Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-06-23

He urged, but unsuccessfully, the
abolition Of the party emblem. in pure.
~ municipal elections; smaller city
councils with large part of the mem
bership elected at large; state wide
primaries for all who are to represent
the state officially or politically, and
the non-partisan nomination Of judges
1t is with particular pride that we
point out that the resolution endors-
ing the income tax amendment,
though beaten in New Jersey, was en-
acted in Ohio. thus enrolling our state
with the 80 that have. adopted it,
rather than with the reactionary
seven that defeated it."
Qualifications of Champ Clark.
Champ Clark, third of the Demo
cratic triumvirate now seeking the
presidential nomination, has less of
actual concrete legislative work &C.
complished to his credit than his two
rivals, the governors of New Jersey
and Ohio. They have had legisla-
lures to handle and are credited with
the good work done by those law-mak-
ing bodies. Clark has had the house
OF representatives to preside over,
but as yet no legislation has come out
OF this congress, although the house
itself has done it's share under Clark's
speakership and the brilliant floor
leadership Of his friend and ally, o.
car Underwood of Alabama
You cannot exactly compare the
nf with hof of
either Judson Harmon or Woodrow
Wilson," said Dorsey w. Shackleford.
the veteran representative from Mis-
souri,. HE cannot be credited with
forcing upon congress any special
legislative program, as the two gov
errors did with their legislatures.
That is not the province Of speaker
OF the house Of representatives In
fact, the last speaker who thought it
his duty and his prerogative to bend
the house to his will, to compel legis-
lation or to automatically refuse even
a hearing to measures of which he
d1sapproved, is not speaker any more.
He sits now as member of the min
GRITTY on the floor while Champ Clark,
who never sought to be a boss" when
he was floor leader of the Democratic
minority, now occupies the chair.
CLARK is fit presidential timber
both because of his long political ex-
perience and because of his shreWd
political sense. During the long,
weary time that the Democrats were
in the minority in the house, Clark
was the only leader who was able to
command a united following. | have
no criticism to express upon his pre-
decessors. Both are living and doing
the work of democracy in higher sta
ton. But with all their SURPRISING in
tellect, Champ Clark, under his home
ly Missouri manner and method, had
some quality which enabled him to
weld the Democratic party into a solid
phalanx and hold it together
Nothing of the Gear" in Him.
This quality is undoubtedly his
readiness to accept counsel-nay,
more, his eagerness to seek it. He is
less a leader of than a co-operator in
the forws I'd Democratic movement.
We have mad three months almost OF
his speakership, and the cry of Gar
has not been raised once on either
side of the chamber. This does not
proceed in any degree from the fact
that the amendment of the rules -
the last congress robbed the speak
Of much of his autocratic power If
Clark had possessed that power he
would not have used it as an auto
crat. Without it he exerts as much
influence over the actions of the
house or Of its committees as his
autocratic predecessor did The diff
ference seems to be that members
sought the Office of Speaker Cannon
to beg permission or to solicit an op-
portunity to do this or that; they go
to Champ Clark to ask his advice as to
the course they have in mind. and to
secure his cooperation in it.
This feeling of fellowship, this con-
viction that his motto is fair play, in
stilled by Speaker Clark into the
minds of his party associates, is what
has made the Democratic majority the
cohesive and unanimous engine of
legislation that it is today.
When the Republicans woke up to
the fact that they had lost the house
they began prophesying dire things of
the dissensiOns and quarrels that
would rend the Democratic majority
into impotent fragments And not
merely Republican politicians. but
newspapers of every shade of poll
tics even Democratic - expressed
the same dismal predictions But I'M
der Clark in the chair and Underwood
on the floor harmony has been COM
plete Now the Republicans concede
to us victory in the coming presiden-
tai election, but insist that the Dem
Ocrats cannot stand complete power
that they will be so torn with inter-
nal discussions as to make the Demo
cratic administration failure and
pave the way for the triumphant re-
turn of the Republicans in 1916
1--WE of Missouri, and Democrats of
many other states, say that the way
to avert the fulfllment of this proph-