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The Commoner.
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Republican View of a Republican Leader
Dr, Jacob H. Gallingor is tho republican nomi
noo for president pro tem of tho United States
senate. Tho Philadelphia North American, a
republican paper, printed in its issue of May
15th tho following fine tribute to tho acknowl
edged republican leader of tho senate:
Jacob H. Gallingor, of Canada, Now Ilarnp
uhiro and Washington, is a largo, bald, pink
person, who as a United States senator has
retained from his days of medical practice a
didactic, not to say dictatorial, bedside manner,
regarding always tho senate and the public as
his patients.
Old Doctor Gallingor is a retentive man in
many ways. Logend has it that ho has re
tained everything that ho ever grasped, tho
troublo being that, so far as ethical ideas, politi
cal creeds, theories of progress and patriotism
and other immaterial things, he has grasped
nothing for more than forty years.
There is every reason to believe that Old Doc
tor Gallingor is consistent in all things. There
fore, we feel convinced that if called upon to
net as a physician ho would immediately dis
play his reverence for ancient precedent and
formula by drenching, cupping and bleeding
litorally tho victim in true Sangrado fashion.
For example, wo should not like to go further
than tho comment that it was rather bad taste
In earlier days of Gallingorlsm for the Old
Doctor to attach his senatorial title to those of
"medical director" and "supremo medical
examiner" of tho get-rlch-quick endowment in
surance organizations that disgraced New Hamp
shire. But another comment came, not from us,
but from a brother New Hampshire senator,
William B. Chandler, in speaking of Old Doctor
Gallinger's connection with the endowment com
panies: "He has either unwittingly allowed
his name to bo used by others for the purposes
of fraud or ho is a fool, or he is a deliberate
swindler and Doctor Gallingor does not belong
to either of tho first two classes."
But those were trivial incidents in the career
of the transplanted Canadian, whose chief occu
pation in the intervals of pro-labor and anti-civil
service speeches was the work of chief pass
distributor of tho Boston & Maine railroad, the
corporation that owned absolutely the soul and
conscience, as well as the business, of New
Hampshire. And, in justice to Old Doctor Gal
linger, It must be admitted that no good man
ever served his God more faithfully and fer
vently than the senator from the Boston &
Maine has served his political creators.
And that devotion to the railroads first has
extended to every form of privilege, monopoly
and special Interest sympathetic with the tory
theory that the American people are incapable
of self-government and are socialistically deluded
whenever they protest against the divinely estab
lished rule of concentrated wealth.
To the sorrow of Washington, Old Doctor
Gallinger long ago prescribed for himself the
chairmanship of the senate committee on the
District of Columbia That makes him the Rey
burn of tho city, with not even a four-year limit.
Tlie old doctor has thrived upon that self
prescribed tonic. So have the Washington Gas
light company and the Washington Traction
company and outlying real estate companies that
had good arguments for improvements to be
paid for by tho citizens, who perversely desired
taxes to be expended upon the city already built.
In his larger functions as senator we note Just
ono instance of inconsistency: He supported the
pure food law. For some occult reason he does
not like tho beef trust. True, that dislike he
did not permit to deter him from ardent sup
port of the Injured patriot Lorimer. But he
did vote for the pure food law.. There is the
one enduring blot upon the otherwise immacu
late 'scutcheon of Old Doctor Gallinger's con
sistency. Surely, however, even his idols, Aldrich and
Cannon, must forgive him when they recall this
senatorial record 1
When the attempt was made In the United
States senate to keep the coal and oil and
asphalt lands of the five civilized tribes out of
the hands of the railroads, Senator Gallincer
voted against It.
When the vote came to relieve the families
of railroad employes killed and railroad em
ployes themselves injured In service, Senator
Gallinger voted against the bill
wiirm it wno nmiirht to limit the hours of ser
vice of railroad men to sixteen out of twenty
four, Gallinger voted "No."
He voted against giving power to the inter
state commerce commission to determine how
the long and short haul principle should be ap
plied. He opposed a jail sentence for rebaters.
Ho moved to strike out the provision which
sought to prevent the railroads from keeping
secret political accounts, records or memoranda.
Ho opposed and ridiculed the anti-pass amend
ment. He voted against prohibiting railroads
from competing with shippers in mining, manu
facturing, etc. He voted against the railroad
telegraphers' nine-hour law.
He voted against investigating the titles to
railway cool lands, the most infamous of all
steals. Ho voted for every tariff schedule when
Aldrich desired his vote. And finally, he voted
for Lorimer as his equal and his brother.
This is tho elder statesman, support of whom
is proclaimed by the tories in tho senate the
test of republicanism.
But all his early record is not the only reason
why his nomination by a secret tory caucus to
be president pro tempore of the senate was an
insolent challenge to the progressive senators
which, in decency and self-respect, they could
not ignore. It is true that the position is one of
comparatively small practical power. But the
election thereto is a' tribute of honor.
The deliberate falsehood has been "widely
spread by the tory newspapers that the demand
by the progressive senators for proportionate
representation on the committees that control,
with practically the power of veto, all important
legislation in tho senate was a selfish plea for
personal aggrandizement and patronage.
In reality, it was the demand for representa
tion of what the American people had ordered
by their votes, a protest against new packing of
the committee that tried brazenly to paint Lori
mer's blackness white; a warning to the tory
howlers for "seniority" who exclude La Follette,
with a national reputation for mastery of rail
road legislation, in favor of Aldrich's month-old
senatorial puppet, Lippett, and place Guggen
heim, the grabber of the people's possessions,
on the committee on agriculture and forestry,
mines and mining, public lands and conserva
tion of natural resources.
