ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL TENDENCIES SINCE 1896
During the four decades between the opening of the Civil War and the
close of the nineteenth century, the United States became in many
respects an economic unit. The passage of the Interstate Commerce Act
in 1887, for instance, was an early recognition of the fact that the
transportation problem of the nation transcended state bounds; the
Sherman Anti-trust law of 1890 arose from the realization that
commercial and industrial unity were rapidly coming to pass; the
American Federation of Labor brought workmen from all states and many
trades into a single organization. The election of 1896 and the amazing
consolidation of business enterprises at the close of the century were
further proofs that the day had passed when any section of the United
States could live an isolated economic life without relation to other
parts of the country. Instead of remaining a federation of diverse
economic sections, we became increasingly homogeneous. Much of the
economic and political legislation enacted after 1896, and many of the
practices and standards which were adopted by leaders in economic and
political life were an outgrowth of the new conditions.
It will be remembered that the eighties and early nineties had been
years of labor unrest. Costly and bitter strikes on the part of the
workmen, and resolute and powerful resistance on the part of the
employers were the commonplaces of the history of labor. The
culmination was the Pullman strike of 1894.[1] Its cost in money and
suffering was appalling; it placed the federal military power in the
hands of the employers; and although it was a failure as far as the
strikers were concerned, yet an impartial investigation after the
struggle was over established the justice of much of which the men had
complained. If discriminating justice were to be measured out to both
sides, instead of victory to the side of the strongest battalions, and
if intolerable waste and discomfort were to be avoided, some remedies
for industrial unrest must be discovered which would replace strikes
and violence. Happily, signs were not wanting that such a change was
slowly taking place.
A combination of influences tended to place the labor problem on a new
footing after 1896. One of the most important of these forces was the
American Federation of Labor which greatly increased its size and
activities, especially about the opening of the new century, growing
from 950,000 members in 1901 to 4,302,148 in April, 1920. Its
president, Samuel Gompers, is an able, resourceful leader, who has
remained in control from 1882 to the present (1920), with the single
exception of the year 1895, so that the organization has had the
benefit of experienced leadership and continuity of purpose. Although a
radical, socialistic element broke away in 1905 and formed the
Industrial Workers of the World, yet the defection was not immediately
serious and in general schisms have been avoided. Several other labor
organizations, although unconnected with the Federation exerted a
strong influence; in particular the brotherhoods of railway employees,
by frequent threats to strike and thereby tie up the transportation
system, aided in bringing the demands of labor to public notice.
Moreover, after 1896 and especially after the coal strike of 1902 there
was an increasing recognition on the part of the public that a labor
problem existed and that it must be solved in some way other than by
force of arms. Physicians and scientific experts called attention to
the lack of proper care for the health of workmen in dangerous
industries; the movement for the preservation of the forests and
mineral supplies emphasized the need of efforts for the conservation of
human lives; social reformers, economists, writers and educators upheld
the needs and rights of the neglected classes; and the press and the
muck-rake periodicals found it profitable to expose extreme abuses.
Distress that had hitherto been unnoticed or disregarded became
important, and remedies were demanded. Change was in the air, and not
alone in America, for England and France were experiencing the same
problems, and attempting to devise new expedients to solve them. After
the beginning of the new century, also, the employing class came to a
better realization of the existence of the labor problem and sought
solutions in ways that must be mentioned later.[2] There was a more
widespread acceptance of the principle of trade agreements, whereby the
employer and the men determined the conditions of labor by means of
direct negotiations.
Although it had been the policy of the American Federation of Labor to
keep out of politics, it was almost inevitable that the policy should
receive some modifications. Organizations of employers were influential
at Washington, and had long been so. Accordingly in 1908 the Democratic
platform was endorsed on account of its labor planks, and again in 1910
and 1912. By the latter year all parties were earnestly striving to
capture the labor vote, and in particular the Democratic and
Progressive platforms embodied most of what the wage earner had been
demanding for the previous generation.
The major demands in the labor program of earlier years--higher wages,
shorter hours, settled conditions of employment, and the like--were not
altered after 1896, but a few striking advances were made. The attempt
to legislate concerning hours of employment, for example, had been
continually obstructed by the clauses in the Fifth and Fourteenth
Amendments forbidding any legislation depriving the individual of
"life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The courts
had usually interpreted these phrases as prohibiting laws restricting
hours of labor, on the ground that the liberty of the workman to
contract freely regarding his own working hours was thereby infringed.
