Imperial Valley press., 1912-10-26

tance. as affecting legislation Of Vital
tions, judiciary and interstate com
merce.
The present head of the committee
on appropriations, who is as certain to
house as is Mr.. Underwood in his pres
ent post is John J. Fitzgerald of Brook
lyn. the Pat McCarren Democrat who
speaker of the last RepubIicanP lie Poh house Sc
and who was of vital assistance to the
Cannon gang in the adoption of its
rules and in the organization of the
house. He is the man who, more than
any other, has been responsible for the
extraordinary fiasco of political legis-
lation attempted to be engrafted by
| Legislation of the last session. 1t was
his Vaccinations that very largely
ating failure to pass the regular ap-
preparation bills before the close of
the fiscal year. There is not a bust
ness house in the world that for five
minutes would maintain a finance com
mittee which so botched and bungl ed
its financial affairs as the Democratic
committee on appropriations of the
the United States government-the
greatest corporation in the world.
Now, the next committee in impor-
tance, as far as the progress of all
parties are concerned, is that on inter
state commerce. This is the commi tt ee
which would handle all bills dealing,
for instance, with the extension of the
power of the interstate commerce com
mission, or creating a federal industrial
commission, such as we ProgreSSiVeS
advocate, for the control of corpora
committee handles such bills as the
pure food bill, and, in fact, all meas
ures dealing with interstate commerce.
You, of course, know that the most
vital factor in all congressional legis-
lation is the chairman cf the commtte e e
which handles the bill. As a rule, l
should say, in at least 95 per cent
of the cases, the chairman is of more
Importance than all the other mem
bers of the committee put together. No
breaking this extraordinary power of
the chairman. 1t arises from the fact
that he is always in position to be of
assistance to members of the commit
lation-the local bills affecting their
own districts and matters in which
they have a direct and imm ediate ner-
sonal interest. He can prevent such
bills coming up for hearing before the
committee. He can facilitate or kill
pretty largely at willard this makes
him. of course, dominant over the com
mittee.
The present chairman of tile commit
| tee on interstate commerce is William
house is Democratic Adamson will un-
| queStionably be returned to his post
| His general attitude is shown by moth
ing more clearly than by the fact that
he fought the present pure food law
| with all his might; that he is opposed
to all pure food legislation; that hc
believes it is an inyasion of the con,
! stitutional rights of the states; that
| he takes exactly the same attitude
toward all measures of federal control
of interstate business; that he is OPP
posed to extending the power of the
Interstate commerce commission and
that he may be counted on actively
to oppose the establishment Of fed
control of corporations doing an inter
state business. Adamson is not only
a tory but he is wholly in sSmpathy
with the extreme reactionary idea. He
| 5 against progress in any form. Be
ing from Georgia, he is certain of re
election as is Underwood of Alabama
and Fitzgerald of New York.
| The fourth committee, that on judi
D. Clayton Of Alabama-another mar
| of the Adamson type, without having
lperhaps, quite as much force Of charac
ter as AdamsOn has and without the
| personal polish and adroitneSS of I'm
derwood. He has the old southern Dem
ocratic idea of the constitution. He i!
| 4 states Fighter: makes violent outer!
| at which he calls the centralizing ten
dcncy of the Progressive proposition
| and is in general as thoroughly tor!
as there is in the house. The judi
.iary committee would handle all meas
ureS affecting changes in the fedora
law and the establishment of the fed
eral courts.
These four committees-ways ant
means. appropriations, interstate com
merce and judiciary are the heart o
congress, they are the citadel of th
ring control They are now absOlutel!
in the hands of tories and they vii
| continue there throughout a Democrat
jc administration.
| The situation would be exactly sim
liar in the senate. The election of MI
Wilson would mean that the Democrat
would unquestionably have substan
tial majority in the senate. The term