East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1915-02-18
(Staff Correspondence in Portland
Journal.)

1
(Staff Correspondence in Portland
Journal)
SALEM, ore, Feb. 1S.-Bossism II
the senate is the menace of the leg
| islative session. The burly gentle
man who is trying to make his viii
the will of 80 men is former train
ed lieutenant of the notorious Herrir
machine that once dominated the leg
isuatures and ran the politics of Cali
fornia. He got his training in camI
where inside cabals filled California
with proxy governors, proxy legisla'
tors, proxy congressman, proxy rail-
road commissioners and proxy courts
He is playing his game with a mas
ter hand. He is suave when suavity
is expedient But when it suits his
purpose, he turns on his fellow sena'
tors and howls in the same thunder
tones which, as contractor, he roars
at his Greek laborers.
For SS days he has been stacking
the legislative cards. and with only
two days left of the session, he is just
beginning to deal He has purposely
held up legislation until the calen'
dars are so congested that in the clos
ing hours members will be in that con.
fusion and bewilderment which sup
ply the PSYCHOLOGICAL opportunity for
jobs and pokers to be slipped through
House Appropriations Held Up.
Not an important house bill has
been allowed to pass the senate. But
single appropriation bill has been
passed. Not in the history of Oregon
has legislation been so piled up and
confused. and it is the result of the
bold. audacious work of one militant
active, crafty mind.
Members Of the house are in con-
sternation over what is going to be
done to their pet bills. 1t is exactly
the state of mind for which the bold
senate boss has been sleeplessly, tire
lessly planning the past 2S days, since
the legislature met, and in the weeks
preceding the session.
Ii is the old dethroned California
machine plan resurrected and applied
in Oregon. Worried over the possible
fate of their bills in the senate. many
house member is wavering over the
issue of whether to surrender and SER
vilely do the will of the senate dicta-
tor or to abandon his bills to their
fate 1t has not yet occurred to all
of them that by organizing for re-
sistance they are more powerful than
any boss, whether trained in Califor'
mia or in oregon. and that by con-
certed action they can emancipate the
legislature and restore real represen-
tative government in oregon.
Afraid of the Big Stick.
The position of many of the leg
islators is pathetic. They are good
men and want to do right, but on
many a measure. in the senate for in
stance. they are surrounded and hem
med in by embarrassing complica-
tions with their own bills and are
ruthlessly carried down a stream they
90 not want to travel by the dominat-
ing will of the master manipulator,
4 web has been cleverly woven around
them and the big human spider
swings them along in the brutal exc.
cution of his purpose.
The situation would be humorous
were it not for the tragedy that it Is
one man legislating instead of 80, that
his program of reaction and manipu-
lation, If successful, will spell ruin
for the record of the 1915 session and
that after it is all over, there will be
scandal and reaction against the leg
islature when the amazed public fin
ally discovers what was slipped
through in the closing hours of an ILL
fated session, brought to its ruin by
the brutal ambitions and cruel abuse
of his fellow members by one bold
and arrogant boss.
On the side, some OF the men whom
the dictator seems to drive like team
to his legislative juggernaut will whis-
per to you that they resent the idea of
one man legislature but they don't
do it when the ponderous boss Is in
sight When one such was asked why
he doesn't stand up and fight he said
his bills are still in committee and
that If he resists he may not be able
TO get them reported out.
And this is the explanation Of why
the legislative department of the great
state OF oregon is under the master
ship and personal domination Of one
lone man who learned his trade in
politics of William F. Herrin, one Of
the most successful bosses who ever
ran legislatures, elected governors
controlled courts and bossed states.
Among the purposes Of this legis'
lative Colossus who bestrides both
houses and seeks to force them to do
his bidding is the defeat Of all legis.
lation favorable TO labor, and to wo-
men. the passage OF laws favorable
to special interests passage of meas
ures favorable to contractors and cer-
tain kinds of paving interests, the re-
striction of the initiative and referen-
dunn and the passage OF bills Great
ing new jobs and legislating public
employees out Of jobs to make room
for other employees to be appointed by
the governor.
The number of Jobs proposed Tor
appointment by the governor is amaz'.
ing.
Nothing like it has ever been seen
in the oregon Legislature. No at
tempt to list them has succeeded be-
cause the jobs to be filled by appoint
ment are so many. An astounding
bill in the senate yesterday capped the
climax when measure was intro
duced taking all appointments out Of
the hands OF the state board, consist.