THE ROLL CALL
Organized for the System AFTER a skirmish of some six weeks, the Senate of the Sixty-second Congress has been organized in the behalf of Privilege and Big Business. Organizing the Senate consists...
...Bailey, Simmons, Stone, Williams, Kern and Johnson of Maine...
...Under ordinary conditions, the presumption arising upon committee action with reference to measures of legislation is in practice conclusive upon the Senate...
...He is a member of the Committee on Appropriations, of first rank in importance among the Senate Committees...
...KENYON is Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State, and POINDEXTER is Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Interior Department, none of which ever has a measure sent to it for consideration...
...The crack of the party whip is heard...
...On the Committee on Commerce, the Progressives have only two out of ten Republican places...
...The System "boss" chairman of the caucus then appoints a committee on committees, consisting of other System bosses, who make up the list of assignments of Senators upon the committees of the Senate, according to their ideas of what is fitting and proper, and in the interest of—the Interests...
...Of the Democrats, not not of those who were in the Senate during the tariff session are recorded as voting against the ALDRICH System program on as many roll calls as Republicans CLAPP, or BRISTOW, or La FOLLETTE...
...No, dear reader, the "Old Guard" has not over-looked anything, has not made any mistake in making up these committees, at least none that could be reasonably foreseen as likely to cost the System the passage by the present Congress of any bill to which it objects, or the defeat of any measure which it desires to pass...
...Obviously these boys and girls need something more than books, blackboards and the "Three R's...
...His two other committees are the District of Columbia and Public Lands, neither of which are in the first rank of importance among the Senate Committees...
...He is a member of the Committee on Finance, and a member of the elect Committee on Rules...
...The organization of the Senate is determined in a caucus of the majority party...
...Actually, the committee list is made up largely or wholly in advance in the course of little private conferences among the System "bosses" with the aid of such helpful suggestions as may be received from "friends" on the outside...
...The Polite Democrats IN THE organization of the present Senate a little more time than usual was required...
...In like manner they have organized the other important committers of the Senate with an overwhelming System majority on each...
...The consideration of the bill, the time of its consideration, when it shall be called up, when it shall be laid over, when it shall be voted upon, all, as matters of usual procedure, are governed by the suggestions of the "Senator in charge of the bill...
...CLAPP, Minnesota...
...And the System majority, Republicans and Democrats, the spineless ones who are too cowardly to have any independent thought, the indolent ones who can not bring themselves to study the merits of a question for their own information, and the mere "me-too" followers of System leaders, all fall in line and, when the vote is announced from the Clerk's desk, it is generally found that the committee recommendation is adopted, regardless of argument, reason or public interest...
...Organizing" the Senate WITH the organization of the Senate the fate of legislation— at least of important legislation affecting large public interests—is determined for two years, for the life of one Congress...
...This Senate can not ignore it...
...Progressives' Committee Assignments IN ANSWER to the protest of the Progressives, GALLINGER said that if the rulo of one-fourth representation for which the Progressives had contended, had been applied, they would have been entitled to but 100 places on all committees, and he justified the packed committee lists by showing that he had generously given the Progressives 114 places on committees...
...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...
...Works is Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the War Department, which in all its experience never had an expenditure of ten cents referred to its consideration, and which never meets, because it has no business for meeting, an ornamental, honorary committee, pure and simple...
...The committee assignments of Works are duplicated with more or less variation as to most of the remaining Progressive Republican Senators GRONNA is Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Navy Department...
...They need food, clothes, fresh air and medical attendance in addition to school routine.—Philip H. Jacobs in the Philadelphia North American...
...Their protest is not made to advance the personal ambition of any Senator...
...The cry of "Stand by the Committee" is set up...
...In the discussion, if there be any in open Senate, the members of the committee, fortified by advance information and the carefully prepared arguments of the representatives of the Special Interests affected, having the benefit of the co-operation and assistance of the officials and experts of the administrative departments and knowing in advance just when and in just what form the measure is to be presented to the Senate, are able to appear in the Senate debates to overwhelming advantage, even in support of a bad cause...
...BRown, Nebraska...
...For the present Congress, because of the pendency of the LORIMER matter, the Committee on Privileges and Elections may be of importance to the System...
...The committees control legislation...
...They represent fundamental differences in convictions involving the welfare of 90,000,000 people...
...In addition, he is appointed on the Committee on Coast and Insular Survey, Industrial Expositions, Coast Defenses, Public Health and National Quarantine, Patents, and Irrigation, making eight of his committees, some of which never meet, most of which meet very seldom, and none of which ever has referred to it any legislative business of even second rate national importance...
...Committee Domination NOT ONLY in its power to veto legislation in the public interest, but likewise in its power to promote legislation for System interests in the Senate of the United States, is the committee practically supreme and dominant...
...one System "boss" nominates another System "boss" for chairman of the caucus and he is made chairman...
