HAS CANNONISM BEEN DESTROYED?
Evans, Samuel M.
Has Cannonism Been Destroyed? The Revolution in the House. What it Means. What was Accomplished. The Real Battle By SAMUEL M. EVANS III. what cannonism really IS. FOR THE NORRIS RESOLUTION was...
...The resolution is carried unanimously," he roared and so the Journal of the House fixes the responsibility for the new committee on every member of the House...
...And the Democrats voted solidly with the Insurgents merely to gain a party advantage...
...The Speaker, leader of the majority, appoints the majority members of the committees and the minority leader really hands to the Speaker a list of the minority members who are appointed to the minority places on the committees...
...If Cannon should step out tomorrow, his place could he taken by lieutenants as able and as servile to lily Business as he...
...Privilege vs...
...in the past Uncle Joe was responsible both in fact and in form...
...This is in reality the custom of the House now so far as the appointment of minority members of committees is concerned...
...But there is hope that it can be wiped out of the Republican party this summer...
...Whatever party name it carries,—Republican, Democrat, Roundhead or Tory,—it is the age-old conflict of Dollars vs...
...It is in the nature of men to follow leaders...
...But what they actually accomplished was very little...
...All the big guns of "party solidarity" will be out pleading for the "Regular Organization...
...To any committee on committees there is the objection that it is a division of responsibility behind which it is easy for Big Business to hide...
...Property vs...
...Legislative "pork" is used only for the newcomers and for the voters at home...
...But Uncle Joe did this to reward Fitzgerald because the New Yorker and his followers of Tammany-ites and "Special Privilege" Democrats from the South, saved Cannon's rules from defeat at the opening of this Congress...
...Even if it be lodged in a party caucus, it will invariably be lodged in the leaders of that caucus...
...It comes from a determined constituency which has endured a dearth of legislative pork for years an£ is willing to go on enduring the dearth, preferring the substance of legislation to the crumbs that are permitted to drop from the table of the mighty...
...And so determined had they become that they used their majority of votes to change the rules through nothing short of a revolution—the overturning of the Speaker's decision when every man in the House knew that it was the only decision that a reasonable man could have made under the rules and precedents of the House...
...The Republican members of the Committee on Rules comgrise the whole committee under the system of party government that now obtains in the House...
...of suspicious and doubtful legislation, culminated a year ago in the passage of the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill...
...If Cannonism is to be destroyed, the people must see to it that THEY control both parties...
...Real Cause of the Revolution WHEN the Norris resolution had been adopted by the House, Cannon declared, "a new majority has been created in this House...
...The Real Remedy for Cannonism THE people have begun to see that, rules or no rules, Wall Street controls the House of Representatives...
...If Cannonism is to be killed it must be killed at the polls in the primary elections...
...The-dismissal of Glavis and the revelations that have followed have created a decidedly unpleasant impression that President Taft is allowing his advisers to run his office...
...There are good Cannon Democrats in the House just as there are good Aldrich Democrats in the Senate...
...Aside from a very small atcm of independence that might, by the remotest possibility, accrue to the new Committee on Rules because Cannon is not present at its meetings, and the impetus that the victory of Norris an^ his followers will give the cause of free government all over the country, nothing of any value was gained...
...Finally Knute Nelson, Senator from Minnesota, took hold of two of the measures, and patched them up so that the friends of conservation say they are worse than no legislation at all...
...Republicans all over the country are convinced that this measure was not only an open violation of the platform pledges of their party but a brazen betrayal of the people by Aldrich and Canncn into the hands of Big Business...
...This is another example, by the way, of how Cannon used his appointing power to reward as well as punish...
...FOR THE NORRIS RESOLUTION was but a flank attack on Cannonism...
...And the leader would be down on the floor where he can be more readily attacked and his leadership more often challenged than it can be when he is in the chair with the weapon of the power of refusing recognition in his hands...
...Whatever party name it carries,—Republican, Democrat, Roundhead or Tory,—it is the age-old conflict of Dollars vs...
...When Congress convened in regular session last fall, the President had a number of positive ideas which he outlined to Congress in several messages, making his recommendations as "the titular head of the Republican party...
...What the Norris resolution did was simply to take away a little of the FORMAL prestige from the Speakership...
...If the people would win, they must see to it that THE PEOPLE have the majority of the votes in the caucus of whichever parly controls the next House...
...The Senate is provided with a coin* mittee on committees and one man controls that committee...
...Alaskan legislation has gone by the boards as have the Federal Incorporation plan and several other "Administration measures" for which Taft announced himself so strongly last fall...
...What really happened was that, so far as the rules go, Cannon's leadership of his party in the House was challenged...
...The battle must be carried to the primaries of both parties...
...They are beginning to see that it is Wall Street that gets results from Congress...
