li't ' ' ^1' Jl t I . i m 1 i t-" I lit J^ 8 m 'I ^f? ■iul'r ' '^ Hiiiilill 'l ' t >JC i 4l ■S i I sill 'jr''!'; 'It , III it! I ([(atnell MttiocrHitg Etbrarg 3tl;ara, Nrat ^ork BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND THE BEQUEST OF WILLARD FISKE LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1868-1883 1905 Cornell University Library arV13401 Party control in politics and.,goi'e':"";e"' 3 1924 031 225 562 olin,anx The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031225562 PARTY CONTROL IN POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT EY MARJORIE SHULER STEBBINS & COMPANY BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 1U27 Union Street Copyright, 1922 Br STEBBINS & COMPANY CONTENTS PART I Political Party Control I. The Origin of Party Control .... 3 II. The Caucus, Convention, and Primary . 10 III. Party Organization for Control . . 16 IV. Correcting the Abuses of Party Control 27 PART II Political Party Finances I. How Funds are Raised 35 II. The Uses of Party Funds ... .42 III. Government Regulation of Party Funds . . 47 IV. Abuses Still Unregulated ... 65 V. Some Suggested Remedies ... 157 PARr III Defeating the Voter at the Polls I. The Voter and the Ballot . . ... 67 II. The Machinery op Elections .... 77 III. Types of Election Fraud 85 IV. Some Suggested Remedies 91 PART IV The State Legislature and its Work I. The Legislature and its Powers ... 97 II. The Constitution op the Legislature . 102 III. The Organization op the Legislature . 107 IV. The Legislatiye Process . . . . Ill V. Legislative Abuses 118 VI. The Third House ... 121 PART V Congress and its Work I. Congress and its Powers 131 II. The Organization op Congress . . .137 III. The Legislative Process 144 IV. Legislative Abuses 154 V. Suggested Remedies 167 PART I POLITICAL PARTY CONTROL ITS PURPOSE AND METHODS CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF PARTY CONTROL Meaning of Party Control. — Party control is the term used in American politics today to represent the domination by small groups of leaders who decide upon policies and candidates and enforce their will upon the great numbers of individual voters who make up party member- ship. Party control is synonymous with the ring, the organization, the machine. It represents all of the means by which bosses send out orders and carry out their wishes through the organization. In it are embraced the various manifestations of autocratic management of what was designed as a great democratic institution, the political party. Historical Development of Party Control. — The average voter speaks with satisfaction of the United States as a "free country," where the "people rule." But seldom does he stop to give serious consideration to the constant struggle, written on every page of its history, to make and 3 4 Party Control keep it a land of freedom with every citizen par- ticipating in its government. Many of the founders of the nation had a very limited notion of the extent to which the people should rule. In a letter to Roger Sherman, John Adams speaks of this as a "monarchial republic." The Federalist accepted this narrow view. In speaking of Congress, it said, "The representa- tive body with too few exceptions to have any in- fluence on the spirit of the government, will be composed of landholders, merchants and men of the learned professions." Madison wrote, "De- mocracies have ever been spectacles of turbu- lence and contention, have ever been found in- compatible with personal security or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." In its early days the government of the repub- lic was directed by a small group of statesmen. Then, in the differences of opinion developed dur- ing the administration of Washington, men be- gan to come together in groups or parties pledged to certain principles and the election of chosen candidates to enforce those principles. Parties in their inception were opposed both by the statesmen in control, who saw their hold menaced, and by others who sincerely believed Party Control 5 that the people were establishing a new set of leaders who would soon be in the position of dic- tators. Thus The Federalist refers to "the pesti- lential influence of party animosities," and in his farewell address Washington said, "There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the govern- ment and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and, in governments of a monarchial class, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, on the spirit of the party. But in those of a popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged." On the other hand, Calhoun, opposing the choice of presidential electors by popular elec- tion, declared that "so far from giving power to the people it would be the most effectual way that could be devised of divesting them of it and trans- ferring it to party managers and cliques." In the Disquisition of Government, he wrote, "The con- flict between the two parties in the government of the numerical majority, tends necessarily to set- tle down into a struggle for the honors and emoluments of the government; and each, in or- der to obtain an object so ardently desired, will, in the process of the struggle, resort to whatever measure may seem best calculated to effect this 6 Party Control purpose. The adoption by the one, of any meas- ure, however objectionable, which might give it an advantage, would compel the other to follow its example. In such a case, it would be indis- pensable to success, to avoid division and keep united; and hence, from a necessity inherent in the nature of such governments, each party must be alternately forced, in order to insure victor}', to resort to measures to concentrate the control over its movements in fewer and fewer hands, as the struggle becomes more and more violent. This in process of time must lead to party organi- zation and party caucuses and discipline; and these to the conversion of the honors and emolu- ments of the government into means of reward- ing partisan services, in order to secure the fidel- ity and increase the zeal of the members of the party." In spite of opposition, political parties contin- ued to grow, and speedily the conflict between the masses of citizens and those who desired to con- trol them was transferred from outside to inside the parties. It was readily seen that political advantage could be gained by the men who had the backing of a large group of voters, voters who would blindly accept that which was offered to them if it had the label of their particular group. There began the effort to add members and to in- Party Control • 7 crease the fervor of those already allied with the parties. The means of stirring up one party by agitating against all laws enacted by the oppos- ing party in power was first seized upon. Then newspapers were developed from small an- nouncement sheets to large political organs, de- signed to strengthen the power of individual party leaders. Salaried appointments were next used as a source of power, and patronage, or the giving of positions in return for party services, was utilized. So the machine was perfected by estabhshing a network of voters, who, through hope of future favors or because of past obliga- tions, could be counted upon to execute the will of party leaders. In the first days of the republic the right of the franchise had been limited mainly to the large landowners and wealthy merchants. Catholics, Baptists, Jews, and other religious groups, pre- viously disfranchised, had been given the right to vote before the administration of Washington, and campaigns to further extend the suffrage fol- lowed. In each of these, party control played an important part. The history of the attempts to secure the ballot by the foreign-born, the work- ingmen, the negroes, the Indians, and recently by the women, is one of struggle against party machines, the leaders of which saw in such large 8 Party Control additions to the electorate a menace to their con- trol. In the constitutional convention of 1820 in the state of New York, Chancellor Kent, who afterward became Chief Justice of the State Su- preme Court, argued against the removal of the land qualification from the point of view of the inability of the masses of the people to rule them- selves. Of universal suffrage he said, "It is too mighty an excitement for the moral constitution of men to endure," and again he asserted, "The tendency of universal suffrage is to jeopardize the rights of property and the principles of lib- erty." In each instance, as public opinion grew suf- ficiently strong to force the granting to the dis- franchised of a voice in their own government, the political party organizations sought to bring about the changes as partisan moves. The party leaders wished these great groups of new voters to feel the obligation to take upon themselves a party yoke and in turn to hand it down to fol- lowing generations. There has been no more mis- chief-breeding element in American political life than the traditional prejudices and allegiances engendered in these attempts to maintain partj' control. Historical Motives for Party Control. — Party Control 9 Party control was first established as a means of keeping the direction of government in the hands of the educated, the men of property, and the so- cially superior. However, with the growth of population and the spread of democratic ideas, political control underwent a decided change. The reins of authority passed from the hands of men who had held them because of their standing in society, and fell into the hands of those who had made politics their business. Instead of "representative" men, the voters came to accept as their party leaders those whom they would not tolerate either in business or social relationship. The South was much slower than the North to yield to the new order. The idea of government as a civic responsibility, of public office as a so- cial recognition, prevailed generally for a much longer time there than in the North, where the city population was constantly growing more and more complex. The situation recalls the prophecy of Jefferson, written in a letter to Madison, "I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries, as long as they (peo- ple) are chiefly agricultural; and this they will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled up upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will be- come corrupt as in Europe." CHAPTER II THE CAUCUS, THE CONVENTION AND THE PRIMARY Control of Caucus. — The first step at or- ganized control of the policies and nominations of parties was taken in the formation of the cau- cus. Small groups of voters met in conference to plan concerted action in order to enforce their desires upon the members of their parties. The caucus was at once the weapon of the leaders themselves who met for decision upon candidates and policies, and also of those members of the parties who were in rebellion against the control of the leaders and desired to overthrow them. Gradually the strongest ones in the control of the caucuses became the members of Congress, and here they used the authority of their posi- tions to build up greater power for themselves. Then came the revolt against caucuses and in favor of conventions as a means of giving the people a greater share in the conduct of party affairs. Control of the Convention. — tllonventions in 10 Party Control 11 the beginning were open to all who desired to at- tend and could afford to pay their transporta- tion. The manifest unfairness of this practice soon led to the establishment of meetings or elec- tions at which the voters of each district chose delegates whose expenses to the convention were paid from the party treasury, and who would go not to enforce their own wishes but the desires of those whom they had been chosen to represent. But the convention, started as a reform, soon became the emptiest of forms. Party leaders exercised their power to influence the choice of delegates. Watching the returns of the district elections, they would know how many delegates each could count upon. Thereupon the platform was written, the slate of nominees made up, the convention officials selected, and their speeches even written, all before the delegates convened. Delegates to conventions have confessed that they did not even hear all the names of the nominees for whom they voted and that their first informa- tion of what actually had transpired in the noisy hall came when the newspapers, damp from the presses, were thrust into their hands as they were leaving the hall. With the convention system of making party nominations entirely in the control of political leaders, the average voter was par- ticularly helpless. There was no choice save to 12 Party Control stand by nominations forced by party leaders, or to bolt the party and vote for the opposing ticket, which was likely to have been nominated in ex- actly the same fashion. Control of Primary.— The next step in try- ing to bring about popular party management was the direct primary. Under this system voters enroll in the party of their choice and then have the privilege of voting at primary elections for the party candidates who are to stand for the general election. In bending primaries to their will, party leaders have supported candidates whom they chose and voters have aided in the schemes by signing without a question primary petitions for candidates of whom they have had no personal knowledge, solely because those peti- tions were presented to them by their district party leaders. Party leaders have attempted further to con- trol primaries by means of 'designating' conven- tions. In one state where there is a direct pri- mary law, it has been the custom for some years for one of the two dominant parties to hold a convention two months ahead of primary day to 'designate' candidates. The primary of that party has thus been made a farce. The other party has a convention a month after the pri- mary and 'ratifies' the primary choice. Other Party Control 13 states are having similar experiences with 'desig- nating' and 'ratifying' conventions, due to the reluctance of the party leaders to relinquish the hold which the convention gives them. While the primary is thus subject to some of the same abuses as the caucus and convention, its friends claim that it is a more open and public method of selecting candidates, that fraud and trickery are not so easily concealed from the voters as in a caucus or convention, and that the responsibility for choosing good candidates is put more directly up to the individual voter than in any other scheme yet tried. So it is that caucus, convention, primary, each in turn has suffered from the manipulations of the few political leaders who have come together, more or less secretly, to unite upon the candidates and policies, which they subsequently attempt to force upon the mass of voters in the party. The entire force and power of the machine is utilized to secure the election of these candidates. Funds are forthcoming for free use. Meetings are held. Circulars advertising the chosen can- didates are distributed. Favorable articles are printed in newspapers. Orders to support the candidates are given to the various voters in the district who serve the will of the leaders. On 14 Party Control primary and election days automobiles take citi- zens to the polls to vote for them. On the other hand, independent candidates are discouraged. They have no machine ready to hand. All their organization must be built up at the moment. The average voter is not accus- tomed to assuming any financial responsibiUty for his party's funds. So the independent candidates find it difficult to raise money by popular sub- scription; and, if they accept large contributions from individuals or corporations, thej'^ find them- selves bound in much the same fashion as the regular machine candidates. The power of the political party leaders is exercised to prevent them from securing desirable halls in which to hold meetings, or from appearing themselves at meetings of various kinds where their candidacy might be advertised. Bitter attacks on the inde- pendent candidates are organized in the news- papers and through party speakers. To face such personal abuse and slander as is likely to be injected into a political campaign takes a strong incentive and a high degree of moral com-age. The independent candidate is attacked not only by the leaders of his own party but bj'^ their op- ponents as well. In a recent state campaign there was a keen fight against the nominee of one party, who a large number of party members declared Party Control 15 was not their choice, but that of the bosses. Or- ders were given through the organization of the opposing party to stand by that candidate, so that, although he was cut off the ticket by many members of his own party, he received enough votes from members of the opposing party to make up his required majority. A pohtical leader summed up the explanation of why this was done in these words, "If v6ters were per- mitted to get the habit of being independent in one party this year, there is no telling what they might do in another party next year." CHAPTER III PAETY ORGANIZATION FOR CONTROL Party Regularity.— My party right or wrong is the idea which political leaders endeavor to instill into the minds of voters. To place blind, unreasoning party loyalty above every other con- sideration and to accept Avithout question what- ever is advanced in the name of the party — ^that is the sort of regularity that increases the power of political leaders, destroys the true value of parties, and corrupts the voters. In a government by parties, such as we have in the United States, faction is always a great dan-" ger to the party. Therefore leaders urge upon voters that when the party candidate or p"licy has been decided upon, only disaster for all con- cerned will follow upon bolting the party or split- ting the ticket. It is easy to point out deadlocks where one party has succeeded in electing the executive and the opposing party the legislative body, and where the work of both has been neg- lected in the ensuing partisan feuds. Thus the 16 Party Control 17 voter is frequently confronted with a dif^cult problem. He must choose between loyalty to his party and what he believes to be right. In being wholly loyal to his party, is he being wholly loyal to his country? The decision is one which his own conscience must make. Do the political leaders themselves never split the ticket? Yes, frequently, but quietly. Never with publicity, which might encourage independ- ence in the voters not wholly controlled by them. Always with the secrecy which enshrouds them with mystery, and helps to strengthen their con- trol. Sometimes they split the ticket as the re- sult of a bipartisan arrangement with the leaders of the opposing party. The election may promise to be a very close one and in order to save certain favored candidates they will agree to trade votes for those candidates by cutting names from their own ticket and substituting those of the oppos- ing party. Sometimes the voters have asserted themselves and secured a place on the ticket for an independent nominee who will not be obedient to the orders of the leaders. Again leaders of both old parties are likely to unite to throw votes to the endangered nominee. Not infrequently bipartisan arrangements leak out. In the last presidential election orders were given in one state to "bolt" a certain nominee. 