A Massachusetts law of 1874, nevertheless, which limited a day's work
for women and children to ten hours, had followed the long-continued
assertion that regulatory legislation could be based on the "police
power"--a somewhat indefinite authority which was gradually conceded by
the courts to the states and the federal government, and under which it
was possible to pass legislation concerning the conservation of the
health and morals of the people without violating the Constitution. Not
until 1908, however, was the constitutionality of such legislation
finally settled by the Supreme Court, in upholding an Oregon ten-hour
law. "As healthy mothers are essential to vigorous offspring," the
decision asserted, "the physical well-being of women becomes an object
of public interest and care in order to preserve the strength and vigor
of the race." In other words, the Court was prepared to approve
limitations on the freedom of contract in order to further the public
interest. The Massachusetts law was imitated far and wide, so that at
the present time an almost negligible number of states have failed to
restrict the length of the working day for women.
Recently, also, substantial progress has been made in restricting
working hours for children. As long ago as 1866 Massachusetts had
restricted the employment of children, but neither this law nor similar
laws passed by other states had been fully enforced. Greater progress
has been made since 1903, when Illinois, followed by the majority of
the important industrial states, established the eight-hour standard
for children under sixteen. Impressed with the need of federal
legislation to coerce backward states, the reformers took their case to
Congress where a federal act was passed in 1916. On account of
constitutional limitations, the measure was framed so as to forbid
shipment, on interstate railways, of the products of factories
employing children under fourteen years of age. It was estimated that
150,000 out of nearly 2,000,000 working children might be affected by
the act. Its fate, however, was that of many another piece of economic
legislation; by a vote of five to four, the Supreme Court declared the
law unconstitutional on the ground that it was not an attempt to
regulate commerce, but an attempt to regulate the conditions of
manufacture. Early in 1919 the effort to regulate child labor was
renewed through the imposition of a tax of ten per cent. on the net
profits of factories employing children under fourteen years of age.
The constitutionality of the law has not yet been tested (1920).
It will be noted that all the foregoing legislative attempts to reduce
the working day affected women and children only; in general, little
attempt has been made to limit the working day for men. Nevertheless,
large numbers of cities, more than half the states, and the federal
government provide for an eight-hour day on public work; and western
states have followed the lead of Utah in passing eight-hour laws for
miners. Hours of labor for railway employees have also been the subject
of study and legislation. Cases had not been unknown where employees
were kept at their posts for thirty, fifty and even one hundred hours;
frequently such workmen fell asleep and disastrous accidents occurred.
In 1907 this situation was met by a congressional act limiting the
hours of railway engineers to sixteen and providing that periods of
work must be followed by specified rest periods. Train-despatchers,
telegraphers, and others were similarly protected. A majority of the
states imitated these federal statutes. In a few cases, state laws have
been passed which were intended to limit working hours in other
especial industries. The most famous of these was one in New York,
which restricted the working day in bakeries to ten hours. In the
decision Lochner _v._ New York, the Supreme Court declared the law
unconstitutional.[3]
The early twentieth century also saw progress on the subject of
compensation for industrial accidents. As far back as 1884 Germany had
enacted a law which put the blame for all accidents on the employers,
except when the victim was wilfully negligent; in 1897 England had
passed the British Workmen's Compensation Act which virtually made the
employer the insurer of his workmen against all accidents. The theory
underlying these laws was that accidents were like wear and tear and
should be made a charge on the industry, like the depreciation of
buildings and machinery. The United States, however, lagged behind all
other industrial nations, despite the astonishing number of accidents
which yearly occurred. In 1908, for example, it was estimated that two
million men were injured, of whom 200,000 were permanently disabled,
and 30,000 died--a larger number than the federal killed, wounded and
missing in the Gettysburg campaign. Under previous practice in this
country compensation for industrial accidents had been awarded in
accord with common law principles, under which the employer was not
responsible for an employee who was injured through the negligence of a
fellow servant. Any workman who entered hazardous employment was
assumed under the common law to know the dangers and be ready to run
the risks, and no compensation could be recovered unless it could be
shown that the master had been negligent and the employee had not also
been negligent. It came widely to be thought that the common law did
not justly apply to the complex industrial system of modern times. It
did not seem equitable, for example, that the fellow servant doctrine
should hold in case of a railway employee killed through the negligence
of a train despatcher many miles away, whom he did not know and had
never even seen.
