EDITORIALS
Who Killed the Tariff Commission? IT IS THE MORNING of the 4th of March. The hands of the clocks in the House ef Representatives point to the hour of ten. In two hours the 61st Congress will have...
...Frear, submitted to the Attorney General, Mr...
...Then Tawney arises from his seat...
...Section 29 of the House Rules contains the following provision: "The presentation of reports of committees of conference shall always be in order except when the journal is being read, while the roll is being called, or the house is dividing on any proposition...
...Frear, advising that the account was undoubtedly illegal and therefore invalid...
...The first session of the 61st Congress began with an alliance between CANNON, TAWNEY and their followers, and FITZGERALD and his followers...
...He did not stop with that...
...Dooley," and other guiding lights of the American, are not purchaseable...
...He holds motions made by Fitzgerald dilatory...
...The roll call is half completed by the clerk...
...Scientific Management ALITTLE NEWS ITEM went the rounds of the press last week...
...The conference report upon the General Deficiency bill which was used to defeat the Tariff Commission could now have been adopted by unanimous consent, for at no time was there any real opposition to it...
...Cannon refuses to hear...
...Thereupon Mr...
...Will it continue during the 62nd Congress...
...The American people...
...For the time being, the state Civil Service Commission is powerless...
...The Tariff Commission Bill is before the House for action upon the Senate amendments...
...Regulation of railroads, equalizaton of taxation, insurance laws, labor legislation, tariff commissions, etc., depend for their success on the talent and ability with which they are administered...
...Baker, "when it seemed as though our civilization were being throttled by things, by property, by the very weight of industrial mechanism, and it is no small matter when a man arises who can show us new ways of commanding our environment...
...The rule prevented any other business being considered...
...The recent elections in Seattle (and Ballinger used to be mayor of that city) explain why Ballinger was disgusted...
...cannon and Fitzgerald and Tawney have won the battle for Special Privilege...
...Cannon is apparently using all of his great power as Speaker to defeat Fitzgerald and save the tariff commission...
...A storm of protest arises from the House...
...Last week the Secretary of State, Mr...
...Wisconsin is a pioneer in civil service reform...
...Bancroft, a certain expense account, incurred by the Civil Service Commission and paid out in regular routine manner...
...The legislature is in session, It should call upon the Attorney General and the Secretary of State for a full explanation of what effect this action will have upon the future administration of the civil service...
...There have been times in recent years," says Mr...
...We recommend, in this connection, that you read in the March American Magazine the article on Scientific Management by its originator, Frederick W. Taylor, and the story about Mr...
...The friends of the Tariff Commission see victory wrested from them through the most hameful outrage ever perpetrated in the House...
...So thought the friends of the Tariff Commission...
...But, with the Secretary of State acting in accordance with his "advice," the matter will be forced to the courts with the Attorney General—the lawyer for the whole state—not only NOT lifting his hand to sustain the constitutionality of the law BUT ACTUALLY SEEKING TO WIPE IT OFF THE STATUTE BOOKS...
...MERIT IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE is what popular government demands...
...The secretary of the Civil Service Commission, Mr...
...The old spoils system is discredited and is fast disappearing...
...Petty annoyances may occur that, as they accumulate, create a deep-seated repugnance against the regulation and supervision of the civil service...
...But a moment since and the clock registered 20 minutes to 12...
...Hands off the Civil Service...
...In willful violation of his own rules which he has so often lauded, he arbitrarily suspends the roll call upon the Tariff Commission Bill and the ayes and nays are ordered upon the motion made by Tawney upon the conference report...
...SECRETARY BALLINGER said, when Washington women were given the ballot, that he was "ashamed" of his state and if he had been there he "would have voted against it...
...but simply by the action of two state officers, both of whom look with disfavor upon the administration of the merit system...
...The roll is being called for the adoption of a rule, providing for a vote upon all of the Senate amendments at one time...
...HANDS OFF THE CIVIL SERVICE...
...The House witnesses the spectacle, unparalleled in parliamentary history, of two roll calls pending at the same time...
...When this roll call began the friends of the Tariff Commission said that the fight of years had been won...
...Women's votes out there were thrown almost solidly against the politicians of the Ballinger type...
...As soon as the people freed themselves from the domination of the railroads and special interests, they provided themselves with an effective merit system...
...Wherever the people have gained control of their government, we find a new standard prevailing...
...But nothing like this should be permitted to undermine the merit system...
...Third, we wanted to hear from the editors...
...Nothing could defeat the bill now...
...Only one of these Senate amendments is of any importance...
...We look again and it is a quarter past eleven...
...Till then—and may it be never— more power to the American...
...They are given only to those who have demonstrated their fitness and ability to perform the duties required of them...
...Offices are no longer handed out as payment for political services...
...The remedy for "unreasonable restrictions" does not lie in abolishing the civil service rules and laws, but in improving them wherever experience has shown that they need improvement...
...The American Magazine WE HAVE NOT BEEN inclined to pass unfavorable judgment upon the American Magazine because of its recent consolidation with the Crowell Publishing Company, one of whose shareholders is now a partner of Morgan...
...The people have again been betrayed...
...The third session of the 61st Congress closed with the combination still intact, and in splendid working order...