...This has not been departed from in years except by Cannon at the beginning of this session of Congress...
...This con-si tuency has declared that Cannon does not represent his party and the breaking down of party lines in the House is but an index of the breaking down of party lines throughout the country...
...And it will not be confined to the Republican party...
...It is not necessary to look far for the reason for this...
...Privilege vs...
...And though the Republican members were really appointed by Cannon, ratified by the Republican caucus, and elected by the House, the record shows only their election by th...
...If Cannon should step out tomorrow, his place could be taken by lieutenants as able and ae servile to Big business as he...
...The Congressional Record offers so much ample proof of this that the statement need not be amplified...
...Humanity...
...It will be a war to the knife...
...There are many good disciples of Cannonism on the floor of the House who have their millions tied up on Wall Street and telephone calls are sent from the cloak rooms of the House to the New York stock market every day...
...Big Business, unlike the average citizen, has no party affiliations...
...If the tendency started by the Norris resolution is carried no further it will have been a distinct step backward...
...Gifford Pinchct, trusted as the exponent of the Roosevelt idea of conservation, showed up the jokers in the Ballinger bills...
...And there is evidence at hand that the trusts are quietly preparing to capture in advance the minority party, to which the people would naturally turn for relief...
...There is no intent here to belittle the effsrts of those men who battled with Cannonism for three years in the House, subjecting themselves to the punishment that their course entailed, and finally waged open war on the Speaker on the floor of the House...
...Tawney presented it to the Republican caucus and it was adopted...
...of half fulfillment of platform pledges...
...Uncle Joe simply allowed the Republican caucus to ratify his selections, while he sat in his office and chuckled in his sleeve...
...Equal Opportunity...
...If the people would win, they must see to it that THE PEOPLE have the majority of the votes in the caucus of whichever party controls the next House...
...Equal Opportunity...
...When the amendment to the Corporation Tax Law emerged from the juggling room of the conference committee, it was fixed so that no returns from corporations can be made public and it smelled strongly like Wall Street...
...It is taking place right now in every Congressional district in the United States and in thirty states that elect Senators...
...He attempted to fix the responsibility more securely on the House by having a roll call vote when the committee was elected...
...It matters not what system of rules prevails in either House, since the only purpose of rules is to get results through the passage of legislation...
...The original Norris resolution provided for the districting of the United States for the election of the Committee on Rules, and Norris's idea was to add later to this committee the power to appoint all the other committees of the House...
...If the leaders on both sides were recognized as such under the rules, as in the British system, there would be a defmiteness of responsibility as there is now with the Speaker responsible...
...Property vs...
...The regiments are marshalling fcr the fray...
...To this statement of fact, La Follette and the Progressives in the Senate give assent and add that Cannon is not a Republican...
...Big Business, unlike the average citizen, has no party affiliations...
...Cannon was nettled and angry...
...And as long as Uncle Joe, in the chr.ir or out of it, or a man of his stamp, is the leader of the majority party in the House, Republican or Democratic, and has back of him the majority of the votes in that party's caucus, Cannonism will still exist...
...And so the gathering storm broke about the head of Cannon when the Norris resolution was passed...
...The anti-injunction bill was a joke...
...Uncle Joe placed Fitzgerald of New York on the Committee on Rules against the wishes of the minority leader, Champ Clark, and against the wishes of three-fourths of the Democrats in the House...
...As soon as the Norris resolution had passed, caucuses of the two parties in the House were held to select the members from each party, who were afterwards ratified by formal election by the Hcuse...
...It is notorious in Washington that Uncle Joe Cannon made up a slate with the names of the men he wanted selected to the vacant places, on it...
...But, so far as the rules are concerned, Uncle Joe spoke the truth...
...On to the Primaries...
...Its real cause was a widespread conviction that the House had been captured by Big Business...
...There could have been no other outcome...
...He followed the Messages with bills drawn up by his cabinet officers, against whom suspicion had already been dhected because it was feared they represented Big Business...
...And, though the system of rules is different in the Senate from that in the House, Nelson W. Aldrich is as truly the "king pi the Senate" as Uncle Joe Cannon is "czar of the House*" True Leadership Will Be Recognized PERHAPS the fact that the American people have recognized that Aldrich is responsible in the Senate is an indication that the real leadership will be recognized, but the writer is of the opinion that the leader in fact should also be the leader in form so that he can be held to a strict accounting for his leadership before the American people...
...To the Norris scheme, there is the objection that it is apt to engender sectionalism that should not exist in a cohesive nation...
...The real fight against Cannonism and Aldrichism can never be won on the floor of the House or the Senate...
...In fact, the bills begged on the doorstep of Representative Mon-dell of Wyoming, chairman of the House Committee on Public Lands, for introduction in the House but Mondell refused to father them...