18 Party Control and, said the concluding sentence of the letters, "We will explain later." The orders were obeyed, but the explanation has not yet been given. In another state the leader of one of the dominant parties was said to have been a strong factor in forcing the nomination of one of the presidential candidates. A few days before elec- tion the workers of his organization were told to withdraw support from that candidate. After midnight on election day when the count of bal- lots was proceeding slowly in the polling places some of them carelessly discussed before other persons the political game they had helped to play. The Key Man. — To guard against inde- pendent moves on the part of the voters is one of the chief reasons why political leaders maintain close organizations. In their plans the "key man" has an important part. Generally among each twenty-five voters, there is one key man, who receives the orders of the leaders and passes them on to the twenty-four for whom he is responsible. Sometimes the number varies. It may be larger or it may be smaller. In a recent election it was cut to ten, one key man for each nine voters. The number ten also symbolized in this instance that the voters were expected to cast their ballots before ten o'clock in the morning. Party Control 19 The key man, be he one of twenty-five or of ten, pursues practically the same methods. He may be openly and avowedly the representative of the leaders, but more often he accosts those for whom he is responsible in a more casual way. He may speak to them on the street, or at busi- ness, or in the moving picture houses, or even at churches. The key man, indeed, may be the clergyman himself. He discusses the coming election and seeks from these voters for whom he is to account to the leaders some statement of their intentions. If he learns that the voters are uncertain as to how they will act, that they dis- approve of a certain candidate or policy, that they even threaten to bolt the entire ticket, he reports this fact to the leadei^s. Immediately such voters are made storm centers. Circular let- ters from party headquarters are poured upon them, men in whose interest they have reason to feel flattered seek them out and urge them to vote the regular ticket. Gradually voters who have contemplated independence are made to feel how peculiar and extraordinary such conduct would be, and slowly but surely many are in this way herded back into the regular party lines. Many an unassuming citizen would be startled to see the statements he has made in a supposed friendly conversation with a neighbor all neatly 20 Party Control typed and filed in the municipal or state head- quarters of his party. But there they are, for the key man reports all interviews with those for whom he is responsible and it is upon these re- ports that political leaders base their predictions, decide upon pivotal points for concentration and determine the strategy of the campaign. In many states in which the political organization is a close one, such lists are kept permanently on file, being changed with the developments of each new campaign. In one state where one political party has maintained its dominance for a genera- tion, the lists are divided into three parts, those who are "sure" voters, those who are "uncertain" and those who "fumble in the booth," the "fumb- blers" being those, who, once behind the curtains in a polling booth, have a predilection for split- ting their tickets according to their consciences. Controlling Officials. — Having nominated and elected the desired candidates, political lead- ers maintain their control through these same officials. Those who owe their elections to organi- zations, who can see the great difficulty of secur- ing re-nomination and re-election unless they follow the mandates of the "ring," or are strong enough to build up a "machine" of their own, are naturally amenable to the orders they receive. It has been said that nearly every man in political Party Control 21 life desires to be re-elected to the office he holds or given some higher one. Where this is true it is easy for party leaders to maintain their control, and for the interests of the people as a whole to be sacrificed to partisan advantage. Each official has a certain amount of patronage at his dis- posal, and where the political leader has control this patronage is dispensed as he requests, strengthening his power as well as that of the party. To meet this situation it has been urged that there be adopted in this country some such system as that in use in Switzerland, where once an official is elected he becomes responsible di- rectly to the people as a whole and ceases to have any special ties as a party representative. Furthering Party Control between Elec- tions. — While party leaders are more in evidence at elections, their control is extended during the interim by means of a variety of instruments, in addition to the aid given by elected officials. Chief among these is the social club. Many small towns have at least one political club and usually there are two, one of each of the two dominant parties. In the larger cities each district has its club or clubs. Sometimes the club is rich and powerful, with its own house fitted up for meet- ings, dances, billiards, and dinners. Sometimes the club hires a hall permanently or for certain 22 Party Control evenings. Some of the clubs issue their own small newspapers. Each arranges meetings, dinners, dances, card parties, theater parties. One voter with a strong sense of party respon- sibility recently joined one of the largest of these clubs in New York City. The club is in a wealthy district, maintains its own house and runs a small newspaper. At one of the first meetings which the voter attended, the president of the club rose and said, "I have in my hand a list of the dele- gates to be nominated from this district to the party convention. I do not wish any other sug- gestions. There will be no contests." The voter attempted to register a protest against this method of dictation and was hissed down by his fellow members, men and women of education and wealth, a type who would naturally be ex- pected to assert their freedom. Tammany Hall. — One of the most striking examples of a combined social and political or- ganization by which a group of leaders maintain their ascendency over the voters is Tammany Hall in New York City. Other cities, notably Philadelphia, Chicago and Cincinnati, have strong organizations of this character, which work between elections, as well as at election time ; but Tammany Hall is by far the best known ex- ample of this type. Party Control 23 Tammany Hall dates back to 1800 when Aaron Burr wrested the control of New York City from Alexander Hamilton by using as a political machine the social club known as the Colxmibian Order. From that time on, this so- ciety, though eventually changing its name, continued to entrench itself in the political life of the city and to perfect its organization and control, until today it constitutes one of the most effective political machines in the world. In its present form Tammany Hall is organized down to the smallest unit. In each district there is a leader who serves as well on the general city committee. In addition to the leader each dis- trict is represented on the city committee by one representative for every twenty-five Democratic votes cast in the district in the preceding guber- natorial election. Every leader knows the exact status of every family in his district. In case of poverty, food, clothing, and work are provided. In every way the interests of the families are looked after. Numbers of social affairs are ar- ranged, and as a result the people are drawn to- gether in the closest and fiercest sort of loyalty to the particular group of party leaders that di- rect the organization. The Unorganized Voter. — Against the methods of the party machine the unorganized 24 Party Control voter is helpless. Whether he be a part of the majority or of the minority within his party, so long as he is in opposition to the party leaders, he has no chance to make his point of view effec- tive. Nowhere more than in the political party has it been made evident that organization is power. Political organization may be good, it becomes evil only when it is used to dictate to the party instead of carrying out the dictates of the party. The individual voter learns that if he is to have any weight he must combine with others with whose general views he is more or less closely in agreement. There are many illustrations of what may be accomplished by units of organization among the voters. In the Republican landslide in 1920, a Democratic senator was elected to the legislature from New York City by a non-partisan group of voters, who thoroughly canvassed the district, calling on every voter, man or woman, passing out circulars, putting posters in shop and home windows, having slides shown in the moving pic- ture houses and holding meetings everywhere in churches, halls and on the streets. This cam- paign was successful while a state-wide cam- paign of the same sort failed, largely because in the small group the organization was perfected down to the most minute detail while the larger Party Control 25 group was not able to work out so thorough a scheme. Large groups are now forming within the par- ties in many states, voters who are not willing to leave their parties, but who desire to make evident their rebellion against control by party leaders. These groups select independent candidates for the primaries and conduct as effective campaigns as possible, but pledge themselves to abide by the decision of the primaries and to vote for the suc- cessful nominees of their parties. The chafing of voters, who usually call them- selves liberals, against domination by party lead- ers, usually classed as conservatives, has resulted in the formation of new national parties, which have proved what organization can accomplish. The Republican party of today is the result of a union of a number of these small groups of citi- zens who were in rebellion against party con- trol. In 1892 farmers and others who believed in the levying of income taxes and in the popular elec- tion of United States senators founded the Populist party. In 1912 there came another break when people of all classes who had an ideal of political parties as their servants instead of their masters founded the Progressive party. Both of these groups saw many of the definite re- 26 Party Control forms which were their rallying calls made part of the platforms of the other parties. The ma- jority of both groups followed their principles back into the other parties in the belief that they would be able to make themselves felt. The re- sult has been to continue the constant rebellion within the parties, but with no distinct national cleavage on the sole issue of control by party lead- ers versus control by the people. CHAPTER IV CORRECTING THE ABUSES OF PARTY GOVERNMENT The Development of State Supervision. — In their origin, political parties were purely vol- untary organizations. With their development the state has gradually taken over in varying de- grees control of their rules as a means of safe- guarding the interests of the masses of members. Party laws have thus become to a certain extent state laws. So that as abuses have developed states have attempted to extend their authority or to set up legal means of remedying the de- fects. Texas, for instance, attempts to keep its political parties responsive to the will of the majority of their members by providing that upon petition of ten per cent, of the members, there may be secured the submission of any party policy at a primary referendum. The campaign pamphlet law was first insti- tuted in Oregon. It is intended to provide as inexpensive a way as possible for conveying in- formation concerning candidates to the voters. 27 28 Party Control Independent candidates have found the cost of addressing appeals to the voters a great handicap. In one state it costs nearly one hundred thousand dollars to circularize each voter just once. Under the campaign pamphlet law parties and candi- dates prepare material which they send to the state authorities. This is printed for them at cost price and sent to the voters. The state is thus not obliged to assume any financial obliga- tion while the candidates and parties secure the printing for an amount far below what it would cost them individually to have the work done. Corrective Measures. — California has a law providing that any organization of electors which at the last preceding general election polled at least three per cent, of the entire vote of the state or election district is called a party. The independent voter also benefits by a law in Massachusetts, where participation in a party caucus is considered sufficient evidence to estab- lish party membership. A voter participating in the caucus of one political party is disqualified from participation in the caucus of any other po- litical party during the ensuing twelve months, "but no political committee shall prevent any voter from participating in a caucus of its party for the reason that the voter has supported an independent candidate for political office." Party Control 29 In many communities organizations designed to promote good citizenship send out or have published in the newspapers, record votes of can- didates who come up for re-election, together with their platform pledges and those of new candi- dates. This information, when it is mailed, usually includes a sample ballot, thus giving the voter an opportunity to decide intelligently for whom he will vote and also to learn how to cast his ballot according to his wishes. Why Control is Possible. — Control by the parties is possible only because of the existence of a large body of citizens who, through indolence or indifference, allow themselves to be controlled. Party leaders pre-suppose that there are large groups of citizens who are thus indifferent to their obligations, and of other large groups who, though not indifferent, do not know how to pro- ceed to remedy conditions. In the United States, where we have regarded ourselves as an intelli- gent, thinking, alert people, the war revealed that one out of every four drafted men could not read or write. Lacking education, how were those men to become acquainted with public questions, what capacity had they for determining their own opinions, what impulses could arouse them to ex- press civic ideals in action? But it is not only our illiterate electorate which 30 Party Control has made a national holiday out of elections, or has been satisfied to rest in ignorance of political problems. It has been said without contradic- tion that ten per cent, of the American people control the other ninety per cent. Are we to lay upon the ten per cent, the entire blame? Or are we to admit that there is nowhere a party boss without lazy citizens willing to be bossed? Are we to see political dictators, not as corrupters of the people, but as barometers of the people? If we are willing to do that, then it is really worth our while to look into the methods by which par- ties control voters and to consider how these in- stitutions, so vital to our democracy, may be kept as our servants and not become our masters. So long as voters permit the suppression of independent thought and action through accept- ing the nominations made for them, so long as they vote a straight ticket for the sole reason that it is labelled by their own particular party em- blem, so long as they leave to 'whoever can be gotten' the work of canvassing before elections, just so long will they be contributing to party control, which means the rule of the few. In fostering blind loyalty political leaders have successfully implanted the idea of party as an impersonal functioning entity. Members lose sight of the fact that it is they who really make Party Control 81 the party, and that when its direction falls into the control of a powerful minority whose poli- cies are contrary to the wishes of the majority, there should be as vigorous a contest as would follow the seizing of a church organization by a small group undertaking to re-write or re-inter- pret the creed accepted by the great body of ad- herents of the faith. Suggestions for Remedy. — In discussing party control it is well to bear in mind the words of the Virginia Bill of Rights, "That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them. "That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is the best which is capable of producing the great- est degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of mal- administration; and that, when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community have an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal." 32 Party Control Political party leaders fear above all things the formation of small community groups for the discussion of politics and the dissemination of knowledge concerning political methods, and the union of these groups in state and national organizations. It has only been by keeping the great mass of voters in ignorance concerning actual procedure in political affairs that the lead- ers have maintained control. The substitution of open conferences for secret arrangements means their downfall. Whether the solution comes within the present parties, or as many persons believe it will, by means of a new party, it will only be possible as the individual voter makes politics a vital part of his daily life. Wlien political problems are every- where discussed over firesides, on street corners, and in social groups, and the voter has a vision of settling these problems, not vocally, but at the ballot box, then there will come intelligent under- standing and concerted action, breaking the con- trol of the few and developing the control of the many. Then there will come a dedication of minds in a peacetime service to the nation, no less noble than is the dedication of lives in a period of war. PART II POLITICAL PARTY FINANCES THEIR ORIGIN AND USES CHAPTER I HOW FUNDS ARE RAISED The Growth of Party Expenses. — The methods of financing used by poHtical parties and candidates for oiBce present one of the grav- est problems of American pubhc life. Just as our economic institutions have multiplied their organizations to a tremendous extent, carried on advertising campaigns of great magnitude and established vast scales of expenditure and profit, so our political institutions have increased their machinery, developed the art of public appeal and conducted themselves with a lavishness be- yond that of any other country. Many of these expenses are what might be termed of legitimate growth. They are due to the multiplication of population, to the tremen- dous development of advertising in this coun- try, and to the elaborate degree to which we have perfected organizations of all kinds. But far greater is the increase in illegitimate expendi- tures, the sums spent in secret ways to influence 35 36 Political Parti/ Finances elections. These are the amounts for which there is no accounting to the rank and file of the party itself. These are the expenditures of which the average voter never hears, or which he is likely to discredit if rumor brings them to his ears. Corruption Resulting from Gifts to Parties. — These corrupt features of political party finan- cing are not of recent development. The pages of political history are stained with the stories of great campaign funds spent by national and state party committees, individual political leaders, the candidates themselves or friends and relatives of candidates. Indeed so general has been the use of money in politics that it has frequently been said that no candidate might hope for any great measure of success unless he was personally wealthy or backed by large financial interests. In recent years there has been a wave of agita- tion against the spending of great sums in con- nection with elections. INIany laws have been created, both federal and state, for the express purpose of curbing such expenditures. To the average citizen these laws seem adequate and efii- cient. But let him visit the states accounted most progressive in their regulation of political expen- ditures and he will be told that for every law there is a well-known evasion, for every convic- tion under the law there ai'e dozens of offenders Political Party Finances 37 who are never brought to court, or if they are brought before judges, are acquitted or let off with the lightest penalties possible. The questions for the citizen to have in mind in considering political financing are these: What returns are made to those who give large sums to the campaign funds of parties or candidates? What type of service may be expected by the public from those officials whose elections have been secured by money? What allegiance is due them from the members of their own parties or the voters in general? What is the effect upon a nation and people whose elections are not safe- guarded from the influence of money? The Average Citizen as Contributor. — There are three distinct groups who contribute to politi- cal campaign chests. The first one does so openly ; the other two secretly. In the first group are the average voters, who have a sincere desire to see the principles of their party triumph. Sometimes wealthy men and women make large gifts; sometimes the money comes from those of small means and represents a real sacrifice. It is for this group that political party treasurers come out into the open. They make appeals at meet- ings and in the newspapers. Often special com- mittees are formed to advance a certain policy which appeals to the voters. Contributions are 38 Political Party Finances solicited entirely in the name of this policy and from every corner of the country gifts come from the voters. Occasionally funds may be sought in the name of a great political leader of the past. Sometimes voters may be stimulated to give for the sake of their grandchildren, the sons of their college, or some one else dear to their hearts. This is the right kind of giving, the giving with no expectation of a personal return and with no idea of controlling the party policies. But it forms a very small part indeed of the sum raised for any campaign. Business Corporations as Contributors. — The larger part of the fund comes from the other two sources, the secret contributors. One of these sources is the corporations, business inter- ests, commercial institutions of various kinds who want favors, perhaps franchises or charters to operate public service concerns, perhaps the pas- sage of laws to protect their business or the re- peal of laws which are proving harmful to their business. The prevalence of this system is well illustrated by a frank statement made in an investigation conducted by the United States Senate during the second session of the fifty-third Congress. In that investigation the president of a great corporation is quoted as saying, "It is my impression that wherever there is a dominant Political Party Finances 39 party, wherever the majority is large, that is the party which gets the contribution, because that is the party which controls the local matters." Having spoken of the prevalence of the system, he added, "Every individual and corporation and firm, trust, or whatever you call it, does these things, and we do them." In what are called doubtful states, which are carried sometimes by one political party, sometimes by another, rail- roads and corporations desiring political favors have been known to safeguard their interests by contributing not only to one, but to both domi- nant parties. Candidates as Contributors. — The second group of secret contributors to political funds consists of the candidates themselves who are as- sessed large sums for their nominations. The party ordinarily assesses a candidate on the maxi- mum basis, exacting a certain percentage, pos- sibly five per cent, not only of his first year's salary but of the entire amount he is due to re- ceive for his whole term. Thus if the office for which he is running pays five thousand dollars a year for four years, the candidate is assessed five per cent, on twenty thousand dollars, or one thousand dollars. Or he may be required to pay ten per cent. Where there are as many as fifty candidates, the party may raise fifty thousand 40 Political Parti/ Finances dollars in this way. While some men have been elected to office without paying any assessment at all, others have been put off the ticket or have been scratched and defeated because they did not pay their assessments. In addition to the officials to be elected there are many appointments to be made, and contri- butions are secured from those who understand that they will receive appointments if the party is successful in the election. The President of the United States controls appointments with sal- aries totalling millions of dollars. The governor of every state has under his control appointments to commissions and offices of various kinds which bring big returns to their holders. State legis- latures have many big appointments, as well as the minor ones of sergeants-at-arms, door-keep- ers, journal clerks, index clerks, revision clerks, messengers, postmasters, librarians, janitors, stenographers, committee clerks. Similarly there are appointments to be made in every munici- pality. Large funds are raised through contribu- tions made by those expecting such appoint- ments. Officeholders occasionally contribute not only to their own party, but to the other domi- nant party. There are certain government com- missions which are required by law to include members from both dominant parties. Members Political Party Finances 41 already serving on those commissions may make secret gifts to both parties in order to make sure that they will retain their places no matter who carries the election. CHAPTER II THE USES OF PARTY FUNDS Legitimate Expenses. — The open ways in which money is spent in political campaigns in- clude the establishment of headquarters with the expense of rent, heat, light, clerical aid and sup- plies. From the headquarters tons of literature, circulars, letters, posters and pictures of candi- dates are sent out, requiring funds for supplies, printing, postage and labor. Nor are these all that headquarters distribute. There are buttons, badges, armbands, flags and pennants, automo- bile posters and all sorts of advertising novelties. Meetings constitute another large item of expen- diture. Halls must be secured, automobiles to carry speakers, sometimes special trains for more extensive tours. Large sums are spent for ad- vertising through newspapers, magazines and moving-picture houses. Entertainments of va- rious kinds are given, dinners, dances, picnics, parades, all of them costing a great deal. Last, but by no means least expensive are the workers, 42 Political Party Finances 43 speakers, organizers, publicity agents and scouts, who are sent out during the campaign. Questionable Uses o£ Party Funds. — The foregoing are usually accounted legitimate ex- penses. But there are other less known ways in which money is spent and which are not so justi- fiable. There may be carried on the party pay- roll those who do not openly work for candidates but who try secretly and in devious ways to in- fluence voters. Then there is an allotment of money to every party leader, down to the least significant precinct captain, each receiving a cer- tain sum for election day use and for which no accounting is asked. The money is technically understood to be for hiring automobiles or other conveyances to take laggard voters to the polls, payment of party workers at the polls, luncheons or other incidentals for these same workers, but since there is no means of ascertaining to what uses the leader puts the money, there is no knowl- edge of the extent to which it is used in actually influencing the voters. Pre-primary Expenses.