The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-08-31


come out here. 1t is alleged that he
believes in a minority rule. l deny
it. 1t is true he is one of a few men
at Washington who have been fighting
the rule of the ring, but what we are
fighting for is to free the majority
from the yoke of a mighty mean min
ority of one-with Joe Cannon as that
one.
1T is also said that there must be
one senator for the eastern section OF
the state. and one for the west.
have heard this argument before. In
some states ii is changed to read
north and south. That belongs to the
old machine system of rule wherein
politicians have way OF cutting the
watermelon squarely in two so that IT
may be divided. not among the people
but among the politicians. In the Ian
guage of the street, my friends. for
get it. There is no reason why there
cannot be two good men i'm the Senate
from one side of the Cascade noun
tains in the state of Washington.
His opponents accuse him of not
being a republican, but of being
democrat. That is preposterous.
met the same accusation six years ago
myself in the state of Kansas. The
fact 1t, we are entering on a new
era in politics and anyone with half
an eye can see it. We are fighting
what has developed in every legisla-
tive body in the country-even found
in city councils, by the way-and
which can be expressed in the one
word Can2onism. Is Cannon the re-
publican party?
Cannon is the arch-type of all who
believe might is right. For 80 years
of his SO years of service in congress,
he has been opposed to every bit of
progressive legislation proposed. He
was against civil service, against meat
inspection, against pure food legisla-
ton, against irrigation in the west
against everything that meant more
rights and more privileges to the peo-
pie of his country. You may think
this man loves to go backward but
he doesn't; neither loves to go back
ward nor forward; he loves to stand
still.
Lorimer and Cannon Friends
He is not only a standpatter but he
is standstiller. He believes in using
grossly and cruelty the great personal
power he possesses for the great and
special interests. He has poisoned the
springs of representative government.
HE will serve the country in the flu
ture largely as a warning not to place
power in the hands of his kind again
"1f there is a man in this audience
who thinks I am radical let him come
with me to the halls of congress and
see how legislation is bought and sold,
traded and stifled. Let us watch Can
non as he comes from the House and
enters his automobile. Who is that at
his side? Always at his side? William
Lorimer of Indiana, whose election to
office was so corrupt that the stencil of
it still pollutes the air Of his state
And who is that other man who is
constantly his boon companion? 1t
is Joseph G. Sibley Of PENNSYLVANIA
You don't know who he is? Well,
Joseph c. Sibley is the man who won
fame by writing Vice president Arch
bold of the Standard Oil company this
letter: My dear Archbold: have a
United States senator who wants
$1,000. Do you want to invest?'
Multiply by Z, Divide by
"As an example Of how legislation
is controlled, I want to tell you the
story of how the payment for trans
hitting the mails was changed. In
1878 there were virtually no Sunday
trains run in this country, and it
became the practice to pay the rail-
roads for carrying the mails by the
average daily weight, which was deter
mined by adding the number of pounds
each day for weeks or so. and di-
viding by six. the number of days the
mails were transported. But in 1907,
"a years later, all the railroads car
ried Sunday mails, and I found that
while the daily average of weight was
then secured by weighing up the mails
seven days in the week, to get the
average. the sum was still divided by
six! I went to a subordinate in the
postoffice department Does this gov
eminent weigh the mails for seven
days and divide by six to get the
daily average? / asked. 1T Does he
replied. l went back to my home and
figured carefully, taking into con-
sideration the amount of mail matter
transported for each of those "a years,
and found that the country had over
paid the railroads $70,000,000 bv
means of this convenient mistake in
arithmetic. In that single year of
1907 the railroads had accepted only
100000 more than they had earn
ed! l wasn't an insurgent in those
days. There wasn't any such thing.
l went into Congress with this little
discrepancy in arithmetic, and made
my speech just as I have made it
here to you tonight. AS general
rule when a man makes an address on
the floor of the house on any subject
whatever, there is applause. But I
got through and sat down amid sill
ence. And 1 walked out of that hall
legislative leper. For three days |
did nothing but walk the streets and
find that groups of congressman dis
persed as / approached, and men in
the public eye turned aside to avoid
me. After that speech railroad men
rushed into Washington as fast as
the trains could carry them. But only
two newspapers east of the Mississippi
river mentioned my speech. However,
not one paper west of the big river
omitted to mention it.
Committee Chairman Welched
Now l know that the will of the
members of congress didn't rule, and
that if | wanted to fix this railroad
robbery business I'd have to go about
in it in the regulation way. So l
went to the chairman of the proper
committee and put the thing before
him. He took my side, and after
months of work we succeeded in get
ting the recommendation into the ap-
preparation bill by vote of 8 to 8, on
a motion to reconsider. which won
The bill went to the house. The
chairman of the committee wrote the
report saying the amendment was on
ly right and just-this report is now