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The Commoner.
Breaking Down the Big Alliance
Jnmca L. O'Connor, a prominent lawyer of
Milwaukee, has written for Tho Commoner tlio
following Interesting article:
I read with profound Interest tho speech or
Sonalor Reed of Missouri, puhlished In Tho
Commoner last fall. Tho propositions therein
stated may well bo road and pondered upon by
ovury citizen of this country. It strikes at ono
of tho great scandals In our national govern
ment. Tho time is not far distant when tho prin
ciples so ably enunciated in Senator Reed's
speech, will bo incorporated into a national law.
Tho idea that members of congress and senators
can participate in framing laws which will en
ablo them to plunder their neighbors, is ono of
tho most scandalous proceedings in tho govern
ment of this country.
It has been well said of tho alliance between
tho industrial captains of tho country and the
political leaders, that "there was never a greater
danger to government than has come from this
nnholy alliance. This alliance unites the two
most poworful tendencies in our national life,
tho pursuit of wealth on the ono hand, and tho
pursuit of political power upon tho other. Tho
afrtlllntion is ono which will corrupt tho people,
and ovontually wreck tho government. Christ,
with a profound knowledge of human nature,
taught his disciples to pray that they should
not bo led into temptation; though a consider
able proportion of tho Amorican people profess
Ills teachings, yet they have deliberately given
to their legislators tho power by congressional
enactment of transferring millions of dollars
from tho hands of tho people to the pockets of a
few Industrial leaders. A more stupendous in
strument for corrupting congressmen than the
lodging of this power in them was never con
colved by tho perverse Ingenuity of man.
This commercial avarice, tho fiercest pas
sion that burns in tho heart of man, is closely
allied with that other passion for power and
placo, but littlo less terrible in its intensity."
In speaking of tho combination of tho ambi
tion for power and place, with tho greed for
gain in tho Individual, tho author truthfully
nays: "United States senators and representa
tives aro themselves frequently the owners of
manufacturing interests which are largely af
foctod by tariff legislation; and notwithstanding
tho fact that those men are personally interested
In tho passago of a bill allowing them to mulct
tho Amorican people, they deliberately vote upon
such measures in tho senate and tho house.
Many an afflicted man or -woman, in raising a
memorial to their dead, have paid, by reason
of tho tariff, a considerably increased price to
a United States senator interested in quarries.
Many a consumer, in tho purchase of clothing,
has paid another tribute to a member of tho
house of representatives who is engaged in
manufacturing."
Tho question raised by Senator Reed is simply
this: Can a United States senator or member
of congress, elected to discharge a public duty,
honestly discharge that duty when it comes in
conflict with his private interest?
Tho supremo court of the United States has
answered this question, in 'substance, by say
ing that no man shall bo permitted to place his
privato intorest, in conflict with public duty, be
causo in all such cases, duty is apt to be lost
In tho struggle.
As a corrollary to Senator Reed's suggestion,
permit mo to direct attention to another situa
tion at tho national capital, littlo discussed.
Tho entire country is aware of the fact that
a man as high-minded and scrupulously honest
as Senator Goro of Oklahoma, was offered a
bribe of fifty thousand dollars for his support
of a dishonest measure pending before congress.
Senator Goro, with his sublime courage made
tho crime public; but who shall say how many
members of congress and of tho United States
senate, have been offered and rejected similar
propositions mon who did not have tho cour
age to expose tho infamy or defend themselves
from tho anticipated attacks? Who shall say
how many members of congress and the United
States sonato, during the past twenty-five years
have been bribed and re-bribed in one form or
another? Think of the farce of holding secret
meetings of a committee where the "captains of
Industry" and beneficiaries of tho high protec-
. ... a- 1 Ytntnra tllfi P.Om-
etoVJVTXVcoStf rates wMcn
law should be M free from secret conferences
5 influences no the judge who construes the
tow. 'Km the foundation of this government
it has been deemed an act ui luium ..
nerson having before tho court a pending case,
tc secre t approach the judge, with the view of
nducing hira to find the facts or construe the
law in favor of ono of the litigants No Judge
worthy of his position would permit such liti
gant or tho litigant's friends to approach him
secretly or discuss with him either the law or
tho facts in a pending case.
As a comparison between tho judges of courts
who aro now bo widely discussed, I beg to sug
gest the conduct of members of congress and
of tho United States senate, on the right of in
terested parties to secretly meet them in hotels,
in tho lobbies and in tho committee rooms to
urgo upon them the enactment of laws favor
able to those who are holding these secret con
ferences. If any legislator, state or national, should
propose a law granting the right of litigants to
private interviews with a judge, he would be
denounced from one end of this country to the
other, as an enemy of government.
Litigants are debarred from holding secret
conferences with the judge who is called upon
to construe the law. They are barred by moral
considerations so strong as to require no specific
enactment of law to prohibit them. If it is
deemed so abhorent, that a party interested in
litgatlon, should have private interviews and
secret arguments with the judge who construes
the law, who can or will defend the practice
so prevalent in all legislative bodies, and which
has reached its climax at the national capital,
of interested parties holding secret interviews
and secretly presenting arguments to officials
who make tho laws.
