"THE UNHOLY ALLIANCE"

...On August 17 Senator Bailey of Texas, in assailing the initiative, referendum and recall, spoke of the power of men in the Senate who believed in these principles of government and were not afraid to stand for them...

...Only a faint conception of the full meaning of these changes has thus far reached the public mind through the press reports, but to the observer in the gallery, watching every move of the actors in this great drama of government, they were powerfully apparent...

...When the historian looks back upon this particular session of the 62nd Congress, he will see in it small fruitage, indeed, of really consequential legislation, but, if he possess at all the capacity of looking beneath the surface he will also see a marvelous development along other lines...

...It was called an "unholy alliance"—but it was open and above board, and it was for the purpose of passing legislation long demanded by the people...

...But that defeat is only temporary...

...But now the stand-pat elements of both parties, both eager to protect their special interests, came together in secret agreement...

...Under the leadership of La Follette the Insurgent Republicans—a dozen or more who have learned how to fight together—formed a combination with the Democrats which gave them control of the Senate, and with rare skill, they forced the passage of the Wool billand the Free List bill...

...Senators Penrose and Oliver gave their reasons (Lorimer, Stevenson, Smoot, Guggenheim and many other senators having disappeared from the Senate) and a vote was taken to see if they should be excused...

...All the standpat Democrats and all the stand-pat Republicans who were in attendance voted to excuse Penrose, but the Insurgents and a number of the progressive Democrats voted not to excuse...

...This vote was highly significant...

...Eighteen Senators and a President, backed by the lure of patronage, may delay it...

...Thus in the Senate, as in the country, the line is ever being more strongly drawn between the Progressive element of both parties and the Stand-pat element of both parties...

...More than half the cotton mills of the country are in the South, and there are large steel and iron interests in Alabama, and sugar interests in Louisiana...

...On the morning of August 16 Democratic leaders told La Follette that everything was all right, that they would continue the combination and put through the compromise Cotton bill with amendments reducing duties in the steel schedule...

...The leading Stand-patters among the Damocrats are Bacon of Georgia, Johnston and Bankhead of Alabama, Williams of Mississippi, Foster and Thornton of Louisana, Fletcher of Florida and Overman and Simmons of North Carolina...

...It is an irresistible movement...

...they may divert it...

...We claim that in the last analysis our movement means that in every department and at every point the American people shall control and govern this Republic...

...This was the first important occasion on which Penrose, elected floor leader last spring of the Republican party in the Senate, has exercised his leadership...

...Upon this Senator Penrose admitted that he had had the conversation, also admitting that he did not intend to vote on the bill...

...They stand together because they stand for wholly new ideas in government, for genuinely progressive principles...

...Then Senator Works (Insurgent) of California arose to confirm what Senator Bristow had said...

...SENATOR Cummins (Insurgent) of Iowa invoked the rule of the Senate which requires a member when present either to vote or to give his reason for not voting...

...The Democratic party, on the other hand (the majority of it) wanted tariff legislation on all products not of southern origin...

...The Insurgents, who believed in the genuine reduction all along the line which the people of the country demand, urged the Democrats to go along with them and lower the duties on cotton, steel and sugar...

...In certain reactionary newspapers his action has been commended as "shrewd tactics" and "clever strategy"—but as a matter of fact it was the cheap device of a ward leader in a city council...

...Senator Bristow, Progressive, who was sitting near, overheard this conversation and arose from his chair and denounced the scheme in general terms...

...What is more important still, they had with them in most of their votes several Republicans hitherto counted regular...

...Martin, the leader, and other Democrats urged that the party stand together on the party principle of lower duties, and continue the combination with the Insurgent Republicans, and thus pass the Cotton bill...

...The test, however, was to come on the Cotton bill...

...Senator Kern of Indiana arose and said: "Mr...

...FORTUNATELY a full account of the method pursued was given on the floor of the Senate...

...Of course the stand-pat Republicans would not have dared to take any such course if they had not had the assurance of President Taft behind them that he would veto any and all tariff bills sent up to him...

...Having this assurance they preferred to allow the moderate cotton bill of Senator La Follette to be defeated and thus punish the insurgents in their own party, while permuting the more drastic Democratic bill to go through with a hasty and ill-conceived amendment revising the chemical schedule, besides amendments revising the metal schedule...

...ON August 15 Democratic Senators held two long and heated caucuses in which the standpatters and progressives clashed bitterly...

