The Commoner
JANUARY 10, 1913
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Seniority a Vicious System
Tho St. Louis Republic prints tho following
editorial: Organization by seniority is stand
patism both in principle and practice. By
seniority Aldrich becamo chairman of the
senate's financo committee. By seniority Halo
and Lodge and Gallinger and Penrose wore
given important committee appointments and tho
Aldrich machine built up and maintained.
Young or new members coming into the senato
quickly realized that they could only reach
places of power by marking time, doing tho
controlling clique's bidding, playing tho game
according to tho rules. Now and then one re
belled. Mostly they fell into line and became,
not senators, but apprentices to tho Aldrich
senato machine.
Seniority made Joseph G. Cannon speaker of
the house. It made Payne chairman of the ways
and means committee and Tawney chairman of
appropriations. It made first lieutenants of
Watson, Dalzell, McKinley, Mann. In short, it
created the Cannon cabal. In the end it wrecked
tho republican party.
Preferment by seniority will wreck tho demo
cratic party or any other party that slavishly
follows it. If there are democrats, either in
senate or house, who do not voice the party
sentiment of tho times and who would be at odds
with the spirit of tho administration their pro
motion would be a popular affront and a party
misfortune. Other things being equal, seniority
is entitled to preference. But there is no valid
claim for command in years of ofllceholding.
The senator or representative who has fallen
out of step with his party has forfeited his right
to leadership.
Upon the principle of fitness, from the view
points of democracy and capacity, the senate
and house should be organized. Mr. Bryan is
right in opposing tho vicious practice of seniority
awards. It makes inevitably for oligarchy. And
after that the deluge.
RULE BY SENIORITY
There can bo little doubt as to tho sympathy
of the president-elect with the protest made by
Mr. Bryan in his journal against "the blight of
seniority" which threatens to wreck the com
mittees of tho next congress.
It is strange how standpatism persists in an
age of insurgency, militant progressivism and
political upheavals. Mr. Wilson has had much
to say about the new era "ana its fine conceptions
of duty and service. He certainly will not
acquiesce in the subordination of tho general
welfare to individual ambitions or pretensions.
The rule of mere seniority in committee as
signments is a' survival of the. bad old regime of
spoils and stratagems. The claims of hold-over
members should rest on fitness, on experience,
on efficiency. As Mr. Bryan says, changes in
rules will be of slight advantage unless the men
who apply the new rules are the right men in
the right places.
Mr. Bryan may have his own definitions of
progressivism, and Mr. Wilson may not fully
accept these definitions. The point of an obser
vation may lie in its application. But the prin
ciple of freedom in selecting committeemen and
in tempering the tyranny of seniority is unques
tionably sound. The democratic party will have
to put its best foot forward, to choose wise,
enlightened leaders, and maintain a rather
unusual measure of discipline. Its responsibili
ties are heavy, its dangers not small. Much will
depend on tho relations between the executive
and congress, and these relations will laTgely
depend on tho personnel of the important com
mittees. Experience is valuable, but it is not
everything. An experienced reactionary or trim
mer out of sympathy with new tendencies would
be the more undesirable because of his acquired
skill. Chicago Record-Herald.
WEAK IN NUMBER CHOICE IN QUALITY
The reactionaries are a very small portion of
the democratic party, yet they are of that
quality of fineness that they feel the whole of
the democratic party belongs to them. They
think that the progressive democrats have
nothing else to do but to vote and win the
victories for them that they alone may enjoy
tho emoluments of office and the honors of
official station.
The democratic party is pr6gressive in Its
principles and purposes, as expressed in Its plat
form pronouncements and as Indicated by the
men placed in command, yet those of the re
actionary faction, which is a very small frag
mentary and decadent element, assume to be the
only real democrats the very salt of tho earth
and they feel that all others should stand aside
for them. They feel that as they are tho wbolo
show, all the rest of tho democratic party should
stand aside and let them havo everything in
sight.
From the viewpoint of tho reactionaries tho
progressives, are unworthy of confidence, and,
though tho latter aro in control of tho party by
virtue of the expressed choice of the party ma
jority, the former claim that owing to thoir su
perior party sanctity they ought to bo preferred
to all others.
Bryan's Commoner has evidently been im
pressed with the attitude of tho reactionaries,
as in largo black type is stretched across the
top of that this paper this tart declaration:
"The reactionary democrats can understand
why no progressive should receive any ofilco
under tho administration of President Wilson,
but they can not understand why a progressive
should object to a reactionary for anything."
While a very small per cent of tho democratic
party aro reactionaries, hey aro strong in tho
faith, believing as they do that they constltuto
the better portion of their party, and they havo
no hesitancy in expressing a priority of claim on
the loaves and fishes. It matters not if Wood
row Wilson himself and the rest of tho great
leaders are progressives, tho reactionaries
imagine their quality will outweigh all else be
sides and that they will be placed in possession
of tho offices if it should turn out that there is
enough to go around. Nashville Tennesseean.
ATTACK ON THE SENIORITY RULE
Tho old custom of seniority rule Jn committee
assignments in congress, which many believo
would be more honored in their breach than
in their observance, is now about to be put to
a severe test as an attack is being made on tho
practice by those who stand with the majority
element of tho democratic party in the federal
congress.
Mr. Bryan, in his Comomoner, boldly states
that there is no courtesy which should be stron
ger than the obligations of a public official to his
constituents, and that assignments to com
mittees should be made upon tho basis of fitness
and with a viow to giving raltnrul expression to
the will of the majority.