^ Before the pri- mary, candidates are expected to bear their own expenses. What usually happens, however, is that the candidates endorsed by political leaders receive aid, while independent candidates must raise their own funds. After the primary, the 44 Political Party Finances party as a whole is expected to bear at least a part of the cost of electing its own ticket. Some- times curious incidents develop, however. In one state recently the candidate for United States Senator on the ticket of one party was strongly opposed by the progressives within his own part5^ The opposing candidate on the ticket of the other dominant party told his friends that he received no aid from his party leaders, even after the pri- mary, that the general party advertising did not urge his election, that no meetings were arranged for him, and that he was compelled to bear the burden of his own campaign. There was ap- parently a bipartisan combination by which the reactionary leaders in both parties had agreed to stand by the first-named candidate; and the sec- ond man, who had been paying for his own cam- paign, was overwhelmingly defeated at the elec- tion. General Use of Funds. — Another phase of political expenditure, which is not well under- stood by the average voter, is that money raised by the members of a political party in one state is furnished to the leaders of that same party in other states where funds are less available. Thus a state which might be supposed to decide its own elections by choosing its own candidates, conduct- ing its own campaigns, electing the oflScials of Political Party Finances 45 its own choice will in reality be influenced by money sent each month from outside the state to the leaders of the weaker political party within the state. These monthly contributions are raised if the local leaders can show that there is a chance for them to carry the state at the next election. Thus it is that in more than one national election states have been swung from one party column to another, the result being largely determined by money raised outside those states. CHAPTER III GOVERNMENT REGULATION OF PARTY FUNDS Corrupt Practises Acts. — Just as party rules controlling primaries and elections have been taken over and made into state laws, so party funds are coming to be treated as public funds. Laws have been framed to regulate party levies and expenditures, and these laws themselves il- lustrate the abuses of party financing which have existed and still exist throughout the country. These laws are termed corrupt practices acts. There is a federal corrupt practices act, and there are similar ones in the various states. Limitation of Candidates' Expenditures. — One of the important things which the corrupt practices acts attempt to do is to limit the svmis which candidates may spend in an election. As an example, the federal corrupt practices act limits candidates for the United States Congress as follows : "No candidate for Representative in Congress ipr 46 Political Party Finances 4ti for Senator of the tJnited States shall give, contribute, expend, use, or promise, or cause to be given, contrib- uted, expended, used, or promised, in procuring his nomination and election, any sum, in the aggregate, in excess of the amount which he may lawfully give, con- tribute, expend, or promise under the laws of the state in which he resides: Provided, That no candidate for Representative in Congress shall give, contribute, ex- pend, use, or promise any sum, in the aggregate, ex- ceeding $5,000 in any campaign for his nomination and election ; and no candidate for Senator of the United States shall give, contribute, expend, use, or promise any sum, in the aggregate, exceeding $10,000 in any campaign for his nomination and election. "Provided further. That money expended by any such candidate to meet and discharge any assessment, fee, or charge made or levied upon candidates by the laws of the state in which he resides, or for his necessary per- sonal expenses, incurred for himself alone, for travel and subsistence, stationery and postage, writing or printing (other than in newspapers), and distributing letters, circulars, and posters, and for telegraph and telephone service, shall not be regarded as an expendi- ture within the meaning of this section, and shall not be considered any part of the sum herein fixed as the limit of expenses and need not be shown in the state- ments herein reuqired to be filed. The exceptions in this act open the way for spending thousands of dollars in excess of the limit set up. Printing for instance is one of the heaviest campaign expenses, and printing is ex- empt in the federal act. To circularize the vot- ers of one state just once may involve the spend- 48 Political Party Finances ing of a hundred thousand dollars for postage, and postage is another exempt item in the federal act. Then again, a candidate may keep his per- sonal expenses within the amount prescribed, but there is no provision for charging against him any part of the general campaign waged on be- half of the whole ticket, the meetings at which other candidates for other offices speak, the pa- rades and dinners, and the advertising instituted for the success of the party, not for him alone. The Utah Law. — Utah has a very progres- sive law limiting election expenses. The Utah law provides that a candidate for United States senator may not spend on his campaign more than four thousand dollars; United States rep- resentative, two thousand dollars ; governor, three thousand dollars; presidential elector, five hun- dred dollars; state senator, two hundred dollars; state representative, one hundred dollars. Can- didates for any other state, county, city or town- ship office may not spend an amount exceeding fifteen per cent, of their first year's salary in the case of a four-year term, nor ten per cent, of their first year's salary in the case of a two-year term. A minimum expenditure of one hundred dollars is permitted to all candidates. In addition, no state political party committee may spend a sum in excess of twelve and one-half cents for each Political Party Finances 49* vote cast for the party in the preceding guber- natorial election. County committees are simi- larly limited. The limitations imposed on expenditures of candidates vary in the different states. After an election in New York state in which a candi- date for governor was reported to have spent $256,000 and still another candidate to have spent $30,000 to secure the office of state senator, which pays $1,500 a year, a law was enacted in that state limiting candidates for governor to the ex- penditure of $10,000 and other state candidates to $6,000. Prohibited Expenditures. — The corrupt practices laws prohibit certain expenditures in political campaigns. Each law provides against the direct buying and selling of votes, and yet that has been known to take place repeatedly, sometimes with the conviction of those partici- pating, more often without their ever being brought to court. The laws vary in the matter of other prohibited expenses and most of them may be seriously questioned with regard to their enforcement. Every citizen should be familiar with them, however, so that infringements may be recognized and because more general knowl- edge will tend to the improvement and unifica- tion of the laws. 50 Political Party Finances Additional State Regulations. — In some states there is a provision against treating, can- didates and their managers not being allowed to buy either food or drink for voters. The giving of huge banquets has been a frequent way of attracting votes to candidates, and before the en- actment of national prohibition, candidates were expected to visit saloons in their districts and buy drinks for all who happened to be present. In one state where the elections have been notori- ously corrupt, a candidate who ran several times for United States senator was in the habit of depositing large sums of money with hotel mana- gers so that men might be made welcome in his name at hotel bars and cigar counters. When the sum had been used up in this way, the can- didate promptly made another deposit. Another provision of the corrupt practices acts, not always enforced, prohibits the payment by political parties or candidates of poll taxes. Some states still levy a head tax, the payment of which is usually a requisite for voting. It is often the custom for those who desire to swing votes in a certain direction to pay the poll taxes for citi- zens who could not or would not otherwise qual- ify as voters, or who are willing in return for the payment of the tax to cast their votes in any de- sired direction. Political Party Finances 51 A similar prohibition is levied against the pay- ment of naturalization fees. Political parties and candidates have made a custom of conducting naturalization classes and paying the fees of new- citizens in order to secure their votes. Under the domination of a notorious politician in New York City several years ago the number of annual naturalizations jumped from 9,200 to 41,000. A very few states have now prohibited the pro- viding of conveyances by parties or candidates to take voters to the polls. Not only has this been a heavy item of expenditure in past years, but it has led to much rivalry and to attempts to cor- ner the available supply of vehicles. When the number of carriages which could be hired was smaller than it is in this day of automobiles, one party or one faction within a party would hire all of the vehicles in a certain district so that op- posing parties or candidates could not offer this bribe to the voters. The Utah law prohibits the hiring of conveyances to take voters to the polls except when two or more parties combine at joint expense to take sick, disabled, aged or infirm citi- zens to cast their ballots. And when this is done fhe conveyance is not permitted to carry any banner or poster for any party or candidate, nor may any party worker ride in it. Another prohibition, still quite rare, is directed 52 Political Party Finances against the payment of workers at the polls by either parties or candidates. In most states it is, however, the custom for the more important can- didates and the parties to have workers at the polls giving last-minute arguments to the voters. These workers are usually paid ten dollars a day, the same fee as that received by the regular elec- tion officials. Prohibited Contributions. — The corrupt practises laws also undertake to curb contribu- tions to political campaign funds. As the result of the inquiry into insurance companies con- ducted by Charles E. Hughes and of other state and national investigations, in which it has been proven that large corporations have given to campaign funds in the hope of influencing future policies and laws, many states now prohibit cor- porations from making such contributions. Another forward movement is the attempt to prevent the forcing of contributions from elected or appointed officials. The system itself is a bad one and many candidates have suffered heavy losses as a result of it, but perhaps the greatest injustices have been suffered by government em- ployees on small salaries. Rural free delivery clerks earning four hundred dollars a year have been assessed as much as seventy dollars for their party treasuries. The extension of civil service. Political Party Finances 53 or appointment by merit, has helped to correct this evil and it is now a criminal offense to solicit funds from civil service employees or to ask for political contributions inside any federal building. This is evaded by the making of voluntary con- tributions by civil service employees, and by so- liciting from those employed in federal buildings outside of office hours. Among the states which have supplemented federal regulations of this kind is Massachusetts, which has a law prohibit- ing the soliciting of money for campaign pur- poses by any public official or from any state or city or town employee. Publications. — Some of the most important provisions of the corrupt practises acts relate to newspapers. In the first place, the aid of news- papers is sought to enforce the regulations deal- ing with prohibited expenditures and prohibited contributions and to arouse public opinion against the evils in political financing. To this end the federal government and many state governments require candidates for election to submit to the various secretaries of states for publication in the newspapers full accounts of the amounts raised for their campaigns and the ways in which the money is spent. It is repeatedly stated that ways to evade the law are found and that accounts filed by no means represent the actual sums which are 54s Political Party Finances raised and spent in these campaigns. Further- more, the criticism is made that most of these laws require the fihng of accounts only after primaries and elections, whereas if statements were de- manded both before and after primaries and elec- tions, the attitude of the voters toward certain candidates might be entirely changed. The second way in which newspapers and magazines come under the attention of the cor- rupt practises acts is in the requirement that po- litical publicity for which newspapers receive money shall be labelled advertisement. Utah has gone a step further, requiring publishers to file sworn statements of the ownership of their news- papers and periodicals before publishing any po- litical advertisements and candidates or political committees publishing such advertisements to submit sworn declarations of any financial inter- est which they have in such newspapers or peri- odicals. CHAPTER IV ABUSES STILL UNREGULATED The Control of Newspapers. — One of the most important factors in political campaigns which the present laws do not adequately reach is the newspapers. The Utah law comes more closely than any other to exposing the inter-rela- tionships which exist between politicians and pub- lishers. But no adequate means have as yet been established to check the propaganda which pub- lications may send forth daily, nor to disclose the real forces which are behind the political policies of publications. Certainly no other form of ad- vertising is so effective as the editorial and news columns of newspapers, and the voter who con- sciously or unconsciously permits what he reads to formulate his opinions for him is an easy vic- tim to this sort of propaganda. In one state the man who has held the dominant political position in the majority party for the last decade has owned outright or con- trolled every daily and nearly every weekly 55 56 Political Party Finances newspaper published anywhere in the state. In another state the owners of the leading news- papers have formed a political combination of their own by which they decide what candidates shall be nominated and elected. So powerful are they that independent candidates have little chance. Either by the participation of the own- ers directly in politics, or through the financial interests which back them, or because of arrange- ments with political leaders, many publications are controlled in their endorsement of policies and candidates by vastly different considerations than the individual merit of those policies or can- didates. Not only do such newspapers support certain political leaders at election time and throughout the intervening months as well, but the inde- pendent candidate who desires to present his point of view may find it impossible even to se- cure admission to their advertising columns. In a recent contest in the west, the candidate who was defeated for re-election to the United States Senate said that there were only half a dozen papers in the entire state which would print news concerning him and that he was obliged to pay prohibitive advertising rates in several of these. The other newspapers, he said, told him that their Political Party Finances 57 advertising columns were sold out for the entire period of the campaign. In another case in a campaign in an eastern state, an organization very much interested in carrying a referendum spent large sums in ad- vertisements in newspapers. The owner of one newspaper in which this advertising was placed was desirous of defeating the referendum. As soon as he received the jfirst advertisement, he telephoned to the leaders of the side with which he was personally in accord and stated that he was about to answer the advertisements and that his friends need have no concern about the cost. Thereupon he began a daily series of advertise- ments in answer to those for which he was ac- cepting large sums of money. At the close of the campaign he sent a receipted bill to his friends. Public Patronage by Party Leaders. — An- other matter which existing laws do not reach is the work given to a party organization by those whom it has been instrumental in placing on the public payroll. For instance the party in power may have secured the appointment of five thou- sand employees in a municipality. These em- ployees will devote their evenings, or half holi- days and Sundays, or may even go out of their ofiices and neglect their work to campaign for their party ticket. They canvass, they distribute 58 Political Party Finances leaflets, they organize and get up meetings. What is to stop them? They may receive no money for their services. Like all other voters they are entitled to work for the ticket they de- sire to have win, but how far is it justifiable for them to take advantage of positions which they hold in order to advance party interests; how much of a handicap are they entitled to impose upon the independent candidate who has no such power of organization behind him? The Non-political Organization. — Expendi- tures by non-political organizations are also not reached by the present laws and these are often sufficient to materially influence an election. For instance a manufacturers' association may desire the election of a certain candidate. It may circulate thousands of letters and advertising pamphlets in his behalf. It may pay him for haUs for meetings and give banquets in his honor. But no accounting is required of the association, even in those states which are most strict in regu- lating the expenditures which political commit- tees may make for their candidates. CHAPTER V SUGGESTED EEMEDIES The Need of Public Funds.