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“They were persuaded to change their minds
and forego the expression of their views,” when it
appeared that if they did not “change their minds”
the measure they were violently ( ? opposing might
really be defeated sure enough.
“ Persuaded ” —by whom ? Was the supplicant
Senator Aldrich, tlie Republican leader, or Senator
Culberson, tin* Democratic leader? Or was the line
of distinction between tin* aims of the two suffi
ciently market! to make it worth while t<> conjecture
regarding whose gentle pleadings the other Demo
crats yielded to when they “changed their minds?'
Senator LaFollette, himself a Republican, con
fronted by the hostility of his Republican colleagues
in the front, whose hostility he expected, and beset
by the antagonism of the body of the Democratic
senators in his rear, from whom he had a right to
expect aid and comfort, presented a singularly heroic
figure l in tin* game fight lie waged, almost single
handed, against the bill which Senator Culberson
denounced as wholly “in the interest of the gambling
interests of the country.” Aid from half a dozen
Democratic senators instead of a bare two would
assuredly have encompassed the defeat of the Ald
rich-Vreeland monstrosity. But. alas! only two
Democratic senators, one of them a blind man, had
the moral courage to keep faith with the people by
opposing the great interests when opposition would
have counted.
By refraining from active participation in the
struggle on tin 1 floor to prevent the bill from coming
to a vote, which inevitably meant its passage, the
Democratic senators may say to Standard Oil and
its allies: “We gave your measure our passive
assistance, without which it could not have become
law.”
To their constituents at home they can say:
“Why, we voted against the iniquitous currency
bill! The wicked Republican senators passed it!”
The Reason is not an anti-Democratic publication.
Indeed, it is precisely the reverse, but it believes
that the cause of Democracy will be best served by
unswerving antagonism toward cowardice, fraud
and false pretense, regardless of whether these with
ering growths proceed from sources high in the
councils of the party 01* from the humblest of the
rank and lile of Democracy.
The Reason believes that but one construction
may reasonably be placed upon the two-faced atti
tude of the Democrats in the I'nited States Senate
toward the currency bill. Their non-participation
in and discouragement of active resistance to the
placing of the measure upon its passage might with
entire reasonableness be interpreted as a bid for cam
paign contributions from Wall street quarters and
monied interests elsewhere, while the Democratic
votes against the bill when the voting stage was
reached may equitably be assignable to a desire to
hold fast with the people at home. At the present
moment no other ground appears to be tenable.
Democratic senators voted against the currency
bill because they believed it to be vile legislation.
THE REASON
They refused to exert themselves to kill this vile
legislation when its destruction was ease and simple.
Why ?
While discussing the I’nited States Senate notice
may be taken of tin 1 perennial howl which goes up
from press and people in tin 1 South in protest against
the great volume of special pension legislation which
is an incident to each recurring session of Congress.
As everyone knows, no worthy pensioner is ex
clude! from the government bounty by any pro
vision in the regular pension laws now on the
statute books, and which have long been in force.
Presumably it is well known also that the appro
priations for federal pensions mount higher and
higher as the years and the Congresses come and go,
as the result of “special” pension acts. “Special”
acts an 1 not called for in the interest of soldiers
with even fairly clear military records. A special
act. however, is needed when the stigma of desertion
or kindred offenses must be removed from a soldier's
record as a prerequisite to his procuring a federal
pension, and to restore his privilege to vote in elec
tions. The Northern Congressmen need these votes
in their business.
Thousands of those special acts are passed at
each session of Congress. They are not read upon
the lloor <d’ either House, except merely by the title,
and as many as eleven hundred special pension bills
have been known to pass in a single hour. Some of
them are retroactive, providing for large amounts in
‘‘back' ’ payments.
In the House of Representatives a record yea
and nay vote* could be had upon each single bill
were it demanded by a number of representatives
equalling one-fifth of the total House membership.
Tin* Southern Democrats constitute more than this
requisite one-filth, and if they exercised their consti
tutional rights they could restrict the number of
these bills passed to about one per hour. But they
don't do it.
When the special pension bills go over to the
Senate they find the ways generously greased over
there. The senators retire to the cloak room, all
but one or two having the legislation in charge, and
the bills are passed as fast as the reading clerk can
read out the names of the various beneficiaries, and
the Senate reading clerk is always an extremely
rapid reader.
In the Senate one senator, when seconded, has
the right to demand a yea and nay vote upon any
proposed act. A Southern senator might thus reduce
the momentum of these bills in passage to about
two or three an hour. But he never does.
The money appropriations incurred in the pas
sage of these special pension bills go almost exclu
sively to the Northern section of the United States,
by and with the consent of Southern senators. Til
deed. these senators vote for the adoption of the
bills, as practically all are passed by “unanimous
consent." and unanimous consent means the ap
proval of every senator present, or who should be
present.
The South should stop railing at being taxed
for the purpose of giving a bounty to a deserter
from the ranks, who merits and receives the con
tempt of everybody with the exception of the poli
tician who desires his vote, or else the South should
see to it that its representatives in the two branches
of Congress perform their duties.