The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-29
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY E. HOUSE
(From Philadelphia Public Ledger.)

washington, April &c.
The most powerful man in the
house of representatives is Philip Pitt
Campbell, of the Third Kansas dis
trict. In so far as the destiny of
embryo legislation is concerned it is
possible Mr.. Campbell is the most
powerful man in congress. He rep
resents a rural constituency covering
nine Kansas counties, infiltrated in
one or two of it's more congeSted CEN
tiers by a dense population which is
alien in speech, habit, thought and
mind. Mr.. Campbell, whose side line
is that of resembling one of the elder
statesmen, gets his drag" as chair
And it was the committee on rules
from which Thomas 3. Reed and
Joseph Quincy Cannon derived their
power.
Most everybody remembers the dra-
matte political incident in which ''Un-
Gle joe figured as the shorn lamb.
But few remember exactly what the
insurrectionists did to him. 1t was
iron within velvet. They merely took
the committee on rules away from
him and lodged responsibility for it
in the whole house. Victor Murdoch
was Uncle Joe's' nemesis. He
lighted the match that started the
conflagration. Murdock's ~ original
grievance was that Speaker Cannon
Idu given SdUlDDell, In6H COHST0SS-
man from a district adjacent to Muir
docks, the preference in an appoint
ment to the committee on rules. They
shook Uncle joe loose, but Camp
bell stayed on the committee. He
came along slowly, but as Murdoch
stepped out of the political picture,
Campbell, under the workings of the
seniority rule, became the chairman
of the committee and the most power
full man in the house.
The chief function of the committee
on rules is to keep legislation which
it deems undesirable from the floor
of the house. 1t not only can do it.
but it does do it. Congress in both of
it branches is swamped with proposed
legislation, the purpose of which is
to confer health, wealth and happiness
upon constituents of individual mem
bers. It is a paternal age. Congress
will pass almost any bill put up to it.
The committee on rules weeds the
| calendar of that which it character
ICES as childhood to the grave 1egis-
latioh and ties it up in its committee
room, where it finally expires by lfmi-
tation. Chairman Campbell is against
paterna1 legislation. and he is opposed
to the Sheppard-Towner, or baby
| BILL and all other measures of like
character. The probability that any
of them will reach vote in the house
VI 1SkJ1 SSetAldlANCo 10 81 ASAIAOAC do ~
be negligible. Particular reference is
made to the 'baby bill'' for the reason
that it was the subject of some debate
in the column a while back.
Senator La Toilette, grazing with
advancing years, but with few other
evidences of the wear and tear of time
| showing externally, was talking in the
senate this afternoon. He was talking
about the Republic OF Ireland. A pile
of typewriter manuscript from which
he read page by page lay in front of
him. He seemed set for the after
noon. He was by turns vehement
suave. confidential, stern and soft. On
the Republican side of the chamber
two senators dozed; on the Demo-
cratic side five senators were in their
| seats. Three of these sat in a row
talking and laughing in undertones.
Probably they were laughing at La
Toilette. Save for these La Toilette
talked to empy benches, Nobody on
the senate floor paid the slightest at
| tenticn to what he was saying. One
reporter sat in the press gallery read
| ing a proof. A careful scrutiny of the
| Washington papers failed to reveal a
| line of the La Toilette speech or any
reference to it.
| La Toilette talked himself out in
the war. Nobody pays any attention
to what he says, and yet the man goes
on and on.