WILL THERE BE ANOTHER BI-PARTISAN "ARRANGEMENT"?
Will There Be Another Bi-partisan "Arrangement"? AGAIN, as a year ago, the public sees a gleam of hope for relief from the oppressive exactions of the woolen tariff. Again as in 1911, the La...
...It does really appear as if President Taft were going to be confronted with the duty of either signing or vetoing a wool revision bill—and this time without the excuse to fall back on that his Tariff Board "has not yet reported...
...Will trickery and connivance win again for the trusts...
...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 cotton mills in their states...
...Fortunately a full account of the method pursued was given on the floor of the Senate...
...Will a conference bill—a measure agreed upon by La Follette of the Republican Senate and Underwood of the Democratic House—again succeed in getting through the Senate...
...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...
...NOTHING IS EVER REALLY SETTLED until it is rightly settled...
...As the law of gravity always pulls to make things plumb, so the eternal law of right goes on and on forever, exercising its tremendous, unending, immutable decree that right shall prevail.—Senator La Follette in the United States Senate, May 23, 1911...
...Observe what happens when this bill comes again to a vote...
...By the time the Cotton bill came up, they had reached a secret working "arrangement" with the "reserves" on the other side of the chamber...
...The essential for every country is that the well-being of all should be sought after and observed...
...But will he...
...Johnston) and he had the conversation I referred to with the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr...
...This way of defeating the public demand for honest tariff revision was used last summer when the Cotton bill came up for a vote...
...It may seem to be settled...
...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...
...Keep your eye on the Senate...
...The La Follette Cotton bill was defeated...
...Senator Kern of Indiana arose and said: "Mr...
...And you should not forget it, when the time comes to select another Senator to represent you...
...It is God's law of everlasting righteousness demanding judgment...
...The special interests got a respite...
...Will these same tactics be employed when the Wool bill comes back from conference before the end of the present session...
...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 bill and the Free List bill...
...A high standard of comfort for the masses of people is the final test of true wealth for any nation.—Percy Alden...
...We repeat here what Ray Stannard Baker wrote of this "unholy alliance...
...We may think in our imperfect human way that we have disposed of it, but it will come back to confront us...
...Senator Bristow, Progressive, who was sitting near, overheard this conversation and arose from his chair and denounced the scheme in general terms...
...Upon this Senator Penrose admitted that he had had the conversation, also admitting that he did not intend to vote on the bill...
...Will the standpat Republicans "arrange" to let the Democratic bill pass, in order to defeat the La Follette measure—the only measure which contains hope for actual wool revision at this session...
...President Taft was spared the embarrassment of vetoing a measure that met the pledges of the Republican platform...
...and if the outcome of a similar conference last summer may anticipate the result of the present conference, an agreement will be reached upon a downward revision measure that will pass both Houses...
...At once Senator Penrose addressed the Senate, and said that he could plead an alibi and Senator Johnston made a halting explanation...
...Again as in 1911, the La Follette bill reducing the rates of this "indefensible" schedule so as to free the American public from the greater part of the tribute levied by this tariff-pampered trust, has been passed in the Senate over the desperate opposition of the stand-patters...
...If the Republican-Democratic stand-pat machine is to be kept oiled for business you should know it, whatever your party affiliations...
...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...
...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...
...Then Senator Works (Insurgent) of California arose to confirm what Senator Bristow had said...
...President, the Senator from Kansas has made a declaration here that is very startling to members oh this side...
...Penrose...
...There is a way by which the Woolen Trust and its faithful servitors in the Senate may circumvent this revision of Schedule K. It is by "arranging" between the Democratic "reserves" and the stand-pat Republicans to let the Democratic bill go through, which President Taft can plausibly veto, and killing the La Follette conference bill, which the President may sign in good faith...
...The arrangement worked...
...Again, as a year ago, this bill will be threshed over by the conferees of the Senate and of the House...
...The La Follette bill, and later the Underwood-La Follette wool bill had been passed while the Old Guard, with Penrose in command, was scurrying about trying to devise some means of stopping further assaults upon the sacred Payne-Aldrich law...
...Will United States Senators sneak again into the cloakroom when the roll is called...
...A COUNTRY is not necessarily wealthy because it possesses a few multi-millionaires...
Vol. 4 • August 1912 • No. 31