— The only ade- quate remedy for the evils in political party fi- nancing is by the realization of the fact that primaries and elections are not a personal and private matter but a public charge. Formerly candidates bore not only all their own expenses, but some of the cost incidental to primaries and elections, wealthy men thus com- ing into possession of great political power. Pri- maries and elections are now financed by the state, but many of the candidates' expenses have been assumed by the political parties, considerable po- litical control thereby passing into the hands of professional politicians and commercial interests. If all of the expenses, both for candidates and elections, were paid out of public funds, the pub- lic would have control of its own politics. Campaign funds have been objectionable not alone because of their size, but even more largely because of their source, the direct or implied ob- 59 60 Political Party Finances ligations which were thus established and the consequent influencing of governmental policies and the acts of federal, state or municipal offi- cials. The question therefore arises, whose elec- tion is it? Is the election the affair of the candidates, something from which they expect to profit and therefore something for which they should bear the expense? Is the election the af- fair of the party and should it pay the bills? Is it the affair of commercial institutions from which they will derive protection for their interests and for which they therefore should pay? Or is it the affair of the people, to be paid for and safe- guarded by them because it is vital to their wel- fare and the very life of their state and nation? Need of Reducing Expenses. — If election expenses are to be regarded as public and not personal affairs, three things should result. First, the present overwhelming costs should be reduced; second, a large part of the expenditure should be met directly from public funds; and, third, the remainder should be paid by contribu- tions from as many persons as possible. How may the cost of elections be reduced? The average voter goes to a meeting, applauds the speakers, feels a gi'eat amount of enthusiasm and then goes home, considering that he has done his part in a campaign and never asking who paid Political Party Finances 61 for the hall, out of whose pocket came the ex- penses of the speakers, who put up the funds for the elaborate decorations of flags and the expen- sive circulars which were distributed? If meet- ings were held in public buildings, such as town halls and schoolhouses, three direct results would be evident. The expense of hiring and decorat- ing a hall would be entirely done away with, no party or candidate would be put under obliga- tions to a public utility or a private individual for furnishing a hall, and the very fact that a building belonging to them was being used would make voters feel a greater responsibility to at- tend and to hear what was being said. Another means of reducing election expenses is by means of campaign pamphlets, which are now being cir- culated in some states. According to the cam- paign pamphlet law, the parties and candidates furnish information concerning their records and promises to state oflicials who have this matter printed and sent to the voters. Thus the cost of circularization of the voters is already being reduced. What practicable way is there for paying cam- paign expenses out of public funds? Colorado attempted a scheme of this kind, but the law passed by the state legislature was declared un- constitutional by the state supreme court. The 62 Political Party Finances Colorado act provided that each political party should be given a sum from the state treasury equal to twenty-five cents for every vote cast for it in the preceding gubernatorial elections. Twelve and one-half cents of each twenty-five cents was to go into the campaign funds of the county committee and twelve and one-half cents into the campaign fund of the state committee of the party. For instance if one hundred thou- sand votes were cast for a party candidate for governor, the party would receive twenty-five thousand dollars for its expenses in the next elec- tion. Every Citizen a Contributor. — How may campaign contributions be secured from large numbers of persons? Whenever people feel that a movement really belongs to them, that they are a part of it and that it is dependent upon them, they will give to its support. This has been proven by many national organizations of various kinds and by new political parties which have been organized and have subsisted for various lengths of time upon voluntary contributions from the masses of their membership. But it has also been made evident that there must be a real issue at stake, an issue in which the people feel a vital interest. Because of the issue which it presented, the Political Party Finances 63 woman suffrage campaign was financed in a great measure through collections taken at meet- ings, and that method is open to any political organization. Even the present political parties have found that when they addressed a sufficiently strong ap- peal they were able to collect large sums from one-dollar gifts from their members. And that means also could be employed by any political group. No organization has as yet been able to finance itself solely by collections at meetings or by dol- lar memberships, and there is no reason why those who can afford to make larger contributions should not do so, if there is no obligation on the part of the individual or group receiving the gift to retiu-n the value in services which should be- long wholly to the public. When the mass of voters have the integrity of elections really at heart there will be no difficulty in financing politics through gifts from the peo- ple, none of whom will attempt to dictate policies or to exact favors because of their contributions. Then Americans will have realized the truth of the words of Henry Van Dyke, "There is a life that is worth living now, as it was worth liv- ing in former days, and that is the honest life. There is a battle that is worth fighting now, as it 64 Political Party Finances was worth fighting then, and that is the battle of the rights of the people. To make our city and our state free in fact as well as in name ; to break the rings that strangle true liberty, and to keep them broken; to cleanse, so far as in our power lies, the fountain of our national life from pohti- cal, commercial, and social corruptions; to teach our sons and daughters, by precept and example, the honor of serving such a country as America — that is work worthy of the finest manhood and womanhood." PART III DEFEATING THE VOTERS AT THE POLLS CHAPTER I THE VOTE AND THE BALLOT What Is a Vote? — A vote is the expression of opinion. It is of value only when there is an honest, efficient means for recording it. The chief problem of a democracy is the creation and maintenance of such means, so that for each citi- zen there shall be one vote ; and not less than one vote, because the citizen has been defrauded of his rights or is too indifferent to exercise them; nor more than one vote, because he has abused the most sacred gift of a free government and par- ticipated in trickery and corruption. Historical Development of Voting. — In early tribal and primitive governments the ballot was regarded as the natural concomitant of mem- bership in the state. It was a birthright, a sym- bol of dignity and distinction. On the day ap- pointed for elections those with the right to vote went as a matter of course to the great open spaces set apart for the polls. There they signi- fied their choice of candidates by raising their 67 68 The Voter at the Polls hands or by calling out as they walked single file by the counters. Although there was not at that time so much indifference and neglect on the part of those entitled to vote as today, there were other forms of election evils, such as the great feasts to influence the masses of citizens, and pri- vate arrangements between political leaders by which the results were largely determined. With the growth of democratic ideals, the bal- lot came to be regarded as an inalienable right, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On these grounds extensions of the suffrage have been granted in the United States. In their first constitutions, only two of the original states, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, conceded to all taxpayers the right to vote. Kentucky, com- ing into the union in 1791, and Vermont, in 1792, gave universal manhood suffrage, but it took the first thirty years of the next century to make that practice general. Many states at first barred Jews and Catholics, Baptists and those of other denominations. Atheists Avere prohibited from holding office. Religious professions were a necessary precedent to voting. For instance in Delaware, the voter was required to proclaim his belief in the Trinity and the divine inspiration of the Bible. Not only have these discriminations been abolished, but Indians, negroes, naturalized The Voter at the Polls 69 foreign-born and women have been given the franchise. Some Old Penalties for Crime against the Ballot.— That electoral abuses existed in the early days of the republic is evident from the penalties which the state constitutions imposed for such frauds. For bribery there were fines from ten to fifty pounds, or twice the amount of the bribe. Virginia and North Carolina nullified the election in which bribery was proved to have been used. New Jersey and Rhode Island pun- ished the offenders by disfranchisement and tak- ing away the right to hold office and to give evi- dence in a court of justice. Rhode Island re- quired officers to swear that they abhorred brib- ery, and also nullified an election if it was proved that any vote had been cast illegally. Fraud, re- peating and falsification of returns were all pro- vided for by penalties, Rhode Island being most severe with a provision for a fine of five pounds, forty stripes on the naked back or imprisonment in the j ail or stocks. South Carolina and Georgia refused bail to such prisoners. Today voting has come to be generally looked upon not as a privilege of birth or property, or even a right so much as a duty or service to the state. It is apparent that some voters are wiser, better educated, more fit to formulate opinions 70 The Voter at the Polls than others. And yet the purposes of govern- ment are not served by barring out these, rather, on the contrary, by aiding them in order to bring about an intelligent, loyal, honest electorate, which is the foundation of a democracy. Election Day Ceremonies. — Early political history points out many ceremonies incident to election day. Feasts were a frequent feature and some of the American colonies even provided for election day dinners out of the public funds. Prayers and election morning sermons were usual, these being supplanted later in American history by patriotic addresses. Many persons to- day urge a return to the custom of patriotic mass meetings and orations as a means of emphasizing the civic importance of the day. The Development of the Ballot. — The open ballot gave great opportunity for corruption, whether it was the Roman citizens herded into the sheep enclosures on the Campus Martins, calling out their choice of candidates, or the English lords gathered on great grassy fields to raise their hands, or the Pilgrim fathers dropping black and white beans into jars, or the southern planta- tion owners telling their votes to the sheriffs who called at their gates, or the Kentuckians arraying themselves in long lines to show their allegiance. Yet with all of its apparent evils there was The Voter at the Polls 71 much opposition to giving up the open vote. In 1839 John Randolph of Virginia said, "I scarcely believe that we have such a fool in all Virginia as even to mention the vote by ballot, and I do not hesitate to say that the adoption of the ballot would make any nation a nation of scoundrels, if it did not find them so." Although most of the other states had adopted the ballot by 1800, Ar- kansas was forty-six years later in giving up the viva voce vote. Missouri and Virginia kept it until the sixties and Kentucky until 1890. The introduction of the ballot did not establish the secrecy of elections, as was soon discovered. In its early days the voter who entered the elec- tion place was first enrolled. He then marked his ballot, and his choice was announced by the judges, whereupon the candidates or their rep- resentatives who were present rose and thanked him, and the spectators on that side applauded. It was easy for any observer to note how a man voted, since the political parties prepared their own ballots and printed them with vivid col- ors and flaming emblems so that they could be dis- tinguished by illiterate voters. By this same token those who bribed voters could accompany them to the ballot box and make certain that they voted as they had been paid to do. Various other abuses crept in. Political leaders who wanted for 72 The Voter at the Polls some reason to betray one of their own ticket might print ballots with the usual colors and em- blems, but substituting another name for the one marked for defeat. The illiterate or careless voter would not detect the substitution and would cast the ballot as printed. Rival parties, too, would print their own names on ballots resem- bling those of the opposing party, so that the un- wary voter was constantly casting ballots which did not at all represent his opinion. The Australian Ballot. — The evils that have been mentioned led to the campaign for the Aus- tralian ballot, to put all printing and distribution of ballots into the hands of the state and especi- ally to insure secrecy in voting. Again there was much opposition. David B. Hill, governor of New York state, approved private polling booths, but in 1881 vetoed a bill to this intent because it also provided for state control of the printing and distribution of ballots. This he declared would give dangerous powers into the hands of partisan election officials and would tend to disfranchise illiterates who were in the habit of being guided by their party ballots. In Nebraska the Australian ballot Avas opposed in the late eighties on the openly stated grounds that a prohibition amendment was pending the next year and might be carried unless the liquor The Voter at the Polls 73 advocates could make sure that the voters fol- lowed their instructions. The Australian ballot which was first adopted by Massachusetts in 1888, and is now in use in some form or another in every state, has the fol- lowing distinguishing features : The names of all candidates of each political party of certain num- erical strength are printed on a separate ballot at public expense; sample ballots may be circulated previous to election day, but the official ballot, the only one counted at the polls, is never given out beforehand, being distributed by sworn-in offi- cials to each citizen as he presents himself to vote ; ballots must be marked in voting booths provided for the purpose and in absolute secrecy. No state may be said to use the system entirely in its original form. The various modified forms may be divided into two groups, the party column ballot and the office column ballot. The party column ballot lists the names of the nominees under the name and usually the emblem of the party. This is supposed to be a great aid to the illiterate voter, who looks for the eagle or the sun and votes for all the names under it. Some of the parties vary their emblem with the state. The Prohibition party, for instance, uses a hatchet in Alabama, a house and yard in Dela- warei a phcenix in Kentucky, a rose in Ohio, an 74 The Voter at the Polls anchor in New Hampshire, an armorial device in Michigan, a sun rising over the water in Indiana and Kansas and a fountain in New York. That that emblem does not always ensure the ballot of an ignorant voter being cast according to his wishes is evident from the story of a new voter in New York state who at a recent election had one desire only and that to vote wet. He looked for the wettest emblem he could find and voted the straight ticket listed under the fountain — ^the emblem of the Prohibition party in that state. Political leaders may generally be said to have two reasons for favoring the party column ticket. First, because with it ignorant voters make fewer mistakes in following out their instructions, and second, because it encourages voting the straight ticket. The leader of a citizens' good government organization in congratulating the members on the results of a recent campaign, said that it was an achievement worthy of a lifetime to have taught four himdred thousand voters to split their ticket. It is this disposition to vote against in- efficient or undesirable candidates on a ticket, which political bosses fight. The office column ballot, whch was the original form of the Australian ballot, lists the names of candidates under the offices to be fiUed with no distinguishing mark other than the name of the The Voter at the Polls 75 party to which each belongs. Those who support this system value it as requiring a higher grade of intelligence in the voters, although the neces- sity of reading this ballot is evaded by political leaders who give stencils to illiterates. These stencils are laid flat on the ballots and have cut- out places indicating the names of the candi- dates which are to be marked. Some states modify this system still further and eliminate even the name of the party follow- ing that of the candidate. This is done for two purposes. In the West the intent is to make elec- tions non-partisan and to put the choice of can- didates on individual merit instead of party considerations. In some parts of the South the purpose is to make it more difficult for negro vot- ers to pick out the names of their party candi- dates. There are other devices also intended to confuse the negro voters, among them the use of a large number of ballot boxes at each polling place. One box will be for the county vote, an- other for the congressional, another for the state and still another for the federal, the boxes some- times being multiplied up to the number of twelve. If the voter puts his county ballot in the state box or his state ballot in the congressional box or his congressional ballot in the federal box. 76 The Voter at the Polls ihe loses it. Since it requires some study to get the right ballot in the right box, undesirable voters, or those considered undesirable by the election t"fficials may readily be disfranchised. CHAPTER II THE MACHINERY OF ELECTIONS When Elections are Held.— In all states na- tional elections for the choice of President and Vice-President are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November every four years. In most states elections of representatives in Con- gress take place on the same date every two years. Elections for state officials usually take place on the same date as national elections, although often in different years. There are some exceptions, including Maine, which has the state and congres- sional elections both in September; Arkansas which has its state election in September; Georgia in October ; and Louisiana in April. There is still further disposition to separate the municipal from state and national elections, so that questions of outside policies will not con- trol the choice of municipal candidates. In order to minimize still further the influence of party policies, some states separate the election of judges from federal or state elections. 77 78 The Voter at the Polls Preceding every election due notification must always be given of the time and place, the offices to be filled, and any questions of policy to be submitted to the voters. When property owning was the principal qualification for voting, it was often the custom to have elections for the same officials on different days, so that a man might vote once in every dis- trict where he owned property. It was found that under this system political leaders moved their entire staffs from district to district. Speakers, literature, organizers, and checkbooks, especially checkbooks, made the rounds of the districts; and, since the results of the preceding days might be learned, political leaders would go to any lengths to swing the number of votes re- quired to carry an election. This has led to the present disposition to unite on one day all elec- tions in which the same candidates or policies are to be voted upon. Eligibility of Voters. — ^Wliile it is customary to speak of the 'right to vote,' as a matter of practice suffrage is given not as a question of in- dividual right alone, but to those who are able to exercise it for the benefit of the state. Voting is the machinery set up by the state for carrying forward its own existence. The right to partici- pate in that machinery is no more uilierent in The Voter at tie Polls 79 every resident regardless of ability, than is the right to serve as governor, as member of a legis- lature, or as commissioner of education. All states restrict the right to vote to citizens twenty-one years old. All states require the voter to have been a resident for a stated period, the time varying from six months to two years. Most states require voters to be citizens of the United States. A section of the middle western states stretching from the Canadian border to the gulf, originally permitted aliens who had not taken out their final citizenship papers to vote, but agitation for the abolition of this provision became general with the outbreak of the world war and, as a result, it has been practically done away with. Certain classes of persons are ex- cluded from the franchise, chief among them the insane, idiots, paupers and convicted criminals. Formerly New York excluded those convicted of betting on an election, Idaho and Mississippi those proved to have committed bigamy, while Virginia disfranchised duellists. Some states still require the payment of a poll tax. There is an increasing number of those which provide for a literacy test. Connecticut was the first to require voters to be able to read and write, establishing the provision in 1855. The first of the southern states to attempt to re- 80 The Voter at the Polls duce its number of negro voters by a literacy test was Mississippi, which in 1890 set up the require- ment that a voter must be able to read the state constitution or understand it when read by an election officer. South Carolina made a similar ruling five years later, excepting, however, those who own at least $300 worth of property. Sev- eral other southern states exempted from the lit- eracy test those who were voters in 1867, when the negroes were still disfranchised, the descend- ants of those who were voters in 1867, and those who served in the army and navy during the Civil War. Such exceptions, which operated in the favor of white voters who were illiterate, led to considerable controversy in other parts of the country and the provision relating to voters of 1867, termed the Grandfather clause, was in 1915 declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. Election Officials. — ^Election commissioners, or county and city clerks, are required to provide requisites for elections. It is their duty to see that the selected buildings are open and ready for polls, that the registration or enrollment books for the district, ballot boxes, printed bal- lots, pencils, pens, ink and other supplies are on hand. At each polling place there is a corps of election judges or inspectors, poll clerks, or The Voter at the Polls 81 counters, and ballot clerks. Most of these offi- cials secure their appointment through the in- fluence of district political party leaders and as such may naturally be expected to favor the for- tunes of the particular party through which they have secured their appointment. In addition each party is entitled to one or more watchers, or challengers, to protect their party's interests. There is also a policeman to see that electioneer- ing is not carried on within a certain number of feet of the polling place, that order is maintained, and that the ordinary rules of election procedure are obeyed. Election officials are paid for their work by the government, since they are responsible for the actual conduct of elections. Party watchers or challengers are supposed to be volunteers. Their work is to prevent dishonesty, to watch for fraud and to challenge "when they detect it, to see that the attention of the precinct judges is called to any such matter, and in case of an unsatisfactory decision from them, to carry the matter to the election commissioners or the courts. The citizen who is interested primarily in honest elections may not find it easy to obtain a watcher's certifi- cate from one of the dominant parties, but the minority parties, certain good citizenship organi- zations and those who are interested in pending 82 The Voter at the Polls referenda welcome such assistance and are glad to grant certificates even though the citizen may not be directly allied with them. Importance of Election Watchers. — The party watcher has a task the importance of which cannot be too much stressed. There could never be a corrupt election if honest citizens went as watchers to every polling place and stayed there the entire day. If the polls open at six o'clock