The frightened tory leaders were yearning for
harmony then. The reasonable demand of the
progressives was conceded. We believe that all
save one promised only verbally. One man,
however, pledged himself In writing. That was
Old Doctor Gallinger.
But when vindictive hatred of the progres
sives raged in the white house in a manner that
not twenty Stimson appointments for campaign
purposes can mask, Old Doctor Gallinger saw
benefits to come or to be denied that evidently
seemed worth much more to him than his writ
ten pledge.
This completed the Gallinger record. And the
progressive senators could not make it consist
with their conception of republican principles
to do honor to such a senator.
It was a protest against the individual The
progressives would have acquiesced in the 'choice
of almost any tory republican save Gallinger or
Lorimer. We do not think a voice would have
been raised against Lodge or even Cullom But
the Old Doctor Gallinger dose was too 'bitter
to swallow.
nSl?08?11 MPected. It was the dra
matic display of the perfect control of tho bal
ance of power in the senate by a small group
of progressive republicans. The tories are angrv
chagrined and bewildered. They do not know
whether to try again to elect the rebuked Gar
linger, to uphold the silly plea that Frye's reste
nation has not yet really been accepted or to put
presEr CnStant attondallce Pn the
B J111 not likely again essay the un
worthy eflqrt of Senator Root, in the poor com
pany of Smoot and Heyburn, to denude as fi
toyal and read out of tho party the republican
who refused to affiliate with the democrats 2?"
refused to absent themselves, whicTwould' have
elected a democrat, and whose dignified Sv
wiupthus voiced by Senator La Follette- P 7
'I do not recognize the right of anv RPnntn
to make the point against me or against anv
one voting as I vote that we are votinc l.ll
our party. I do not recognize thought o anv
secret caucus to dispose of the public bus Less
I do not propose to be outlawed because I c7n
VOLUME 11, NUMBER 2j
not"agree to support any man who may be agreed
upon by such a secret meeting."
As for Old Doctor Gallinger it would seem
an 'injustice to regenerated, progressive New
Hampshire to insist upon his retirement to his
one-time rotton borough in 1915, now that tho
state has beocme self-respecting. It it could bo
done without affronting a friendly neighbor, at
least one amendment for the exportation of the
old doctor at the end of his term to the land
of his nativity.
THE GLORIFICATION OF BEER
"Tho Adolphus Busch golden-wedding cele
bration, from all accounts, paled the magnifi
cence of bonanza kings and outglittered the
gorgeousness of fortunes made in pork, oil or
steel. To beer must now be accorded the dis
tinction of outdoing any previous display of
social splendor in the annals of American
plutocracy.
"What are the $10,000 dinners and ducal
marriages of the effete east to this wedding
feast of a private citizen in the west, where tho
floral decorations alone cost $50,000 and at
which the brido of fifty yeaTS ago was crowned
with a diamond diadem worth $200,000? These
were among the features of the $500,000 cele
bration at Pasadena, while simultaneously 2,000
miles away, in the regions 'where the Bud
weiser flows,' the corks were drawn from 40,
000 bottles to assuage the thirst of the multi
tude. "To the venerable brewer is given the pres
tige of setting a new maTk in American luxury.
Yet tho event is not without its significance as
illustrating the limitations of democracy. If
the creator of the great industry which has
made all this magnificence possible where a
British subject his jubilee would be signalized
by some substantial governmental reward for
his service to thirsty mankind. He would be
created a peer and as Lord Budweiser would
be included in the 'beerago' along with Lord
Ardilaun, Lord Hindlip and Lord Iveagh.
"As it is, the only tokens of official favor he
receives are a $20 gold coin in an ivory case
from President Taft and a gold loving-cup from
ex-President Roosevelt, The presidential re
' membrance was happily typical of the opcasion."
New York World.
CONGRESS THE CENTER
. Springfield, Mo., May 5, 1911 Editor of Tho
Commoner: Many readers of The Commoner
would like to hear, through The Commoner, if
congress has authority to pass a lav curtailing
the jurisdiction of the federal circuit courts,
where they are nullifying state laws by issuing
injunctions. Especially in the two-cent passen
ger rate that has been enacted in quite a num
ber of states. These courts are using the Four
teenth amendment to the United States constitu
tion to defeat enforcement of state laws. It
would seem that a proper construction of the
Fourteenth amendment does not give these
courts any authority to decide a state law regu
lating what railroads shall charge as fare un
constitutional. Regulating what railroads can
charge per mile as fare certainly is not confis
cating property. Would like to hear from you
on this entire subject aB it is certainly a very
important one and one that tlie people are very
much interested in. Yours truly
koo n w , W. M. KIRBY.
592 East Walnut street.
Under the terms of the constitution congress
5S BJ?U tribunals under the supreme court,
tfeing the creator of these inferior courts con-
SX S ?Le power t0 fix theIr Jurisdiction
subject to the constitution. -Editor The Com-
00
"UNDUE" OR "UNREASONABLE"
Editorial in the Philadelphia North
American on the supreme court's trust
decision: Accurate indeed, is the com
ment of a prominent Philadelphia busi
ness man who writes to the North Ameri
can that thiB usurped judicial legislative
action finds a parallel only in a passage
irom a' sermon supposed to have been
wealth? to congreSatlon o great
ol'Betllrei1' you must repent as it were,
ana be converted, in a measure, or else
you may be damned to some extent."
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