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The Commoner
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 3J
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substantial diversity of opinion in. this country on the question as
to wiTetner the tariff duty on wood pulp used in the manufacture
of paper should be reduced or removed? In this case the tariff tax
operated for the benefit of the paper trust alone, allowing that
combine to levy millions of tribute each year upon the newspapers
of the country and their readers. The press of the country, without
regard to party, united in demanding relief. The people of the
republic unanimously seconded the demand. The president of the
United States threw the influence of his great office in favor of the
demand of the press and the people. But all without avail. The
dominant forces within the republican party had established in
the lower house of congress a parliamentary condition, in the inter
est of monopoly, under which the sole power to determine whether
a measure should be allowed to become a law or not was lodged
in the speaker of that body and his committee on rules, and by the
fiat of that one man, the will of the press, the people and the presi
dent was set at naught. Behold the spectacle I On one aide eighty
millions of free people demanding legislation to right an admitted
wrong. On the other side, a few men engaged in public plunder,
aided by the dominating power within the republican party, repre
sented by the presiding officer of the once popular branch of con
gress. And the plunderers and these unfaithful public servants pre
vail over the people of this great republic. In this instance did the
people rule?
On February 4, 1902, Congressman Babcock of Wisconsin, then
chairman of the republican congressional committee, in speaking' of
a bill he had introduced to reduce the tariff on iron and steel, and
after showing conclusively that the interests of the farmers, labor
ers, builders, and other classes would be conserved by the passage
&M'.of the bill, said: "I am ffomsr to Dush the bill to revise the tarin
at every possible opportunity. If it goes before the house it will
pass by three to one."
But under the rules of the house; the friends of this bill were
unable to get it before that body. Three-fourths of -the representa
tives of the people in that branch of congress were without power to
free themselves from the "stranglehold-" which under 'this modern
ized system of popular government, devised by the present repub
lican leadership, the speaker has upon the American public.
&' TlnVpower to subvert the popular will is exertedyby this repub
lican leadership in many ways, notably in the appointment by the
speaker- of the house of committees," which are, in many instances
so constituted as to quietly kill in the committee room measures
designed for the relief of the people. To illustrate, permit me to
quote from a petition presented to congress by the great labor
leaders of the country, constituting thq executive Council of the
American Federation of Labor: 3
. "The committee on labor of the house of representatives was
instituted at the demand of labor to voice its sentiments, to advocate
its rights and to protect-its interests.
"In the past two congresses this committee has been so or
ganized as to make ineffectual any attempt labor has made for
rtdress. This being the fact, in the last congress labor requested
the speaker to appoint, on the committee on labor, members who
from their experience, knowledge and sympathy would render in
this congress such service as the committee was originally designed
to perform. Not only was labor's request ignored, but the hostile
make-up of the committee was accentuated."
Hon. L. White Busby is the private secretary of Speaker Can
non. In a magazine article, discussing the powers of the- speaker,
Mr. Busby relates the circumstances, of a bill having been prepared
and three-fourths of the members of the house having signed a
request to the speaker asking that the rules committee of which he
is chairman bring in a, special rule for the consideration of the
bill. The speaker refused the request. The chairman of the com
mittee pleaded 'and urged. Continuing, Mr. Busby says
Aa??0e t01 saW: 'Then, Mr. Speaker,
this bill is to fall by the will of one man who is in the chair by our
Yotes. We have no redress from this one-man power ' 'Yes you
have,' replied the speaker. 'You have a way to pass your bill
You placed me in the chair to shoulder the responsibility of the
ttgpslation here enacted. In my view I can not assume the respon
sibly for this bm- You ca eIect a new speaker today, and pass
your bill, if you can find one who will accept that responsibility,
but if you leave me m the chair that bill will not become a law ' "
The genial and accomplished speaker has spoken for himself on
this subject. In an interview printed on August 20 in the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat, a stalwart republican newspaper, 'he points out
the only remedy left to the people, other than that of the ballot box
for the wrongs complained of. The interviewer said:
"Mr. Speaker, you are also called a Czar, and an element of
the public press holds you up as the one all-powerful influence in
the house who thwarts the will df theeople and arbitrarily decides
what legislation shall be considered and passed in the great popular
branch of the national congress." ! V
Mr. Cannon replied as follows:
"Under the constitution of the United States, the house of
representatives organizes- itself, and any member of the house, of
any party or no party, on any day, at any time, can halt any busi
ness before the house, and as a question of highest privilege offer a
resolution and sequre a vote on it to displace the speaker of the
house of representatives and put some other member in his place."