it is no good to arrive at a quarter after six. Enough ballots may be put into the box by that time to overturn the entire election. If there is no one to substitute for him, the watcher should not leave the polls for luncheon or dinner. In his absence enough ballots may be destroyed to de- termine the outcome. If the count proceeds all night, and the watcher leaves one minute before it is concluded, the figures entered in ink, the boxes sealed and given into the custody of the po- lice guard, he might as well have stayed away en- tirely. Due partly to the violence wliich has attended elections in the past and the unpleasant character of many of the polling places, citizens of the so- called 'better class' have been reluctant to under- take the work of election officials and watchers. The last few years have witnessed an improve- ment both in the character of the polls and the or- The Voter at the Polls 83 der which is maintained there ; and the granting of suffrage to women has made necessary still further reforms. As a result, today there is less excuse for shirking this duty and every reason for all good citizens to feel that it is their particu- lar responsibility. Registration. — The first difficulty in insuring an honest election comes with the registration of the voters. In the United States the custom has been to require personal registration, that is, that every voter shall come on stated days before the election officials, sign his name, give his address and age, and answer a few other simple questions which will help to identify him when he comes later to cast his vote and to prevent a dishonest person from claiming his registration and voting in his stead. Some states have elaborated upon these requirements and demand that a personal description of the registrant be entered on the books, giving the color of hair and eyes, heighth and any other personal characteristics which would make identification more certain. Especially in the country districts where per- sonal registration makes a long journey neces- sary there is an increasing disposition to admit registration by proxy or by mail. Latterly some states have passed laws permitting traveling men or others necessarily absent from home, or those 84 The Voter at the Polls who are ill, to send their registration by mail. This system has been objected to on the ground that lack of personal identification by watchers gives greater opportunity for dishonest election officials to "pad the rolls" with names of persons who have not registered and will not vote, but whose names are thus at the disposal of false vot- ers on election day. Some states require registration to be renewed every year or two by the voters. Others follow the practice of "once on always on." In states where this permanent registration exists, names of men who have moved away or who are deceased may be carried for years on the books in order that substitutes may be voted in their place on election day. In close elections political party leaders have even been known to make use of this method by copying into the registration books lists of names from telephone or city directories. There is a constant protest against undue in- convenience to the voters concerning registration. It is difiicult, however, to make registration easy for the voters and at the same time to safeguard it properly as a means of tabulating honest vot- ing lists. CHAPTER III TYPES OF ELECTION FRAUD Fraud. — If the representatives of the two par- ties on the election boards are in collusion no law can insure honest elections. This is the real dif- ficulty underlying all election reform. A woman watcher tells of seeing not only the poll clerks, but the judges and watchers of both parties in one precinct working in unison for the election of five of the ten candidates for city commission- ers. Although election literature is prohibited in all polling places, the walls of this particular one were covered with posters bearing the five chosen names. A man sat in the center of the polling place all day wearing on his coat a ribbon with the names of these five candidates and this woman watcher actually saw him give money to voters as they entered. While the openness with which this particular fraud was carried on may be un- usual, there is clear evidence of trickery in nearly every election. The time has come for American voters to open their eyes to the ways by which their 85 86 The Voter at the Polls will is constantly nullified and control over them is maintained by political leaders. The frauds which are practised may be listed under three heads, according as they are accomplished through force, bribery, or trickery. Frauds by Force. — It has already been said that frauds by force are less prevalent today than they have been in the past. And yet within the last few years 'thugs' from outside the state were imported to swing a Pennsylvania election. They took possession of the polls, voted in place of the legally qualified voters, and by violence in- timidated all who tried to stop them. Owners of large estates, employers of great numbers of men and political leaders in control of patronage still march up to the polls the men under them to vote according to their instructions. Fraud by Bribery. — -The buying and selling of votes is the most prevalent and widely known known method of defeating the will of the ma- jority. There are precincts where money is openly paid to the voters by political leaders. Recently in Chicago a ballot when unfolded by the election counters revealed a five-dollar bill which had been handed to the voter and which he had evidently forgotten to remove. In some sec- tions it is the habit for political leaders working at the polls to distribute checks of various kinds; The Voter at the Polls 87 or in the south, chestnuts, which are redeemed by the party cashier for two or five or ten dollars — whatever rate has been agreed upon as the price to be paid each voter in that section. Political leaders can tell almost to a dollar the sum needed to buy enough votes to swing the election of a road commissioner, or a mayor, or whatever the official may be. In one small city this system was recently imperiled by a bitter controversy between the two dominant parties, in which the price of votes was run up so high that the leaders finally came together and made an agreement to buy no more votes. Whereupon the men who had been in the habit of selling their votes nominated a ticket of their own and elected it. The political leaders immediately restored the old system. Fraud by Trickery.— There are many tricks by which political leaders juggle elections. One of the most common is repeating. Men are em- ployed to vote as many times as they can in each precinct. For this purpose the registration lists are padded by the officials with names which will not be claimed by actual voters. Lists of these fictitious names are given to the repeaters, who may then vote in place of a man who has moved away, or died, or gone on a visit to Maine or Cali- fornia. Sometimes the repeater may claim the name of a man who intends to vote later in the 88 The Voter at the Polls day. In one such case the election officials threat- ened to throw the rightful voter out of the polls if he did not go away quietly and when he continued to assert his right to vote, they did actually put him out into the street. In a recent investigation in Kansas City one man confessed to having voted thirty-seven times at one election and to knowing forty other men who voted as many times. Colonizing is another fraud. Some states re- quire registration many months preceding elec- tions. Others accept a very brief registration, or permit men who move from one district to an- other to change their registration up to a few days preceding election. Such states open the way to bringing in men from outside, who register, vote in large numbers and are gone within a few days. It has even been established that in states close to the Canadian border where the registration days have been close to election, party leaders have brought over 'colonies' of Canadians to vote. The giving of misinformation is a very easy way to trick voters. A citizen may be told that he cannot vote at a certain precinct and unless he protests his rights, he may be induced to go away and not vote at all, thus leaving his regis- tration to T)e used by some one else. Voters are frequently advised that they are not permitted to The Voter at the Polls 89 split the ticket, or are warned that if they do attempt it they will make such mistakes that their ballot will certainly be thrown out. Watchers have been put out of polling places for advising voters that it was permissable to split party tick- ets, thus leaving the field to those who were ad- vising that it was prohibited. One woman in Pennsylvania has told how an election official to whom she appealed for information so that she might vote against one party, told her to "scratch it by making a cross under its emblem." The woman did as she was told, thereby casting a straight vote for the party she wished to defeat. Some states permit illiterate voters to receive aid in casting their votes from one representative of each of the two dominant parties. Where these representatives are in collusion, the will of the voter may be frustrated, for they have been known to mark the ballot in an entirely opposite way from the one indicated by the voter. So it is that ballots may be perverted before they are cast. But there are also ways of cheat- ing honest, informed citizens who think that once their ballots are properly deposited in the box they can go home sure that their duty is well performed. Ballots have been stolen from boxes. In a recent New York City election one large bundle of voted ballots properly marked 90 The Voter at tie Polls with the precinct in which they were cast wag picked up from a nearhy gutter. A Pennsyl- vania woman watcher has reported the use of such small boxes that ballots overflowed to the floor, were opened and destroyed. And a woman watcher in another state who overheard plans laid to destroy a certain number of ballots dur- ing the count literally sat upon them until an- other woman could get help to protect them. Dishonest officials may easily cheat while the ballots are being handled in the count. It is easy to make a little tear in a ballot as it is being opened, any such torn ballots being thrown out. 'Shortpencilling' is resorted to by holding in the clenched fist a very short pencil with the lead downward. By this means marks may be made which deface a ballot and result in its being thrown out. Or a straight ticket may be split in this wise. In some states the law permits a voter to make a check under the emblem of his party and then if he desires to mark the names of two or three candidates on the opposing ticket, his ballot is counted as being cast for all the candi- dates under the emblem he has marked except those for whom he has voted on the opposing ticket. In such states the dishonest counter who 'shortpencils,' makes checks on ballots and thus increases the votes for certain candidates in whom he is particularly interested. CHAPTER IV SOME SUGGESTED REMEDIES Compulsory Voting. — A number of foreign countries are now having their registration hsts of all those eligible to vote made up by the gov- ernment itself, thus doing away with the inde- pendent registration by voters themselves. Along with this plan usually proceeds compul- sory voting. That means that all those whose names are on the lists are required to vote, unless they can prove unavoidable absence or illness. In this country where compulsory voting has been agitated, it has been opposed as an infringement of personal liberty and it has been said that those who are too indifferent to vote would not have any opinion on public affairs worth recording. On the other hand those with experience with the system urge that it does secure the votes of many good citizens who have not previously been awake to their duty to the state. Changes in the Form of the Ballot. — The abolition of the party emblem on ballots is urged 91 92 The Voter at the Polls as a means of requiring voters to exercise more intelligence and thought in picking out candi- dates. It is also argued that so long as voters by making a single mark can cast a ballot for their straight party ticket, many will do this to save themselves trouble, whereas if they are required to mark each name separately they will be more likely to consider the merits of candidates on op- posing tickets. The length of the average ballot also conspires to the casting of a straight vote by the citizen who has not time enough alloted to him to mark each name separately. The remedy suggested for this is the short ballot already in use in some states. On the short ballot there appear only the names of the more important candidates, so that this change operates not only to save time for the voter but to center upon the leading officials re- sponsibility for the appointment of minor officials now usually chosen by election. Proportional Representation. — :To make ef- fective the will of the majority proportional rep- resentation is now used in most European coun- tries and in some parts of the United States. Under our present scheme of elections one of sev- eral candidates who himself receives less than a majority of all the votes cast at the election may be declared the victor. Also the control of po- The Voter at the Polls 93 litical leaders is a strong factor in the choice of nominees in the primaries and candidates at the elections. Proportional Representation is said to insure both the triumph of the candidates with an actual majority of votes and to make more likely the election of independents. There are various modifications of proportional representa- tion in use, all of which, however, depend upon the preferential ballot. On the preferential bal- lot the voter records not only his first, but his sec- ond, or third choice, in fact as many choices as he likes. When the ballots are counted, if the can- didate named as first choice has no chance of win- ning a maj ority, the vote is transferred to the sec- ond choice. If the candidate named as second choice has no chance of winning, the vote is trans- ferred to third choice and so on. The Voting Machine.— Two remedies are advanced to do away with trickery in counting. One is the use of voting machines which are not so easy of manipulation by dishonest officials as are paper ballots, and which automatically regis- ter totals so that the returns are immediately known and there can be no withholding of returns from one district to falsify them according to the need disclosed by the results in other districts. The other remedy is the public counting of votes, that is the sending of the sealed ballot boxes to 94 The Voter at the Polls one central place where the counting may be watched by all interested citizens. Some Additional Changes. — There is some- thing certainly wrong with the electoral system when only fifteen per cent, of those entitled to vote go to the polls as was the case recently in one state. There are some very apparent ways of be- ginning the reform. So long as voters are penal- ized by being obliged to wait in line outside for an hour or two, sometimes in the pouring rain, and then to hold their noses against the smells within for another fifteen minutes before they can deposit their ballots, there is bound to be some disinclination to vote. Better polling places, the use of churches and schools instead of stables and shops, would remedy that. More vital, of course, are the more or less hid- den frauds whose well known practise has dis- couraged individual voters and made them feel that their efforts were worthless. Legal means have been suggested to better these conditions. But the only really efficacious way of dealing with the situation is for honest citizens who desire hon- est elections to go to the polls as election officials and watchers. One such person to each precinct would quickly end the corruption of elections. PART- IV THE STATE LEGISLATURE AND ITS WORK UNDER THE PARTY SYSTEM CHAPTER I THE LEGISLATURE AND ITS POWERS The State and the Citizen. — In our dual sys- tem of governing the functions and powers of legislative authority are divided between Con- gress and the respective state legislatures. It is, however, the state authority that touches most closely the life and immediate interests of the citizen. Practically all the laws that regulate the conditions under which we live, work, carry on business, acquire our education, and derive our amusements are the product of the state legisla- ture, or of subordinate bodies that derive their authority from that source. It prescribes the qualifications of the physician who tends us dur- ing illness. It provides the schools that we at- tend and the boards of health which regulate the conditions under which we attend them. It deter- mines the nature of the transportation that car- ries us to and from business in cities. It places restrictions on various businesses and professions. It touches us in one way or another in almost 97 98 The State Legislature every transaction that we make involving another person. And directly or indirectly it collects from us the money with which it pays for its great and varied activities. It is, therefore, a hody in which we should have a great personal interest, and with whose acts we should be familiar. Divisions of the Legislature. — In every state there are two divisions of the legislature, called houses. This has not always been so. The first legislature in this country, that of Virginia, in 1619 had two houses; but of the original thirteen colonies, both Georgia and Pennsylvania had one house only. Vermont at first had one house, not adding the second until 1836. The purpose of the two houses, or bicameral system as it is called, is to provide against hasty and unconsidered ac- tion. This method of checks and balances, which is a feature of the entire American system of government, has beeen subject to criticism, and in recent years there has been agitation, especially in the western states, for a single-chambered leg- islature. In each state the upper house is called the sen- ate. This is regarded as the more dignified of the two bodies, and membership in it is consid- ered superior to that in the lower house. The names given to the lower house vary in different states. Some call it the house of representatives, The State Legislature 99 or house of delegates. In others it is known merely as the house, or the assembly. Two states, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, retain the name applied in colonial days, general court. Legislative Powers. — In the wide latitude of its powers the legislature is the most important branch of the state government. It may act upon any matter not prohibited to it by the state con- stitution, the federal constitution and laws, acts of Congress, and United States treaties. The scope of its activities includes the grant- ing of charters to municipalities and the settle- ment of boundaries of counties, cities, towns and villages; the granting of charters to railroads, banks, educational and benevolent institutions, both public and private; the regulation of taxes, licenses, and fees; the enactment of all criminal laws, including the punishment for treason, mur- der, arson, stealing, bribery, forgery, kidnapping, fraud, perjury; conditions for the ownership, sale, and use of all land, including mortgages and deeds ; provision for the making of wills, set- tlement of estates of bankrupts and deceased; en- actment of laws controlling education, marriage and divorce, health restrictions, elections and vot- ing; methods of transportation for railroads and boats, methods of communication such as the telegraph and telephone; and contracts of trade. 100 The State Legislature business and industry, including farming, fishing, mining, manufacturing and trading. These are by no means all of the powers dele- gated to the legislature. A few instances of the proceedings of legislatures will indicate the tre- menduous right of dictation over municipal af- fairs accorded to it. Not long ago the people of Philadelphia were obliged by the state legislature to build a city hall which cost $20,000,000. The Ohio legislature voted a soldiers' monument which was built in Cleveland at the cost of $300,- 000. When New York City wanted to build its elevated railway system it was compelled to ask permission of the state legislature and the grant was made with the provision that a state commis- sion have authority and supervision over the work. ^Vhen Chicago wanted to prescribe the width of wagon tires which could be used on its own streets, it had first to secure the consent of the Illinois legislature. The city of Buffalo in New York state has had a controversy extending over a considerable pe- riod of years as to whether it should continue the municipal government by a mayor and board of aldermen, or adopt the commission form of gov- ernment. Since the change affected the provi- sions in the city charter, it was necessary when a majority of the voters had decided upon the com- The State Legislature 101 mission form of government, to appeal to the legislature for a new charter. A spirited contest ensued before representatives from other coun- ties would grant the request. Now that the com- mission form of government has been in opera- tion in Buffalo for several years, its advocates have a constant battle against members of the legislature from other counties who desire to re- store the old system. There is an increasing sentiment in favor of curtailing the powers of the legislature, which has resulted in some states in amending the constitu- tion in such a way as to limit the legislative authority. Some have given to the people the power of direct legislation for themselves through the initiative, which enables the voters to propose a law to the legislature; and the referendum, which enables the voters to ballot upon a law which they have demanded be referred to them. Others have sought to regulate the legislature by limiting the length of its session, in order to prevent prolonged debate and delay in deciding important questions. This limitation has been evaded by interpreting the constitution to mean that the members shall be paid for the prescribed time only, but that if important business is still to be transacted they may remain in session at their discretion; or by still other devices. CHAPTER II THE CONSTITUTION OF THE LEGISLATUEE The Time of Legislative Sessions. — Each state constitution prescribes the time at which the regular session of the legislature shall take place and in addition the governor of the state is given the right to call an extraordinary session in the event of an emergency. Alabama has a quad- rennial session ; New York, New Jersey, Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Geor- gia have annual sessions. Other state legislatm'es meet biennially. Length of Terms. — Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama elect the members of the lower house for terms of four years, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York for terms of one year, and all other states for two years. New Jersey elects senators for a period of one year ; Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illi- nois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisi- ana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, 102 The State Legislature 103 Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, for four years; and Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Vermont, for two years. Apportionment.