The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-10-15

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and all the fallacies and frauds which
had been and would be urged in de-
Tense Of 1t. In his speech he tore the
schedule to shreds until not even
Chairman Payne dared to stand up
and answer him.
Then he turned his attention to
other schedules and among others
touched on the matter Of a tariff on
| zinc.
Southwest Missouri is the greatest
| zinc district in the world. The pro-
| ducers were asking for a prohibi.ive
| tariff on their product Clark repre-
sents one of the closest districts in
missouri, and the zinc people were
| threatening to defeat his in his dis
trict unless he came to their aid. In
terest was intense to see what the
minority leaders course would be.
Many expected that he would fail to
mention it in his speech unless he
were tainted into it by the Republi-
cans. What was their surprise when
he took it up of his own accord, rid
died the claims of the protectionists,
and stated his position in the most
unequivocal terms in the following
words:
"Of course, everybody stands around
and asks what 1 think about zinc.
| think the very same thing about zinc
that I do about every other article
| of common consumption in the United
States. If ii turns out on investiga-
ton that cent pound Is only a good
revenue tariff on zinc, I am going to
| vote for it; and If it turns out that
| it is a prohibitive tariff or any where
! in the neighborhooc Of that, l am 60
| ing to vote against il. 1 am in favor
of a revenue tariff and dead against
a prohibitive tariff, or anything ap-
| proximating thereto.
NJ 70
ciple and that is that I will not help
any living human being Cypress the
great masses Of the people of this
! country. 1 do not care a straw wheth-
er they come from Maine or from
Missouri, all public plunderers look
alike to me-"
Then In direct acceptance of the
challenge of the Republicans that
they would beat him in his district If
| he dared to vote against the zinc
tariff, Clark roared:
Il may go out of public life on &C
count Of my conduct about this tariff
bill OF course, ] would like very well
to stay, but whenever ] do 60 out,
intend that it shall be with my own
| mental integrity unimpaired and my
own self respect intact. There are
many things worse than being de-
| feated for congress and one of them is
| cowardly surrender to the interests
| as they are called. have done hon
estly and courageously what thought
! would benefit the great body Of the
people and have no apology to offer
for so doing.
Il want to repeat and we might as
well settle 1t and be through with it.
] am going to help any man plumber
! the American people because he hap
pens to live in Missouri"
Carried Out Democratic Pledges.
In the course of this speech, Mr..
Clark also paid his respects to the cot
! ton scedule, the lumber schedule and
/ others of the worse extortions OF the
| Payne bill. He closed by challenging
the Republican leaders to open up the
bill for amendment paragraph by par
agraph-a challenge which was not
accepted. This warfare continued to
! the very end, and so well did Clark
marshal his Democratic forces and
hold his insurgent allies that the con-
ference report on the Payne-Aldrich
bill was adopted by only five votes In
a House Republican by forty-f1ve.
The regular session of the sixty
! first congress brought no relief to the
| harassed Republicans. Almost every
| day saw a pitched battle, and every
| day the Democrats were more united
and more militant, while every day it
became increasingly hard for the reg
ulars to reform their broken lines. OF
course the most spectacular battle was
the famous rules fight, when Mr..
Speaker Cannon was deposed from the
committee of rules. But there were
other battles scarcely less fierce.
Every extravagant item in an appro-
priation bin was fought to the last
ditch.
When complimented on the fact that
under his minority leadership the
I \ ~
after sixteen years of ceaseless wrang-
| ling and pickering, Mr.. Clark replied:
Il was lucky and was elected minority
leader at the psychological moment.
| We gradually left off the bad habit
| of pounding each other and all lined
up and pounded the standpatters. The
Insurgents helped us and we helped
the Insurgents, and together We upset
the regular Republicans"
But those who were in Washington
at this time know how much Clark's
| patience, tact and vigilance had to do
with bringing about the results.
Mr.. Clark said many times during
his years in the minority that he
would advocate nothing in the min
the majority. The little item under
| discussion in this speech was an ex-
ample When Mr.. Clark was elected
| speaker he refused to use the auto
| mobile that had been purchased for
| his predecessor at government ex-
pense. A more important illustration
was the fact that in his speech ac-
cepting the speakership he reiterated
| every one Of the pledges made by the
Democrats before the election, and
| announced that every one of them
| would be carried out to the last letter.
And during all Of the session just
closed he has bent every energy to-
ward the redemption Of those pledges
as the record of the present house
will show. A striking illustration Of
Mr.. Clarks sincerity was that he
| heartily supported changes in the rules
which curtailed the powers of the
| speakership to which he was about to
| be elected.
AS was expected, the Democratic
caucus of the new house unanimously
nominated Champ Clark for the speak
ership ana on the fourth of April,
1911, he was elected to that great Office
| by the solid vote Of the new majority.
| In his speech Of acceptance he CRATE
| fully asserted that in his mind the
value of the office was much enhanced
by the fact that It was unanimously
| bestowed by his party brethren with
~ eood WILL Of his RenuhYira0