CAnhon MflNX-i- Book C^ «^,'.'^?f.^r^n ^■^^•ATE ixrm 2d Sessifli/ SPEECH OF HON. J. G. CANNON DELIVERED AT KANSAS CITY, MO., FRIDAY NIGHT, NOVEMBER 26, 1909 PRESENTED BY MR. HALE December 7, 1909 Ordered to lie on the table and to be printed WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1909 \^ n b\ DEC 20 1909 D. OF D. / SPEECH OF HON. 1. G. CANNON AT KANSAS CITY, MO., FRIDAY NI(;HT. NOVEMBER 26, 1909. Mr. Toastmaster and Citizens: When Charles Sumner entered the United States Senate in 1851 it is said that Thomas H. Benton congrat- ulated him, but remarked that he had come upon the national stage too late, as all the great questions had been settled. Benton had been a foremost figure in the Senate for years, a giant among the greatest statesmen whose names are found in American history. They had dealt with and settled many great questions, but they performed merely the overture in the great drama of a people's government. Benton's dream of a railroad to the Pacific has been more than real* ized. Not one but seven railroads bind the continent together with bands of steel and make the whole nation homogeneous. The cannonball express and the fast freight carry the people and exchange their prod- ucts over the whole country more readily and economically than similar service was performed within the confines of a single State when Missouri sent Benton to the Senate, and now at one-half the cost for similar service in any country on earth. DEVELOPME.NT OF THE WEST. Kansas City was a frontier post when Benton died, and beyond lav "Bleeding Kansas," the most turbulent territory on the American con- tinent. To-day Kansas City is the metropolis of the Southwest and the gateway to a new empire. The twelve States that have been organized from the Louisiana ])ur- chase to-day have almost if not quite double the wealth that was accred- ited to the whole United States when Benton died. In i860 our total wealth in the United States was given as $16,000,000,000. To-day the wealth of the twelve States carved out of the Louisiana territory is estimated at nearly $30,000,000,000, or one-third of the total wealth of the whole United States. (3) I sometimes wonder what Benton would think could his spirit return and see what strides the Federal Government has made in the last half century in crossing state lines, not to dominate but to benefit the people of the States; to aid in the construction of transcontinental rail- roads, improve rivers and harbors, reclaim arid lands, regulate inter- state commerce, put the stamp of Government on our meat to give it currency throughout the world as readily as our gold, guarantee puritv of the people's food, protect health by quarantine laws, regulate the hours of railway employees, and make their employers on interstate railroads responsible for injuries. I sometimes wonder also whether the great body of the people who now live in this newer West realize what a revolution has taken place in legislation by Congress in the last half century since the election of Lincoln, or even what has been done since McKinley's election as Presi- dent and the enactment of the Dingley law only twelve years ago. THE DINGLEY LAW'S SUCCESS. The Fifty-third Congress, which enacted the Wilson-Gorman tariff law, appropriated $917,000,000, and President Cleveland had to borrow $265,000,000 to help out the revenues and meet the ordinary expendi- tures of the Federal Government. That Democratic tariff law failed to produce the necessary revenue for even Democratic simjilicity in administration. President McKinley was heralded as the advance agent of prosperity, and the Fifty-fifth Congress that enacted the Dingley law twelve years ago was called upon to ])rovide for the extraordinary expenditures of the war with Spain. It had to a])])r()priate nearly half a billion dollars to support our army and navy in that war, apply war taxes to meet a part of the expenditures and ])rovide for the go\ernmcnt of Porto Rico and the I'hili|)piiU'S. It did so, and the GoxernuKiU also issued bonds, as it has always done for war e.xpetiditures; but the Dingley law proved to be the best riwiuu- ])ro(Uieer we have ever had, as the Wilson-Gorman law ])roved to be the ])()orist. The- Dingley law, whicli was protective, brought the total net ordinary rc\iinies of the I'ederal (^lovernmenl from $348,o(K),()()() in [\w last \i'ar of tlic Deinoeratie aduiinislratioii to $4()5,ough that they stand in the attitude of the criminal who when sent to the penitentiary complained of the inefficiency of the prosecuting attorney and said: "He has not done his duty; he ought to have had me hung, but instead oi that I get olT with a term in the peni- tentiarv." 14 THE RULES OF THE HOUSE. Now a word about the rules of the House of Representatives, which have been so much discussed by people who know so little about them or those who have simply found them a convenient subject for mis- representation. We have had these rules since the beginning of the Government, and substantially without change for the past twenty years, until a few months ago two changes were made at the suggestion of the so-called "insurgents," who then voted against the adoption of the modifications. In the Fifty-first Congress, presided over by Speaker Reed, changes were made to prevent filibustering and enable the majority to conduct the business for which it was responsible. The Democratic minority denounced these changes as despotic and revolutionary and succeeded in inflaming the country against Mr. Reed as a tyrant who throttled the will of the people's representatives. Such was the success of that