THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES A Jolt for the Pernicious Conference System of Legislating with "Jokers" ON JANUARY 20 Senator Lodge of Massachusetts called up the conference report on the...
...For once, at least, the Conference system failed to work as effectively as it has worked in the past to "put over" a bad "joker...
...And he declared that this objection was not well taken for the reason that "no such certificate exists in Russia...
...and even when constructive minds had planned and established a complete system, he delayed its operation for nearly a year...
...There is not any question about that at all...
...In other words, will it not make it possible for Russia and other foreign powers to defeat our policy as to expatriation...
...All Russia has to do is to pass a law prohibiting its subjects from leaving the country without securing a certificate of character, in which event, if this law were to be adopted, we would nullify the principle of expatriation, for which this country has stood against the world...
...Russia knows better than did the gentleman who made that argument...
...Stone...
...For conference reports, under the practice that has grown up in Congress, must be accepted or rejected in total...
...Why, Sir, under the provisions of the clause which is now under discussion Carl Schurz would have been excluded from this country...
...The Government issues it and he brings it with him when he comes here...
...He never seemed to be aware of the need for a great system of industrial schools which would be of value to both employers and employees and would add to the wealth of the state...
...This is one of the effective devices by which the System oligarchy has placed the control of legislation in the hands of an "inner circle" of a very few men...
...He said positively, "It is evidently entirely misconceived"—"It has and can have no such effect...
...There were only nine votes against it in the Senate and it passed the House by a vote of over three to one...
...A NEW clause was slipped into the bill which declared that no citizen or subject of any country that issues penal certificates or certificates op character (!) may enter this country unless he produces to the immigration officials such a certificate...
...The members of the legislature of 1911 and all others at the time who had any thing to do with the bills knew that this system of industrial schools had its chief support entirely aside from the efforts of Superintendent Cary...
...Mr...
...And Senator Lodge surrendered as follows: "As the provision is open to the interpretation which has been given to it here in debate, to which both Senators from New York, the Senator from Wisconsin, and others think it is open, I feel, Mr...
...How could victims of Kishineff or the thousands constantly expelled from their homes by police or those suspected of being political offenders expect to secure such a certificate...
...Mr...
...Carl Schurz broke jail and came to this country with some of his associates...
...For that reason I hope that the Senators in charge of the bill will ask to have it sent back to conference" so that the offending joker "may be stricken out...
...But Senator La Follette said, "Mr...
...There are some gentlemen in various places in our social order who are defending plutocracy and guarding every encroachment upon its sacred preserve...
...They may not be amended in any particular...
...Dillingham...
...He is again seeking reelection to this important position at the head of the public school system...
...Mr...
...Senator Lodge attempted to explain away this objection...
...The record shows that Gary, during the first nine years of his administration, did little or nothing for industrial education...
...Lindemann of Milwaukee, and other citizens took an active part in framing several bills to establish the new industrial system...
...Stone...
...A new provision that had never been placed before Senators and Representatives for their consideration had been put into the bill in such a way that its acceptance or rejection meant the acceptance or rejection of the entir bill...
...It is received as a matter of evidence of the fact that the man's record is clear so far as criminal prosecutions are concerned...
...President Van Hise, and Dean Reber of the University, Dr...
...At no time was the state superintendent considered a leader in the movement...
...Mr...
...This movement originated entirely outside the state department of education...
...The bill to regulate immigration and the residence of aliens in the United States had passed both houses by overwhelming majorities...
...Among other laws, the legislature of 1911 provided for the appointment of a non-salaried state industrial board which was empowered to employ a competent assistant for industrial education...
...President, they are not only a menace to Russia, they are a menace to plutocracy in America...
...LODGE spoke positively...
...The commission made some modifications in the report which was then published and submitted to the legislature of 1911...
...They can not get a passport, and they can not get a certificate of good character...
...Mr...
...The answer to that question will be given in these columns in a series of brief articles, of which the following is the fourth...
...Thank the Lord for it...
