The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-08
MAY CHARGE
 COWARDICE Republicans Show the White Feather. STATEMENT OF DEMOCRATS Hot Words Are Passed in Com
 mittee Room, Republican Members Refused to Go On Record as Either Favorins or
 Opposing the Campaign
 Publicity Bill.


 failure today of the Democratic mem bers of the House Committee on Elec- tion of President, Vice-President and Representatives in Congress to enforce action by that Committee Of the piii introduced by MT. Mccall of Massachu- setts (Rep.), to compel the publication of campaign contributions. hot words were passed and the committee meet ing broke up and an organi7ed move ment is now on foot on the Democratic side of the House to openly charge the Republicans with cowardice In sys- teniatically and persistenly failing ana refusing to 20 on record as eitner Ia voring or opposing the campaign pup licity bill.
 committee Messrs. Fucker Of Missourl T,illespie of Texas, Lassiter of Virginia, Hardwick of Georgie and Hackett or North Carolina, after the meeting maoe pnblic a signed statement with the ap- provai of the minority leader. MT. Wh- lians in substance as follows:
 That the meeting of the committee was convened at the call of the char man. Mfr. Gaines of West Virginia, tnat there were present also MT. Burke oi Pannsylvania and MT. Diekema or nalch- iean. (Republicans). and the hve nsnocratic members these eight con- stituting a quorum; that the minority members Insisted upon taking up tne Mccall bill and acting upon. t, tnAs Chairman Gaines thereupon WnAspsps" 1s - 10 MT Burke and MT. Diekema' ms s .ss nubIican colleagues. and they at ohee ieft inc room; that the chairman tnen saciared no quorum present ana ao' Iourned the meeting.
 Indecent Action.
 One of the Democratic memoeIs pro, ps,, sested against this acton ss tna nemo- i ssan,bara of the committee IS as ,ollows: n.4 os West Vir. e,ria Chairman of the Comml..ee oa Election of President. Vcs- rs esiIaS raeeting of the Committee Tor lo,sv ,.IncT fhfs. morning. The Chairman avsna6 tha Committee and upon roii esii MT. Burke of Pennsylvanla anu ,a Wy piekema of Michigan ehepuoIaa- sansl- and all five of the Democratic sIr5hArs of the Committee. answered nrssant. This constituted quorum xTn6r motion made by one of the Dem Mratic members, the char caiieu up IT .R. 20li2. introduced by MT. McCall of Massachusetts, and popuiarly Anomn na'N ss the campaign contribution pupileity bill. .ata htlI at length and at the conclusion or the reading one of the Democratle members of the Committee moveo tnat the biil as read be ordered tavoraDiy renorted and on that motion demandeo ina ureyious question. The Chairman s,,1sezted that the gentlemen present. ,zTho7 ara not members of the Commit tee. had been invited to attend the Committee meeting to discuss the pro visions of the bill and asked 1T It was inc purpose to report 1t without near ing from those gentlemen. The an- nvver was that as the Committee had very short time in which to act and as Congress was fast approaching the close of the present session, as these gentlemen and others had prevlously been heard on similar bills, the motion would be insisted upon
 About this time the Chairman en- ragged In a whispered conversation with MT. Diekema and NIT. Burke, the two Republican members present, after which they immediately left the room. The chair then announced to the Dem ocratic members. all of whom were present, ~that no quorum was present and that he would not put the motion to report the bill. One of the Demo- cratic members asked the Chairman if on a roll call within five minutes a quorum had not answered present, to which he responded Yes Then he was asked If the two Republican men1- bers who had just retired from the room did not absent themselves at his suggestion, and he replied to this
 
 have to answer that question:
 Opposed to Biil.
 "The Chairman expressed himself as being opposed to the Mccall bill re- ferred to. however, and said he did not feel like maintaining quorum to re- port out a bill to which he was op- posed The five Democratic members of the Committee were in favor of re- porting the Mccall bill. and 1t would have been favorably reported but for the ilibustering tactics of the Repub- licans in breaking the quorum. This is d concise statement of the proceedings of the Committee. submitted without comment"
 Chairman Gaines of the majority ls- sued the following statement in reply: Without criticizing the position of any other member of the House I my self do not care to rush Into any print or other public statement of what oc- cured in any Committee. The Mccall bill and the date of its introduction, however, are matters of public record outside of the Committee. It was intro duced on the 31st day of March. It will be seen. therefore, that the anxiety for It's passage has been postponed. so far as all the gentlemen who signed the statement just shown to me. are concerned, until a later day in the ses- sion and until after the Democratic flibuster.
 "The truth is that substantially the
 
 Mccall bill was before the committee during the last Congress and was the subject of great number of hearings and thorough considerations Messrs Fucker, Hardwick and Gillespie were members of the committee at that time. The defects of the present Mccall bill were sufficient at that time to induce them to condemn a similar bill.
 "The Mccall bill is in reality the Perry Belmont bill. Those persons who demand that members of Congress should support without effort to con sider it's real merits, anything which even pretends to be in the nature of reform, may condemn the Republican majority of the committee before being unwilling to report the bill without any attempt to perfect it. Thoughtful per- sons however. I respectfully submit, who will examine the bill, will agree with the majority. This bill under