The Commoner.
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REQUIRING PUBLICITY ANNOYS THEM
"fv
In an editorial entitled MA Peace of Small
tic," tho Houston (Texaa) Post says: We
the democratic majority In the houso blun-
fcared when it voted to require the president to
ake public all recommendations received by
when considering Judicial appointments. It
a Bryan idea, and one not in consonance
lprith the public service because it directly im-
V1! i- x u n.. j.i Tl 1-
,;pugns uio integrity ui tuo jjiubiuuuu x. la
?" inconceivable that a president of tho United
'Stiktes would yield to improper influences in
'making judicial appoitments. The people do not
lict to the presidency men in whom they do
repose confidence.
Tho constitution gives to the president the
wer of appointment with and by the consent
the senate, and the senate has a right to make
ch investigation as it deems proper into tho
Bharacter, capacity and fitness of the appointee
confirm or reject the appointment. The right
the president to treat communications or sug
gestions regarding appointees as confidential
aught not to be impaired. It is conceivable that
Lthe president obtains much valuable informa
tion touching the fitness of possible appointees
iktcause such communications are treated as con-
Identlal.
.Naturally, if the house measure Basses the
hate and reaches the president he will
Jfpromptly veto it. No sane man could expect him
,to do anything else. It is such a reflection upon
, &&hi8 judgment and integrity that he would be
lacking in self-respect if he failed to do so.
Suppose Mr. Bryan were president and a re
publican congress were to enact any such meas
ure as a result of somebody's criticism of his
judicial appointments? Why, he would promptly
hurl the insult back into the teeth of congress
In a jiffy, and every democrat in the country
(Would applaud him for it. And nothing less can
be expected of an honorable gentleman like
President Taft.
; Of the four new justices appointed to the
supreme court by President Taft two are demo
crats and two republicans. Mr. Bryan has criti
cised all the appointments, even that of Chief
justice White, a southerner, a democrat and ex-
oonfederate soldier. Mr. Bryan's choice was
justice Harlan, a republican. We believe that
all the southern people greatly appreciated the
appointment of Chief Justice White and of
Justices Lurton of Tennessee and Lamar of
Georgia. Mr. Bryan was the first to raise a
j& ;.voico against them and to intimate that evil
. imiutJJUJtJb btouieu txicii uijuiulwciu.
The passage of tne bill alluded to was a piece
of small politics that did no credit to the ma
jority. It was merely a sop to Mr. Bryan -which
was demanded neither by the public service
nor political exigency.
IMr. Brynn favors this reform on tho principle
that the people have the rlprht to publicity with
respect to all public affairs. He would advocate its
passage by a republican or by a democratic con
gress and would clve It his approval regardless
of the political complexion of the congress pass-
iner. Editor The Commoner.
AN ENRAGED CORRESPONDENT
W. S. Gard, Washington correspondent for the
Houston (Texas) Post, sends to his paper the
following interesting dispatch:
Washington, Jan. 29. Is the presidential bee
in the house of representatives going to sting
to death the chances of a democratic victory in
the presidential campaign this year? It really
begins to look like it and the men who have the
success of the party sincerely at heart are be-
ginning to display some anxiety.
Speaker Clark's bee got hiiri into trouble by
causing him to vote for the obnoxious Sherwood
pension bill, the passage of which by the demo-"
crats has knocked into a cocked hat all the
plans previously outlined for appropriations.
The very democrats who voted for that bill are
now making appeals to the members of tho
senato to get them out of the hole by assuming
the burden they feared to take upon themselves,
i. e., voting against the service pension grab.
Failing to profit by Clark's error, Majority
Leader Underwood now shows signs of forgetting
that the country first applauded him because he
demonstrated a fighting spirit, and is now steer
ing a course clearly designed to ward off any
further attacks upon him by William Jennings
Bryan.
His step for the advancement of the steel tariff
schedule ahead of all others at this session of
congress, is now conceded to be in deference to
the charges made against him by the Nebraskan,
and while this topic was yet uppermost in Wash-
ington the Alabamiarf made a second surrender
When he voted for the Cullop amendment to a
local bill which creates an additional district
Judge In Chicago and drops ono circuit judge
ship, resulting in a saving of $1,600 a year.
Representative Cullop comes from Indiana
and he is ono of tho blind followers of Bryan.
When ho chose to uso tho bill reported out by
tho judiciary committee as a vehicle for Uio
demonstration of his loyalty to Bryan he caught
Underwood and a great majority of tho demo
cratic members of tho houso. Only thirteen
democratic members had the courage to vote
against a proposition which is now openly ad
mitted to be unconstitutional, ineffective and
foolish in the extreme. And once more Is tho
country afforded tho amusing spectacle of tho
houso looking and appealing to tho senato to
put to death a measure which that, branch of
congress which is supposed to most directly
voice the sentiment of tho people has passed.
The amendment offered by Representative
Cullop reads as follows: "Hereafter, before
the president shall appoint any district, circuit
or supreme judge, he shall make public all in
dorsements made in behalf of any applicant."
Bryan has repeatedly urged the enactment of
such a law as this and its passage last Wednes
day in the house was clearly in deference to Uio
demands of the Nebraskan. Leaders in the
house, like Underwood and Fitzgerald, admit
sheepishly that they put themselves in the hole,
but they evidently preferred that to another
break with Bryan.
Representative Rufus Hardy, who voted for
the amendment, in discussing it a few moments
afterward, admitted that it was without bind
ing effect upon tho president, but thought it was
a good thing to "scare 'em up a little." No doubt
the majority of the congressmen who voted for
this amendment were aware of the fact that
the house has nothing to do with the president's
prerogatives concerning appointments. Either
that or .they swallowed Bryan's nostrum without
a clear idea of their own or the 'president's
powers. If congress could limit the president's
power over appointments in any respect, it could
impose such restrictions as would substan
tially transfer the appointing power to congress
itself and this is precisely what the framers of
the constitution took pains to guard against.