...Second, we considered the fact that Farm and Fireside is one of the crowell publications and that its editor, Herbert Quick, has been vigorously and ably championing the cause of progressive legislation, including the initiative, referendum and recall, through the columns of that farmers' journal...
...Let us watch and see...
...And this was done, not by a vote of the people, not by an act of the legislature, not by judicial injunction, not by a decision of the supreme court...
...It is unnecessary here to go into the nature of this account...
...Bancroft sent a letter to Mr...
...Now, that merit system is seriously threatened...
...In other words, starve the commission out of business until its right to existence has been affirmed by the court;—suspend the merit system in Wisconsin while the officers charged with administering the law are battling, with the assistance of outside counsel, if any, to uphold its constitutionality...
...Speaker Cannon, deliberately disregarding this rule, recognizes him to present a conference report on the General Deficiency bill...
...In two hours the 61st Congress will have gone into history...
...It has—temporarily, at least—been put out of business...
...It is important only as an entering wedge for what follows...
...But there is grave danger that this warfare against the administration of the law may bring about the overthrow of the law itself...
...The Gospel of Efficiency, preached so effectively by Louis D. Brandeis before the Interstate Commerce Commission, appears to be gaining converts where they are most needed...
...WHOM does President Taft mean by "an hysterical body of head-line readers...
...Trust them for that, when once the issue is made plain...
...Progressive legislation is coming to be more and more a matter of administration...
...The 35 minutes necessary for the roll call upon the Deficiency Bill makes it impossible to complete the vote upon the Tariff Commission bill before 12 o'clock...
...Two more roll calls were the most that could be demanded by Fitzgerald...
...Two-thirds of its members are in favor of the bill...
...Now there is ample time for the transaction of business by unanimous consent...
...This is how it happened...
...He is the only reactionary who got into state office in Wisconsin at the last election...
...No greater step backwards could be taken at the present time, when the progressive movement is advancing further and further into the field of administration, than to strike a blow at civil service reform...
...Apparently nothing now could prevent the passage of the bill...
...and turn to another magazine wherein they may discuss public questions without restraint...
...And the people will see to it that it does not...
...Doty, made a statement, in which he said: "I am not much surprised to learn that the Attorney General advises the Secretary of State to hold up the pay of the Civil Service Commissioners until the Supreme Court shall finally pass upon the validity of the civil service law, especially in view of the threat made by him at the hearing before the Civil Service Commission to exempt the legal positions in his department, that if the commisson did not exempt such positions he would attack the civil service law and its validity, but would uphold the law and the commission if it would do as he demanded...
...It cannot draw a single penny out of the state treasury to carry on its work...
...Whatever action may be taken in the legislature to improve and strengthen the operation of the law, let there be no assault upon the foundations of the merit system...
...We shall continue reading and trusting the American...
...It had more significance than the space given to it would indicate...
...He has been careful, however, to explain that this antagonism does not mean that he opposes the principle of civil service...
...Secretary Feear's antagonism to the present Civil Service Commission is open and frank and of long standing...
...Taylor written by Ray Stannard Baker...
...We have not been disappointed...
...By unanimous consent, the bill, now dead, is withdrawn...
...In the April number of the American, the editors discuss the rumors that their magazine has been "gathered in by Wall Street," and dismiss them, with the request that the people of the United States judge the American in the future, as it has in the past, "by its works...
...Now that the Tariff Commission Bill is dead, the Speaker orders the hands of the clock turned back...
...It is recognized that the civil service may sometimes be administered in such a way as to work a hardship upon the heads of departments that are earnestly striving to serve the whole people...
...The friends of the Tariff Commission look on and it appears to them that Cannon's last hours are to be his best hours...
...that his last act as Speaker will be for the public good instead of for Special Privilege...
...This is mainly a question of the civil service...
...The last roll call cannot now be completed before 20 minutes after 12...
...These could be completed before 12 o'clock, the hour of final adjournment, with 15 minutes to spare...
...Men may have violent personal animosities...
...We have faith that its editors, if ever it is muzzled, will tell us so frankly...
...First, we are certain that Ray Stannard Baker, Ida M. Tarbell, "Mr...
...Prompt and vigorous action is needed...
...He went on to state that —"after investigation and careful consideration, doubts of so serious a character are entertained as to the constitutionality of the civil service law, that I am obliged to advise you to refuse audit to all bills and future claims that may be presented * * * including the salaries of the members of the commission, until the validity of this act has been affirmed by the courts...
...For our part we accept that as a criterion...
...It announced that the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad had appointed an "efficiency committee" to work out a plan for increasing efficiency of the various departments and for more economical operation...
...More important than that, it should see that the state is provided with able counsel who will do the work that the Attorney General should do—defend this people's law before the courts and compel the state officers to obey the law., And finally Secretary Frear should act with utmost caution lest he permit himself, cither wittingly or unwittingly, to aid a politically unfriendly Attorney General in his scheme to undo this progressive law...
...It is not surprising that the Attorney General should bend every effort to break down this law...
...Fitzgerald, of Tammany Hall, the Democratic ally of Cannon, has been leading a filibuster against it...
Vol. 3 • March 1911 • No. 12
