THE ROLL CALL

...The people were not very numerous, but they were of good stuff, and there was lots of land, western spirit, and grit and determination—a determination to prove that this country, which ill-advised persons had called "arid," was really the "promised land of milk and honey," and that here was to be found prosperity and plenty for a large population,—if the right kind of people went about it in the right kind of way...

...But he joined vigorously in the Insurgent fight against the readoption of the Cannon rules, and against the Tammany-cannon subterfuge for rule reform...

...From Madison's record of steadfast fidelity to sworn duty in the protracted and trying labor of this investigation, no carping criticism can ever detract...

...The Seventh is comprised of some 32 counties, which constitute a rectangular one-fourth—the southwest quarter, so to speak—of the "Sunflower State...

...It was showing signs of settling down into a more or less permanent condition, and, wonderful to relate, the people, as they were coming better to understand it and themselves and their political affairs, were finding it good...

...This much he learned thoroughly, and he learned it in time to be one of the twenty-nine "insurgent" Republicans who, in the 60th Congress, "nailing their colors to the mast," joined in a formal resolution demanding changes in the rules of the House...

...Madison as Judge was even better than Madison as District Attorney...

...True to His Constituents IN THE railroad legislation of the last session, Madison's capable service in behalf of amendments to strengthen the interstate commerce act in the public interest entitle him to rank high among the people's servants in Congress, of whom there are not too many...

...The people of the Seventh Kansas, when they have time to think about politics and government, think pretty straight...

...Madison learned that the rules of the House were subversive of the original purpose to establish the House of Representatives as the great democratic institution of our national government...

...The idea is," says a consular report, "that the miners would have two suits of clothes, one for use underground and another for wear in going to and from the colliery...

...The seasons of drouth and rain followed each other into the past...

...When the Appalachian and White Mountain forest reserve bill, embodying the first important step in the Pinchot-Roosevelt conservation plan, came before the House, Madison followed the dictates of his judgment and of his responsibility to the people rather than the mandates of Cannon and his machine, and voted for the bill...

...Of the manner in which Madison met this opportunity and discharged this responsibility it is fair to state that of the members of the committee, to Madison more than any other, for his fairness and unyielding insistence upon a full, fair and honest investigation, the public is indebted for the bringing to light and the making of public record individual and official wrong-doing which all the power of money, of influence, and of the national administration was invoked to shield...

...After some years of struggle and discourage-ment, out of which chiefly the fittest survived, the way was discovered and worked out, and today the southwest quarter of Kansas, in agriculture as well as in social and political culture, has pretty well caught up with eastern Kansas, which is to say that it is a few laps ahead of some other parts of the country that started with a handicap of a century or so...

...Reports indicated that the political storm-center which hovered over the upper Mississippi Valley was attended by very appreciable atmospheric disturbances throughout a considerable adjacent area in State and National politics...

...One day, about four years ago, the southwestern quarter of Kansas, straightening up from the plow to take the "kinks" out of a bent back, took occasion to scan the political horizon and descried, in the distance and to the northward, a strange object "about the size of a man's hand," which Kansas-bred instinct gave warning might develop into an interesting disturbance of: the political atmosphere...

...That it was not a leadership actuated by Republican principles, but was an organization which controlled government for the definite purpose of the enrichment of privilege he was yet to learn...

...He followed it in legislation, and supported its bad measures and voted with it to defeat good ones...

...A slight charge is made by the company for the privilege of using these baths...

...Tariff revision was on, and things were moving rapidly for a Congressman of but one term's experience in the House...

...His sympathies were right, his ability was real, and his integrity was unquestionable...

...But they go to school, and read newspapers and magazines...

...but just what, not so plain...

...This means just one thing: The continuance of Secretary Ballinger at the head of the Interior Department is menacing the resources of the Nation.— Kansas City Times...

...He came as a Republican...

...There was one unfailing cardinal rule: That, whatever might befall, integrity and ability would be the best safeguards, and a second axiom of wise politics: That in any time of national crisis safety lay in Republican principles...

...When the self-empowered Republican "leaders" of the Cannon machine, to back up their action of a previous session in depriving President Roosevelt of the use of the Secret Service to investigate violations of the anti-trust law and frauds upon the public lands, moved by resolution to lay on the table the President's message of protest, the question brought a response from Madison's honesty and sense of justice, and he voted "NO...

...Madison's election to this committee offered to him an opportunity to render a conspicuous public service in the investigation of one of the greatest controversies affecting a great national interest which has come to any man so young in Congressional service...

...In the Seventh Kansas the System's control of the people's institutions was not yet understood...

...And to learn about it was to learn that it was not a menace, but a boon...

...His defiance of Cannon and Cannonism in voting for appointment by the House itself of the committee to investigate the Pinchot-Ballinger controversy, growing out of the attempt of the Morganheims to steal the coal lands of Alaska, instead of permitting the committee to be packed for the Interests by the Speaker, fortified his claim to the approval of his constituency and the country...

...Opposes Cannonism SO MADISON returned to his second term in Congress disabused, for the most part, of the misleading faith which he had had two years before in the dominant Republican leadership...

...The coal lands, he believes, could be saved by a vigorous prosecution of the government's case to cancel the entries, but a reading of the record of the proceedings has convinced him that no such vigorous action has been taken...