I sincerely hope that Senator Reed will intro
duce a bill making it a penal offense for any
member of either house to vote in favor of or
against any law, in the enactment or defeat of
which, such member has directly or indirectly,
a private interest; and that either he or Sena
tor Owon or some other democratic senator or
member of congress, will introduce a bill for
tho abolishment and penalizing of secret lobby
ing at the national capital a bill which shall
absolutely prohibit any person secretly ap
proaching any member of congress or the United
States senate, In support of or opposition to the
enactment of any legislation, and requiring all
persons who appear before committees, to regis
ter in some designated office in a record kept
for that purpose, and open to the public, the
name of such lobbyist, the name of the in
dividual or concern whom ho represents, the
amount or consideration which he has or is to
receive for his services; also requiring those
who are represented by such agents or lobby
ists, within 30 days after the close of each ses
sion of congress to make and file a sworn state
ment to be filed in the designated office giving
the total amount of money expended in support
of or in opposition to any law, the names of the
persons to whom paid, the purpose thereof, and
such othor Items of interest as the framers of
such bill may deem proper. This report to be
open to public inspection.
The law should also require the parties and
their representatives to present their arguments
for or against any measure publicly before the
committees of congress and the United States
sonato and if required by such committees to re
duce such arguments to writing, file the same
with some designated officer, and mail a copy
thereof to each member of congress and each
member of the United States senate.
frnLm b57ists should be absolutely prohibited
from discussing pending legislation, except in
tho manner Indicated. w in
, Jh? w1.1 anuld Provide severe penalties for
the violation of such law, or the making of an?
false report under the law y
If these two acts of legislation suggested were
Placed upon the statute books of the nonSn
honestly enforced, they would el min ate from
our government the scandal of men introducing
Tl?U?e V?yoT of laws which enable tnem
to plunder their neighbors, and would elimi
nate or at least reduce to a minimum tho cS!
ceded corruption so prevalent in The enac?-"
ment of certain national legislation.
buen legislation in my judgment should
proposed by the democrats. I?can S' up
VOLUME 12, NUMBER
Proairionf Taff-.. and ho wnnlrt "ho.i- ,
tho , excuse of vetoing either measure becaX
claim that they should first be investigated
J. L. O'CONNOR.
Harmon's Record
How the Ohio Governor Dodged on Import
Progressive legislation is along bo many
different lines and embraces so many different
topics that when one carefully scans the record
of a legislature before which bills coming
under this designation are debated and of the
governor whose duty it is to pass upon them
after they have passed the law-making body, it
is not difficult to decide whether the legislators
and the executive are standing pat or moving
forward.
As The Commoner has before stated, some
fifty bills became laws in Ohio without the signa
ture of Governor Harmon. Many of these were
important measures which a progressive execu
tive progressive as everybody accepts the term
would have been glad to sign. Many showed
by this that the governor in withholding his
approval, is not in full step with progress,
Aside from these were a number of others that
became laws in the same way, which, consider-
ing each by itself, would bear little testimony
one way or the other, but grouped together they
form corroborative proof thot the Ohio execu
tive is what his critics claim he is a conserva
tive. The legislature of Ohio passed a law (page
81, laws 1911) prohibiting rebates in fire in
surance premiums and designed to stop the prac
tice of giving any special favor or advantage to
any person. It also provides that no person
shall be excused from producing books or papers
or from testifying on the ground that he might
therebv be incriminated. This law was not
approved by Governor Harmon.
The question of developing internal water-
ways as a means of restricting rate extortion hy
railroad companies occupied some attention at
the last session of the legislature of Ohio. That
body, among other things, passed a law enabling
counties to appropriate money or to issue bonds
in aid of the construction by public authority
and control of canals or waterways suitable for
steamships, barges, steamboats or other vessels
and providing a mode of procedure in such
cases. This action was taken for the purpose of
enabling Ohio to join with any other state or
states or the federal government in a waterway
to connect the great lakes or the ocean with
the navigable waters of the state. This bill
became a law without the signature of Governor
Harmon.
Another law passed by the Ohio legislature
provided that each of the persons for whom
marriage license is sought shall make applica
tion therefor in person, in order to avoid fraud
and make the marriage statistics really valuable
by supplying proper data. Governor Harmon
allowed it to become a law without his signa
ture.
Another law passed by the Ohio legislature
that Governor Harmon allowed to become a
part of tho statutes without his signature was
a revision of the law relating to the practices of
life insurance companies. It prohibited rebates,
discriminations, misrepresentations on tho part
of solicitors and provided heavy penalties for
violation .of the various sections. This is one
of a series of reforms in the insurance business
that have been pushed, having primarily the
protection of the purchasers of insurance by
compelling agents to tell the truth about what
they were selling.
Still another reform that Governor Harmon
was not interested in related to the examination
of applicants for certificates to practice medicine
or surgery. It required each applicant to bo
examined by members of the board representing
the school of medicine in which he desired to
practice, thus preventing any one school from
monopolizing healing in the state. It became
a law without the governor's signature.
Still another bill that the governor was not
sufficiently interested in to approve or disapprove
provided for the regulation and control of fra
ternal benefit societies. This is tho bill agreed
upon by the national association of insurance
commissioners as representing what is neces
sary to perpetuate fraternal insurance in t10
country by requiring the maintenance of reserve
funds adequate for the payment of all policies
written. The governor allowed it to become a
law without his signature. C. Q. !
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