agita- tion that the Democrats controlled the House in the Fifty-second and Fiftv-third Congresses. In the Fifty-second Congress they had to try to get along without some of the features of the Reed rules which they had denounced, but in the Fifty-third Congress, when they had a tariff bill to enact, thev made a clean sweep of their old prejudices and took these rules to their breasts as though they had originated them. They went further and enlarged the power of the Committee on Rules by giving it authority to sit during the sessions of the House and re]«)rl at an^• time and witliout previous notice. HRV.W FOR COMMITTEE OX RULES. Anyone who desires to know what tlie Dt'nioorats vva\\\ think of tlu'Se rules should turn to the Congressional Record for thi.' first session of the Fifty-third Congress. There he will find William J. Bryan defending them with voice and vote and especially defending the Conunittee on RuU'S ha\ing tlie right to bring in a ruU' to sto]) lilihustrring. lli' de- clari'd : W'l' are simiilv inutiiii; ]w\\vr in tlic- liaiids ut tlu' Iluiisi' to condiuM its business and 1(1 stiij) flrlaw Did yon LVir hear Mr. Hrxan ridicule this idi'iuieal stalcinent whni U came from a Kr])ul)lican .•' 15 In that Congress Speaker Crisp left the chair to defend the rules, some- thing no other Speaker ever did, and he, like Mr. Bryan, declared that — The power lodged in that committee (on rules) is simply the power to report to the House a proposition for its action. / He very truthfully said that the House could always vote down a report from the Committee on Rules if a majority opposed it. Both Crisp and Bryan were sincere then and they simply stated an exact truth which had been stated many times before and has been stated many times since. My friend, Champ Clark, was also in that Congress and voted for the adoption of these rules. He was right then, as men who have responsi- bility placed upon them are more often manly and honest than when they have no responsibility and are tempted to play the demagogue. If the Democrats should again secure control of the House and Mr. Clark should realize his ambition and be elected Speaker, he will, as cer- tain as he maintains manhood worthy such responsibility, return to the position he occupied then and again become an ardent defender of the rules. Edmund Burke said many years ago : 1 find it impossible to conceive that any one believes in his own policies or thinks them of any weight who refuses to adopt the means of having them reduced into practice. THE FIRST INSURGENT. The rules will reinain substantially as they have been and are so long as we have a Congress, and the majority party, whether Republican or Democratic, responsible to the people for legislation, will be their defenders. The opponents of the rules have always been the men who did not feel responsibility for the transaction of the business laid before Congress. Those who denounced them in the past have lived to defend them as the wheel turned and they came into reponsibility. Ever since history began the man in the minority has been seeking some device by which he could overcome the will of the majority, and we have a popular, if not absolutely reliable, record of one celebrated character antedating history whose fiat was, "Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.'' There was our first great insurgent, and he was pitched over the battlements of heaven. Since the creation of man there have been those at work on earth to encourage insurrection against order, which is heaven's first law. i6 PAYNE TARIFF LAW WILL JUSTIFY ITSELF. A word in conclusion: The country waited from March until August for the enactment of a tariff bill. During that period, on account of the uncertainty, it has been conservatively estimated that the loss due to the halting of business and production amounted to $10,000,000 a day. Since the enactment of the new law production in our own country and imports from foreign countries have greatly increased, and day by day conditions are improving. The farmers, who comprise one-third of our population, are stepping high an^ some of them are riding in automobiles. In mine and factory as well as in transportation and commerce opportuni- ties for employment are daily growing better. The revenues of the Government are constantly increasing. The Payne tariff law is not perfect — perfection resides in Deity alone — but I agree most heartily with Representative Payne, of New York, and with the President of the United States in his Winona speech, that the new tariff law is the best one ever passed under Republican leadership. Neither Bryan, Cummins, La Follette, Bristow, or their followers claim that it can be changed during the coming four years, but they all agree in one thing, namely, that they will agitate — and they are agitating — for additional tariff legislation, and as the car of prosperity, drawn by 90,000,000 people, moves on they are seeking to hinder its progress by criticism and denunciation, and this, too, within three months of its enactment. The demagogue we have always with us, and, as ours is a government of the people, the only way to dispose of him is to move on. The proof of the pudding is the eating of it, and I am perfectly willing to trust the verdict of a prosperous and happy people in the elections in November, 1 910, after the new tariff law has been in operation for over a year. O ■-^..-/^^■^■i. v^y''^;^-'"r''gCAi LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS lllilliillllllilllillillllilililiilllllll 013 982 429 5 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 982 429 5