Suppose the plan of making public all indorse
ments of applicants for public office should be
adopted; nothing would then be easier than tho
indorsement of a reputable candidate by his
enemies in such a manner as to cast odium upon
him by making it appear that he was favored by
crooks and lawbreakers. How easy it would be
for the trusts to indorse any man they did not
wish to see appointed. However, there is little
likelihood of the senate passing a measure so
clearly and so generally admitted to bo at vari
ance with the limitations of the constitution.
This freak amendment to a really meritorious
bill received 150 votes and only eighty-five were
cast against it. Practically all of the insurgent
republicans voted with the democrats. The
record shows a total of thirteen democrats who
voted against the amendment and but one of
these was from Texas, Representative Martin
Dies.
The thirteen democrats who opposed the
Cullop-Bryan plan are Brantley of Georgia, Dies
of Texas, Garrett of Tennessee, Hammond of
Minnesota, Holland of Virginia, Korbly of In
diana, Littleton of New York, Morrison of In
diana, O'Shaughnessy of Rhode Island, Peters of
Massachusetts, Post of Ohio, Shirley of Ken
tucky and White of Ohio.
In speaking of his vote, Representative Dies
said: "I have taken an oath to support tho
constitution and knowing as I do that this
amendment Is clearly in violation of that instru
ment, I could not keep my oath and support
the proposition. I shall probably be' bitterly
assailed, but I shall always have the satisfac
tion of knowing that I did my duty. If congress
. continues to encourage the people in tho belief
that our presidents, our justices of tho supreme
court and all men In high places are corrupt and
dangerous, then indeed is congress Inviting a
great revolution which will bring our govern
ment toppling about our ears. I would rather
give our people renewed belief in patriotism and
'honesty and seek to revive confidence in the
great .men whom wo elect to the presidency and
continue respect for that high office, rather than
be feeding the. present unrest by passing laws
which say on their face that wo believe our presi
dents and our courts are corrupt."
'
Representative Holland points out the folly of
this amendment. He said that supposing the
senate should agajn pass the measure over the
president's veto and then suppose the president
should make tho statement that to mako public
tho indorsements given a cortain man for a
judicial position was not advlHable nor com
patible witli tho public good how would you
force him to make tho Indorsement public? Con
gress might bring impeachment charges, but
with the senato clothed with the right under tho
constitution to pass upon all appointments mado
by tho president, would never convict tho prci
dent because he had- mado appointments which
tho senate itself had later, after duo InvoHtiKa
tion confirmed merely because the president had
not mado public the names of prlvato persons
who had indorsed tho applicant.
A majority of tho members of tho house ad
mit that this was the most absurd action which
this body has taken during the life of the Sixty
second congress and the moat of the democrats
who voted for tho Cullop amendment try to ex
cuse their action by Baying it was for the sake
of "regularity." It begins to look woofully as
though Underwood, Clark, Fitzgerald, Clayton
and other loaders on the democratic side of the
houso have surrendered to the idea that Bryan
alono is "regular" in his democracy vagaries
and all and that in order to be regular they
must follow him to tho bitter end.
A prosident who did not wish to obey tho
Cullop-Bryan schemo could not J)o compelled to
do so and a president who desired to make
public indorsements of candidates for judicial
positions could do so of his own free will with
out any "Cullop amendment," so the futility and
the utility of tho plan is clear without shatter
ing tho faith of the nation in the ability of the
democratic party to legislate by such perfor
mances as this.
DEMOCRATIC DATES
Democratic primaries or conventions will be
held as follows:
February 20 Missouri democratic conven
tion at Joplin.
February 22 Oklahoma democratic state
convention at Oklahoma City.
March 14 Kansas democratic state conven
tion. March 26 Primaries for New York.
March 27 Primaries for North Dakota.
April 2 Primaries for Wisconsin.
April 9 Primaries for Illinois.
April 13 Primaries for Pennsylvania.
April 17 Illinois congressional district con
vention. April 19 Primaries for Nebraska.
April 19 Primaries for Oregon.
April 27 Primaries for Tennessee.
April 2,0 Colorado democratic state conven
tion. April 30 Primaries for Florida.
May 1 Connecticut state convention.
May 9 Iowa state convention.
May 28 Primaries for New Jersey.
Juno 4 Primaries for South Dakota.
THE FIGHT DESCRD3ED
The following editorial, printed in tho
Philadelphia North American, a progres-
sive republican paper, ought to bo re-
produced in every American newspaper.
It is a good description of the present
day contest:
"It is a struggle not to destroy nor
even weaken a single fundamental func-
tion or institution of this government.
It is, a fight to regain representative
government which has been filched from
the people by the economic system which
has developed its control of our politics
as well as our commerce during the last
quarter of a century.
"We concede the honesty of even those
dlstrusters of the people and believers in
the fitness of only a few to rule; sharers
of tho opinion of the former United
States supreme court justice, Henry D.
Brown, that: 'The practice of allowing
the people themselves to choose their
own officers has been the origin of most
of our woes.' We do not seek today to
controvert their theories of government,
but to denote their bent of mind.
"The deepest need of today is for
recognition by the people, that every
man in public life stands with those who
distrust the people, or across the line of
division with those who oppose govern-
ment by a privileged fed. There can be
no more straddling of that line. And tho
test of where each stands has exactly
nothing to do with the party label chosen
for wear."
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