THE ROLL CALL

President Pro Tempore WHEN THEY MADE the Constitution, They, the Fathers provided that "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate." And then They provided that, "The...

...They were for Gallinger, that is they were bound to vote for him as the nominee of the caucus in which they took part—if they should be present and voting in the Senate when the voting was done...
...Clapp a Candidate CONTRARY to his wonted modesty Senator Clapp, one of the "different kind," asserted that he was a suitable person to be President pro tempore of the Senate...
...They were Borah, Brown, Dixon and Kenyon...
...This country can not prosper, Mr...
...As for those Senators who are of the kind different from the Gallinger kind— they don't care who knows it...
...Also he has fitted well into the office and dignities of President pro tempore of the Senate, well and most agreeably to the organization...
...The bosses hesitated and stammered unwoF.tedly at the job...
...Senator Works, who was for Clapp, was obliged to go to Chicago to meet Mrs...
...Even Frye had not excelled him in persistent, ardent, advocacy of shipping subsidies...
...When, however, the organization of the Senate committees was disposed of to their satisfaction they concluded all was well and called a caucus to name a President pro tempore...
...Over and above the others of the elect he presented, special qualifications...
...You see, the provision of the constitution that the Senate "shall chuse" a President pro tempore has been construed to require an election by a majority of the votes cast...
...A number of votes were taken for President pro tempore last week, but all with the same result...
...Washington, April 27, 1911...
...But great economic changes have taken place in recent years...
...All along he had been as faithful to System legislation as Frye or even boss Aldrich...
...For the theories it cared little, but the condition had to be met—met System-wise by the selection in a willing reliable "Republican caucus" of a suitable system boss to be elected by the Senate as its President pro tempore henceforth indefinitely...
...It is being talked that the nomination of some other Republican, perhaps less aristocratic, less conservative and less System than Gallinger, perhaps some Republican from west of the Alleghanies, would prove so novel in the distribution of places of distinction and power in the Senate organization and would draw away so many of Clapp's supporters that he might withdraw in favor of such a candidate...
...Hon...
...Bacon, the Democratic candidate, received a plurality on each vote and, indeed, had not several of the Progressives been kept voting or paired by their interest in Senator Clapp's candidacy, thus increasing above the Democratic strength the numerical majority required to elect, Bacon, the Democrat, would undoubtedly have been chosen President pro tempore of the Senate...
...Applause...
...We have the Woolen Trust, the Cotton Trust, the Steel Trust, the Beef Trust...
...His conduct as chairman of the committee which had just pulled off the job of packing the Senate Committee for Big Business had proved him as unyielding as adamant to ail appeals based upon justice, decency or the rights of the people he represented in the business of the Senate...
...If, on the other hand, the theory of free trade is to be applied to the farmers, they insist, and rightly so, that that theory shall also apply to the manufacturers...
...Through these unfortunate absences both Clapp and Gallinger lost a number of votes and neither one was elected...
...Until comparatively recently it made little or no difference how high tariff rates were, provided they were high enough to protect the American industry from excessive competition by foreign countries...
...Four of the Republican Senators of the "different kind" attended the caucus...
...He has in fact fitted thus many, many yeans...
...Gallinger's Qualifications IN ALL his career in Congress he had never once been known to show a weakness for public interests when opposed to Special Interests...
...It will not reduce the cost of living to the consumer, because a high tariff remains on practically all food products that he uses...
...Also, Frye is conservative...
...That is Frye...
...And then They provided that, "The Senate shall chuse their other Officers and also a President pro tempore in the absence of the Vice President or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States...
...To get an idea of the Frye conservatism, imagine, if you can, a man in Congress forty odd years ago who was then ultra-conservative, and who, in all the time since hasn't had— nay, wouldn't have one Progressive idea...
...the Regular machine and to be substantially so on occasions likely to arise with increasing frequency with the thinning out of the "Old Guard's" battle line...
...In the country the attempt is being made to convince the farmer that it will not reduce the price of his products...
...We insist that if the protective theory shall prevail, the 6,000,000 farmers of this country are just as much entitled to the application of that theory to their products as the manufacturers are to their products...
...Sincerely yours, Wm...
...Assuredly he was of the System's elect...