...The "Pigeon-hole" Veto THE ONY WAY in which a measure "pigeon-holed" by a Senate committee can be resuscitated and brought into the Senate for its consideration is by special resolution to discharge the committee...
...POINDEXTER, Washington...
...Democrats: Messrs...
...This motion is carried and the caucus adjourned...
...The Democratic House had been organized under a Progressive Speaker, professing adherence to a progressive legislative program in the public interest...
...Sacramento Bee...
...Cummins, Iowa...
...BASED ON A CAREFUL STUDY of all available statistics, it is estimated that there are 100,000 children now in the schools of the United States who will surely die of tuberculosis before they are 18 years of age unless something is done especially to prevent this loss...
...Indeed, it seems that the more vicious the measure, the worse the committee has betrayed the public interest, the more unequal and unfair is the advantage given to System Senators by virtue of their position upon the committee having the legislation in charge...
...This is a settled and established fact in political history...
...The majority of these committees, however, are mere empty titles, the only purpose which they serve being to provide the Senators, chairmen of such committees, with a committee room for an office, a committee clerk for a secretary, and a messenger...
...While the System had an overwhelming majority in the Republican caucus, a majority that was ready and willing to deride the demands of the Progressive Republicans for a fair representation on committees, the committee list as made out by the caucus committee must be presented in the form of a resolution and adopted by the Senate...
...Measures relating to conservation, thoughtful reader, go to the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, of which the chairman is the good, reliable, stand-pat, System servitor BURNHAM, of New Hampshire, a state the value of whose agricultural products about equals that of a good sized farm in Iowa...
...Crawford, South Dakota...
...Open-air and the inspiration of nature are the great rejuvenators of mankind, spiritually as well as physically...
...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 gravest problems which confront the American people...
...In practice, the organization which has the votes to organize the committees can rally the votes at all times, under conditions amounting to anything less than a general upheaval, to make the action of its committees final and binding upon the Senate...
...Word was given out that the Democrats regarded the struggle of the Progressive Republicans to secure fair committee representation, as a "factional fight" among the Republicans, in which the Democrats were not concerned and would not participate...
...This would break System domination...
...The rules governing State legislatures very generally provide that all measures introduced in a legislative body and referred to committees for consideration must be reported by the committees to the legislature for action before adjournment...
...La FOLLETTE, Wisconsin...
...Dixon, Montana...
...The Finance Committee, for example, in the chairmanship of which the erstwhile Senator ALDRICH is succeeded, under the new organization, by the delectable Penrose of Pennsylvania, has charge of all measures relating to the tariff and the important subjects of money, banking and currency...
...GRONNA, North Dakota...
...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...
...Suffice it to say the "Old Guard" found it possible to deal with the Democrats...
...Stand by the Committee...
...On the Committee on Pest-Offices, the Progressives have but two out of nine of the Republican places...
...The Senate in open session is the System's rubber stamp...
...The committees are the real legislative machinery...
...Now conservation of national resources is a matter of great public moment...
...They packed the important committees of the Senate with System servitors and the Senate adopted the resolution without a protest, except that presented by Senator La Follette for the Progressive Republicans...
...The instances when this procedure has succeeded in the Senate have been extremely rare...
...Heretofore in recent years, the business of the caucus has been transacted in the space of from three to five minutes, as the clock ticks...
...And note how this committee is made up—how hopelessly and overwhelmingly it is "packed" with the System faithful...
...This would be thought a bit careless of the "Old Guard," were it not that six the six Democrats, three, Bailey, PAYNTER and Johnston, joined in the LARIMER white-wash of the last session, and are as devoted to Lorimerism and the System as is "Boss" Penrose himself...
...The passing of ALDRICH, the increase in the number of Progressive Republicans, the increase in the Democratic strength in the Senate and the diminution in the Democratic following of ALDRICH'S ally, Bailey, consequent upon his open championship of the System cause in the LORIMER fight of the past session—all these things created for the first time in years an element of real uncertainty as to the success of the System program in organizing the Senate...
...It is so on the important Committee on Appropriations, where of a Republican membership of ten, only two places were accorded to the Progressives...
...and bills upon "subjects of public importance upon which it is felt that some action must be taken are craftily denatured and eviscerated...
...In the committee the bills are framed...
...The Committee on Conservation of National Resources is a name...
...GALLINGER'S, while taking only six committee places himself, generously gave Works ten...
...and likewise on the Committee on Public Lands, and Interstate Commerce, and Agriculture and Forestry...
...To introduce such a resolution is well-nigh a breach of Senatorial courtesy...
...GALLINGER'S is Chairman of the Committee on the Distriet of Columbia, which gives him practical control of the government of the Nation's capital city, and its 300,000-odd population...
...The caucus convenes...
...If they should join with the Progressive Republicans in the Senate, the resolution packing the Senate committees for Special Interests would be defeated...