In other words, the remedy is to disgrace and destroy one of
the highest officers in the government to cast him figuratively from
political Tarpeian rock, to be erected by the members with his
consent, for that purpose.
I have suggested the other way by which the American voters
can regain their right df self government, and that is by the asser
tion of their manhood on election day, by rebuking with their bal
lots the party which has brought about such an intolerable con
dition. Time forbids the multiplication of instances where the popular
will has been defied and set at naught by the real republican leader
ship sometimes by the one-man power of the house and sometimes
by the few representatives of monopoly who dominate the
senate.
Measure after measure scores of them favored by the people
of all parties in many instances advocated strenuously by the
president, either failed of passage, or were so emasculated by amend
ment as to utterly fail to register the popular will.
The question, "Shall the people rule?" is one which demands
the serious and earnest consideration of all men who are interested
in the perpetuity of our institutions. It must be apparent to all who
have followed the course of legislation during- the past few years
that there is a power within the republican party determined that
the people shall not rule. That power has manifested itself when
ever effort has been made to check the destructive work of unlaw
ful combinations, reduce the Oppressive tariff tax, or enact any
legislation looking towards the equalization or lightening of the
burdens resting upon the; 'people: '
That dominant power which now guides and directs the repub
Hcan party, hason many occasions defied the president in, .eases
where he,, hasT on tne 'demand of the masses, made sporadic efforts
in their behan1 Jh some 'instances1 Ife has persuaded tfhis handful
of leaders to compromise, on their own terms, with the eighty mil
lions of people whom he assumed to represent, but in most cases
he has been absolutely powerless.
That dominant leadership elects the speaker of the house,
names the committees of the senate, and is in full charge of the
ingenious machinery provided for the protection of entrenched
monopoly against the .demands of the people
It; dictated the platform adopted by that pary in its national
convention this year, and after defying Mr. Roosevelt for three and
a half years, and killing, or crippling nearly all his proposed reform
legislation, and having received his unstinted denunciation therefor,
proceeded with the finest irony to endorse his administration, after
which it dictated a committee to take charge of the campaign, and
is now in full command of the party organization.
This dominant leadership is now circulating" two kinds of cam
paign literature one being designed for the east and the other
for the west the first being placed in the hands of the trust mag
nates, tariff beneficiaries, stock gamblers, and others who are sup
posed to be enemies of the president, declaring that Mr. Taft is
"sane and safe," free from the faults of Xfcoosevelt, while the second
goes to the business men,, the farmers and laborers who are pre
sumed to be admirers of the president, and declares that Taft is
Roosevelt's "double" and may be safely counted on to insist upon
his policies, and see that they are carried out.
This leadership of the republican party, responsible for all the
political ills from which the country now suffers, is satisfied with
the party's nominees, giving them active and substantial support,
all the. while shouting .the praises of Roosevelt, in the west and
south, and damning him and his. policies to the privileged "inter
ests" out of which they are' Vi rying the fat," with which they hope
to carry the election.
The question of taritf taxation is one of vital interest I am in
hearty accord with our platform declarations on that subject.
The republican candidate for vice president in his recent speech
of acceptance, lauded the Dingley bill and declared that when
enacted it was well adapted to existing conditions, but proceeded
to add "that the developments of industrial prosperity in a decade,
which in volume and degree have surpassed our most roseate ex
pectations, have so altered conditions that iii certain details of
schedules they no longer in every particular mete out justice to all. "
For these reasons he declared in favor of a re-adjustment "based
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