The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-27


| substantial downward revision and a
reduction of excessive rates.
In his Winona speech the president
. declared:
THE Payne tariff bill is the best
tariff bill the Republican party has
ever passed.
Senator Cummins declares that the
issue from now until the national
now in control of party destinies be
permitted further to disregard plain
party platforms?
:, President Taft is the recognized
leader of the Republican party and
the great majority of Republicans are
his followers. The president and the
Republican majority in congress CO.
operated in the legislation that has
been written on the statute books
| With whom did Senator CumminS CO.
operate? Let the record of the votes
on this legislation from beginning to
end decide.
Bryan and Cummins.
Mr.. Bryan wants the war against
the Republicans who enacted this
Legislation to go on; Senator CumminS
also wants it to go on. When Lincoln
found an army marching on the ma
tiOnal capital from the south and a
body of symDathizers in the north
encouraging that army he said it was
difficult to determine which was the
most threatening to the welfare OF the
nation. History repeats itself, and
when Senators Cummings. LaFollette,
Bristow and their so-called pro
| gressive" following join hands with
Mr.. Bryan in making war upon the
Republican members of congress who
passed the tariff bill and upon the
| president who signed it, in that con-
test 1 know of but one way to treat
them and that is to fight them just as
we fight Mr.. Bryan and his following.
Champ Clark and the Rules.
Your distinguished fellow citizen of
| Missouri, the Honorable Champ
| Clark, has done me the honor on sew
j eral occasions lately to take issue
with remark made by me to the eff
of the house was fight to prevent
any tariff legislation. The Associated
| Press in a dispatch from Sioux City,
| Ia, under date of October %, quoted
| Mr.. Clark as saying:
| This is untrue and Is proved I'M
true by the resolution offered touch
| ing upon the rules, which authorized
the speaker to Immediately appoint
| the committee on ways and means,
and that committee is the one that
had charge of the tariff bill. The
resolution also authorized the speak
| err to appoint the committee on rules,
mileage, and accounts. These are all
the committees which by any con-
| struction could have anything to do
with the tariff BILL
| If Mr.. Clark is correctly quoted by
| the Associated Press, he did not have
a copy of his resolution with him or
a very clear recollection as to what
| it contained. That resolution adopt
ed for the special session only the
trules of the last congress, and auth
| orized the speaker to appoint the
committees on ways and means. print
| ing, accounts, mileage, and enrolled
bills for the special session only. 1t
then provided that the committee on
rules should consist of fifteen mem
| bers -'who shall be elected by the
members of the house, said commit
tee to elect it's own chairman" and
then Resolved, That the following
| they are hereby elected and appoint
ed members of the committee on
rules" naming fifteen mem bers in his
| resolution.
| Hands 1t Back to Clark.
Mr.. Clark is quoted as describing
| the statement attributed to me as
| "ba1derdash." That seems to be as
| employ in reference to the interview
or statement of Mr.. Clark. though
former president would have used
a shorter and uglier word.
| I do not believe that all the gentle
men who voted with Mr.. Clark on
the rules realized that they were his
| allies against the Republican party,
| but it would reflect more seriously on
Mr.. Clarks knowledge of parliament
| tary practice and the rules of the
| house to believe that he did not fully
| and clearly understand the whole sit
uation. Mr.. Clark assumed an atti-
| tude of non-interference with the tar
| if BILL but he knew, or ought to have
| known, that by his resolution he pro-
posed in the first line to adopt for
| the first session of the sixty-frst con-
gress the rules of the sixtieth con-
gress, and that under these rules it
l. L.
| bill to a vote only by considering ev-
cry one of the 500 paragraphs, with
| thousands of items, in committee of
the whole, with each paragraph sub
ject to amendment in the second de-
| gree-a method by which the bill
could be held in committee of the
whole indefinitely-or by the adoption
of a special rule fixing definite time
for a vote, which would have only
been possible by the action of a ma
| jority of the house upon report
| from the committee on rules.
| This is where Mr.. Clark seemed to
| exercise the most acute intelligence
in naming the members of the COM
mittee on rules, to which any special
rule would have to be referred. He
| named on this committee of fifteen,
| five Republicans who participated in
| the Republican caucus and were in
| harmony with the administration plan
! of an early settlement of the tariff,
six Democrats who had participated
| in the Democratic caucus and who
were loyal to Mr.. Clark's every wish
to prevent tariff legislation, and then
he selected four socalled "insurgent
Republicans who had refused to en-
| ter any caucus. Two of these insur-
gent Republicans Morris of Nebraska
and Nelson of Wisconsin, co-operated
with Mr.. Clark in every move against
the consideration of the tariff bill,
| consulted with him freely, and when
xyaC 70 nnrf
his contention as Loyalty as did any
Democrat in the house.
These two gentlemen and the six
Democrats would have made clear
majority of Mr.. Clarks committee on
rules, even had Mr.. Gardner of Mas
sachusetts, and Mr. Hayes of Califor-