— The size of the legislature varies in the different states. The lower house is always the larger. Sometimes the proportion is one to two a,s in Delaware, where there are seven- teen senators and thirty-five assemblymen. More often the ratio is one to three. In the New England states the lower houses are of still greater size. New Hampshire has over four hun- dred assemblymen to twenty-four senators ; Con- necticut two hundred and fifty-eight assembly- men to thirty- five senators; Vermont two hun- dred and forty-six assemblymen to thirty sena- tors; Massachusetts two hundred and forty as- semblymen to forty senators. The intent in having such large assemblies is to give the most democratic representation pos- sible. Sometimes this results in the opposite ef- fect. Connecticut for instance gives representa- tion to each town, so that one thousand persons in one community may have two members in the 104 The State Legislature legislature and one hundred thousand persons in another community will also have just two mem- bers in the legislature. The more usual method of apportioning mem- bers is to divide the voters into groups of fairly equal size, allowing one representative for each unit of the voters. Some of the states have found it necessary to set up additional safeguards to this method. For instance New York State, with the tremendous population in the great city of New York, attempts to protect its rural voters by a law which declares that no one county in the state may have a greater number of representa- tives than one-third of the total number. Method of Election.— However the appor- tionment varies, the general scheme of elections is the same, with each small assembly district or town choosing one representative to the lower house and several districts or towns combining to elect a senator to the upper house. The lines of districts are usually changed by the election officials when the number of voters in them becomes so large as to be out of propor- tion to the number of voters in the other dis- tricts. Thus one district may be made into two, or several districts may be changed so as to add one or two. When this process is done unfairly it is called gerrymandering. By gerrymander- The State Legislature 105 ing streets on which voters of one pohtical party live may be assigned to another district, thus leaving control of the first district in the hands of the opposing political party. A little colony of voters of one party in a country district may be changed over to another district, not only with this result, but also making it necessary for them to travel miles to reach the polling place, often discouraging them from voting at all. Some- times districts are gerrymandered so that two members of the legislature from one party are placed in the same district, thus making it neces- sary for one to withdraw at the next election or to move his residence to another district where he will not be so sure of re-election. Sometimes the move is in favor of two men who live in the same district, a division making it possible for both to be elected to the legislature. In close elections where the two dominant political par- ties are struggling for supremacy gerrymander- ing in a very few districts may decide the victory for an entire state. The Members of the Legislature.— In the East political party leaders in picking candi- dates have helped to create the popular belief that lawyers are especially equipped for legislative work. The pressure of business concerns that desire to have their special interests watched dur- 106 The State Legislature ing legislative sessions has also contributed to the selection of lawyers, who are by the nature of their regular occupations associated with rail- roads and manufacturing concerns and conuner- cial institutions of all kinds. In the West, where there is more independence of party control, farmers and business men, as well as professional men, are more generally elected to legislatures. The individual voter who assumes the full re- sponsibility of citizenship must undertake to see that his representative does actually represent him and not a financial interest. To do this he must have personal knowledge of all the candi- dates, their qualifications, their supporters and their platforms. Salaries of Legislators. — In every state the salaries of senators and members of the lower house is the same, but the amounts vary greatly in the various states. Some pay three dollars a day, a sum which legislators say does not pay their expenses at the state capitol. South Caro- lina and New Hampshire pay $200 a session, while New York and Pennsylvania pay $1,500 a year. Small salaries mean that competent men must make sacrifices in order to serve their states, while dishonest men are subjected to the con- stant temptation to supplement their salaries by accepting money for serving special interests. CHAPTER III THE ORGANIZATION OF THE LEGISLATURE The Election of Officers. — Every legislature meets in the state capitol. Immediately upon the convening of the new^ session each house proceeds separately to organize for its work. In states vphere there is a lieutenant-governor that official is designated by the constitution as the presiding officer of the senate. In other states the presid- ing officer or president, as he is usually called, is elected by the senate from its own membership. The house elects its own presiding officer, or speaker, as he is ordinarily called. While tech- nically it is true that each house elects the pre- siding officer, actually he is chosen in a previous caucus or secret meeting of the legislators of the political party which has a majority of members in the house. When the house has been convened for organization, a leading member of the party caucus will rise and nominate the choice of the caucus. It is usual for the minority party to make a nomination from their ranks, also chosen 107 108 The State Legislature in caucus. The voting by the house is a mere matter of form, since the minority caucus nomi- nee is always defeated and the majority nominee always elected. It is considered courteous for the minority, after the defeat of its candidate, to withdraw any open opposition to the election of the majority nominee. In some cases of extreme bitterness, however, the minority party has been known by long speeches to delay the election until the people of the state have learned of the fight and the reasons for making it. The position of presiding officer carries with it great power. Not only does the presiding offi- cer have important appointments to make, but he can control debate to a large extent. He has an important part in determining the decisions of the house by recognizing some men and re- fusing to recognize others who desire to speak; also by allowing motions which block free and independent discussion or even by shutting off speeches entirely. As soon as the presiding officer has been chosen, the house selects its business organization, clerk, sergeant-at-arms, door-keepers, messen- gers and other minor officials. The Permanent Committees.^ — When that is accomplished the presiding officer makes the an- nouncement of the committee memberships, the The State Legislature 109 most important of which are those on finance, cor- porations, municipalities, judiciary, appropria- tions, elections, education, labor, manufacturers, agriculture, and railroads. Membership on these committees is, of course, especially desirable, and it is likewise decided in caucus. The party having the majority in the house will take the larger proportion of committee places, the smaller num- ber going to the minority. Those legislators who have been re-elected to office ordinarily have the choicest places, and the new men receive the less desirable appointments. Unofficial Appointments — These are the of- ficial appointments of the house, but in addition there are unofficial ones which carry with them much power. Each caucus chooses a floor leader and usually a steering committee. These men have much the same kind of control as that of the presiding officer. They manage floor tactics, and during a close debate are the ones recognized by the presiding officer and permitted to make motions. They decide to a large degree in what order bills shall come up and what the party stand upon them will be. They direct the fight which is always conducted against any member who op- poses the control of the party leaders. In all of these appointments made by the cau- cus it is customary for the party leaders to take 110 The State Legislature a part. It is not uncommon for the state political .party chairman and others high in party councils to attend a caucus and to declare themselves con- cerning appointments or even with regard to pending legislation, matters which are popularly supposed to be managed entirely by the members of the legislature. CHAPTER IV THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS The Introduction of Bills. — The passage of bills is tlie most important duty of the legislature and here the power of committees is strongly felt. A bill may be the result of the individual obser- vation of a legislator, it may represent the thought of a community or an organization of citizens interested in the common good, or it may be instigated by some private corporation which expects personal gain thereby. Whether it is actually drafted by a legislator or by some in- terested outside group, it must be introduced by a legislator and thereafter is known by his name. It may be brought forward in both houses on the same day; or, in controversial cases, it may be introduced at first only into one house, the one in which it will receive most support, in order that its friends may control it. The Bill in Committee. — After the bill has been read in the house, it is referred to the com- mittee having general jurisdiction over matters 111 112 The State Legislature to which it pertains. Since the speaker has the authority to refer the bill, its friends usually con- sult him first, endeavoring to influence him to refer it to a committee which will act favorably, rather than one which is known to be hostile to it. Here may come the first clash. The speaker may yield to the entreaties of friends of the bill, while the opponents are sure to protest over the refer- ence of the bill and to urge reasons why it should be sent to another committee. Here may come a test vote on the bill, for the opposition may prove itself so strong that the speaker will feel obliged to ask the house to sustain or overthrow his ruling. Committees are often referred to as 'grave- yards of legislative hopes.' In the secrecy of executive sessions a committee discusses a bill and determines whether or not it shall ever again see the light of day. It may pigeonhole the bill and never report it; although under certain condi- tions the house may by a majority vote order the bill from committee. The committee may decide to hold hearings on the bill or it may refuse to grant hearings. It may report the bill with a recommendation for its rejection or its accept- ance. When the bill is returned to the house, it goes to the calendar, has a second reading, is sub- ject to general discussion and amendment, and The State Legislature 113 then proceeds to a third reading and passage or defeat. The Power of the Opposition.^ — Through all of these steps the opponents and proponents of a bill may have a running fight. The opponents have several weapons to use. They may try to talk a bill down, delaying the proceedings of the house to such a degree that other legislation is imperiled and the particular bill may be dropped for a time or laid on the table temporarily. A motion to lay the bill on the table is another means of defeating it ; and, on such a motion, the opponents are sure to be able to get the votes of weak members who can be swayed to voting with them on a technicality of this kind, when they would not dare vote openly against the bill itself. The opposition is certain also to suggest amend- ments, which would tend to nullify or alter the original intent of the bill. For every one of these moves the friends of the bill must be prepared. Often a bill has been lost when there were enough votes to insure its passage, solely because its friends were not alert to the meaning of techni- calities. In one legislature in which there was a clear majority for a bill, the chairman of the commit- tee to which it was entrusted did not realize the importance of making sure of the attendance of 114 The State Legislature all friendly committee members at the meeting at which it was to be considered. As a result the enemies of the bill on the committee voted by a majority of one to report it unfavorably. The bill thus went to the house with an undeserved handicap. Throughout the entire debate on the bill, lasting for a week, the enemies were con- stantly interposing parliamentary objections which made friends of the bill lose the floor for discussion and motions, adjournments come at most unfortunate times and a final week-end re- cess possible. The week-end was fatal to the bill. Thousands of dollars were spent sending tele- grams and delegations to the legislators in their homes and from a majority of fifteen in its favor, the bill slipped back to defeat by four votes. There are cases of unwise proposals where such a delay might work to the advantage of the peo- ple, but in this case popular sentiment was strongly in favor of the bill, and its defeat was a sore blow to public welfare. Technical Motions.^ — In order that friends of a bill may not be mistakenly led to voting on the wrong side in moot questions, it is usually arranged among the friends of the bill that one man whose support is certain and whose name comes well up to the top of the alphabet will give the signal. The leaders for the bill will gather The State Legislature 115 at his seat for conference when a vote is to be taken and as he votes so all friends of the bill are expected to do. In one bitter legislative fight recently, the speaker ordered all members into their seats. As a consequence the first seven votes of friends of the bill were scattered, none of these particular members being certain of the parliamentary question involved. It was not until the name of the strongest supporter of the bill was reached that members were sure how they ought to vote and the spectators were amused at the promptness with which the A's and B's sprang to their feet and demanded to change their votes. One of the most unfair practices of legislators is to trade votes with each other in such instances as this. A man who desires to have his own bills advanced will agree to vote for another bill, pro- vided the friends of that bill will promise to give him a certain number of votes for his bills. In this way members have been known to secure ap- propriations and special favors for their districts which would never have been granted had they been considered on their merits. The Bill Before the Second House. — Once passed in one house, the bill goes to the other house for action. Here it may encounter honest opposition or competition, due to the desire of 116 The State Legislature an individual member or of a majority of the house to be its originator. Deadlocks of this kind are not frequent, but they are by no means rare, and they point a lesson to the voter who has a keen interest in a certain bill to see that its friends in both houses agree upon the tactics to be pursued. If a bill is amended in the second house, it is returned to the house where it originated for con- currence. If the amendments are refused by the first house, a conference committee is usually ap- pointed by the two houses to consider and recom- mend a compromise. A conference committee has greater power than any other, for its report is not subject to amendment and friends of a bill are thus often forced to accept verj'^ objectionable amendments or else lose a bill altogether. The Final Step.' — After a bill has been passed it is sent to the governor of the state, whose sig- nature is required before the bill can become law, except in North Carolina. The governor may veto a bill, which then requires a majority, or a two-thirds or a three-fifths vote in both houses to be passed over his veto. Checks on Legislators. — In the belief that legislators have not been sufficiently guided by the wishes of their constituents and have either impeded bills or hurried through unwise legisla- The State Legislature 117 tion, some states now require that all bills be in- troduced during a stated term at the opening of each session. At the conclusion of the appointed time a recess is declared and the members are expected to devote themselves to studying the bills and to hearing the wishes of their constituents with regard to them. At the expiration of the recess, they return to the capitol for a second limited period at which these bills and no others may be passed. All action by the legislature is recorded by the clerks or secretaries in the journal, and the jour- nal should always be open to voters who seek to know the exact attitude of their legislators on the questions submitted to them. CHAPTER V LEGISLATITE ABUSES The Legislative Joker. — One of the evils arising in connection with the passage of bills is the introduction of what are termed "jokers." Perhaps an entire committee or an individual member of a committee or perhaps a legislator during discussion on the floor will add to a bill a phrase whose real meaning is not clear to the rest of the body. Or if clear to them, its purport may be concealed from the public until after the adjournment of the body. Such a phrase some- times renders a bill unconstitutional. Sometimes it constitutes a new ruling on a matter entirely foreign to the main bill. In any event months of delay must intervene before a new legislature can correct the bill. Committee Room Secrecy— Another abuse comes from the transaction of much of the busi- ness relating to bills in a committee room. Pri- vacy enshrouds the real backers and opponents of 118 The State Legislature 119 bills, making it difficult for the public to deter- mine the exact issues involved. Bi-partisan Combinations. — One of the greatest evils arises from the fact that our politi- cal system is so organized that the entire respon- sibility for the failure or passage of a bill cannot be laid upon any one political group. On the surface there is much opposition between parties. Their representatives attack each other in public. As an actual fact bipartisan combinations are a very common thing. It is often arranged be- tween the leaders of the parties that each will give a certain percentage of the votes needed to carry a piece of legislation, but that the necessary majority will be withheld. Thus a bill may fail by one or two votes. Sometimes it is agreed that a bill will be passed in one house and that the other house will assume the responsibility for voting it down, or delaying it in committee, or prolonging debate on the floor so that an ad- journment of the session comes before the bill can possibly be passed. Recently the failure to pass a certain bill was charged against the majority party in one state legislature. As a fact the majority party would have been obliged to give practically a unani- mous vote of its members in both houses in order to secure the required number of votes to pass 120 The State Legislature the bill. The minority party gave just one vote to the bill in each of the two houses. Failure of Attempts to Regulate Legis- latures. — Attempts to regulate the legislature in its conduct have not been very successful. During an attempt to prevent bipartisan agree- ments in one legislature recently, nearly half the members struck. Day after day they sat in their seats, refusing to answer to roll call, declining to participate in debate, refraining from voting on bills. After two weeks of this impasse the re- formers gave in, and the strikers jubilantly cele- brated their victory. In another state it has become a habit for legis- lators who are outvoted to run away, thus break- ing a quorum and making any action by the body impossible. Under ordinary circumstances, when a quorum of the membership is not present, the presiding officer may be empowered to ask the sergeant-at-arms to find the absentees and bring them to their seats. In this situation the legislators remove themselves from the jurisdic- tion of the state entirely by going over the border into the next state and remaining until terms are negotiated or the session automatically ends. It has been charged that they have even taken this trip on passes from a railroad, whose interest in the legislation of the state is very great. CHAPTER VI THE THIRD HOUSE The Lobby.