The New York Times expresses apprehension
over this declaration, asking Mr. Bryan if ho
means by this a declaration of war.
In reply to the Times' anxious query, tho
Springfield Republican pertinently says that, on
the contrary, it means that the organization of
congress should bo In the hands of those who
really dominate party sentiment in that body,
and that "to be specific and the practical ques
tion simmers down to a few specific questions
why should tho chairmanship of the senate
finance committee bo given to a semi-protectionist
like Mr. Simmons of North Carolina because
of seniority when the majority of tho senato
democrats hold views of a different sort?"
Here is the position of the progressive demo
crats, as succlntly stated by Mr. Bryan:
"The democratic victory of 1912 brings in
another group of new democrats, all of them
progressives. Tho progressive democrats "will
now be In the majority in tho senato caucus.
Will thoy allow a reactionary minority to man
the ship? Will they allow length of service to
outweigh sympathy with the progressive cause?
"If it were a personal matter, the new sena
tors might prefer to yield to the older ones, but
a man who acts in a representative capacity is
not at liberty to be courteous at the expense of
hid constituents. The democrats of the organi
zation represent the prevailing sentiment In the
party, and thus enable it to work fn harmony
with the administration. To do this, tho rule
of seniority should be ignored. Assignments to
committees should be made upon the basis of
fitness and with a view to giving faithful expres
sion to the will of themajority.
"The democratic party is pledged to the doc
trine of representative government. The doc
trine of seniority is destructive of both the
theory and the practice of representative gov
ernment." "There is no use to become unduly excited over
Mr. Bryan's advice to congress and to the democratic-
party, when that advice is based on com
mon sense and common equity. It would bo the
mereBt folly to place the power of control in tho
hands of those who represent the minority of the
party, when the questions to be considered and
which make the difference between democrats,
aro of vital importance to the party and th
country.
Tho point is plainly, cloarly, and strongly
mado by tho Springfield Republican that no mm
has a logitimato claim upon an Important com
mittoo chairmanship if ho doos not faithfully
represent tho dominant purpoao of his party.
Obviously, what tho majority element of tho
democratic party contends for is to control to
that extent that the spirit of the party in all
essential things may prevail, and that this may
bo they can not allow tho length of service to
outweigh sympathy with the progressive cause.
Nashville Tenncssoean.
Tho rules under which tho senato has been
operating givo certain senators what amounts to
a vcBted right in committee appointments. Tho
Influence of committcs, particularly chairmen
of committees, as Senator Dolllvor showed In ono
of his very last speeches in tho senato, Is very
great much too groat In a representative
assembly.
Tho practice has been to put now senators, no
matter what their special fitness, upon the least
important committees and to mako them chair
men of committees which havo littlo or nothing
and nothing Important, to do. Senator La Fol
lette, for instance, than whom thero is no man In
tho senato bettor Informed on a largor variety of
subjects, was mado chairman of tho committee
on the Potomac river, or something of tho kind,
but a commlttoo, at any rate, that never had
occasion to meet. In tho assignment of com
mittee rooms, Senator La Follotto was given one
down in the basoment, reached from tho sump
tuously furnished rooms of tho comraitteo on
appropriations by going down on an olovator and
walking through dark and winding passages
and through an engine room-
Tho now senator progresses not by fitness or
ability, but as tho death or retirement of sena
tors older In the service than he opens tho way
to him. Dubuquo (la.) Telegraph-Herald.
A NEW YORKER AGITATED
Columbia (S. C.) "The Stato": "Wo take it,"
says tho New York Times, "that Mr. Bryan la
not going to bo a member of President Wilson's
cabinet. Tho evidence is inferential, but it can
not bo disregarded."
Tho Times then quotes as tho Important "in
ferential" evidence an editorial in tho current
issue of Tho Commoner in which Mr. Bryan
says?
"The democratic party is going to havo an
other struggle in both senate and house over
committee assignments and is again threatened
with tho blight of seniority, that is, it will bo
asked to put the ambitions and Interests of ln
dlviduals above the welfare of tho party.
"The progressive democrats will now bo in
the majority in the senate caucus. Will thoy
allow a reactionary minority to man tho ship?
Will they allow length of service to outweigh
sympathy with the progressive cause?
The democrats of the senate owe it to the party
to mako tho senate organization represent the
prevailing sentiment of tho party, and thus
enable it to work in harmony with tho adminis
tration. To do this the rule of seniority should
be ignored. Assignments to committee should
be made upon tho basis of fitness and with a
view to giving faithful expression to the will
of tho majority."
"It is very evident that Mr. Bryan's Commoner
article means war. It is war." That is ths
analysis of our New York contemporary, which
continues in this strain:
"It is impossible to affirm upon information,
that The Commoner article is the fruit of any
thing said or not said at the Trenton interview,
or that it was provoked by the report of tht
speaker's attitude. But if Mr. Bryan had been
invited into tho cabinet, or if ho still enter
tained the hope that he would be a member of
the cabinet, it is not conceivable that he would
now try to set the democrats by the ears in
both houses of congress, substitute factional dis
cord for union and harmony, and to the extent
of his influence try to ruin the administration
of which ho was to be a part."
It is "impossible to affirm on information that
The Commoner article is the fruit of anything
said or not said at tho Trenton interview," but it
is not impossible to affirm on information that
the Times is wholly wrong in its suggestions.
In taking the position in his paper that re
actionaries should not have unduo influence in
legislation simply because seniority in congress
places them, under the rules of precedent, at
tho head of committees, Mr. Bryan is exercising
the double prerogative of a citizen member of
the democratic party and the editor of a public
f
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