THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES A Congressman for the Whole Nation IT IS a matter of rejoicing when a man like William Kent comes back to Congress. His re-election November 3 by the voters of...
...though he does not follow the more extreme 'single-taxers in their faith that a perfect system of taxation will cure the ills of the social body...
...He is 'playing the game,' however^ according to the present rules...
...A glimpse at their true nature may be gained from the following brief analysis, which appeared in a recent article in Harper's Weekly, by George Creel: "Bulletin Number 11, for instance, is entitled 'How Colorado Editors View the Strike,' and its seven pages are devoted to a detailed vindication of the operators...
...In 1913 this measure was passed by Congress...
...One must look at the sworn testimony of this same Welborn to find his admissions that the Colorado law of 1897 against payment in scrip had not been observed until 1913...
...At that time he demonstrated conclusively the overcapitalization of the railroads of the country and showed how it would be possible by basing rates upon actual investment instead of upon capitalization to make a saving in transportation charges of something more than $400,000,-000 to the people of this country every twelve months...
...The highways of business are stunned by the thunder of these magnates' motors and blinded by the noisome dust that clouds their trail...
...They juggle with banks and railroads, with steamships, dry goods, and mines so that we are dazed by the bulk and suddenness of their riches...
...How can public opinion be just unless it is told that out of the 331 editors in Colorado, only fourteen attended the so-called conference, and that the eleven who signed the report were connected with papers notoriously controlled by the coal companies...
...If elected,' said he, 'I should consider that I held a commission from my district to do my best for the whole nation.' "This vision of his duty he has strictly adhered to, voting always for what he thought was best for the country, without regard to his own personal or political interests...
...that the semi-monthly pay day ordered by law in 1901 was not put into effect until 1913...
...He argued that physical valuation, oh which the government is spending $15,000,000 to $20,000,000, would have protected the investor from the stock-jobbing which has brought into trouble the New York, New Haven and Hartford, the Rock Island, the 'Frisco, the Boston and Maine and other roads...
...It was a surprise to many an experienced politician to see such a man as Kent come to Congress—particularly from a district that had long been regarded as soundly Republican and entirely 'safe and sane.' How was it that this wild Amos, this rich muck-raker, speaking out his unpleasant moral ideas' could be elected...
...He was elected after the hardest political fight his district has ever known, and at the end of two years, to the credit of his constituents, he was re-elected...
...These bulletins are grossly misleading...
...Everything is a growth with him, nothing is adopted or put on...
...We are pleased to have for the readers of La Follette's the following personal sketch of Mr...
...Unless informed authoritatively, how can the public be expected to know that the 'committee' is made up of corporation politicians, that they never made any real investigation at all, and that the circulation of the five editions of the pamphlet has been paid for entirely by the coal companies...
...He also pointed out a very real danger to investors of having a reserve created out of undivided earnings of past years' capitalization capitalized by unscrupulous management, which might thereupon foist the new se curities upon an unsuspecting public...
...His work for years as a member, and as president in 1899—1900, of the Municipal Voters' League of Chicago gave him such a knowledge of every aspect of political and public life—both corrupt and clean—and such an opportunity to judge the motives of men as few political leaders have ever had...
...John P. White, the president, enjoys national esteem, and Mr...
...Wherever he has been—and where hasn't he been?—he has lived the life Of the ordinary people...
...He is a careless dresser, and meets all men on equal terms...
...He has never in his life, I am sure, varied his belief by a hair's breadth for political expediency...
...Public opinion in this industrial controversy that goes deep into the vitals of our national well being should not be shaped by anything less than the whole truth...
...Helen Grenfell, Vice-president of the Law and Order League...
...Expensive...
...His bold words, his direct attacks often gave that final dramatic turn to a situation which was necessary to stir the whole people, not then aroused as they are now, to the iniquity of political control by grafters and thieves...
...THE LACK of direct political influence constitutes a powerful reason why women's wages have been kept at a minimum.—Hosoeable Cakkoll D. "Wrigut...
...There are plenty of experts to tell us how this is so...
...He was more than that: he was a leader in what was the first really effective revolt against the corrupt control of American cities— the struggle with Yerkes, the millionaire traction magnate, who attempted to debauch the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois...
...Grenfell, for during the the courtmartial he swore that he could not 'control the men who burned and looted the tents.' "Bulletin Number 16 is a twenty-page statement purporting to be 'A Report of the Special Committee appointed to investigate and report to Kensington Council No...
