The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-05-30
TWO MEN; TWO CREEDs.

AT LuS pTcScuL luOMcuI LAC wv
leading candidates for the presidency
are two of the best known Of living
Americans-the. only surviving ex-
President of the United States and
the Speaker of the House Of Repre-
sentatives. Both are national char
acters; each has large and en-
thusiastic following; both are iden-
tilted in popular thought with the
west. But in their relation to the
machinery of popular government a
great gulf yawns between them.
Champ Clark's strongest claim to
the regard and gratitude of the
American people arises out of what
he has done to make republican insti-
tutions work more smoothly and
more effectively, to restore respect
and reverence for the orderly oper-
ations of government.
When he first lifted the gavel in
the house or representatives, the
house was not popular laWmaking
body 1t was despotism. Power
ran not from the house to the speak
er, but from the speaker to the
house. The speaker was not the SER
want of the house; he was its master.
Instead of keeping order he gave or
ders; instead of enabling the house
to legislate effectively, subject to the
rules governing all deliberative
bodies, he blocked or expedited leg
islation at his own will.
The republicans, who had been
masters Of the house for many years,
declared that the old ideal of self
governing house with en- impartial
speaker w:s out of date. The house
had become a mob, they said, OBJ
structive, irresponsible, Incapable of
real debate. When a member arose
to offer a motion, the speaker in
quired: For what purpose does the
gentleman rise?' If the statement
of the members intention was dis
pleasing to the tyrant in the chair,
he observed, in a Louis XIV tone:
The gentleman is not recognized for
such a purpose"
Those days are ended. Champ
Clark has achieved what the republic
cans had pronounced impossible. He
has expedited business in the
house under the rules governing
deliberative bodies. He has been the
servant of the house-not it's master.
He has avoided the pitfalls laid for
his feet. Under his leadership the
house has made the most brilliant
legislative record of it's history. :
When men think of Champ Clark,
they think of restorer of the old
simplicity and purity of popular gov
eminent. of one who found a part OF
its machinery broken and abused and
rusty from disuse, and restored it to
effectiveness.
Theodore Roosevelt, on the other
hand, has commanded popular at
tention most successfully by the lib
critics he has taken with the machin-
cry of government AS president he
was famous for ignoring the law. He
| created commissions without war
rant; he did what he pleased, regard.
; less of statutes, with the public do.
main; in the matter of the birth OF
the Republic of Panama he disre.
garded the most sacred Of interna.
tional obligations. His seven years
were fruitful in producing, in the
executive department, just the same
kind of tangle of personal govern.
ment that Champ Clark put an END
to in the legislative. And he made
for his irregularities and lawlessnes:
the same plea that had served Ton
Reed and Joe Cannon in the house
that American institutions, as the
fathers bequeathed them to us, were
unavoidable and out of date; that il
was necessary for the sake of getting
things done to let the rules 60 hang
give a strong man the right of way
and let him do the best he could.
We have seen what Champ CLARK
has done to this kind of lawlessness
in the house; is there any wonder
that the people of the United State:
should now be disposed to commit t
him the task of restoring the dignity
and working efficiency of the ex
ecutive department?-St. Louis Re
public.