THE ROLL CALL
THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES "Steve" Lifts the Lid—A Little SENATOR "STEVE" ELKINS, of West Virginia, "wants something" again—something Aldrich and his Finance Committee prefer to keep to...
...Also he purposes to get that consideration or he will "insurge"—he will rattle the skeleton and perhaps tell some things...
...I am somewhat in fear we will have no investigation...
...The Senate knows why...
...I can not find out the reason for this unusual course...
...And a faithful toiler he has been, too...
...Whereupon Senator Elkins donned his implements and decorations of warfare and broke forth in .he Senate in a war-dance of Elkins "insurgency...
...Aldrich) knows why...
...Senator Elkins has long been of the inner circle—not of the very inmost circle, to which only New Englanders are eligible— but he has long been "an insider" in the Aldrich management of the Senate...
...The tariff is considered only once in about six or seven years...
...What he has been and what he knows, he thinks, entitle him to consideration...
...Lodge) want to avoid that issue...
...it does not take long when the senior Senator from Rhode Island (Mr...
...I was on the reservation...
...Declared the Senator from West Virginia, "There are a great many people who think the tariff increases the cost of living...
...Some Senators have freedom the balance of the time...
...They also organized to carry on an active campaign among other university students for the purpose of arousing interest in the strikers...
...All of which suggests that it might be wiser for the "buccaneers" of the Senate to be fair, at least with each other, and avoid these little "scenes," accompanied, as they are so apt to be, by public disclosures of the inside workings of Senate management...
...This precious resolution was referred to the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate, which is Senator John Kean, of New Jersey, to be considered whether the Senate could spend the money for the investigation proposed...
...We will, to be sure to get it right, quote the Senator's remarks directly from the Record...
...He generally puts me right, or he says—when the tariff bill is under consideration—'You had better keep right where you are if you know what is good for you.' " * * Whereupon, Doctor Gallinger, with his call for the "regular order," drew the curtain upon the compromising, but instructive, performance...
...Which fact, and what he said, dear reader, "combine entertainment with instruction...
...It seems the Finance Commitee is determined to control this investigation, just as it did the tariff...
...Some thirty days elapsed, days of vain and anxious waiting for "Steve," Aldrich being away in Florida, or somewhere, and the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate being still unable to get himself together and meet with himself to consider the said resolution, when Senator Lodge introduced another resolution to provide for an investigation of the cost of living...
...I am not prepared to admit as much as the Senator does in regard to his own child, the tariff bill...
...Before adjourning the young women present, who numbered about 200, agreed to buy shirt waists bearing the union label...
...I voted for nearly everything that was proposed by the Senator from Rhode Island to get what I did for my State...
...Aldrich) says that the tariff should be one of the causes investigated...
...But now I have a little more sea room...
...Why," he demanded, "do the h inance Committee and the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr...
...On Saturday evening, January 29, the Round Table, an organization of young women interested in economic and industrial problems, listened to an address by Professor John R. Commons on the subject of the strike...
...His leadership is able, though terrific and terrible at times, but I generally submit to it gracefully, as I have done on many occasions...
...Besides, he will perhaps not consult the wishes of Senator Aldrich concerning legislation pending before the Committee on Interstate Commerce—of which committee, be it remembered, "Steve" is still chairman...
...Aldrich) when anything is not going right, and I ask what is the matter...
...I do not know why this method and this procedure should obtain in respect to my resolution...
...So "Steve" proceeds to go after what he wants—or some of it—by doing some more of the Elkins kind of "insurging...
...Senator Aldrich having meanwhile returned from Florida, or somewhere, the Lodge resolution was considered overnight by the Committee on Finance and the very next day reported favorably to the Senate, while the Elkins resolution, introduced a month before, still slumbered in the bosom of the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate, in other words, the Senator from New Jersey...
...Aldrich) arrives at the scene of action to look after certain things affected by the recent tariff, the passage of which he secured as he wished and almost alone...
...I generally go to my friend, the distinguished Senator from Rhode Island (Mr...
...He knows about the skeleton in the family closet, and he knows where the closet is...
...Incidentally, he has learned the secrets of the Aldrich political __ family...
...If I were a member of that Committee (Finance) I might get action, but I have never got anything from it, except the small drippings meted out to me in making up the tariff bill...
...It was nearly his production in the Senate, for whatever he said, I think, controlled what went into the bill and what was left out...
...The occasion of the latest insurgency of Elkins is the treatment the bigger bosses accorded a resolution introduced by him, and most dear to his heart (as West Virginia is becoming progressive), providing for an investigation of the high cost of living and of the relation of trusts, monopolies and the tariff thereto—"trusts, monopolies and the tariff" being upper . case and underscored in said resolution...
...I do not have to stay there always...
...Be it noted, also, in passing, that reference in this resolution to "trusts, monopolies and the tariff" (Lodge not being aware that Massachusetts is also becoming progressive) was only between the lines and exceeding dim...
...Students Interested in Shirt Waist Strike IJInterest in the girls who are striking for better conditions of work in the shirt waist trade has spread to the students of the University of Wisconsin...
...I was afraid to try...
...This resolution was referred to Aldrich's Committee on Finance, of which Lodge, being of New England and of the inmost circle, is a member...
...I could not get off the reservation during the consideration of the tariff...
...The Senator (Mr...
...The distinguished Senator from Rhode Island (Mr...
...THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES "Steve" Lifts the Lid—A Little SENATOR "STEVE" ELKINS, of West Virginia, "wants something" again—something Aldrich and his Finance Committee prefer to keep to themselves...
Vol. 2 • February 1910 • No. 6