...Green, the secretary-treasurer, is the majority leader in the Ohio State Senate and Speaker pro tempore...
...Few men, I heard it said in Washington, have attained influence and prestige in the House of Representatives as rapidly as Kent...
...His philosophy, his democracy, seem to spring not out of books but out of experience...
...and one who knows his record and studies his speeches will discover a surprising continuity and consistency in his attitude toward public affairs...
...He was trained in one of the severest political schools in America: he Avas a reform alderman in the heyday of corruption in the Chicago city council...
...His re-election November 3 by the voters of all parties in the First California District is more than a tribute to his courage, independence and high service...
...The pamphlet makes it appear that the average daily earnings of the Colorado miner are $4...
...Mr...
...I have spoken of Kent as a philosopher...
...SPEAKING from the viewpoint of the in-vestor in railroad securities, before the Western Economic Society recently, Professor W. Z. Ripley of Harvard pointed out that physical valuation would have curtailed the enormous losses to investors who have been victimized by over-capitalization of railroads...
...I have attended ward political meetings with him where I knew he went armed, and I have known that men followed him afterward, swearing that they would kill him on sight...
...Much of his wealth has come from the 'unearned increment' on land—a system of converting socially created values to private uses which he says should be abolished...
...It stands proved that these national officers did not want a strike, and that in August, 1913, one month before the men quit work, they begged ,a conference with the operators in order that an amicable settlement might be arranged...
...The struggle in Colorado is against the domination 'of a particular organization—the United Mine Workers of America.' "Is it not well that such an attack should be met by presentation of facts...
...16, Junior Order United American Mechanics,' as to the strike situation in Colorado...
...As a reporter on a Chicago newspaper during the years of this wonderful campaign I know well the great part Kent had in it...
...This was refused insultingly, and through the Colorado Fuel and Iron company negotiations were at once begun for the employment of the Baldwin-Felts agency, and the purchase of the machine guns used in West Virginia...
...Why take part in politics,' he asks, 'if you are going nowhere?' "In a broad sense his philosophy is the philosophy of democracy—and more democracy: but he is that rare combination, an idealist with a knowledge as to how much idealism human nature will bear at any given time...
...Grenpell is the wife of a high official of a coal-carrying railroad, that she does not speak from first-hand knowledge in any particular and that the Law and Order League was formed by the society women of Denver after the Ludlow disaster, and solely as an effort to counteract the effect of a mass meeting held by the Women's Peace Association...
...The rejection by the coal operators of the peace proposal of President Wilson means, for one thing, that no aid is to be expected from the coal barons in the just settlement of this labor war...
...OUR FLASHY SPECULATORS come and go—the bubble blowers, the men of money magic...
...She makes it appear that the strikers at Ludlow precipitated the battle, that the fire was started accidentally by 'an overturned stove or an explosion,' and that the two women and eleven children were 'merely suffocated.' "The public is entitled to know that Mrs...
...I remember in those days they used to call 'Bill' Kent a dreamer, but, as a matter of fact, few men I know have a firmer grip upon every practical aspect of politics and affairs than Kent...
...fro of them that seek death, What is there to add to that?—Collier's...
...And let the Truth be placed before the people of this country...
...Edward Doyle, a miner all his life, has sworn that the average net wage for mine laborers 'would be about $540 a year, and that of tonnage men would run from $485 to about $580.' "Pamphlet Number 10 bears the caption, 'Not Union Labor but Organized Tyranny the Issue in Colorado.' Its opening sentences are: 'The fight of the Colorado coal mine managers is not against union labor...
...The principle of collective bargaining is not at stake...
...He is that rare type of human being who, amidst the ruck and soil and struggle of common life, has not only kept his vision clear and his purpose strong, but has lived to see some of his dreams come true, "Kent is of more than medium height, with a head noticeably large, a long nose and a firm chin...
...His speeches and his attitude toward life have the tang of the soil, and are full of feeling for the common life...
...The Senate...
...They are, indeed ! The proven facts refute the brazen assertions of these coal operators, the chief spokesman for whom is Rockefeller's man Welborn...
...Many a Congressman has been elected by making promises to do his best for the varied interests of his district—to get post-offices for the towns, high tariffs for the producers and manufacturers, offices for the politicians, pensions for the old soldiers, and free seeds for the gardeners, but in the first announcement of his candidacy for Congress, Kent set down squarely his view of the duty of a congressman...