...Also, Works is a member of the Committee on Expenditures in the Treasury Department, which has the same jurisdiction and the same im-psrtance with reference to expenditures in that Department as has the Committee of which Works is chairman with reference to those of the War Department...
...It is made because we who make it can not 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...
...The Committee on Finance.-—Republicans: Messrs...
...The country knows it...
...the "jokers,"—skillfully prepared by the representatives of Big Business interests—are inserted...
...So nothing could help more in the reclamation of the vagrants, the drunkards and the larcenists, who fill our municipal jails, than work that will bring them close to the soil...
...WHEN the vote is taken, the committee calls upon the majority, upon the organization Senators, who, as members of other committees will in their turn need votes to "put over" their own committee reports in behalf of System Interests which they serve...
...Works, California...
...To appreciate the significance of GALLINGER's defense and the generosity and self-denial practiced by the System "Bosses," it is well to compare GALLINGER'S committee assignments with those of Works, the Progressive Republican Senator from California...
...Penrose (chairman), CULLOM, Lodge, MCVUMBER, SMOOT, GALLINGER, Clark of Wyoming, HEYBURN, La FOLLETTE...
...The first System "boss" then moves that the chairman appoint a Committee on Committees...
...Well," say you, "it is gratifying to find a Progressive Senator appointed chairman of the Committee on Conservation of National Resources...
...Associated with Senator BURNHAM on this Committee are such champions of conservation as Warren, Perkins, Guggenheim, Page, Bradley and LORIMEER, with only two Progressives, Crawford and GRONna, on the Republican side of the table...
...Bourne, Oregon...
...And so the System bosses, having the assurance that the Progressive Republicans would stand alone in the Senate, as they did in the caucus, were free to trample under foot their demands, and governed themselves accordingly...
...The important business of the Senate is concentrated in about a dozen committees and half of these have charge of nearly all the great legislative measures, dealing with important national questions...
...On this committee the Progressives are given two of the eight Republican assignments...
...All that is required to put this program through is a majority of the votes in the caucus of the majority party...
...The thirteen Progressive Republican Senators, whose protest Senator La Follette gave to the Senate, are: Borah, Idaho...
...OUTDOOR EMPLOYMENT is the thing for men serving sentences for petty crimes...
...A resolution to discharge the committee is regarded as an attack upon the organization itself and organization Senators, although they may be in favor of the measure which the committee has "pigeon-holed," are ever ready to respond to the cry, "Stand by the organization," and to vote down such a resolution...
...The Progressives' Protest IN PRESENTING to the Senate the protest of the thirteen Progressive Republican members against the packing of Senate committees in the interest of Privilege, Senator La Follette said: "Out of the total Republican vote of the Senate more than one-fourth is today emphatically progressive Republican...
...These differences represent not merely conflicting personal opinions of individual Senators...
...If not, then the Progressive Republicans must be accorded fair committee representation...
...On the important Committee on Foreign Relations, of nine Republican places the Progressive have but one...
...Then this list is put through the caucus and adopted in the Senate...
...Of the nine Republican members on this committee, the progressives, numbering more than one-fourth of the entire Republican membership of the Senate, have just one representative...
...In the Senate of the United States the committees have an absolute power of veto upon any legislation referred to them and which for any reason or no reason at all the committees themselves do not see fit to report to the Senate for its action...
...A majority of these committees seldom, if ever, have a meeting, and no legislative business of any consequence is referred to them for consideration or action...
...Organizing the Senate consists of making up its committees...
...The proponent thereof by his act places himself without the pale of his party and invites the displeasure and reprisals of the committee, upon whom his action is regarded as a reflection and who in all cases are supported by the "Regular" organization...
...When a Senate committee "pigeon-holes" a bill, the bill is dead...
...The remaining Republican places are filled with the very elect of the "Old Guard's" champions of Privilege...
...KENYON, Iowa...
...If any important measure relating to conservation, or anything else, has ever been referred to this committee, we have not noticed it...
...BRISTOW, Kansas...
...Forget it...
...How the Committees Are "Packed" IN THE SENATE there are almost as many committees as there are Senators...
...Dixon is Chairman of the Committee on Conservation...
...When the measures are brought into the Senate for action, they are usually placed in charge of the chairman or some other organization member of the committee...
...It was necessary, therefore, under these circumstances, for the "Old Guard" to proceed with caution and to deal, if possible, with the Democrats...
...Only Public Lands has any business of real national importance, and on this committee are only works and Dixon of the Progressives, against seven of the Republican "Old Guard...
...He is a member of the Committee on Printing of the Senate, which exercises censorship over matters to be published by order of the Senate, and a member of the Committee on Civil Service, which, although not an important committee, is above the merely ornamental class...
...If the Senate Democrats, either for political reasons or otherwise, should actually desire to cooperate with the House under Speaker Clark's leadership and should desire to accomplish real legislation in the public interest, they would oppose an organization of the Senate committees under control of the "Old Guard" of System Republicans...
Vol. 3 • May 1911 • No. 19
