THE ROLL CALL
Wall Street Fitzgerald or Plain People Burleson—Which? DETERMINED to be rid of the System control of the House of Representatives embodied in the Cannon machine, the people elected Democrats. Upon...
...All the power of Wall Street is being insidiously, insinuatingly and persistently put forward to put the System's Democratic friends in the places vacated by its Republican friends...
...Burleson stood with the Progressives in the notable fight of last March, when the Progressives were finally victorious, and he maintained his position consistently to the end, for it was Burleson who moved to oust Cannon from the Speakership...
...Then it was that Cannonism, facing defeat, made its deal with Tammany and secured enough Democratic votes to postpone the progressive reforms...
...If the newly empowered Democrats are to play politics for mere partisan advantage and allow their councils to be dominated by men of System stripe, then the people's cause will mark time, so far as Congress is concerned, for two years more...
...Burleson voted with the friends of conservation in favor of the Norris amendment providing that the House members of the committee should be elected by the House...
...The decision of the choice between pro-System Fitzgerald and anti-System Burleson for the chairmanship of the important House committee on Appropriations will be an earnest of what the country may expect of the Democratic party in Congress...
...On this motion Burleson voted with the Progressives for the people...
...James appealed from the ruling...
...Burleson voted to recommit the bill, against the System and for the people, but Fitzgerald gave the railroads that one precious vote they so much needed...
...The story of the defeat of the tariff board bill was told in our last Roll Call...
...Fitzgerald and Burleson Contrasted IT IS NOW a matter of common report in Washington that the choice for the chairmanship of the Committee on Appropriations of the Democratic House rests between Congressman Fitzgerald, of the Tammany-System Democracy of New York, and Congressman Burleson of the Progressive, anti-BAiLEY, anti-System Democracy of Texas...
...Who Shall It Be...
...The Democrats almost unanimously complained bitterly of the methods of the Cannon regime and of the rules...
...They have served the same period of time on the Committee on Appropriations...
...If, on the other hand, the Democratic organization of the House should be made in the interest of Progressivism, in the interest of the people, then it may achieve some real constructive legislation for the good of the country...
...The System, as ever, is bi-partisan...
...The Insurgents and the Democrats defeated the motion on a previous question to adopt the Cannon rules...
...James, a Kentucky Democrat, tried to offer an amendment to require the banks to pay interest on these millions of government funds deposited with them...
...In making the choice, the representatives of the Democratic party in the House may well be reminded that the organization of the House of Representatives is in the hands of the Democrats because awakened and progressive constituencies in the last Congressional elections repudiated System-serving Republicans...
...Cannon, of course, ruled the amendment out of order...
...Then Fitzgerald offered a substitute resolution, the purpose and effect of which was to defeat real rule revision in the House—TO save Cannonism...
...Burleson voted "Yea," but Fitzgerald voted "Nay...
...At the opening of the 61st Congress, the Insurgents, representing the progressive thought of the country, demanded the abolition of the Speaker's power to rule and dominate the House...
...In the Senate the Progressives forced the making over of the "Taft commerce court bill" into a measure for the people...
...In a Republican House it was "Republican," in the Democratic House it is to be "Democratic," but always it is for privilege...
...By the votes of System Republicans and twenty-three Tammany-System Democrats, the Fitzgerald fake amendments were adopted...
...Upon the Democratic majority in the House rests now the responsibility of organizing that body, the choice of Speaker and of committees, and upon that organization depends the fate of legislation in the 62nd Congress...
...WHICH SHALL BE the choice of the representatives of the Democratic party in the House, Fitzgerald or Burleson...
...The System had to have representation on both sides of the committee...
...The great railroad interests, aided by the Attorney General, supported by the Administration, sought in the 61st Congress to pass a lailroad bill for Wall Street...
...And it elevated its Democratic servant with the votes of its Republican machine...
...The "special facilities" subsidy stayed in the bill once more, but by only one vote...
...But in the closing hours of the Congress it was Fitzgerald of Tammany who marshalled the filibuster, which, with the aid of Tawney and Cannon and a conference report sprung pending the roll-call to take up the tariff board bill, accomplished the delay that was fatal to the bill...
...Besides a determining voice on appropriations of great public importance, the chairmanship of this great committee gives to the Congressman elevated to it a powerful influence with the membership of the House...
...It was through his position as chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations that Tawney of Minnesota served the System so long and so well...
...Burleson, on the other hand, with Champ Clark and other progressive Democratic leaders, joined forces with the "Insurgent" Republicans and supported them in the fight for rule reform, which would have succeeded then had it not been for the Cannon-Fitzgerald deal...