...I remember that when this conference report was under discussion in another place in the Capitol the criticism which I am making was met in this way: It was said that Russia would be very glad to get rid of the people who were making political disturbances over there...
...President...
...In fact, he seemed carefully to avoid taking a stand in the matter...
...The law placed this official in the state department of education and the appointment of the assistant by the State Superintendent...
...Root to the Rescue MR...
...Here is a provision inserted in this bill which never had a moment's consideration in the Senate nor in the House of Representatives—a provision of the widest sweep and the most important effect, if it is to be enacted into law, upon the future of this country and the class of immigrants that are to be admitted to citizenship...
...Root said, "I think upon reading this clause, that it probably would open the door to make it possible that the right of immigration from foreign countries to the United States might be limited or prevented by the action or refusal to act of the country from which the immigrant seeks to come...
...The two bills then were sent to a conference committee, the House members of which were appointed by the Speaker and the Senate members by the President pro tempore, to adjust the differences...
...But he gave the clue to the Old Guard by adding, "I think it ought to be guarded so that it will not also produce the other effect that the Senator from Wisconsin suggests...
...The legislature of 1909 provided for the appointment of a commission of five men to investigate the subject and to report to next legislature upon remedies for existing conditions...
...He came up into Wisconsin...
...Any person who has been active in founding a republican form of government in Russia such as we enjoy could only come to this, country by leaving Russia surreptitiously...
...President, if the Senator from Vermont will permit me to ask him a question for information, for what purpose are these certificates of character issued...
...The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES A Jolt for the Pernicious Conference System of Legislating with "Jokers" ON JANUARY 20 Senator Lodge of Massachusetts called up the conference report on the Immigration Bill...
...Then there is no agreement between this country and Italy that would give any official character to the certificate, so far as concerns our law or the administration of it...
...Such certificates are issued by the police and may be denied in its discretion...
...La Follette presented a mass of cases—concrete cases gathered from Russia-proving conclusively that the "joker" requiring certificates of good character would have the effect of keeping out of America any foreigner whose ideals or political activities may be offensive to the constituted authorities, And he disposed of Senator Lodge's assurance that Russia "does not issue certificates of character" by proving that it is "clear that the Russian government does issue 'certificates of good character' to prospective emigrants...
...He added with great earnestness, "I am extremely anxious that the report should be agreed to...
...I do not think it is possible, Mr...
...Senators Lodge and Root decided to capitulate...
...And Mr...
...McCarthy, Superintendent Carroll G. Pearse of Milwaukee, Mr...
...A "Joker" Slipped In BUT SOMETHING else was done—something wholly unexpected...
...O'Gorman...
...That is all it does...
...Not at all...
...Following are a few extracts from the Congressional Record which are illuminating: Mr...
...It has proceeded upon the assumption that this provision was intended to apply only to criminals—those seeking admission to this country as immigrants who have been convicted of crime...
...In Germany, in France, in Austria-Hungary, in Poland, all over Europe, empire was crowding liberty back to the wall...
...1 do not see how it could be tortured into anything of that kind...
...For the first nine years the record does not show that he did anything for industrial education...
...also the great body of German refugees and emigrants from northern Europe who were resisting the encroachments of tyranny in the Old World...
...This brought Senator Lodge up again with the insistent declaration, "That is its intent...
...President, the last remark of the Senator from Massachusetts is indicative of the wrong basis Upon which this discussion has proceeded...
...He said, "Sir the rules and the precedents of this body and the body at the other end of the Capitol have been so framed as to put legislation in the hands of a very few men...
...So they consented as gracefully as possible to send it back to conference to have the offensive provision stricken out...
...Russia knows that one free tongue in New York is more harmful to Russian despotism than 10,000 shackled subjects in Siberia...
...It is the same practice that was exposed by Senator La Follette five years ago when the Aldrich-Vreeland currency bill was under consideration...
...Mr...
...Senator Root, seeing his colleague, Senator Lodge, meeting with discomfiture, took hold of the situation...
...Thereupon ensued a battle which ended in the complete surrender of Senator Lodge and his fellow conferees and incidentally struck a telling blow at the evils of the present Conference system...
