Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-09-04

, consideration and all of his Progress
} slve followers voted for 1t; then the
pending order for the removal of the
other postmasters was indefinitely
: postponed and the order asking fol
: the opinion of the justices of the su.
preme court upon the constitutions
question was referred to the commit.
tee on rules, of which Mr.. Wheeler was
chairman and so far as the Legislative
record goes 1T has remained peace
fully in the pigeon holes of that com.
mittee and was never heard of again
If you can believe that Mr.. Wheeler's
motive in this matter was merely q
desire for publication of the political
life of Maine you must forbear harsh
criticism although you may question
the wisdom of his course, but If he
was impelled by motives of personal
ambition this attempt of his to dis
qualify enough members to defeat Mr.
Burleigh, after he had failed to per-
suade a sufficient number to repudiate
their pledges. must take its place
among the most unworthy political
tricks that have ever been attempted
in the history of Maine politics.
| Wnat Anpitton lost
The results of this postmaster fight
and the split of the Republican par
ty in the House We're disastrous upon
I two items of the administration pro-
gram. If Mr.. Wheeler had seen fit
to work with the Republicans as the
rest of us did l have no doubt that
both the Massachusetts ballot and the
Workmans Compensation act would
have been passed in the last Legis-
lature. Both these bills were passed
by the Republican Senate and put up
to the House repeatedly in committees
of conference but though Progressives
individually voted for them their &C
ton earlier in the House had deprived
us of our responsible majority and
made it much more difficult to. hold
the party together. Mr.. Wheeler's
personal attitude on the compensation
bill was also a disappointment to us.
| We thought we had his promise to
| speak upon the bill and were disheart-
| ened by his failure to do so and we
had the feeling that he and the other
Progressives in the Legislature were
more concerned about putting the Pro-
gressive party in an advantageous po-
sition politically than they were about
the passage of the bill. Mr.. Wheeler
knew as everybody knew that the gov
ernor and Mr.. Peters and other Re-
publican leaders of the House were
doing their utmost to secure the pass
age of the bill and it is hard to I'M
derstand how with his knowledge of
these facts he could bring himself even
in the heat of political discussion to
go into the Third district, as | under
stand he did last year and assert that
Mr.. Peters had the power to put the
compensation bill through the House
and that it was not passed on ac-
count of indifference and hostility on
the part of Mr.. Peters.
Public Utilities Bill
Let US now notice ethe record with
regard to the Public Utilities bill. Mr..
Wheeler claims that the leaders of the
Republican party deliberately planned
to pass bill in the interest of the
corporations. He does not say that the
bill actually passed was one of that
sort. In fact he said on the floor of
| the House in speaking for it that he
and all the other members of the COM
mittee had considered and were unani-
| mously agreed upon every detail of
| the bill but he does charge the leaders
with the deliberate purpose to pass a
| bill in the interest of corporations and
if that charge is true Mr. Peters and
all the other leaders in both Houses
ought to have been retired in disgrace
from the Maine Legislature and from
public life. He says thede was great
fight to decide whether this bill should
be referred to a special committee or
to the legal committee and intimated
that it was through the special COM
mittee that the leaders planned to
! pass their bill. Now the fact was and
| Mr.. Wheeler knew it, that the sug
gestion of a special committee came
| from me personally. / recognized our
responsibility to frame an adequate
and efficient public utilities bill and
suggested as the best method that a
special committee be appointed COM
posed of six lawyers. Mr.. Wheeler was
to be a member of this committee and
was assured of that from the begin
ming by Mr.. Peters and Mr.. Wheeler
was in favor of this special committee
so far as we knew until he found thai
the craftsmanship of the committee
carried with it no special power or
honor in the framing of the bill and
yet he let it be known that unless he
could have the craftsmanship of this
committee in addition to everything
else he had asked for and received in
the way of committee appointments
he would oppose the appointment of
the special committee and it was upon
this rock that the special committee
program split. The bill was referred
to the judiciary and legal affairs com
mittees jointly. These two committees
appointed a special committee of six
of which Mr.. Wheeler was member
and these six members including Mr..
Wheeler worked efficiently and dill
gently week after week until they pro-
duced a bill which had the unanimous
approval of all the members of the
committee. 1 have told you in some
detail so much of the little story of
the last Legislature to make it plain
that the third party movement did
not result from any actual or attempt
ed steam rolling on the part of the
leaders and that Mr. Wheeler'S naive