— The greatest of all legislative abuses is the control over it exercised by those who are entirely outside of the membership of the legislature, the 'third house,' that body of repre- sentatives or 'lobbyists' who are present in every state capitol urging the members of the legiti- mate two houses of the legislature to pass or de- feat bills according to the wishes of private interests instead of the public interest. Some- times the lobbyist is a quiet, unobtrusive traveler who has "just happened" to be in the city and is interested in watching the legislature at work. Sometimes he is himself a resident of the state, a^ lawyer, a claim agent for a railroad, or a repre- sentative of a merchant or manufacturer. Be- cause of the very difficulty of determining whether a lobbyist is serving the honest purpose of letting a legislator know the desires of a ma- jority of his constituents, or whether he is rep- resenting a minority of entrenched financial 121 122 The State Legislature interests, there is a present effort to secure legis- lation requiring the registration of all lobbyists, the names of their employers and the amount of money which they spend during the session. It does the citizen little good to be able to re- peat by rote the powers and duties of his state legislature unless he has at least equal knowl- edge of these sinister influences of invisible gov- ernment which attempt to pervert the system. Although stories of corruption and intimida- tion due to the activities of the 'third house' are current in nearly every session of every state leg- islature, the facts rarely come to public knowl- edge. Where they are exposed the insidious forces crumble, for invisible government made visible loses its power. The Tennessee Lobby. — One of the most glaring instances of attempted political sabotage exposed in recent years was the extra session of the Tennessee legislature of 1920, when the fate of the thirty-sixth ratification of the federal woman suffrage amendment hung in the balance and the most skillful lobbyists were gathered from all over the country in an unsuccessful at- tempt to debauch the handful of men who had gone from the cotton plantations and the cotton mills into the state legislature. All the state knew that, prior to the opening The State Legislature 123 of the session, a majority of the legislators had pledged themselves to their constituents to pass the ratification resolution and it soon became clear that the fight to make these men repudiate their pledges was a fight not only for and against woman suffrage, but a struggle between the 'third house,' collected from all over the country, and the two houses of Tennesseans, elected by the people of Tennessee as their legislators. As such the story has an important place in the history of American government. Charges against the 'third house' were made openly on the floor. One member of the legis- lature said, "What is a greater crime than for the interests from New York to San Francisco to send lobbyists here to ask you to break your pledges, or for certain newspapers connected with railroads to threaten you as they have been do- ing for days?" Another member opened his speech with these words, "When the special in- terests made an attack on this legislature last January they had a gang of lobbyists to put over their infamous bills. I recognize in the lobbies these same special interest servers. You have an opportunity on this occasion to rid this state of an incubus that has laid its claws in this legislature for fifty years. Let us show by our votes that the special interests are done in Tennessee." 124 The State legislature Methods of the Lobbyists. — How did the 'third house' attempt to influence the legislators? Two men were given the third degree, being called to the telephone every few hours day and night, so that sleepless and worn, they might the easier yield to the promises and threats which were made them. Not only were the two men told that they would be defeated in the next elec- tion, but one of them was warned that if he stood by his pledge to vote for ratification he would lose the little district school where he was teach- ing. Positions in the internal revenue service were promised some of the legislators, until an appeal was taken to the President of the United States. Frequent attempts were made to get friendly legislators so drunk that they would perforce be absent when the vote was taken and two men were actually taken captive in an automobile and driven miles from town until one of them forced the abductor at the point of a pistol to return to the capitol. Afiidavits against the moral charac- ter of one legislator were shown to him and he was told that secrecy was the price of his vote. In previous campaigns such as this both in Tennessee and in other states, good citizens had retreated when they saw the lengths to which the opposition was prepared to go, but in this case The State Legislature 125 the battle was fought to a finish, the legislators kept the pledges they had made to their con- stituents and the 'third house' received one of the most thorough beatings in history. Good government would be tremendously helped if every voter understood that such ef- forts are made to prevent legislators from serv- ing their own consciences and the desires of their constituents. A legislator may be assured that invisible gov- ernment has already secured so strong a hold that if he fails to serve it, he will be made a 'horrible example.' Other horrible examples are pointed out to him, men who never get appointments on good committees, whose bills are always defeated, who cannot secure patronage which their con- stituents expect. Perhaps he is told that he will be helped or opposed at the next election by in- visible government. He is handicapped in telling the truth back home. Such charges are never popular and invisible government makes severe reprisals. Will his constituents, who want hon- est government, understand the situation? Will they show sufficient interest to help re-elect him if he stands for what they want? The often- quoted indifference of good voters may make the legislator hesitate. Pernicious Propaganda.— Another powerful 126 The State Legislature agency for deceiving the voter and keeping him from reahzing the significance of what is going on in the legislature is the ally which the 'third house' most frequently employs, propaganda. This may be compared to the third ring of the political circus, which distracts the attention of the voter from the two rings which he should he watching. Propaganda may be useful in creating public opinion for a good bill, but it is often used to con- ceal the real purpose of a bad bill or to discredit a good one. In a recent state campaign against a strong lobby of the 'third house,' the following statement was made regarding propaganda: "We have found that there exists in our state a dangerous subversion not only of legislative opinions, but of public opinions as well. We have found a condi- tion by virtue of which it is evident that it has been made exceedingly difficult for any constructive or industrial measure to get adequate and un- biased consideration before either the public or the legislative opinion of the state, and we have found that the influences at work, far from being invisible, are flagrantly and cynically open, and are rapidly becoming notorious. We call the at- tention of our legislators and of the public gen- erally to the fact that propagandism as created and financed by certain powerful, vested inter- The State Legislature 127 ests is assiuning a highly potent, though unregu- lated, political and governmental function. Propagandism would seem, in fact, to be taking the place of political 'bossism' such as ruled the state ten or twenty years ago. Since the people now have more or less direct control of political party machinery it has become impossible for one or two or three 'bosses' at the top to command legislative action at will without regard for the possible resentment of the people. For the sup- port of various little 'bosses,' in or out of the legis- lature, certain special interests have inaugurated a campaign of pseudo-patriotic propaganda which has been used to confuse the people as a whole with regard to the real nature of such legis- lation as these particular interests may choose to consider 'undesirable.' " The Lobby and the Newspaper.— The news- papers of several large eastern cities recently dis- covered that a correspondent whom they had been paying for supposedly unbiased stories about a legislative fight was receiving a large salary as publicity representative for one of the important interests involved. They immediately sent staff writers to gather the real facts, but the correc- tions never caught up with the first stories which undoubtedly had a big part in defeating legisla- tion desired by the people of the state. 128 The State Legislature In another case a lecturer was engaged to make a series of addresses on American ideals. After he had appeared in a dozen cities he learned that he was the 'dust thrower' for men who were following to organize against certain bills which were pending before the legislature and a state- ment was promptly made to that effect. That the 'third house' is responsible for many more instances than these is certain. A great American statesman recently said, "This is the real urge in American politics. Invisible govern- ment is the foe of all right-thinking people and unless we can oust its agencies we shall not be able, no matter who is elected, to have good gov- ernment. I wish all the people of America could see the danger from this slimy thing which is re- sponsible for most of the bad laws and the bad execution of those laws." Surely each citizen must learn to know the 'third house' as well as the authorized two houses of the legislature if he is to do his part that "gov- ernment of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." PART V CONGRESS AND ITS WORK UNDER THE PARTY SYSTEM CHAPTER I CONGRESS AND ITS POWERS The Two Houses.— The most discussed, the most criticized and the least understood institu- tion in American politics is the national law-mak- ing body, Congress. It consists of two houses. The upper house, or Senate, has a fixed member- ship of ninety-six, two members from each of the forty-eight states. The lower body, the House of Representatives, has a changing membership based on the population of the various states. The number is now set at four hundred and thirty-five, New York having the greatest repre- sentation, forty-three, and Delaware, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming, the small- est number, one. Alaska and Hawaii each have one delegate, who is allowed to serve on certain committees and to take part in debate, but not to vote. The Philippine Islands and Porto Rico have resident commissioners with privileges simi- lar to those of the territorial delegates. Senators and Representatives receive the same 131 132 Congress and Its Work salary, seven thousand five hundred dollars an- nually. In addition they are allowed traveling expenses of twenty cents per mile for each mile from their homes to Washington and return each session. They also have stationery and office sup- ply allotments, are permitted to send all except personal letters without paying postage and are given the services of clerks and secretaries. Representatives are elected every two years. The states are divided according to population into congressional districts, the voters of each district choosing their own representative. All the voters of each state may participate in the election of the senators, who are given six-year terms, one-third of the ninety-six being elected biennially. The longer term and the common re- election, — three former senators served continu- ously for thirty-two years each — aid in keeping that house the more conservative of the two. The Sessions of Congress.— Although mem- bers are elected to Congress in November of the even-numbered years, they are not called into regular session until a year from the following December, thirteen months later. This provision of the constitution is a survival of the days when it took six weeks for the news to reach Andrew Jackson at his home near Nashville, Tennessee, that he had been elected President of the United Congress and Its Work 138 States, and another three months for him to travel by coach to the national capitol. In later years it has been subjected to much criticism, experience having demonstrated that when the voters turn one party out and put another in power in No- vember, the Congress of the succeeding Decem- ber to March does practically no work at all. This is true even when the incoming party al- ready has a majority in Congress for Senators and Representatives wait for the new adminis- tration to take the initiative in framing policies. The nation thus suffers from the delay of needed legislation and is put to the expense of an extra session to do what should have been done in the regular session. The session which convenes in December of the odd-numbered years continues so long as there is business to be transacted and is called the long session. The session which convenes in Decem- ber of the even-numbered years continues until noon on the following fourth day of March, when the members elected the preceding November take office and is called the short session. The President of the United States, who is empowered to adjourn Congress when it can come to no such agreement on its own account, may also convene extraordinary sessions. So fre- quently has this been done recently that during 134 Congress and Its Work the ten years from 1910 to 1920 there was but one year, 1915, when the regular interval elapsed be- tween sessions. Historical Development of Congress. — Con- gress was created to be to the nation what the legislature was to the state. Although the situa- tion then was such that Madison complained that 'the backwardness of the best citizens to engage in the legislative service gave too great success to unfit characters,' the founders of the republic saw no better model than that offered by the state legislatures. The federal constitution was not framed to re- quire Congress to hold public sessions, but it does provide that "each House shall keep a Journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, except such parts as may in their judg- ment require secrecy." At first the Senate took advantage of its pre- rogative to keep its sessions secret, but in 1799 it admitted spectators to its debates. The House of Representatives practised no such conceal- ments and during the first thirty years of its ex- istence was the center of public interest and authority. It exercised considerable control over both federal and local political affairs. During the first years of Congress practically all the political questions of the day were dis- Congress and Its Work 135 cussed in their relation to the constitution. The opening of lines of transportation and communi- cation, the admission of new states and the an- nexation of territory, the tariff and international affairs were all made matters of constitutional interpretation and argued from the viewpoint of that most fertile cause of controversy in this' country, federal versus state's rights. Although the abolition movement brought orators forward in political affairs, it is lawyers who have pre- dominated in Congress from the beginning down to the present time. A recent survey of the mem- bership showed that of the ninety-six Senators, no fewer than sixty-eight were lawyers. Thir- teen were business men, six newspaper pub- lishers, three doctors, two farmers, and four unclassified. Of the four hundred and thirty- five Representatives, two hundred and sixty-eight were listed as lawyers. The Powers of Congress. — The confirmation of treaties and presidential appointments is vested solely in the Senate. Charges of impeach- ment of high public officials are laid first before the House, which decides whether the charges shall be preferred before the Senate. Revenue- raising bills also originate in the House. The legislation which Congress is empowered to enact and which requires the consent of both 186 Congress and Its Work houses includes control of money-raising, taxing, etc.; commerce, naturalization; bankruptcy; money coinage; weights and measures; punish- ment of counterfeiting and piracy ; postoffices and postroads; copyrights; tribunals below the supe- rior court; declaration of war; raising and pro- viding for army and navy; organizing of militia and control of certain conditions ; government of the nation's Capitol. Congress also exercises considerable control over the members of the cabinet. In addition to the Senate confirmation of their appointments, the two houses of Congress decide the salaries and duties of each, the number of their assistants and their duties, the creation of subordinate bureaus and appropriations for their entire departments. Besides their direct work in Congress, mem- bers also look after the interests of their constitu- ents in other respects, especially in connection with the federal departments. Thus a member of Congress may spend several hours each day seeking appointments or pensions for indi^^duals, urging the establishment of a federal institution in a certain locality or the transference of a pro- posed institution away from a locality at the re- quest of the community itself, or in answering dozens of other requests. CHAPTER II THE ORGANIZATION OF CONGRESS The Struggle for Leadership. — The months preceding a session of Congress are filled with what is termed 'wire-pulling,' the efforts of mem- bers to secure positions of party leadership and chairmanships and memberships of the important committees in both houses. New members go to Washington and old members gather as well to pledge votes for themselves. The party in power has the positions of greater importance. It se- lects from its membership the officials of the two houses, all of the chairmen of committees and the majority of memberships on all committees. Men who are ambitious for these appointments enlist the aid of important party leaders both in- side and outside of Congress and sometimes the struggle continues down to the very hour of the party caucus at which the election is made sure. In the House the Republicans appoint what is called a 'committee on committees,' which guides the choice of the caucus. The Democratic mem- 137 138 Congress and Its Work bers of the committee on rules perform a similar service for their party. In the Senate the caucus itself makes its own decisions. A member who is not in harmony with the leaders in his party, or who displays any considerable amount of in- dependence finds it impossible to secure caucus endorsement for any important position. Organization of the House of Representa- tives. — In the House the leading position to be filled is that of presiding officer, or speaker, who ranks in Washington official life immediately after the President and Vice-President. The Speaker, as a matter of course, is always a mem- ber of the party in power. In addition, both parties appoint what are purely party ofiicials, a floor leader, one or two 'whips' and a steering committee. The majority floor leader, or some one he asks to represent him, always makes the motion to adjourn or take recess. Whether the House adjourns or takes recess at the end of the day is exceedingly important, since this deter- mines the order of business for the succeeding morning. Sometimes the minority party protests vigorously against the decision as to recess or ad- journment; and toward the close of a session, when it is difficult to secure the floor for any busi- ness, this motion has the gi'eatest significance. It is also the duty of the majority leader to see that Congress and Its Work 13d the policies determined upon by the steering com- mittee of his party are carried out upon the floor; and to this end it is essential that he should be a good parliamentarian, to take advantage of tech- nicalities of floor procedure and to outwit oppo- nents. The steering committee decides what is good party policy on all party questions, and which bills it is wise to push. It greatly depends upon the qualifications of the members of this committee what legislation is actually passed. The 'whip' has a great responsibility since he must see that when a vote is to be taken the mem- bers of his party are present or accounted for. Great indeed is his wrath and that of his party if he fails to see that a sufficient number of mem- bers are 'whipped into line' to vote in accordance with the policies decided upon by the steering committee and guided by the floor leader. The minority party 'whips,' steering committee, and floor leader fill the same positions for their party, only with less power than those of the majority party, and the minority floor leader is always recognized as the spokesman for his side of the House. Organization of the Senate. — • The Senate is presided over by the Vice-President of the United States, but it also elects a president pro tempore from the majority party, and each party 140 Congress and Its Work has its floor leader, steering committee, and one whip. The party positions are not ratified by the body of either House, but the Speaker, presi- dent pro tempore, committee chairmen, and mem- bers must all be voted upon after the caucus re- ports are submitted. The nominations made by the caucus of the majority party alwaj's prevail, although there is sometimes fear that this will not be so. When the party in power has a scant maj ority of one or two, there are sure to be some members who take advantage of the situation, either to exact desired positions or the promise of certain legislation to secure their vote, or independent members who object to the giving of offices to no- torious conservatives or reactionaries. There was a recent instance of this kind, where one indepen- dent member of the Senate, by voting with the minority, could defeat all of his party candidates. It had been threatened that he would do so, unless certain nominees of his party were withdrawn. When the actual moment to vote came, he stood by his party, and there was an audible murmm* in the Senate galleries while members of his partj'' who had not spoken to him for months rushed down the aisle to shake his hand. In another re- cent instance the successful candidate of one po- litical party was considered to be at heart more Congress and Its Work 141 friendly to the opposing party and it was believed possible that he might start his senatorial career by voting for the nominees of the opposing party. He did not do so, however, and it may be assumed with great certainty that the members of each party will almost inevitably vote for the nominees of their own caucus. Although it is clear that the party leaders under such a system of organization have tremen- dous control over both Houses, their power is considerably less today than it has been in the past. In the House it was the procedure for many years up to 1911 for the Speaker to appoint the committee members and until 1910 to have the right to recognize only such members as he chose to allow the floor in debate. A revolt against domination by the Speaker caused the curtailing of much of his power. Standing Committees. — So great is the power of the committees and their chairmen that the United States itself has been called 'a gov- ernment by chairmen.' Recently exceptions have been made to what was formerly a hard and fast rule, which contributed greatly to the power of committee chairmen. This was the seniority sys- tem, by which the representative of the party in power, who had been longest a member of the committee was given the chairmanship, regard- 142 Congress and Its Work less of fitness. The argument in favor of the seniority system was that when a man had been a committee member for many years he was toler- ably familiar with the work of the committee. On the other hand, a weak or illy-equipped man may retain his seat in Congress, or a man whose ideas are not at all in accord with those of the majority of the people along a certain line may stay for years on a committee, and not even be a good member of the committee, much less fitted to act as its chairman. Another innovation which is regarded with favor was made in the House of Representatives, where the majority party ruled that no man who was on one of ten principal committees should serve on any other committee. Previous to that time a group of strong and powerful members could hold between them all the places on all of the important committees. Most of the legislation enacted by Congress is determined by committees.. Their recommenda- tions usually decide the action in either House and so they either may make practically certain the victory of a bill or may assure its defeat or its delay so that no action at all is taken upon it. While most of the committee proceedings are conducted in secret or executive session, it fre- quently happens that a committee will hold open Congress and Its Work 148 hearings where interested citizens may declare themselves for or against bills. As a source of general information these hearings sometimes prove of the greatest value. On the other hand members wishing to delay legislation will drag out hearings, stimulating the introduction of new witnesses, cross-examining those who appear and devising such means of delay that the proposed legislation is never passed. CHAPTER III THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS The Introduction of Bills. — Each Congress passes a relatively small number of the bills pre- sented to it. In a recent session, for instance, 22,594 bills were introduced and 543 passed. Causes of the Defeat of Bills.