...We do not know whether his qualifications were proclaimed to those present as we have cataloged them above...
...Works, en route from California to Washington...
...Trusts Get Benefits MR...
...In this country times change, especially of late years...
...When we impose a tariff rate of 100 per cent., when a rate of 25 per cent, would be sufficient to cover the difference in cost of production at home and abroad, then we give these trusts a license to plunder the American people...
...LENROOT presented statistics compiled recently by the Tariff Board showing— That agricultural products are produced more cheaply in Canada than in the United States...
...The Beef Trust will have an excuse for reducing the price of cattle to our farmers because of the increased supply, but there will be no reduction of price to the consumer, and the only result will be to increase the profits of the Beef Trust...
...this is what they will continue to fight until justice is done...
...Chairman, there has never been a bill proposed before Congress upon which there has been so much misrepresentation as this bill...
...And of that majority several are a "different kind...
...Always, he had fought and helped to kill popular election of Senators...
...I think that I shall be able to demonstrate before I get through that upon certain important manufactured products the rates proposed in this bill give their manufacturers from 50 to 75 per cent, higher protection than the Payne-Aldrich law...
...Applause...
...The Agricultural Implement Trust will receive, from the reduction of tariff rates upon their exports into Canada, $218,488 annually...
...Nearly all of the great industries have combined into gigantic corporations controlling our markets...
...It was Root of New York, who complainingly mentioned it in the Senate...
...He claimed and received the votes of Bristow, Gronna, La Follette and Poindexer...
...To Hon...
...Indeed, it seemed that Frye had always been President pro tempore of the Senate, and that he always would be...
...The people do not eat cattle upon the hoof, that are admitted free...
...That the cost of farm labor is higher in the United States than in Canada...
...It was agreed, more or less unanimously, perhaps (we do not speak for certain because the caucus was secret) that GallingeR of New Hampshire was altogether the fittest person in the Senate for the title, office, dignities, powers, privileges and immunities of President pro tempore of the Senate...
...He was not—with emphasis on the "not...
...Up to the hour of our going to press, it is reported that Clapp is still retaining his orginal supporters...
...Who is going to receive the benefit of this reciprocal agreement...
...I will tell you some of the people who will receive it...
...The whole thirteen of them, in fact, just a day or so before this Gallinger incident, joined in a protest at the manner in which Gallinger and his kind had packed the Senate committees, a' protest that fairly clearly indicated what they thought of him and his kind...
...Mr...
...Dear Sir: Will you communicate to the Senate my resignation as President pro tempore of the Senate and convey to them my grateful thanks for the long service they have given me in this honorable office...
...Clapp, being too bashful to vote for himself, as much as he desired and hoped to be chosen, voted for Bristow...
...Competition is gone and prices to the consumer are arbitrarily fixed by a few men...
...The evils of exorbitant tariff rates are, as a rule, felt only where the products are controlled by trust and monopolies...
...They do eat beef, which will have a tariff of 11/4 cents a pound...
...It will reduce the price to the farmer of agricultural products by means of the increased supply, but the only beneficiaries will be the manufacturers of food products, enabling them to pay still greater dividends upon their watered stocks...
...James S. Sherman, President of the Senate...
...Applause on the Republican side...
...It so fell out, however, that they were not able to vote...
...At any rate the caucus claiming to be the caucus of the majority party in the Senate named him and his name was presented to the Senate and in the Senate he was elected, was he not...
...Not desiring his candidate to lose by his absence, Works arranged to "pair" with Borah, who had attended the caucus and was bound to Gallinger...
...Destroying competition at home, they are able to dictate the prices upon their products, and there are only two limitations upon the prices which they may fix—first, the ability of the public to buy and, second, the foreign price plus present tariff rates...
...P. Frye, President pr» tempore...
...In the cities throughout the country this bill is being urged upon the ground that it will reduce the cost of living...
...The ordinary Conservatives to-day are standing where the Progressives stood only a very few years ago, and so things have moved forward decade by decade...
...Likewise, Bourne and Cummins, Clapp supporters, being absent, were paired with Kenyon and Dixon, who had attended the caucus...
...Wth full and free competition at home domestic prices were not measured by the foreign price plus the duty, and prices were kept upon a reasonable level...