...It was not surprising, therefore, that in the turmoil of conflicting statements of fact, wherein the truth might well seem everywhere hidden and nowhere disclosed, Madison followed the overwhelming voice of the Republican majority rather than the scattered protests of the few of his colleagues with whom he worked shoulder to shoulder on questions that he better understood, and voted to put through the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill...

...Certainly, in view of the independence of his course in other important matters of public concern, and his proven integrity of character, his standing as a Progressive Republican serving the highest interest of the people according to the best light by which he could guide his course in a dark crisis, can not be impeached...

...HOUSES FOR MINERS IN SCOTLAND a large coal company is making an experiment in housing its workingmen...

...Madison was learning more about it from Progressive Republicans in Washington, and the Seventh Kansas was learning about it— about this political phenomenon called "Insurgency"—learning about it from current events, from the high cost of living, and from Madison and Victor Murdock and William Allen White and La Follette and Bristow...

...Certainly his valiant fighting for the Progressive cause in the hard-fought battle for the adoption of the Norris resolution for reform of the House rules in the recent session, tried and proved his independence of machine domination...

...He found in control there an organization and a party leadership called Republican...

...In his first session Madison accepted the leadership of the Cannon machine for what it purported to be...

...This condition was more or less hazy and undefined down in the southwest quarter of Kansas, but even here, clearly, "something was in the air...

...A majority of them are Republicans, on principle...

...A dozen houses near the water (the coal mines are near Dum Dunfermline on the sea) are each to be provided with a bathroom for the miners, including hot and cold water...

...as an existent condition...

...The ability and integrity which had brought him into his position of responsibility, were serving him in coming to a proper discharge of the responsibilities of the position...

...After trying out "Ed" Madison as District Attorney of Ford County, and finding him up to specifications in that office, they put him in for six years as Judge of the Thirty-first Judicial District...

...Madison came to Congress equipped with a knowledge of law, of our written history, a profound regard for Republican principles, and with his own ability and integrity as a man...

...But Madison was learning...

...Scanning the Political Horizon MEANWHILE the mysteries of dry farming were unfolding themselves...

...This opportunity brought with it a responsibility, a profound responsibility, to the people...

...That Republican was Madison of Kansas...

...The Ballinger Menace REPRESENTATIVE MADISON of the Ballinger investigating committee has testified that the Cunningham coal land cases are not now being properly handled by the government...

...Any attempt to preach a purer religion must go along with social reform.—Arnold Toynbee...

...He recorded some votes in those first few months which can not be defended on their merits, but in which, as a Republican member serving his first term in the House, he had a right to rely upon the leadership of his party in the House...

...Madison Comes to Congress MADISON took his seat in the 60th Congress...

...Meanwhile the disturbance of the political atmosphere had become defined and known to the country variously as Progressive Republicanism and Insurgency...

...Hence the more favored eastern portions of the State were more attractive to settlers in the early days...

...Most of the 32 counties of the Seventh Kansas are still without considerable centers of population, and the industries are chiefly agri-culture and grazing...

...Also they have an inborn appreciation of integrity and ability in public service...

...In this part of Kansas it does not rain as often or as much as in the sections farther east...

...In making up this committee the necessity with which the Cannon organization found itself confronted, of naming a committee in the Republican caucus which would be approved by a majority of the House, required the caucus to place upon the committee at least one Republican who would be recognized as representing the independent Republicans of the House...

...Something portended, something very like a crisis in national affairs...

...Until recently they have been, generally, just straight Republicans in their politics...

...If Madison is chargeable with the responsibility of knowing that the tariff revision for which he voted was not a compliance with the platform pledge of his party, he is entitled, under all the circumstances and upon his record as a whole, to be credited with having acted in good faith upon the assumption that the bill for which he voted was a better tariff than the existing law and the best tariff that could be secured from this Congress...

...He was outspokenly opposed to Cannon for Speaker, though he voted for Cannon, feeling bound to do so after having gone into the Republican caucus which nominated Cannon...

...When "Ed" Madison, some twenty years ago, moved west from Wichita and set up as District Attorney of Ford County, the country was what one would call "new...

...was to be drawn toward it ynd into it...

...By this record, and by his aggressive independence in the people's fight to restore the House as a truly representative institution of government, Madison has proved his worth and his loyalty to his constituents and to his country...

...It had spread to Kansas, wiping out System-Senator Long and a few of his kind...

...That something ought to be done seemed plain...

...Learns Progressive Republicanism THUS far came Madison toward Progressive Republicanism in his first term...

...He came to Congress, it seems, without any very clear or definite notions about the relations of the government and the Special Interests...

...After work, they ascend the shaft, enter the bath, and reappear in their clean street clothing...

...The fertility of western Kansas was producing, and the land was learning to grow corn and grain and grasses...

...So, in the Congressional election of 1906 the southwest quarter "played safe" by electing Judge Madison as its Representative in Congress...

...On tariff questions as presented concretely in the few schedules upon which the House was allowed to vote, Madison reflected the sentiment of his constituency in his votes for free lumber, for free oil, and for submitting the income tax to the people...

...It was reported also that this condition seemed to arise out of a growing conviction in the body politic of the existence of a dangerous and increasing influence and control by Special Interests in the State and National—particularly the National—government...