Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-05-26
NORRIS PAYS COMPLIMENTS TO
SPEAKER CANNON'S RULE.

Representative George w. Norris, Of
Nebraska, leader of the Washington
insurgency, said:
"C~annonisn" Is a new word that has
been coined during the last two or three
years. 1t represents Il condition that mas
| been somewhat discovered and exposed.
"Cannonism" is not an individual. but a
system. 1t represents opposition TO
progress. 1t represents 4 Stand-still policy.
1t represents a people living in the days
that are past. It represents Il condition
opposed to all advancement: 1t represents
the control of political parties by machine
rule. 1t represents all that is corrupt and
has been corrupt in the administrator and
control of politics In the last twenty-five
or thirty years. 1t places the dollar above
the man.
Insurgency represents the opposite of all
these propositions. / know that 1t is
claimed by those who control the machines
In political PARTIES that those who have
stood against that machine and proclaimed
its corruption are traitors to the party.
l want to say that the Republican party.
as soon as 1t ceases to be a progressive or
ganization has lost Its usefulness. It was
born in the idea of progression, the placing
of individual rights above party rights, thu
right of human beings to control themselves
and not to be controlled by anybody else.
IL represents the same thing today and the
men that are claiming that this Is not SO
are not our representatives, but are only
of scorn being pointed Mt their own guilty
heads.
There is no man big enough to drive any
man out of the Republican party and |
United States Senate, the House of Repre-
sentatives, or whether he is an attorney
general sitting In the cabinet of the Pres
ident of the United States.
The Republican party must purify itself
by its own acts like a mountain brook; me
man serves his party best who tells the
truth about it. We must drive the money
changers out Of the temple.
[ am speaking tonight not OF an indi-
vidnal. but the principle is lust the same,
whether he is handling the House of Rep
resentatives or controlling the Legislature
of a State. AS a matter of fact. the war
fare which the insurgents carried on was
centred against the machine that con
trolled the House of Representatives. IT
Is the one principle everywhere. We care
but little about the individual. AS a mat
ter of fact he has been shorn already of
a great deal Of his power and his inhu-
ence. He Is already in the condition in
which the gods place a man that they
wa to destroE, He ~ as an i9 9ciy v ,sd
control of the House as though he had
never been born.
He took occasion to say in a speech that
all the so-called insurgents should be
hanged. II is cruel to cut them off from
life without giving them any time to re-
pent and sent them to a place where in a
few short years at most thew must again
associate with him.
Those insurgents down in Washington
have been laboring under a great many
ulSduN dildEtS. anu IpN toliitS TIE ttlt
of the boss in New York marking every
one of them for political death, which
means that all the great life insurance
companies should take notice and raise
the premium in life insurance. as they are
not considered desira nle risks.
The duty. jurisdiction and lower Of the
any defined by the constitution OF the
United States. 1t Is provided that there
he terms of two years in order that the
! representatives may often go before the
people TO give an account of their steward
! tional legislative body should be free from
or individual. however powerful or wise.
constitution to the speaker. 1t only SAYS
have the power to elect n speaker. It IS
member of Congress. If Won search the
law Won will find that the speaker is given
no control over that body Nowhere Is lie
directly or indirectly given any power to
control any mans vote or in any way
srnarvise or influence that institution.
What then Is the secret of this mans
~thority? You will find that II is in the APP
pointment Of the committees, that there is
no patronage unless it goes through the
speaker of the House.
At times the speaker has greater power.
in n negative way, than the president, and.
as a matter Of fact. there Is not always SO
much fault to he found with a man who
becomes subservient.