The first workmen's compensation act in the United States was passed in
Maryland in 1902. Its scope was narrow and it came to nothing as it was
declared unconstitutional. In course of time, however, legislation was
framed in such language as to pass muster before the courts, and
moreover judicial decisions changed, as time went on, in the direction
desired by popular opinion. Beginning in 1911 there was an avalanche of
liability and compensation laws and by 1920 forty-two states, together
with Porto Rico, Alaska and Hawaii had passed acts that placed the
burden more or less completely on the employer, and provided schemes of
compensation. The federal government also took action. At the
suggestion of President Roosevelt an act was passed in 1908 making
interstate railroads responsible for injuries to employees and
expressly doing away with former common law practices.[4] At the same
time a similar liability was placed upon the United States for
accidents occurring to certain classes of government employees and a
plan of compensation was established. In 1916 another act brought all
civil servants under the system.
Several other types of social legislation have made considerable
progress in Europe, but have found little or no foot-hold in this
country, such as minimum wage laws, health insurance, old age and
widows' pensions, and unemployment insurance. The minimum wage law,
establishing a level below which wages must not go, has been adopted by
Massachusetts and a few other states in a restricted form. The
unemployment problem has hardly been touched, although the federal
Department of Labor since its establishment in 1913 has gathered and
made public information in regard to opportunities for work.
Recent years have likewise seen a vast number of laws which together
have made a new era in American industrial life, although separately no
one of them was revolutionary. For example, matches containing white
phosphorous were subjected to a prohibitive tax because of the harmful
effect of the phosphorous on workmen in match factories; greater care
was exercised in guarding dangerous machines, elevator wells and the
like; fire protection, harmful or poisonous fumes and dust, ventilation
and safety devices in mines, safety appliances on railway trains,
together with numberless other accompaniments of modern industry were
the subject of state legislation. Almost as important as legislative
enactments were the changes in working conditions voluntarily made by
the most progressive corporations. One who compares a factory built
within twenty-five years of the close of the Civil War with a building
erected since 1900 discovers revolutionary changes. Later buildings are
constructed with much more care for ventilation, light and convenience;
in some cases even the temperature of the work-rooms is a matter for
painstaking attention; "welfare" work is now a commonplace, with rest
rooms, lunch rooms, recreation fields and factory social activities.
Factory or store committees that confer with higher officers in
relation to hours and the needs and desires of the employees are by no
means uncommon, and some of the large corporations even provide pension
systems for their employees.
On the other hand, laws and statute books did not always guarantee
performance. Laws were continually avoided both by the employers and
the employees; workmen transgressed rules laid down for their welfare;
the passage and execution of many laws were hampered to the last degree
by short-sighted employers; the courts invalidated much legislation on
the ground of unconstitutionality; and progress was frequently confined
to leading states or corporations and was by no means universal. It
nevertheless is true that the tendencies in social and economic
legislation since 1896 have been widely different from those prevalent
before that year.
In several cases the influence of the labor element in federal
legislation has been decisive. The use of the injunction, it will be
remembered, was one of the grievances most frequently mentioned at the
time of the Pullman strike. In the campaign of 1908 both parties strove
to attract the labor vote by proposals of reform, but not until 1914
was the issuance of injunctions forbidden "unless necessary to prevent
irreparable injury to prosperity ... for which injury there is no
adequate remedy at law." At the same time the labor unions were
exempted from the operation of the anti-trust laws.[5] The influence of
the labor organizations was also a factor in the agitation for the
restriction of immigration which continued from 1897 to 1917. In the
former year a bill was passed which contained a literacy test--that is,
a provision excluding persons who were unable to read or write English
or some other language. President Cleveland exercised his veto, as did
later presidents when similar measures were carried in 1913, 1915 and
1917, but in the latter year Congress was able to muster sufficient
strength to pass the act over the President's veto. One of the main
purposes of the measure seems to have been the restriction of the labor
supply, and hence it enlisted the support of the American Federation of
Labor and other similar organizations.[6]
The ameliorative measures already mentioned have by no means prevented
the boycott and the strike. Indeed they have not, except in rare cases,
directly affected the two great causes of industrial disputes--hours
and wages for adult male laborers. Many formidable and violent strikes
have occurred since 1896, such as those of the shirt-waist makers in
New York in 1909, the textile operatives in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in
1912, and the Colorado coal miners in 1913. On the whole, however, it
seems that the labor unions have developed somewhat greater
conservatism and that their influence has been against violence in
strikes.
Few aspects of the labor problem have been the cause of more earnest
thought than the search for peaceful methods of settling industrial
controversies. In 1898, by the Erdman Act, the federal government
provided a means for arbitrating disputes on interstate railways. The
Newlands Act of 1913 superseded this by the creation of a formal Board
of Mediation and Conciliation, and many disputes were decided under the
terms of these laws. The Department of Labor mediated in many
industrial disputes, and in 1916 when the four railway brotherhoods
threatened to strike for an eight-hour day, Congress itself intervened
with a piece of special legislation, the Adamson law, which was framed
to settle the questions under dispute.[7] In some cases, profit-sharing
plans have been put into force; in others, disputes have been referred
to impartial boards of outsiders; and in yet others, machinery has been
established for continuous conference between representatives of the
employees and employers. Neither federal and state boards and
commissions, however, nor the efforts of individual employers have been
sufficient fully to insure industrial peace.
