POWER OF FOURTEEN MEN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1088, 29 March 1911, Page 8

POWER OF FOURTEEN MEN.

A certain group o£ fourteen men will malco a revolution in Washington. • Tlie ] new llnited States Congress, wnicii camo into liio on March 4, and nolds its first regular session next December (altuough it may have a special session beioro that timcj, contains two hundred and twentyseven Democrats, says "Collier's Weekly." "'Two hundred and nineteen of these met in Washington on the night of January 19, and tlio things they did on that occasion aro full of promise botii tor tho party and tor tlio people of tlio' country; "'i'ho first act of the Democratic caucus was to namo Champ.Clark as Speaker. This was done unanimously. Mr. Clark, in his speech of acceptance, gave a hint of his understanding Ijj stating, that the chief business of tho party is to 'expedite tariff legislation.' Alter this tho caucus took a revolutionary step: it was.carried by 166 to 2!) that tlio caucus name ono oommittee, and ono only, tho Ways and Means, and that all the other committees be named, not by the Speaker, as tinder Speaker Cannon, but by tho ■ Ways and Means Committee. "All this was revolutionary enough," says "Collier's," "but tho really important thing done by tho caucus, and tho great light within the party, strenuous, though not very public, was over the personnel of the new Ways and Means Committee, That' fight was won by thoso Democrats who believe in real and honest revision downward, and tile fourteen men who were appointed to the committeo arc men who can bo depended on to write a Tariff Bill in tho interests of all tho people. "They are all members of tho present Congress, and they all took ,part in tho debates and roll-calls over the present Payne-Aldrich tariff. "There has not been for a generation a Ways and Means Committee which was not dominated by special interests. Any well-informed man could call the roll and say: 'This man represents the woollen interest, this ono represents tho , cotton interest, this one (ho steel interest, this ono the lumber interest.' In tho Ways and Means Committee that nindo tho present Pavnc-Aldrich tariff, John Dalsell Would freely admit that he represents steel; Joseph Fordney would bo the last to deny that ho represents the big lumber interests; Broussard could hardly deny that he was on tho committee to maintain a high duty on sugar. Some other relaI tions wero less frank, but they existed, and they have cxisctd in' the making of every Tariff Bill since 1815. Concerning this new Ways and Means Committee no such charge can be made. Tho Democrats havo made a splendid starl."