...A score of times since the recent session of Congress convened it has been widely chronicled that the Insurgents were divided and scattered, but they never stood more firmly together then they did in the votes on the tariff bills...

...It was led by Johnston of Alabama, who comes from a state with many cotton and steel mills, Bacon of Georgia, and Overman of North Carolina, both of whom have many cotton mills in their states...

...The progressive Democrats so voting with the progressive Republicans were Chamberlain of Oregon, Kern of Indiana, Lea of Tennessee, Pomerene of Ohio, Reed of Missouri, and Shively of Indiana...

...The Unholy Alliance" STAND-PAT DEMOCRATS COME INTO THE OPEN AND JOIN STAND-PAT REPUBLICANS By RAY STANNARD BAKER DURING the last tense, exciting, exhausting days of the recent session of Congress, I sat nearly every afternoon in the gallery of the United States Senate and watched the swift development of great events...

...Exactly the same split is coming in the Democratic party as that which has already appeared in the Republican party—a split between Stand-pat Democrats, who are for special interests, special privileges, and Progressive Democrats, who are for popular rights and representative government...

...At once Senator Penrose addressed the Senate, and said that he could plead an alibi and Senator Johnston made a halting explanation...

...Consider the situation...

...The Stand-pat Republicans wanted no tariff legislation whatever...

...In replying to him Senator Clapp (Insurgent) of Minnesota gave the true reason for the power and unity of the Progressive movement...

...The discussion of the Cotton bill had no sooner begun, however, than it became apparent that some mysterious and secret arrangement had been made between the stand-pat Democrats and the stand-pat Republicans...

...Penrose...

...Said he: "We do say on this floor, believing that we are right, that we are dealing with fundamentals, and that 'nothing can step this movement half way...

...BY THESE MEANS of trickery on the part of the stand-pat members of both parties the progressives of both parties, led by La Follette, all of whom really wanted an honest revision of the cotton and steel schedule, were defeated...

...Here is an extraordinary fact: When the recent session convened last spring the two recognized and, indeed, duly elected leaders of the Senate were Penrose of Pennsylvania for the Republicans and Martin of Virginia for the Democrats, but at the close of the session, during most of the time, the dominant leader in the Senate was La Follette of Wisconsin...

...by the shifting of the centers of political power, by the hardening of new alignments, and the development of new leadership...

...Johnston rushed over to the Republican side and made an arrangement with Penrose by which stand-pat Republicans were either to refrain from voting or to be absent from the chamber when the roll was called...

...Johnston) and he had the conversation I referred to with the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr...

...They were prepared to let any thing go through, feeling sure of Taft's veto...

...At once a number of progressive Democratic Senators who had supposed that the plan to work with the Insurgents was going through as agreed to in the caucus began to be deeply interested...

...It was in this second expression of progress that the last session of the Senate was so remarkable...

...It was La Follette who directed, finally, the Wool bill and the Free List bill to their passage in the Senate, it was La Follette who represented the Senate in the conference with the House of Representatives and it was La Follette whose leadership was made the bitter point of attack in the fight on April 16 for the reduction of the cotton duties...

...Democrats broke (away from their caucus agreement) and their party principles to do this...

...The Republican Progressives are well known, the Democrats not so well...

...President, the Senator from Kansas has made a declaration here that is very startling to members on this side...

...In the Senate, today, the Democratic Progressives include Chamberlain, Owen, Pomerene, Lea, Gore, Kern, Reed, Newlands, Martine and Shively...

...FEW more significant or intensely dramatic struggles ever took place in the Senate than this struggle for the passage of the Cotton bill...

...What happened...

...A great outcry had previously been made when the Insurgent Republicans had joined with the Democrats...

...Senator Bristow arose and said with great impressiveness: "I will state that the Senator on the Democratic side I referred to was the Senator from Alabama (Mr...

...Progress in a legislative body expresses itself in two ways: first, by actual laws passed, which all men can see and judge, and second...

...Thus, while the Democrats were willing enough to reduce tariffs on Northern products like wool and the manufactured articles mentioned in the free list bill, it became a different matter when their own special interests were touched...

...Several of the abler men among the standpatters would have no part in this cheap trick—notably men like Root of New York and Cullom of Illinois...

...It demanded that Senators of the United States should dodge into cloakrooms to avoid meeting an issue fairly...