...By its control of the supply bills of the government the Committee on Appropriations can starve every undertaking in the public interest which public opinion has forced, or may force, Congress to initiate...
...His vote was against Burleson and the great -najority of his Democratic colleagues in the House...
...and then followed the motion to table the appeal...
...It is a matter of highest national concern, a matter transcending all partisan and political consideration, whether the Democratic House to convene in special session on April 4 shall be organized, as was the Republican House which it succeeds, with System-serving Democrats in the places of power and importance from which the people in the election ousted System-serving Republicans...
...In the House, Lenroot, Progressive Republican from Wisconsin, moved to pass the bill substantially as it came from the Senate...
...For his faithful services to Cannon and the System, the Cannon machine (in spite of the vigorous protest of the Democratic members of the House) forced Fitzgerald upon the new committee of House government as a Democratic member...
...Burleson voted against this motion to prevent consideration of the amendment to make the banks pay interest...
...Burleson, on the other hand, stood by Clark and the Progressives of both parties to pass the bill...
...In legislative experience Burleson and Fitzgerald are equal...
...The System showed again its bi-partisanship...
...Burleson for Progressive Measures WHEN THE RESOLUTION for the appointment of a joint committee to investigate the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy was before the House, Fitzgerald voted to allow Speaker Cannon to appoint the House members of the joint committee, in order to assure a report which would "whitewash" Ballinger...
...Will they put in places of power the System's faithful, or will they select from their ranks those who have heretofore proved their loyalty first and foremost to the people and their interests...
...The Democrats of the Committee on Ways and Means, under the 1 eadership of Champ Clark, had joined in a unanimous report in favor of the bill...
...Then the System will continue to plunder without let or hindrance so far as Congress is concerned...
...It could control and it did...
...It was returned to the House for concurrence in the Senate amendments...
...the "Yeas" were 96 and the "Nays" were 97...
...Along what lines will they organize—lines of political partisanship or lines of public service...
...There are several good reasons why Burleson should be preferred...
...These are questions for which the people are awaiting an answer...
...The people are determined to have an end of Cannonism...
...As the bill passed the House it contained much but not all that they desired...
...The antithesis between Burleson, the democrat (note the small "d") and Fitzgerald, the Wall Street Democrat, is shown in their votes on the railroad subsidy for alleged expediting of the mails...
...Not every Congressman or Senator has the courage of Senator Gore's defiance of System leaders in charge of the appropriation bills when they told him that, unless he withdrew his opposition to the Aldrich Currency Bill, they would kill every appropriation for public improvements proposed for the new State of Oklahoma...
...Fitzgerald voted against the motion—for Wall Street...
...The next move of the System machine was, of course, to disagree to the Senate amendments and force the bill to conference, where System Senators would agree to strike out those most most objectionable to Wall Street...
...Fitzgerald's latest service to the System machine of the House was rendered in the closing hours of the Sixty-first Congress, when he joined hands with Cannon's man Tawney to defeat and did defeat the tariff board bill...
...When the System, in the closing hours of the 59th Congress, put through the Aldrich bill providing for the deposit, interest free, in System banks of the government's millions of customs revenues, it had the faithful and willing support of Fitzgerald over the opposition of Burleson and most of the Democratic members of the House...
...Clark, the Democratic floor leader, offered a resolution providing for thorough-going rule reform, and on this resolution he demanded the previous question...
...If the Democrats hope to achieve anything in progressive legislation during the 62nd Congress, they will not give to Cannon's friend Fitzgerald the place and power which the people have taken away from Cannon's friend Tawney...
...Fitzgerald Rewarded by Cannon Machine AFTER THE FIGHT for an elective committee on rules was won, the Cannon machine still controlled the Republican caucus in which the resolution was first adapted providing the membership of the new committee on rules...
...Fitzgerald did not vote on this motion, but he voted, when the James amendment was defeated, to pass the bill designed to tighten the grip of System financial interests upon the country's currency...
...The Yeas and Nays were ordered...
...Even if Fitzgerald's record were not tainted with underhanded service performed for Cannon and the System there would still be no reason why Fitzgerald should be preferred for the chairmanship of this important committee...
...Upon the answers to these questions depend the hope of important legislation in the public interest...
...As the Post-office appropriation bill of the first session of the 59th Congress was about to be passed, with the same old "graft" in the same old place, Moon of Tennessee, a Democratic member of the Post-office Committee, moved to recommit with instructions to report the bill back with the "special facilities" appropriation omitted...
...Importance of Tawney's Successor ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT committees of the House of Representatives is that on Appropriations...
Vol. 3 • March 1911 • No. 12