...He steps lightly and cleanly—I think the result of his life as a hunter in the mountains and on the plains...
...It is to be hoped that the findings of facts made by this commission will meet with greater success in getting before the public than did the startling testimony that lies buried and undigested in the great volumes of evidence collected by the congressional investigating committee...
...But few men have had such a preparation as Kent for real service to the country...
...He believes, indeed, that every man in public life should have a philosophy...
...The American people like honesty, directness, and courage...
...Those seven years of delay were costly to the country...
...Kent inherited a large property and has added to his estate by (Successful investments in land, timber and cattle...
...May the investigation of the Industrial Relations Commission be searching and thorough...
...its control has ended industrial strife in Pennsjd-vania and Illinois...
...nor has he backed and filled, played fast and loose with pledges and principles, as many politicians do...
...It is an extract from an article in the American Magazine by Ray Stan-nabd Baker, who has known Kent long and intimately...
...find out.—Washington Post...
...however, true to Wall Street railroading, voted it down...
...Citing the case of the New Haven railroad, Professor Ripley said that physical valuation a decade ago would have prevented the inflation of its securities and the recent crash which snuffed out the modest incomes of many widows and orphans...
...The United Mine workers of America has a membership of 400,000...
...So it goes for a while, and then— well, there is just one comprehensive epitaph for the lot of them, and it is about three thousand years old: The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and...
...Judge Advocate Botjghton, sent all the way to New York to give volunteer testimony at a hearing of the Commission on Industrial Relations, admitted under oath that the firing of two dynamite bombs by the militia.' was the first explosion of the day.' Under cross-examination he testified also that 'the impact of a bullet with some high explosive material inside one of the tents caused the tent to catch fire,' and that the militia 'entered the tent colony, and deliberately spread the flames from one tent to another.' "Captain Carson, the English soldier of fortune who commanded a company during the assault, likewise furnishes contradiction to Mrs...
...Let the Public Be Given the Whole Truth in the Colorado Labor War...
...and that the law of the state giving to miners the right to have "check weighmen" (the principal cause of the strike was the contention of the men that they were being cheated of from 500 to 800 tons of coal on every car) was never observed at all...
...It is the same way with Bulletin Number 8, a very convincing statement by Mrs...
...that the eight-hour day law of 1905 was ignored until 11)13...
...it presages the time when public servants everywhere may go before the people wholly upon their RECORDS OF SERVICE...
...He loves especially hunters, cowboys, ranchmen—witty native people—and all men of original force or genius, no matter what their origin or education...
...THERE is encouragement in the announcement of Chairman Frank P. Walsh that the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations is to hold hearings immediately at Denver to bring out the significant facts regarding the war in Colorado between the coal companies and the miners...
...it is established in every coal-producing state and in every mining province in Canada...
...There is careful suppression of the true amounts of various deductions, however, nor is it made clear that the average working time ranges from 183 to 253 days a year...
...Creel characterizes these bulletins as "poisoners of public opinion...
...ALTHOUGH the rest of royalty is figuring how far the big guns will shoot, King Albert hasn't been tar enough away to...
...but he is doing his best to change the rules...
...How did it happen that a man who was a free trader and 'almost a Socialist' could be elected in a district where the wool-growing and other protected interests were strongly entrenched...
...He is now about fifty years old and there is gray in his hair...
...It was eight years ago that an amendment was offered by Senator La Follette providing for physical valuation of railroad property...
...It appears that a new order has come upon the world, that wealth is for the nerviest bluffer, that the codes of economic law are subject to instant and drastic revision by these Napoleons of this and that...
...Bulletin Number 9 is given over to the contention that the Colorado miners 'earn more than in any other part of the United States.' This is in flat contradiction of testimony given by the operators themselves before the Congressional Committee...
...75 per cent, of all coal miners on this continent work under contracts which this organization makes with coal operators...
...The coal companies are flooding the country with numbered bulletins in an endeavor to color public opinion favorable to themselves...
...He believes that the 'single tax' on land values would help to relieve this unjust condition...
...that the law forbidding the deputization of any others save citizens was violated in hundreds of instances when imported desperadoes were made deputy sheriffs...
Vol. 6 • December 1914 • No. 46
