THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES Let the People Know LAST summer La Follette's received letter from a reader in Missouri who wanted to know where to get truthful information about the record of...
...and so I am taking the liberty of addressing this communication to what I assume is a very busy editorial room in the hope that I may receive some valuable suggestions bearing upon the subject, either by direct communication or through the columns of La Follette's Magazine, which I look upon as being the most up-to-date and practical defender of the public's common interest published in America today...
...Both were renominated by overwhelming and increased majorities...
...The Roll Call gave the people of Oregon the "me-too" record of its System team of Congressmen, Ellis and Hawley, Hawley got through, but Ellis, whom Cannon in the tariff session had promoted to a position on the committee on Ways and Means, was defeated for renomination...
...La Follette's has furnished the facts...
...hence I must resort to some other method of determining the question of how to cast my ballot for a congressional representative in the coming electirn...
...It is claimed, and justly so, I think, that thj government is as good as the people make it...
...Giving the Records FOR THE past year, La Follette's has, from time to time, analyzed and published the records of Senators and Congressmen...
...If it is said, follow the daily press many would answer as I would, 'I have no faith in the daily press in our community.' They are swayed by narrow selfish interests, if not controlled outright by the 'System' that preys upon the public...
...The Roll Call made plain to the people of California the devotion of Senator Flint to Aldrichism and the System in the tariff levision...
...Kent wants you to know how thoroughly he appreciates your help...
...And more recently another letter came to La Follette's from a reader in California, who took a prominent part in William Kent's campaign against Congressman McKinlay: He writes: "Mr...
...How the People Responded THE Roll Call helped to convey to the people of Minnesota the record of Senator Clapp's splendid service in the cause of honest tariff revision, according to true Republican principles of protection, and the System opposition to his reelection to the Senate, which was being so carefully organized a year ago, was drowned in the general acclaim with which he was endorsed for reelection by the Republican State convention...
...The success which has attended this effort to inform the people about measures in Congress, and the course of their representatives in reference to these measures, has been most encouraging...
...that the people have been interested and instructed by the records of their national legislators...
...Flint is not a candidate for reelection...
...From coast to coast, System-serving Congressmen and Senators have been forced to announce their retirement from public life, or have been retired by the voters at the polls...
...The Roll Call proclaimed the System services of McKinlay of California...
...The Roll Call analyzed for the voters the System-serving, Cannon-faithful congressional career of Stafford of Wisconsin...
...In my own district we are represented by Booher of Savannah...
...Congressman Booher will, no doubt, seek renomination before the next primary election...
...The Roll Call told the people of Kansas what the record showed of the services of Calderhead, Scott, Reeder, and Miller to Cannonism and the System...
...For La Follette's is enlisted, not for a battle, but for a war—the glorious war for the New Independence...
...others will contest his ambition to be renominated...
...In doing this no effort has been spared to give a fair interpretation of the public record which these men have, by their words and actions, left indelibly written in the official proceedings of the national Congress...
...The part that La Follette's Roll Calls have played in recent primary election contests, and the results when the votes were counted, show that the message has been heard...
...The voters nominated in his place a Republican who believes in government by the people...
...Take the case of Missouri, for instance, where we are not blessed with any prominent or striking leader whose loyalty to the public interest has been thoroughly tried: How are we to determine the fitness of our representatives in Congress...
...This brings to consideration the question of practical means and methods of exercising the right of franchise, which calls for no little thought and effort...
...Tawney was overwhelmingly defeated in the primaries for the Republican nomination...
...The circulation of the Roll Call in La Follette's has been supplemented in States and Congressional districts hv thousands upon thousands through republication of the Roll Call in newspapers and pamphlets...
...The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES Let the People Know LAST summer La Follette's received letter from a reader in Missouri who wanted to know where to get truthful information about the record of his congressman...
...La Follette's was a big factor in this fight, as your articles were copied by all the newspapers supporting Mr...
...It was republished broadcast throughout the State...
...The purpose of this undertaking has been to give the people the plain facts upon men and measures...
...It finds in the results a renewed obligation to press onward with the work in hand, to fight harder and better than ever...
...The hosts of the people have won many victories, more than would have been thought possible a year since...
...He said: "As a citizen, I am intensely interested in your articles appearing under the head of Roll Call...
...Senator Hale will shortly bow his farewell from the stage of Ameiican politics...
...In state after state, representatives whose records have shown them to be devoted to public and not special interests have been renominated or reelected for office by greatly increased majorities...
...The control of Aldrichism and Cannonism has been shaken...
...the people of Missouri wanted to be shown, and Senator Warner announced his retirement as a candidate for reelection to the Senate...
...Encouraging Victories THERE have been a few other Standpatters, Cannon Congressmen and System Senators, the days of whose service in the business of misrepresenting the people in Congress have been numbered—a few whose records the Roll Call was not able to cover in the brief space of a single campaign...