...He gave the Senate the most earnest assurance that the little "joker" put in the bill in the conference room applied only to criminals...
...About 1908, a number of professional and business men became interested in the establishment of a system of industrial schools...
...I venture to hope, Mr...
...They appeared before the legislative committee on vocational education and were at the time recognized as the men who had most to do with the bills...
...Mr...
...O'Gorman...
...Dillingham...
...And as one Senator after another questioned him upon this point he grew only more emphatic in insisting that the clause could not be "distorted" into applying to political refugees or to others not criminals...
...It was made clearly apparent that here was a case where a good bill had been tainted in conference...
...I should like to ask the Senator whether this clause does not make it possible for every foreign power to limit and restrict emigration on its borders...
...Charles McCarthy of the legislative reference library made an extended visit to the continuation schools of Germany and later submitted an elaborate report to the commission...
...In Italy the individual can receive such a certificate and bring it with him...
...The Conferees "On the Carpet" BUT THERE were Senators who rose to protest not only against the pernicious practice of slipping NEW provisions in a bill in conference but against the far-reaching injustice of the particular "joker" before them...
...The "Joker" Exposed SENATOR LA FOLLETTE made this debate the occasion for another attack upon the evils of the conference system that has grown up in the Senate during the regime of Aldrich and the Old Guard...
...President, reluctant as I am to cause any delay in the adoption of this report, that it ought to be sent back to conference...
...This commission consisted of the president of the state University, the dean of the extension department of the University, the superintendent of schools of the city of Milwaukee, the director of the state legislative reference library and the state superintendent of public instruction...
...President, that the day is near at hand when both branches of Congress will be made more democratic and more responsive to the public will...
...Industrial Schools...
...And the action of the conference committee in slipping this "joker" into the bill was shown to be unwar-ranted and indefensible...
...From time to time, the members of the state industrial board urged upon Superintendent Cary the necessity of promptly securing a competent assistant, but no appointment was made until May, 1912, thus causing a delay of a year in beginning this important work...
...The thousands of liberty-loving Germans and emigrants from northern Europe that came into the State in which I had my birth laid at that time the foundations for the thoroughly democratic population which has gone leagues ahead of all the other Commonwealths of this country in bringing government back to the people...
...It was made clear to them that the action of the conference committee in putting in this "joker" had made an otherwise good bill unacceptable...
...STATE SUPERINTENDENT CARY has held office for ten years,—from January 1, 1903, to January 1, 1913...
...As soon as it Was discovered that this little "joker" had been inserted in the bill in the conference room, protests came to Senators that (to quote from the telegram of Louis Marshall, president of the American Jewish committee) "This will exclude majority Jews coming from Russia and Roumania owing to practical legal difficulties attending procurement of certificates...
...Russia does not want—and 1 am constrained to believe that that is the reason why some other people do not want—these people who are seeking freedom for mankind admitted to the United States...
...This was done...
...An Unconditional Surrender IT WAS made clear to the Senate that this was a very pernicious "joker"—-directly contrary to the whole spirit of our free government Which has from its beginning been the welcome refuge of politically oppressed peoples...
...Mr...
...H. E. Miles of Racine, Mr...
...Senator La Follette then proceeded to convince the Senate that, whatever may have been the "intent" of Senator Lodge and the other conferees, their little "joker" would certainly have the effect of keeping out of this country citizens of other countries who may not be able to get the consent of their own government to come here...
...and even in 1912, his incidental activity must be attributed to the new state industrial board organized under the law of 1911...
...That period seemed to be one of the cycles in the life of liberty of the human race...
...It is simply to show the criminal record of the alien, I understand...
...Why Wisconsin Needs a New State Superintendent For ten years C. P. Cary has held the office of Superintendent of Public lnstruction...
...He said he agreed with Lodge that the intent and one of the effects of the new provision were to keep aliens with criminal records out of our country...
...It was well known at the time that the movement was chiefly due to the first four named officials and to a few prominent business men...
...What record has he made during these ten years...
Vol. 5 • February 1913 • No. 5
