Arizona republican., 1914-03-20
Methods of the Majority in Congress Little Different from Those Prac ticed When the Republicans Were in Power
HOW THE RECORD
 WAS FALSIFIED
Disclosure Made by Inves- tigation Conducted by National Voters League of Plan to Save Hide of Democratic Member
Special to The Republican,


 WASHINGTON, March 19.-Con- crete evidence that the Democratic party has fallen into the careless, if not evil, ways of the Republican party while it was in power was given in the House this week. when Represen- tative M. Clyde Kelly. of the Commit tee on Rules sprang a veritable sen satiOn. By direct testimony of those involved, MT. Kelly showed that A. members claimed to have risen to de- mand a roll call on December 9th, when only 23 had been counted. Mir. Kelly absolved Speaker Clark from any sus- piciOn of irregularity, but he pointed out emphatically the recklessly careless manner in which the business of the people is transacted by it's representa- tives of the two old parties
 The demand for a roll call arose on the question of referring to the Judi ciary Committee a resolution from Representative MacDonald a Progress sive of Michigan, providing for the ex- puisiOn of a prominent Democrat whose name had been mentioned conspicuous ly by Col. Martin M. Mulhall in his dis closures of disgraceful lobbying. Those who demanded the roll call feared that the resolution would be pigeon -holed in the Judiciary Committed or as one member has expressed it to Secretary Haines of the National Voters League:
 T think the resolutions were inn properly referred to the Judiciary Com mittee, for I suspected they would sleep the sleep of death there"
 And, through the desire of the Dem ocratic majority to avert possible eX- posture of one of it's members, and the acquiescence of the Republicans in this desire, the resolution never has been brought to a showdown.
 Charges recently voiced, that more than 23 members had demanded a roll call. although only that number had been counted led the National Voters League to send letters to all the mem bers of the House, asking each if he was present on that occasion and whether he had risen to demand a roll call. Forty seven replied that they had risen in the demand. eight were not certain: sixteen returned evasive an sWers': fifty-six said they were not present: and only five replied that they had been opposed to the roll call.
 Of the forty-seven who claim to have risen, fourteen were Progressives thus showing that the Progressive party. with a total of twenty members, had furnished thirty per cent. of the fear
  29O members and the Republicans with 123 had averaged only thirty-five per cent. each.
 While this disclosure caused a sensa- ton. it occasioned no surprise. In de- cades of reactionary rule observers in Washington have become accustomed to the conduct of the peoples business by both Democrats and Republicans in slp-shod manner if not worse. The House is run dictatorially on the orders of few Headers of the majority, Ot- ten in a combination with leaders of the minority. and legislation of even the most vital import is enacted or 1 killed by half a dozen partisan poll 1 ticians. Secrecy silence and the eau i GUS have been used to keep the people 1 in the dark and to shield those re | sponsible for sins of omission and com | mission.
 1 How readily this system could be overthrown. however. and the people | be given a square deal is seen in the tremendous influence for good already exerted by even the few Progressives who now leaven the whole Through | the insistence of the Progressive mem Der. the Committee on Rules has been obliged to adopt rule that all votes on every question before it shall be recorded and shall be made public Through the insistepce of the Progress siye member of the Committee on Banking and Currency, that committee decided to hold public sessions in Its discussions of the Currency Bill This the Democrats avoided by holding sec ret conferences of the democratic members and freezing out the Progress sive and Republican members, but the wedge of publicity had been inserted and the Democratic party was forced to confess itself as much an advocate of secrecy and silence as ever the Re publican party had been in it's. most defiant days.
 Above all, however. these facts now are getting before the people through the ever increasing independence of the press. and the voters are learning that they can expect no more from a professedly progressive Democratic majority than they could from the most avowedly reactionary Republican majority The system remains. be the
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