...Dalzell was renominated by a bare majority of 207 votes, whereas in years past, his majorities have been overwhelming...
...Stafford was defeated in the primaries...
...It was not to be expected that, in a single campaign, the political inertia inherent in party government could be overcome, that the minions of Privilege could all be dislodged, that the control of the System could be broken...
...Indeed, we charge the public—the great mass of voter?—with apathy, a part of which, at least, should be charged to a lack of knowledge of any practical means of determining intelligently for whom they should cast their votes...
...In this awakening of public interest and understanding, La Follette's has had a place unique...
...In speaking campaigns, La Follette's has furnished the texts for the discussion of the records of candidates and public servants, who have been derelict or unfaithful in office, and have been called to answer at the bar of public opinion...
...that voters may be trusted to form their opinions wisely if they are only given the facts, without bias or taint...
...La Follette's has found the fighting good...
...Kent...
...If his record could be briefly and comprehensively written up under the Roll Call, I, for one, feel that it would be a safe cue, directing my vote...
...The question is, how may I best determine this...
...The Roll Call carried to the people of Washington the lecord of Miles Poindexter, and its exemplification of fidelity to a public trust...
...The Roll Call gave the people of Wisconsin the Progressive records of Congressmen Cooper and Nelson, whose renominations were being bitterly contested by System candidates...
...The primary aim has been educational, rather than practical in the sense of defeating or electing candidates for office...
...The Roll Call told the people of Minnesota of their misrepresentation by Cannon's man, Tawney, in Congress...
...It is a great work La Follette's is doing in this direction, but the task of covering the entire field of congressional representation is too great for one periodical...
...the record, not the man...
...If we electors, who have no personal or selfish interests to serve politically, take no thoughtful interest in the choosing of our representatives, we really have no right to complain...
...These two letters, like hundreds of others that have come to La Follette's from all parts of the country reflect a nationwide demand on the part of citizens for the plain facts about the records of their representatives...
...In state after state, the obligation of public service on the part of the people's representatives has been asserted as it has not been in years...
...How is the elector who is public-spirited enough to desire to vote intelligently, but whose situation is such that he can give but little time to a thorough study of the question, to determine how to vote for the best man...
...Smith and Kennedy won their renominations only after a desperate fight, and Kennedy only by a narrow margin, while Hull was defeated by a Progressive Republican...
...The Roll Call presented the record of Senator Warner of Missouri, a record of weakness and "regularity...
...The Roll Call gave the people of Maine the rank and status of Senator Hale in the Aldrich machine...
...If he has served the public interest intelligently and broadly and is a patriotic citizen rather than a Democrat, then we, who are patriotic citizens before we are party men, should vote for him...
...In this great movement to bring back to the people the control of the government, La Fol-lette's has been constantly, vigorously, and courageously on the firing line...
...Poindexter, over the opposition of organized System politics, over the opposition of Ballingerism and the federal administration, was nominated for the Senate by an overwhelming majority, while Humphrey of Washington, whose record of service to the subsidy interests was exposed in the Roll Call, won a rencmination by a margin so narrow that for many days the result was in doubt...
...The Roll Call told the people of Indiana of the courageous stand of Senator Beveridge in putting the System machine of the Senate on record in the tariff revision and helped to confirm and strengthen the public sentiment which forced the overwhelming endorsement of Senator Beveridge for renomination by the Republican convention of that State...
...In addition to this we had 50,000 reprints of McKin-lay's record printed and distributed throughout the district, which aided very materially in his defeat...
...Progressive Republicanism has been given a new courage and a new inspiration to force the fight on and on to the ultimate victory, the restoration of the will of the people as the controlling force in government...
...They promoted Gronna to the Senate...
...The Roll Call went into the home of the steel trust and exposed Dalzell, floor leader of the Cannon machine...
...Whether he is a machine politician or a progressive representative of the public interest, I am at a loss to know...
...The Roll Call told the people of North Dakota the deserving record of Congressman Gronna...
...There have been regulars renominated, to whom a campaign of enlightened Pro-gressivism has brought home a new sense of responsibility to the people who elect them to office...
...The Roll Call gave the people of Iowa the records of Congressmen Smith, Kennedy, and Hull...
...In many cases, they have failed to answer to the satisfaction of the people, and the verdict has been against them, and they have been replaced by men whose pledges of devotion to progressive representative government the people have accepted...
...In this preliminary skirmish, La Follette's has had a place...
...The theme has been public service, not personal politics...
...The Roll Call told the people of Michigan of the devotion of Senator Burrows to Aldrichism and the Interests, and the people of Michigan in a state-wide primary repudiated Burrows and nominated in his stead a candidate pledged to Progressive Republicanism...
...The people nominated Pio-gressive Republicans to replace them...
Vol. 2 • October 1910 • No. 40