...It probably was unnecessary...
...I will not attempt to enumerate them all...
...Now a number of these Republican Senators of the "different kind," having had, more or less recently, some caucus experience and fully suspecting that the caucus would name a Senator of precisely the Gallinger kind for President pro tempore and not wishing to be bound to support such nominee by participating in the caucus, stayed away...
...Indeed, it wa's otherwise...
...Different Kinds TRUE, a majority of the Senate are Republicans but that majority is only eight in number more than the minority...
...In the caucus there was no trouble, not the slightest...
...Among those most prominent absent, so to speak, were Bourne, Bristow, Clapp, Cummins, Gronna, La Follette, Poindexter and Works...
...WHEN PRESIDENT TAFT'S Canadian "reciprocity" proposition was being debated in the House of Representatives, Congressman Lenroot, Progressive Republican from Wisconsin, said (April 17) : "I shall vote against this bill in the form reported by the committee, because it is unjustly discriminatory against the farmers of this country, and favors the great trusts and monopolies...
...That the value of improved farm land is less in Canada than in the United States...
...When this bill passes, the Beef Trust, upon the basis of their shipments into Canada last year, will save $239,213 in duties, increasing their profits to that extent when you pass this bill...
...Let us have protection for all, or let us have free trade for all...
...The succession must be fixed to fall in safe and System-courageous hands...
...After all, the presiding officer of the Senate is in a position to be useful to...
...We stand for a consistent policy applied alike to all classes of our people...
...and That the price of agricultural products is much higher in the United States than in Canada...
...William Pierce Frye AGENERATION ago, more or less, Honorable William Pierce Frye, passed on from a twelve-year service in the House of Representatives to a seat in the Senate...
...At all times he had worked and voted for those things desired by the railroads, Wall Street and the trusts...
...Like Frye, he too is of the New England aristocracy, and of them oldest, save Frye, in point of service in the Senate...
...While he says he will not permit the election of a Democrat, he has repelled all suggestions that he withdraw in favor of Gallinger...
...If there is no difference in the cost of production, then then should be free trade in manufactured products, and the bill is a violation of the pledge of the Republican platform because it proposes high tariffs upon those products...
...Frye is from Maine, that is to say he is of the New England aristocracy...
...And he added:— "Mr...
...Chairman, and it has no right to prosper, if we adopt one policy as applying to one class of our people and a directly contrary policy as applying to another class...
...Brown, the other Progressive who had attended the caucus, was paired with Clarke of Arkansas, a Democrat...
...Is This Reciprocity...
...This is what progressive Republicans have been fighting...
...but, as I have shown, there will remain a tariff of 50 cents a barrel upon flour, "Flaxseed is free, but linseed oil, which is controlled by the Oil Trust and is a product of flaxseed, will have imposed on it a tariff of 15 cents per gallon still...
...As we have said, the caucus which named Gallinger for President pro tempore was secret...
...The thought of a change never occurred to any one, at least not to any about the Senate—that is, it didn't until one day last month when the Vice President laid before the Senate the following communication : president pro tempore, united states senate...
...The price of beef to the consumer will not be reduced...
...So, you will see, that being an aristocrat and being from New England, and being in short the ultimate conservative, Frye has fitted well into the System's scheme of things...
...Chairman, this bill will not reduce the cost of living, and that, I think, is now admitted on both sides of the Chamber...
...In my judgment, neither statement is true...
...Root, himself, is not of the "different kind...
...he asked...
...The fixing was the principal difficulty...
...It is hard to convey even a faint impression of how conservative Frye is...
...Fixing the Succession WHEREUPON the System organization was confronted with a condition—and several theories...
...Imagine their disappointment, gentle reader...
...In consequence of which there transpired the past week in the Senate at Washington an incident, so to speak, that will interest you, or, shall we say entertain...
...Applause on the Republican side...
...It will not reduce the cost of living, for a high tariff remains upon practically all food products that the people use...
...What is true with respect to the articles that I have named is true also of practically every other article of manufactured food products...
...Wheat is free...
...These conditions are familiar to every Member of this House and the country...

Vol. 3 • May 1911 • No. 20


 
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