— There are two contributing causes to the defeat of bills. One is the opposition by members themselves or by interested citizens outside of Congress who for various reasons desire to have certain bills killed. The other cause is the slow-moving pro- cedure of Congress, by which bills are smothered, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintention- ally. Those who are working from outside to defeat bills will have hundreds and thousands of letters and telegrams sent from voters to mem- bers of Congress. They circulate petitions and get signatures in opposition to the bills, which they present to the members of Congress. They hold mass meetings and prevail upon newspapers to attack the bills. Sometimes the opposing in- 144 Congress and Its Work 145 fluences brought to bear upon them are so strong that members of Congress are compelled to fight the bills, either through secret arrangements with their colleagues or in open debate on the floor. Those who favor bills are obliged to resort to similar methods in order to prove that the voters desire the bills passed. It must always be borne in mind, therefore, that bills introduced before Congress have this double struggle, both to prove to members of Congress that the people really desire this legis- lation and to survive the tedious, long-drawn-out processes which characterize the deliberations of our national law-making body. Referring of Bills to Committees. — In the House of Representatives a member introduces a bill by placing it in a basket and rising on the floor to announce that fact. The bill is then referred to a committee. The presiding officer may wish to make the reference to a committee known to be friendly or unfriendly to this par- ticular piece of legislation, but he has far less latitude in this regard than the presiding officer in a state legislature. For Congress is governed not only by rules but by precedents, which are so seriously regarded as to be printed for reference. If a member can point to either a rule or a prece- dent for the reference of a bill or for any other 146 Congress and Its Work proposal he wishes to make, he is fairly certain to be upheld. Once in committee the bill may be smothered and no action taken on it at all, or it may be de- feated in the committee, or amended, or reported back to the House with a favorable recommenda- tion or an unfavorable recommendation. If re- ported back to the House the bill goes to one of two calendars. Appropriation bills or private bills, such as those relating to pensions and awards, go to what is called the Calendar of the Whole House or the Calendar of the State of the Union, which has certain rights of precedence over the other calendar. Other bills go to what is called the House calendar. Procedure in the House. — Then comes the struggle to get time for discussion on the floor, except in the matter of reports or bills from the committees on printing, elections, ways and means, appropriations, which are termed 'privi- leged' and in both House and Senate have certain rights of precedence over all other bills. Under ordinary conditions, the chairman of a committee in the House of Representatives who has reported a bill of which he is in favor applies to the rules committee for a rule to bring the bill on the floor. The rules committee may or may not have hearings on the bill, but it does decide Congress and Its Work 147 whether or not it will give place to the measure. If it decides to allow it time, the committee re- ports that fact to the House, announcing also the date, the hour and the period allowed for debate with the names of the two members who will con- trol the division of the time between the affirma- tive and negative speakers. When the appointed day and hour arrives there may be debate on the acceptance of the report from the rules commit- tee. But once the report is adopted the time is controlled as it has provided and no member is permitted to have the floor except those listed by the two members in control of the time. At the conclusion of the alloted period the vote must be taken on the bill. Procedure in the Senate. — The procedure in the upper House is entirely different. There the difficulty is not so much in getting the bill on the floor for discussion, as in getting a vote once the bill is on the floor. Appropriations and a few special bills have a separate calendar. Other bills go to the calendar of general orders and are called by number once a week, usually on Monday. Suppose this bill which is so much needed by the country has survived all this procedure and gets as far as the general calendar. It is called by its number on a Calendar Monday. If one member objects, the bill must go over, 148 Congress and Its Work On the other hand, if there is no objection a bill may be adopted without debate and once recently with just five senators on the floor a very contro- versial bill was so adopted. As an indication of the amount of attention which even these five members were paying to the country's business when a few minutes later other Senators rushed on to the floor to demand a reconsideration, all but one of the five stated that they did not know what the bill was that they had just acted upon. Perhaps this important bill which the people want has two or three strong enemies among the members of the Senate. It may be clear to all that if the bill comes to a vote it will be passed, yet those two or three men can postpone its pas- sage by prolonged discussions, since the Senate has no limit on debate such as that in the House. Using debate to delay legislation is termed 'fili- bustering.' Sometimes it is the party dictators themselves who resort to filibustering to defeat a bill which may be desired by many good citizens. Filibustering to Kill Legislation. — Filibus- tering was resorted to by the southern senators in the administration of the second Harrison to defeat the 'force' bill. It has frequently been invoked since then. In fact the four Congresses from 1914-1918 each closed with a filibuster. Senator I^FoUette has been one of the most Congress and Its Work 149 noted exponents of the filibuster, Senator Allen is given credit for twenty-one hours of speaking when the Sherman act was under consideration, Senator Carter held the floor for eighteen hours during the vote on a rivers and harbors bill and Senator Smoot has a record of fifteen hours dur- ing the discussion of the shipping bill. In 1917 the Senate passed what is called the cloture rule to stop filibustering. Sixteen sena- tors must sign a petition to get cloture. The pe- tition must lie over for two days. Then the vote is taken and two-thirds of the Senate must be present and two-thirds of that number must vote in favor, in order to adopt cloture. After cloture is applied no member may speak for more than one hour. Since a filibuster usually develops at the close of a session, and ninety-six senators may each speak for one hour, cloture is not a great help in saving time for the passage of legislation. The Three Readings. — 'Every bill must go through the formality of three readings in each House. Sometimes only the title is read, some- times the amendments' made in committee. But the vote is not taken until the presiding officer announced the three readings. Minor points of difference are settled by viva voce vote, but bills are usually submitted by roll call so that each member is on record. 150 Congress and Its Work The Bill in the Other House.— Providing the bill is passed in spite of all these difficulties, it is sent from the House which passes it to the other one. If the second House amends the bill, it is then returned to the one where it originated for acceptance. Refusal to accept forces a con- ference. Each House appoints its conferees and they may report several times before they are able to effect a compromise. The report of a con- ference committee is not subject to amendment and must be accepted or rejected as presented. Appropriation Bills. — Appropriation bills merit special consideration, since ^hey occasion more frequent controversy than any other legisla- tion. The constitution provides that revenue- raising bills shall originate in the lower House and it has been the custom for appropriation bills to be framed there likewise. The procedure is for each federal department to send annually to the Secretary of the Treasury the estimates for its expenses. Since the amounts are always cut down, the departments pad these estimates to the fullest extent and the Secretary of the Treas- ury is only the compiler, with no authority to cut out duplications or to check undue extravagances. This list is then sent to the House, where it is divided between ten different committees. This separation has not tended to cut down extrava- Congress and Its Work 151 gance or eliminate duplication. In 1920-21 the House formed a joint appropriation committee with thirty-five members to handle all appropria- tion bills, the Senate continuing to divide the work among seven committees. This reform was considered preparatory to the adoption of a na- tional budget system by which the method of handling might be made still more efficient. Veto.— jBills passed by both Houses are sent to the President of the United States for his sig- nature, before they may become law. If he re- fuses to sign a bill, he returns it to the House which sent it to him and it then requires a two- thirds vote by both Houses to pass it over his veto. If ten days elapse without the President of the United States taking any action whatever the bill becomes law without his signature. If, however, the President has not signed the bill and Congress adjourns before the expiration of the ten days, the bill is killed by what is termed a "pocket veto." Congressional Record, — Stenographic re- ports are taken of every session of Congress and committee hearings. The committee hearings are published separately, but the account of each day's session is printed in what is called the Con- gressional Record, the reports for any day always being issued the following morning. Each Sena- 152 Congress and Its Work tor has eighty-eight copies and each Representa- tive sixty copies of the Congressional Record daily. Constituents may sometimes be placed on the free list of a member, receiving the Record each day during the session, but members prefer to send the copies bound to the libraries in their districts. It is also possible to subscribe for the Record, which is an excellent way of following the proceedings of Congress. The public distri- bution of the Record and the reprinting from it at small cost of speeches made by members gives rise to the making of speeches solely for the Rec- ord. That is, a member may secure the floor and talk for some time with no intention of affecting pending legislation, but only of affecting the votes of his constituents. In the House members 'ask leave to extend their remarks,' which means that men who have taken no part whatever in a discussion carefully write out a speech and it is printed in the Record exactly as though it had been delivered on the floor. Pairing. — While it is true that members have much work to do for their constituents in the va- rious federal departments, the general habit of leaving the floor in both Houses while the session is in progress is much to be deplored. Often business is being transacted when only five or six members are present and it is a constant habit in Congress and Its Work 153 the Senate for all but two or three members to leave the floor when a long speech is made. It seems reasonable to believe, if members were re- quired to be in their seats all during the course of the day, that means would be devised to check undue debate and delay. Absentee members are greatly aided by the pairing system. Pairing is not a rule, but is a much-honored custom of both Houses. It is usual for members at the beginning of the year to make what is termed a general pair. That is, two men with opposing views, practically always of opposing parties, will pair. That means that if one of the pair is absent, the other will withhold his vote. Thus any man may be away from the floor, secure in the knowledge that his absence will not affect the fortunes of his cause. When members expect to be away from the city for several days they may arrange spe- cial pairs, covering certain votes which will come up during their absence. In addition to encour- aging absence from the floor, pairing is con- demned as enabling men to evade responsibility for their votes in a way which they could not do if they were present. CHAPTER IV LEGISLATIVE ABUSES Wasting Time. — The abuses of Congress may be divided into three classes, those which waste the public time, those which waste the pub- he money, and those which are destructive of pubhc interests. The ways of wasting time are principally making speeches for the Record and filibustering, already mentioned, and the calling of the roll in the House. It requires about forty minutes to call the roll in the House, and a favor- ite method of delaying proceedings is to demand frequent roll calls. There is agitation for the substitution of an electrical system of roll call which would take less time. Waste of time means waste of money to the nation, for it has been esti- mated that it costs about ten thousand dollars a minute to run Congress. Waste of Public Money. — One of the great- est wastes of money is the abuse of the franking system, or the free use of the mails to which mem- bers are entitled. It was brought out recently 154, Congress and Its Work 155 that a member of Congress, who desired to be elected governor in his own state, was sending out packages of books as gifts to voters. In one day alone he was said to have sent out 640,000 of these packages. The government must have paid a large amount for the printing; and the postage alone at regular rates would have been forty-five cents a package, or $325,000. Many members have adopted the custom of sending a piece of literature to each of their constituents once a week or once every few days. Another gift made frequently, especially in country districts, is bound copies of the funeral orations which are delivered in Congress and whose bindings make them desirable ornaments. Then there are the garden seeds, for which ap- propriations of hundreds of thousands of dollars are made annually. Garden seeds are the special gift of members of the House of Representatives, but any voter who receives a package may well remember that it is the public funds, the taxes of the people, which have been spent in this effort to attract votes to Representatives. Patronage and the Pork Barrel. — Still more expensive to the public purse are patronage and 'pork barrel' possibilities. All of the positions about the Capitol are given as patronage. Every doorkeeper, every elevator man, every attendant 156 Congress and Its Work in the dressing rooms, is on the patronage lists of some member. The two greatest 'pork barrel' projects have always been the public buildings appropriations and the rivers and harbors ap- propriations bills. Members who wanted to get new buildings, postoffices, revenue collectors' of- fices, or bridges, found it necessary to be good friends with the chairmen of these committees. Recently the steering committee of the party in power in the House has ruled that these bills may contain no projects not already secured by bills passed by Congress ; so this particular form of graft has been somewhat curtailed. INIembers still lobby to increase appropriations for their dis- tricts and trade votes with each other on bills, the latter being called 'log-rolling.' Loss of Public Interest. — Of the practises destructive to public interest, none is more seri- ous than that of control of members by a spirit of sectionalism. Members are usually concerned in getting what their constituents want and advanc- ing the interests of that particular part of the country from which thej^ come, instead of looking to the welfare of the nation as a whole. Few take the point of view of Daniel Webster, who re- ferred to himself not as the representative of his state, but of the United States. CHAPTER y SOME SUGGESTED KEMEDIES Reforms in Committees.— To regulate the use of power by committees, it has been urged that greater pubhcity be given to committee proceed- ings, that committees be required to make some report on all bills and be prohibited from smoth- ering any. The election by each committee of its own chairman, rather than the choice of chairmen by the party caucus is also advocated. Decreasing the Power of the Lobby. — ^The pressure which is brought to bear upon members of Congress to vote for measures for private in- terests rather than the public good is one of the most destructive phases of the entire system. Lobbying is the technical term applied to the work of those who are present during legislative sessions, seeking to influence members of Con- gress. Certain strong commercial interests main- tain a permanent lobby in Congress. Their rep- resentatives are always present in the galleries. They watch all that goes on and by frequent let- 157 158 Congress and Its Work ters and visits they seek to impress their views upon members. Sometimes lobbyists are them- selves former members of Congress, with the right to go on the floor and mingle with the pres- ent members. In fact, so widespread has the sys- tem become, that a member of Congress will often talk or even dine with an old friend, who seems sincerely interested in a certain bill and cleverly presents arguments which carry much weight. Later the congressman will discover that the sup- posedly unprejudiced citizen was a highly paid employee of some concern with a vital interest in the proposed legislation. Bills have been intro- duced requiring all lobbyists to register their names, the names of the organizations they repre- sent and the amounts of money which they spend during a session, but no such bill has been passed. While a law of this kind might be helpful in en- abling members to sift prejudiced opinions from disinterested ones, the only effective way to covm- ter-balance the efforts of lobbj'ists is for citizens generally to formulate their own opinions on po- litical questions and then to inform their repre- sentatives in Congress how they wish them to vote. The Responsibility of Voters. — Burke's comment, in 1770, on the English political sys- tem is applicable to our American institution Congress and Its Work 159 today. "Where there is," he said, "a regular scheme of operations carried on, it is the system, and not any individual person, who acts in it, that is truly dangerous." "Political leaders," he con- tinued, "contrived to form in the outward admin- istration two parties at least, which, whilst they are tearing one another to pieces, are hoth com- petitors for the favor and protection of the cabal ; and by their emulation contribute to throw every- thing more and more into the hands of the interior managers." Later, after the founding of our own republic, Madison observed that "in all legislative assem- blies the greater the number composing them, the fewer will be the men who in fact direct the proceedings." This control by a few leaders, whose operations are hidden from the general body of voters, and the difficulty of placing responsibility upon the individual members of Congress or the party in power, have led to a serious defect. The voters, becoming dissatisfied with conditions and not realizing the underlying evils of the system itself, have turned one party out and put another in. Questions of national policy, platform principles, efficient administrators, have all been thrust aside at times and elections have been carried on the sole issue of a change of party. It has been said 160 Congress and Its Work that the two major political parties are exactly like bottles with different labels — ^both empty. Voters who have turned one party out to put an- other in, defeated one man to elect another, with- out any effect upon the system, are likely occa- sionally at least to agree with this statement. Until the voters realize that it is the system which is at fault, they will be powerless to effect any real reform. Men are elected to Congress and go to Washington with high ideals. They come in contact with the system which has been working these many years. They feel themselves helpless against it. One of two things happens. Either they accept the system and in time become so accustomed to it that they think it the only system, or they rebel, in which case political lead- ers make them ridiculous in the public eye and at the next election such men dechne to serve again or suffer defeat at the hands of their constituents. The solution is with the voters. With intelli- gent support from their constituents, a very few men could make much-needed reforms in the sj's- tem. With every voter willing to work for it, good government would quickly become an estab- lished fact. 'fl'^ lii'r i[,|»;iMlf , W V lllllf-ll'- I rl I > "ft. HI fi'F [",,11 "f,J'fMh I # I t 'U> 1