...If Cannonism is to be destroyed, the people must see to it that THEY control both parties...
...Call it by whatever name you will, Cannonism is simply the Steel Trust, the Money Trust, the Standard Oil, and all the other creatures op privilege...
...Leadership has from the beginnings of time sprung naturally into existence among men whenever they are assembled together...
...It would probably be a good thing because it would remove from the Speaker the temptation to preside unjustly over the House...
...But the Regulars did not see the point in demanding a roll call on a motion upon which both sides were agreed and they refused to join in the request of the henchman...
...The real question is, "Who represents the Republican party, Cannon or the Progressives...
...From the opening of the Sixty-first Congress, Republicans refused to go into a party caucus on the question of the rules...
...One of his henchmen demanded a roll call...
...Enough of them stayed out to constitute a majority of the House, with the votes of the Democrats...
...Gall it by whatever name you will, Cannonism is simply the Steel Trust, the Money Trust, the Standard Oil, and all the other creatures of Privilege...
...They were indignant when the President a few weeks later defended Aldrich and followed this speech by warm support of Ballinger's idea of "conservation according to law," notwithstanding the nasty revelations of the Ballinger-Pinchet feud...
...And if Cannonism captures both parties, it will be time to discard the husks of the old parties and begin anew...
...He gave this slate to Tawney, trusted henchman...
...But shortly, it was announced from the White House that "the President would not insist on the passage of the conservation bills as a proof of party loyalty...
...He made the statement in an effort to shift the responsibility for legislation to the Insurgents and he knew when he said it that, so far as legislation is concerned, it is not true...
...There is some talk of a committee on committees to be elected as was the existing Committee on Rules...
...The proof of this is the new Committee on Rules...
...What happened...
...Crafty Uncle Joe realizes this to the fullest extent...
...Only a few weeks ago, one of Cannon's men remarked sarcastically on the floor, "There can certainly be no criticism of the new Committee on Rules, because it was elected by a unanimous vote of the House...
...Twenty years of temporizing with great issues...
...They know that no matter how it is done, it is done FOR A REASON...
...This, after the Cannon-Aldrich machine had told the White House that they could not stand for the bills, bad as they were...
...Divided Responsibility is Bad DIVISION of responsibility is always a bad thing...
...The battle is on right now...
...Pinchot urged that these defects be cured and that the bills be passed...
...The fact is that the charges that had been made against Cannon went to his qualification to hold any office of trust in the gift of the Americas: people...
...In fact, the people are beginning to wonder whether it makes any difference that Taft is the "titular head of the Republican party" as long as Aldrich and Cannon are on the job...
...Now he has been rendered a sort of corporate person and corporations are always harder to reach than individuals...
...It was the first skirmish for the control of the government...
...The Insurgents had attended the caucus and were bound to support its action and they would have been compelled to have voted for tha Cannon committee...
...Independent Republicans all over the country were asioun ieu when President Taft declared, after signing the bill, that it was the "best tariff law ever enacted...
...The destruction of Cannon would not destroy Cannonism any more than the death of Harriman destroyed his railroad system...
...But the pewer to appoint committees and mold legislation must be lodged somewhere...
...If it is carried out to its logical conclusion, all the functions of the Speakership will be taken away from it except that of presiding over the House...
...This question cannot be answered on the floor of the House of Representatives...
...And in this event, the Speaker need not be a member of the House at all...
...And these disciples are amply rewarded...
...The Insurgents had been persuaded to go into the caucus and so no combination on the floor could break the slate...
...It must be answered at the polls, NOW, THIS SUMMER...
...Last summer Uncle Joe Cannon declared that if Senator La Follette and his followers are Republicans, then he is not a Republican...
...BECAUSE CANNON IS THE LEADER AND BOSS OF HIS PARTY IN THE HOUSE AND CONTROLS A MAJORITY OF THE VOTES IN THE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS...
...The proper solution of the question in the House might be a leader on the floor among the majority members, who has the power to appoint all committees, including the Committee on Rules—or steering committee—of which he would be chairman...
...It is foolish to assume that the challenge of Uncle Joe's leadership of the party comes from the Insurgents in Congress...
...Where Responsibility Rests AS IT stands now, the situation is probably worse than it was before, because the responsibility for the election of the Committee on Rules formally rests with the House, whereas The destruction of Cannon Would not destroy Cannonism any more than the death of Harriman destroyed his rai1road system...
...Humanity...
...Already the election of a Democrat in the Fourteenth Massachusetts District has spread consternation in the haunts of the System...
...Do not suppose that the cancer of Cannonism has grown on the body politic simply because of the Cannon machine...
...The truth is that a large body of determined Republicans have declared that Cannon and Aldrich must be unhorsed...
Vol. 2 • September 1910 • No. 35
