WHAT THE PROGRESSIVE SENATORS DEMANDED
What the Progressive Senators Demanded Statement Made by Senator La Follette on the floor of the United States Senate, April 28, 1911, on behalf of, and upon the instructions of, the thirteen...
...Brandegee, of Connecticut...
...and Mr...
...Senators representing these States have a right to the one-fourth of the Republican membership of this important committee...
...If the Progressive Republican Senators should fail to represent the progressive public opinion of their states they would be swept aside and their places filled with men who would faithfully represent that public opinion...
...Glapp, of Minnesota...
...This increased progressive membership is the result of the direct expression of the will of the people of the various States...
...These differences have been along clearly defined lines of legislative action designed to meet the demands resulting from changed economic conditions affecting the industrial life of the nation...
...It will be observed that of the nine Republican members, three, or one-third, are located in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, States of comparatively insignificant railway mileage, while the other six members are scattered over the vast territory west of the Hudson River, where the problems that grow out of interstate commerce are of such vital consequence to the people...
...Lippitt, of Rhode Island...
...These differences represent not merely conflicting personal opinions of individual Senators...
...Their protest is not made to advance the personal ambition of any Senator...
...of the Republican membership of the Senate...
...and Mr...
...Nixon, of Nevada...
...We also protest against the proposed organization of the Committee on Finance...
...Henry Jonss in "The Working Faith of the Social Reformer...
...President, we have no desire to delay the organization of the committees of the Senate, and content ourselves with presenting the foregoing protest, which represents the views of the 13 progressive Republican Members of the Senate...
...Out of the total Republican vote of the Senate, more than one-fourth is today emphatically Progressive Republican...
...In the logie of events, it was inevitable that the rapidly-growing progressive sentiment of the progressive states should find expression in the Senate of the United States...
...The Senate cannot ignore it...
...We believe that the membership of that committee, as proposed in the resolution, would place the control of legislation in the hands of those opposed to a thorough-going regulation of railway rates and services...
...The statutes so enacted have become generally known as progressive statutes and that element of the Republican party which has secured the enactment of such legislation has become generally known as the Progressive element of the Republican party...
...A glance at the map will show the absurdity of this geographical distribution...
...That representation has been denied them by a majority of the committee...
...To do less is to deliberately place in the hands of the ultra-high-tariff Republicans the absolute control of revenue legislation during the Congress...
...The committee practically controls legislation affecting transportation, trusts, and combinations, over-capitalization, and almost every phase of the great industrial controversies that are agitating the country...
...Having this great power and influence over legislation, it is of the highest importance that the committees should represent in their membership, as nearly as possible, the controlling economic and political opinion of the people of the several states...
...The differences which create division in the Republican party are not upon matters of party policy, but relate to the most important subjects of legislation and the greatest problems which confront the American people...
...and for several years the proceedings of the Senate have from day to day recorded marked and well-defined differences in the Republican membership of this body...
...The progressive Republicans have the right to ask that they shall be given two of the nine Republican members of the Committee on Finance...
...The progressive Republicans have more than 25 per cent...
...It is made because we who make it cannot permit to pass unchallenged a resolution denying to millions of people their right to be fairly represented upon the committees which frame the most important legislation passed by the United States Senate...
...I do not deny that even if a man confines himself within his immediate personal and family concerns, and wraps himself up in his more private virtues, his value to the community is great...
...Cummins, of Iowa...
...The committee has power to amend any bill in any way, or substitute another bill for it, or refuse to report the bill back to the Senate for consideration...
...In that event it dies, never having reached the calendar of the Senate...
...First we call attention to the geographical location of members...
...We hereby most earnestly protest against this action on the part of the majority of the committee on committees...
...The present membership consists of Mr...
...What the Progressive Senators Demanded Statement Made by Senator La Follette on the floor of the United States Senate, April 28, 1911, on behalf of, and upon the instructions of, the thirteen Progressive Republican Senators, concerning Republican representation on the Senate committees: FOR SEVERAL YEARS marked differences have been developing within the Republican party in many states...
...The country knows it...
...Oliver, of Pennsylvania...
...Townsend, of Michigan...
...Crane, of Massachusetts...
...for the wider atmosphere of the city and of the state is to that of the famiy as the open air is to a closed room— eolder and less kindly and sometimes rude, but also bracing...
...If they failed to protest against the denial of representation upon the most important committees in the Senate, they would be remiss in their public duties...
...This is a settled and established fact in political history...
...Under the organization of the Senate, the committees have a potential influence in shaping legislation...
...We believe this is a violation of the very fundamental principles of representative government and is indefensible from every standpoint of justice and equity...
...Legislation most vital to the welfare of the American people as a whole comes before the Committee on Interstate Commerce...
...Cullom, of Illinois...
...All bills first go to a committee before being considered...
...In the framing of the committee on Finance and Interstate Commerce, this policy has not been followed...
...But by doing so he will deprive himself of the opportunities of a larger growth...
...The four new members are Mr...
...They represent fundamental differences in convictions involving the welfare of ninety million people...
...The division existing in the membership of the committee is well known, and from our standpoint the four new members added can not be reckoned as advocates of strong and effectual regulation of transportation companies, trusts, combinations, and monopolies...
Vol. 3 • May 1911 • No. 18
