cooper is found insurging to defeat System amendments intended to destroy the pure food bill, and working1 and voting to pass the bill in a form efficient to protect the people from health-destroying adulterants...

...The minority report disclosed that the pending measure, while failing to provide for the payment of any interest on the huge debt due the government, would wipe out the government's statutory lien upon the property, subetituting only worthless security—proposed new bonds to be taken by the government merely as collateral— that the bill did not even definitely provide for the payment of any of the prior mortgaged indebtedness of the railroads, and postponed all rights of the government for a period of fifty years...

...Reed met Cooper one day at the entrance of the Hall of Representatives...

...When, in the Fifty-sixth Congress, the Littlefield bill came before the House, amending the Sherman Anti-Trust law, Cooper was one of those who voted for the amendment offered on the floor, to take labor organizations out of the penalties of the law, and when the Ridgely bill of the same Congress was presented, with its false pretenses of subserving the interests of labor, Cooper protested with his vote against the fraud...

...The new Congressman from the First Wisconsin came, unknown and unnoticed...

...The oranization of this new committee was important...

...The presentation of the Al-drich currency bill of the Fifty-ninth Congress found Cooper guarding the public interest, and voting against a measure to authorize the depositing of additional millions of publie money in System banks without the payment of interest to the government...

...For, in the old days, when the Pacific Railroads crowd were corrupting Congress in Washington for money, the forebears of Cooper were risking their fortunes and their liberties in conducting a terminus of the "Underground Railroad," aiding fugitive slaves to Canada and liberty—a hazardous enterprise offering no reward save the satisfaction of vindicating the principle of human freedom...

...In the Fifty-ninth Congress, the Steel Trust bill, with thinly veiled pretenses of safeguarding the public interest, was reported from the committee on Railways and Canals...