Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 167, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1911 — PICTURE. OF CURIOUS CON TRASTS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PICTURE. OF CURIOUS CON TRASTS

By EDWARD B. CLARK

CCASIONALLY the proB ceedings of congress taken Bide by 81de wlth the proceedings of state 4q|j> legislatures, or more particularly perhaps state •'* ** political party conventions, present pictures of curious contrasts. ' \ One Ohio Republican state convention endorsed in strong words the' administration and deeds of Theodore Roosevelt, who then was president. In the same platform which gave the president his endorsement there were words of the strongest commendation for Senator Joseph Benson Foraker and his work in the senate of the United States. ■'■?/' ‘ “ v The platform therefore expressed approbation of the legislative efforts of two men, calmly ignoring the fact that one of them was seeking to prevent the doing of that which the other wanted to have done. The resolutions of the convention were insincere either in one case or the other and the historian must take his choice. Senator Foraker was one of the strongly picturesque men in the '.senate of the United States. He was strong in speech and in political and parliamentary methods, and he was picturesque in manner and appearance. He was nervously energetic and as watchful as a lynx. He was the head and front of the Republican opposition in the senate to the railroad legislation which had the indorsement of President Roosevelt Senator Foraker, in fact, was the tireless’enemy of the measure.- He knew that he was espousing a losing cause, but if there had been hope that the measure might be defeated he could not have- been more constant in his attendance at the sessions when the pill was under consideration, nor more alert at every instant of time to raise some point tending to strengthen his own.line of belief and of argument. To one, who lacked all knowledge of the ways of Ohio politics it would have appeared that Senator Foraker was facing the certain condemnation of his constituents by his course of antagonism to his party and to the president. From the words that came to Washington from Ohio it appeared practically certain that the people of the state who held no corporation affiliations were like the same classes of people in other states—determined advocates of railroad regulating measures. 'Zy.

. Other senators who were as bitterly opposed personally to the legislation as was Senator Foraker paid heed to the feeling at home and voted for the bill. The Ohio senator seemed to gain strength in opposition from every message that came over the Alleghany mountains telling him that he was taking the unpopular side. Mr. Foraker’s attitude had In It more than a suspicion of defiance. He was in the thick of the fight from the day that the Hepburn bill reached the floor of the senate until the hour when it was put upon its passage. His long speech in opposition to the measure was one of the greatest speeches which he had ever delivered. It was eloquent It was based upon premises which by the speaker’s art was made to appear sound, and the listening laymen might well have been “almost persuaded” that all the right and the reason and the logic were with the cause of the senator from Ohio. It was a long speech which Mr. Foraker made, but its interest made the time speed on its way. He 'was not content with the one utterance. At different times during the debate he rose to combat the statements of some of his colleagues, and at every such time he spoke vehemently and well. President Roosevelt during the months of agitation over railroad rate matters said some things which made it appear strongly that he felt that men who opposed legislation which he favored were not likely to have the countenance of their constituents. Ho lived to see'a convention of his party declare practically that he was right, and the men who were (Ilametrlcally opposed to him also were right. The Republican party in Ohio succeeded In framing resolutions that read much like a bit of the rarer humor of Mark Twain. Senator Foraker in addition to being opposed bitterly to railroad rate legislation, was the chief stumbling block In the senate to the securing of such action on statehood questions as the president wished to have taken. Mr. Foraker did not wish to see Arizona and New Mexico united, and he did not hesitate any longer to take issue with the president on the matter than he hesitated to take issue siltb his own rate legislation. ' Certain great corporations' were greatly interested In the question of

the admission of the two territories as it was first proposed. There was a lobby evidence In Washington/ and it worked literally night and day to defeat in the senate the statehood bill as it had passed the lower house. The Ohio senator paid no attention at all to the stories of outside influences that were brought to bear to 'secure the defeat of joint statehood. He at times was vitriolic in his speeches on the matter of the admission of the territories. To him every other man’s logic was illogical and every other man’s reasoning was unreasonable. Seemingly he cared nothing for criticism, and in truth the senior Ohio senator did care nothing for criticism.

Possibly it is this sort of sticking to one course no matter how the tides and the winds may set in and blow, that kept Mr. Foraker’s constituents at that time loyal to him, even though they disagreed utterly with that which he said and did. Certain it is that they gave him an indorsement for doing that which probably nine-tenths of them think that he ought not to have done. If the Ohio state .convention of several years ago had declared specifically in its platform that a certain law should be passed by congress the next winter and Senator Foraker should have gone to Washington and caused the defeat of the statute which had been demanded, a great many of his constituents doubtless would iiave patted him on the back for disobeying them. The agitation for Canadian reciprocity during the last winter brought sharply to mind the final success of the demands to enter into a reciprocal trade agreement with Cuba during the earlier part of Theodore Roosevelt’s administration.

