The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 14, 1919, Page 9

' CLEVER TRICK GIVES game by this ‘stupid move. Our Next Congress Will Be Reactionary How Mann and What He Represents Will Control the Next House, . Although Denied the Speakership—Cannon Comes Back Washington Bureau, Nonpartisan Leader. OTHING short of a political miracle can prevent the control of the house of representatives in the sixty-sixth congress by the Mann dictatorship, which is a slightly modified Cannonism. If that miracle is worked, it must appear in thé final caucus ~ which the Republfcan members of the new house’ will hold in the capitol two or three days before the opening of the special ses- sion,.possibly only two or three weeks away.. There is still a chance that the motion adopted blindly by the first caucug, on February 27, whereby the 69 members-who supported James R. Mann of Illinois for speaker were given full sway over the 138 who voted for Frederick H. Gillett of Massachusetts, will be reconsidered and revoked. It is possible that the caucus will open its doors to the daylight and invite the American people to watch what is being done to harness their national legislature. It is possible that the two-thirds of the Republicans who were unwill- ing to be counted for Mann, who accepted gifts of a horse and beef- steaks from Swift & Co.’s lobbyist, will be unwilling to name Mann’s henchmen to take charge of the people’s business in the house for the coming two years. That would be the miracle— the undoing of the tremendous political blunder of the few progressives, and the undoing of the crafty trick of the re- actionaries. Chances are that the blunder and the trick and the ugly consequences of both to the American people will be indorsed by the caucus, voting in secret. - For we have gone back to Cannonism, after 10 years of supposed reform of Republican political morals. MANN FORCES CONTROL On the night that Gillett was nominated for speaker by a two- to-one majority over Mann, a mo- tion was made in the caucus by Winslow of Massachusetts, cam- paign manager for Gillett, that a corthmittee of 15 be named to select all the standing committees of the house, and all other caucus nomi- nees, such as floor leader, “whip,” and steering committee. Winslow moved the previous question at once, thus attempting to shut off debate. Nobody, among the dozens of anti-gang members who then jump- ed to their feet to denounce this steam-roller proposition, was aware that Mann’s secret lieutenants had persuaded Winslow to kill his own t They simply yelled him down, declared that Gillett had betrayed their faith, and swore they would not stand for any suppression of the untrammeled will of the members of the caucus. After Mann had let them roast his successful rival for the speak- ership for nearly two hours, he offered a substitute motion which went through with only half a dozen votes cast against it. This motion -provided that the Repub- lican members from each state should choose one of themselves to act as a member of the com- mittee on committees, and that in this committee each member should cast as many votes'as the total number of Republicans in the delegation from his state. This committee on committees should then select the caucus nominees, and report to another e B L D T T DR SR S TR S R ) B R L LA S e Joseph Cannon, also of Illinois, caucus to be called just before the special session of congress. In the confusion, the few progressives made no objection to this scheme. They did not then know what was discovered. later, to their chagrin, that Mann had for a long time been getting certain state delegations to caucus upon naming a spokesman for the division of party spoils. He had counted the votes against himself as speaker, and had dis- covered that states such as New York, with twenty Gillett votes and only four Mann votes on an open ballot, would still elect a Mann henchman to the committee on committees, if his intention to help pack the house organization for the Mann crowd were not advertised. So, after the anti-boss ele- ment in thé caucus had voted enthusiastically for Mann’s motion,-they gradually woke up to the fact that they had been trapped. It is extremely difficult to discover exactly how the various state delegations cast their votes in the caucus on the Gillett-Mann con- test. Lynn Haines, general secretary of the National Voters’ league, made a determined . effort to_get permission to look at the sec- retary’s min- ‘utes of the caucus. He dis- covered that neither Repre- sentative Town- er of Iowa, who was chairman, nor any other officer of the caucus, was willing to dis- close what had happened, in de- tail. The days of open confer- ence were gone. This was secret government - Upper left, Representative James R. Mann of Illinois; lower right, Representdtive who was speaker of the lower house for many years and who faced the now famous revolt against czarism 10 years ago. men, who have for so long stood for the special interests, in the next congress from behind the scenes. Both are out of touch world and should have been retired years ago, by the reactionary forces washed them back into power in November, 1918. PAGE NINE will guide all important moves with the modern but the wave of war hysteria worked up once more, and it considered that the general public had no claim of right to inquire into its doings. Yet the government printing office has pub- lished, at public expense, what it calls the “Alphabetical List of Assignments of Majority Members” of the new house. That is to say, the work of this caucus is recognized by a pub- lic department as being official government business. And because this public business is still handled as a party secret, your corres *spondent can give only an unofficial report: of the division of the vote on the speakership. It is likely, for example, that of the Minnesota delegation Knutson, Steenerson, Schall and Vol- stead voted for Mann; that Ellsworth voted for Campbell, and that Anderson, Davis and Newton supported Gillett. Under the Mann rule, the eight Minnesota votes are cast for the Mann slate of committee chairmen, since Volstead, a Mann fol- lower, sits in the committee on committees. Twenty states elected anti-Mann representatives, and only 13 elected lieutenants of the Chicago packers’ man, but under the .unit rule of state delegations, these 13 cast more than twice as many votes as do the other 20 members. KEY POSITIONS TO BIG INTEREST MEN The committee on committees began by. choos- ing as majority floor leader one of Mann’s dis- ciples—Mondell of Wyoming. Mondell was faith- ful to Cannon when the old boss of the house was shaken and almost expelled from the chair by the insurgents of 10 years ago. Next it chose a “whip,” or runner-up of votes on the floor, in the person of Knutson of Minne- sota. Knutson’s election merely makes official a title which he has held by general consent for tt'.,he past two years—that of “Jim Mann’s errand oy.” Then came a steering committee, comprised ex- clusively of millionaires, with a Mann majority, of course. Finally came the serious business—the se- lection of cronies of Mann as chairmen of the big standing committees of the house. Of the chairmen of the nine most important com- mittees, eight voted for Mann for speaker, and the ninth, Goed of Iowa, who gets the appropriations chairmanship under the seniority rule, is going to play with the organization in the chummiest pos- sible way. The eight are Fordney of Michigan, ways and means; Volstead of Minnesota, judiciary; Esch of Wisconsin, interstate and foreign commerce; Kennedy of Iowa, rivers and harbors; Haugen of Iowa, agriculture; Kahn of . California, military affairs; Butler of Pennsylvania, naval affairs, and Steenerson of Minnesota, postoffices and post roads. Here are some more chairmen- elect who voted for Mann: Platt of New York, banking and currency; Mapes of Michigan, Dis- trict of Columbia committee; John- son of ‘ Washington, immigration; J. M. C. Smith of Michigan, labor; Campbell of Kansas, rules; Mann of Illinois, woman suffrage. But that is not all. Mann vot- ers are to have charge of the com- mittees on accounts, census, flood control, patents, invalid pensions, railways and canals, revision of laws, and territories, besides two of the committees on expenditures in executive departments. More important is the fact that 36 places on the best 10 committees of the house, beside the chairmanships, were distributed among Mann’s backers. All told, there are 67 appoint- ments, thus far,” handed out to the 69 gentlemen who voted in that secret caucus for Mr, Mann. Puzzle—who will control the house ? ; These two,