Mohave County miner. [volume] (Mineral Park, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1882-1918, 1906-08-18

the smallest bill for deepening
creek, erecting bridge, buying
post-office site, or even giving a pen
sion to veteran, can be put through
unless the machine is willing.
1t then becomes a matter of politi-
cal life or death. No matter how
strong a man may be, he must bow the
knee to the machine, or he is dead
politically. The machine almost liter
ally holds every congressman by the
throat, and no strength of character
can prevail against it.
This system, which began under
Reed, was perfected under Henderson,
and has reached its climax under Can
non. On occasions when revolt has
been threatened, the machine has met
it with open bullying. For the most
part, the machine prefers to conceal
the iron hand in the velvet glove, but
when revolt is threatened it is a diff
ferent matter. Neither Reed nor
Henderson ever went to the lengths in
this direction that Cannon has gone.
Every day there is a pretense of
catching the speakers eye" Men
crowd around the desk and call for re-
cognition, and the speaker recognizes
first one and then another to move the
passage of a bill. This is a mere
sham. The men who are to be recog-
nized have previously been agreed up
on. and the speaker has before him a
slip of paper containing their names
and the order in which they are to be
recognized. Very often it happens
that he recognizes a man who is not
in the House at all, and has not ad-
dressed him, having been detained fer
some reason after the arrangement
was made. No man can be recognized
who is not on that list. AID to the
speakers room every morning go the
supplicants for a place thereon. No
man can get his name on that list who
has not been subservient to the ma
chine. Even if, by some miracle, he
should get Reorganization, he would not
get his bill through, or even consider
ed, without the o. K. of the machine.
How much chance an insurgent has
can be seen from this.
In Washington, no observer of the
evolution of this system accepts it
with the easy complacency with which
it is regarded in the country at large.
There it is plainly seen that the
House of Representatives has ceased
to exist. The only legislative body
remaining is the Senate. The speak
er alone conducts the legislation for
the other branch. This is not hyper
pole, but simple, matter-of-fact truth.
Even the boss of a local machine must
take other persons into account. One
man power in the United States exists
only in the little back room of the
House lobby.
Without a constitutional amendment
a change has taken place in the
American form of government. Such
things are not unknown under our
system. The founders of the govern
ment intented Presidents to be elect
ed, not by the people, but by an cleo
toral college. No constitutional
ever abolished the elector-
al college: the change in our system
was effected without that and under |
old forms.
So it appears to those who have
watched the system unfold itself day
by day that the House of Representa-
tives has gone out of existance as a
legislative body on all important ques-
tions, and that without any constitu-
tional amendment. The idea of
checks and balances still remains, but |
the checks and balances once entrust-
ed to the House are now entirely in |
the hands of the speaker. He is the
lower branch of Congress, not the
House.
Coo,,a,. ,rOductiou at the two DOuU- /