Cuba already had cost the United States a large sum of money in addl-. tlon to that spent for the prosecution of the war against Spain. Eight years ago President Roosevelt called congress together In session for the express purpose or-dis-cussing a measure of trade reciprocity with the island which had just taken a place among the independent nations of earth. One of the most interesting debates and one of the most interesting situations known to legislative history grew out of the desire of this country to give Cuba commercial advantages. In the first instance new trade relations were provided for by the treaty. The senate of the United States alone has to deal with treaties after they have been drawn in proper form by the state department and have been sanctioned by the. president. It is for the senate to ratify or to reject treaties. u Under the Constitution all measures for the raising of revenues must originate in the bouse of representatives. The leaders of the honse, knowing that the trade treaty with Cuba touched the revenues, objected to the form of the legislation and insisted that Instead of a treaty the reciprocity measure should have its origin In the lower house of congress. .The reasoning of the house members was disputed weakly, and the representatives won their point The Cuban reciprocity treaty became the Cuban reciprocity bill. After the ways and means committee of the house had considered it it went to the floor for debate and there both the Democrats and the Republicans tried their best to make political capital out of the legislation. The Democrats held that the Republicans were coming over to their way of thinking and that the Cubans could thank their stars that Democratic doctrine had prevailed. The Republicans held that reciprocity was a principle of the party emphasized by James G. Blaine and later by William McKinley. At is was, the bin went through the house practically unanimously, and It was sent over to the senate in plenty of time for that body to have taken action before the close of the extraordinary session which was to come perforce at the hour set for the opening of the first regular meeting of the Fifty-eighth congress. The senate; however, is a deliberate body, almost maddeningly fit- i 'v '• ■ •> **’ > ** ■*

deliberative at times, and so it was that the Cuban reciprocity measure was not acted upon until the regular session had come and was some weeks on its way. ■ The . senate had a row of Its own before the reciprocity bill, after coming from the house, was referred to a committee for consideration. When in treaty form the measure necessarily was booked for consideration by the committee on foreign relations, of which Senator Shelby M. Cullom ei Illinois was and is the chairman The minute that the house made good its contention that the measure was a bill and not a treaty, the finance committee of the senate declared that it was the proper body to consider the measure, and a strongjlght was made to take the matter away from Senator Cullom and give it Into the hands of Senator Aldrich. The Rhode Island senator was a power, but the Illinois senator was also a power, and In this particular instance Illinois came out ahead of Rhode Island. The committee on foreign relations took the reciprocity bill under consideration, and later reported upon it, and after debate It received the senate’s sanction. -

The house of representatives spends a good deal of time occasionally over what seems to be trivial things. It is only fair to the house to say, however, that most of these seemingly trivial matters are those which concern the spending of money, and with the navy drawing over 1100,000,000 a year and with the other departments keeping pace with the navy’s draft on the treasury, economy in small things is necessary. The house succeeds in getting some fun out of the disputes over small expenditures, and the time and the task are lightened by the pleasantries.

In an army appropriation bill a small sum of money was included to provide for the purchase of books, magazines and newspapers for the use of the general staff. Of course, the supposition was that all the reading matter purchased was to be of a technical kind and of service to army officers in their profession. In fact, money previously voted had been used for service magazines and for military books only. An Indiana member, however, wanted the appropriation cut to S2OO, and said it should be specifically stated that nothing was to be bought except printed matter bearing on the profession of arms. General Hull of lowa, who was chairnaan of the house committee on military affairs, jumped to the defense of the «ssafilted army. He said that there wasn’t a yellow-backed book on the shelves of the war department. He declared that “army officers may like to read books like Wilkie Collins* ‘Lady In White,’ but they buy them out of their own pockets.” General Hull’s mistake In naming the title of Wilkie Collins’ “Woman In White” was the subject of a goodnatured gibe or two, but attention was quickly turned away from the slip by a Democrat from the Hoosier state who jumped to his feet and said that in connection with this army bill there was an" Ariel” thing that he wished to speak about The members turned to the Indlanian qnlckly, expecting from the use of the word "Ariel" a rapid jump from “The Woman In White" to “The Tempest," but the Indlanlan disappointed them by talking about an army flying machine which he said was intended to make “arlel” navigation possible, “but which fell kerflop." The sunny southern land which gave the country Pod Dlsmuke and Dink Botts contributed recently three more candidates for name and fame, and when they were read out in the senate the grave ones were moved into smiling. Among the nominations presented to the senate for confirmation appeared these names of residents of Dixie: Tilman Bunch, Lovlck Pinkston and Epamlnondas Bigler.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT