New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-05-22
LEGLSLATIHE FREEDOM.

1t is a fortunate thing for the country that
! we have in Washington a statesman of the in
sight and foresight of the Hon. Samuel w.
| Mccall. Quick TO see usurpations of the rights
| OF the people and-mOre dangerous yet-Of the
| rights of the representatives Of the people, he
| is true TO the Massachusetts tradition of James
Otis and Samuel Adams. But for his alertness
to discover dangerous tendencies and his stead
fastness in fighting them Congress might in the
near future have had to adjourn it's sessions
to the penitentiaTy He succeeded the other
day in beating the "anti-graft bill" after it
came from conference And he did it by telling
his colleagues that if it passed 1.-THE honest
imam would have to have a lawyer with him
Ito keep him out Of JAIL" The thought of hav
ing to add private counsel to their retinue was
too much for the Congressman, and they re-
solved not to forbid themselves TO use official
information for speculative purposes at any
such price
AS a result of the cotton statistics leakage.
bill was prepared to punish officials who. be-
coming possessed of knowledge tending to az
feet the market value of commodities. should
pEematurely publish the information or use it
for speculative purposes. The bill orig
inally drawn with the aid of the Solicitor Gen
eral and was subjected to months of re1in-
ing by the Judiciary Committee and a sub
committee which included Mr.. Littlefeld. Of
on the strength of Senate resolution. it was
amended in conference making it apply not
only TO executive officers, but to members Of
Congress also. Hence Mr.. McCall's tears. The
bill had been all right when it applied to some
body else When members of Congress were
included. however, Mr. Mccall discovered that
those same provisions would send innocent
men to Jail He and his colleague Mr.. Gard
her, could not tell the Gloucester fishermen
about the progress Of negotiations in their be-
half, lest the information might affect the price
of fish. 1t never occurred to him before, how
ever, that by the same token the Secretary Of
the Treasury could not talk about currency
legislation lest his views affect the price of
wheat. But that was because the executive Off
GERS were not in danger from the OvershadOw-
ing man on horseback who eats up Congress
men alive and keeps Mr.. Mccall in q cold
sweat waiting for his turn to come
UsurpatiOn was the real trouble with the bill
Mr. Mccall was afraid that if Congressman had
any more mHZes of the law to thread. their
necks might be too handy to the halter when
the tyrant wanted to invade the chamber and
string them up. Perish the thought that they
wanted to speculate on official information!
Congressman did such a thing! They
merely did not wish the executive and judicial
power of the government to have any add-
tiOnal hold upon them. Mr. Mccall does well
thus TO preserve from invasion the cOnstitu-
tiOnal guarantees of lawmakers. but if there
! is any disposition to invade those immunities
he ought TO have gone little further and re-
pealed the laws already on the statute books
by which tyranneal executives can trap hon
est but unwary men. There is the law for
bidding Congressman to practise before the
departments. of which Senator Burton is a
victim There are laws against bribery, and
many others, which a President may use to
prosecute obstreperOUs legislators. Mr.. Mccall
does well to protect the honest spectators from
tyranny. but it seems to us that his good work
has only begun. and that the eagle cannot
breathe freely or scream aloud so long as an
executive minion of district attorney has any
hold upon the honest Congressman who neg
lects TO hire legal pilot to see that he keeps
straight