The increased activity of the state and federal governments in the
fields of economic legislation, as indicated in the passage of labor
laws, was also illustrated in two important measures passed in 1906.
The adulteration of foods had been brought to a state of dangerous
perfection, and drugs had been commonly advertised and sold all over
the country which had none of the powers ascribed to them by their
makers. Since the eighties, many states had forbidden the sale of
impure or tainted food, but the laws were varied and difficult to
enforce, and it appeared that reliance must be placed on the federal
government. As early as 1890 a federal law had provided for the
inspection of meats which were to be exported, but otherwise little
progress had been made. In 1906 Upton Sinclair published _The Jungle_,
a novel which purported to describe the ghastly conditions under which
the meat packers of Chicago conducted their business. Sinclair's book,
together with a campaign of education conducted by the muckrake
periodicals against harmful patent medicines aroused public interest to
such a degree, that two important laws were passed. One provided for
federal inspection of meats intended for interstate commerce, so as to
make sure that they were obtained from healthy animals and slaughtered
under sanitary conditions. The other act concerned foods and drugs, and
prohibited the sale of these commodities if they contained any
injurious drugs, chemicals or preservatives, while a later amendment
forbade false statements on labels attached to medical compounds. As a
result of the provisions of the law in regard to patent medicines, many
concerns which had been selling drugs that were falsely advertised as
having curative effects were compelled to retire from business.
Innovations in the field of politics and government since 1896 have
been as marked as in the field of social and economic legislation.
Possibly the most outstanding development has been the rapid expansion
of the range and variety of the activities of the federal government.
The unification of the economic life of the nation, as has been shown,
compelled a program of federal economic legislation, and helped
inculcate a feeling of greater political solidarity. When fires and
floods and other disasters occurred which were too great for a single
city or state to take care of, when state laws became confusing because
of their variety, when railroads crossed a dozen states and
corporations that were chartered in New Jersey did business in Maine,
Florida and California, only at the federal capital could the requisite
authority be found, which would give the needed relief. As the theory
of _laissez faire_ gradually broke down, moreover, giving way to the
belief that the government ought to be the servant of the mass of the
people, it was inevitable that the people should themselves turn more
to legislation as a remedy for their grievances. To Washington,
therefore, hurried the proponents of every reform.
This tendency was not only counter to the probable intention of the
framers of the Constitution, but it trenched upon the powers
specifically granted to the states. The tenth amendment stated in so
many words that "The powers not delegated to the United States ... are
reserved to the States." It was necessary for the federal government to
act, however, or else to leave problems that had become national in
character to the chaos that results from legislation in nearly fifty
states. State laws concerning railroads, for example, as well as
marriage and divorce, child labor and trusts are even now in a maze. No
solution of the problem seemed possible other than constant stretching
of the terms of the Constitution. In 1906, one of the most conservative
statesmen in the country, Elihu Boot, even went so far as to utter a
warning that if the states did not use their powers to better advantage
a "construction of the Constitution will be found to vest the power
where it will be exercised-in the National Government." The burden thus
shifted from state to nation was somewhat lightened by the appointment
of numerous commissions to which was entrusted the administration of
specific laws or the accumulation of specific data. The earliest of
these was the Interstate Commerce Commission; later, others were
appointed to administer laws concerning banking, the tariff and the
trusts.
With the expansion of the power of the federal government went the
elevation of the office of chief executive. Cleveland's use of the veto
power had given an indication of the possibilities of the presidential
office in obstructing undesirable legislation; his action in bringing
about the repeal of the purchase clause of the Sherman silver law in
1890 had shown the more positive force which a determined officer could
exert. Roosevelt's activity in carrying his anti-trust program to the
people, and his mediation in the coal strike carried the prestige of
the presidency to greater heights. President Taft was by no means
radical in his interpretation of the powers and possibilities of his
office; nevertheless his conception of it was far removed from the
conservative philosophy of President McKinley, and he even suggested in
a message to Congress that the cabinet officers be given seats,
although without votes, in the Senate and House. His successor
augmented rather than diminished the powers of the presidential office.
The Senate, on the contrary, lost both in power and in prestige. Many
reasons for the increasing popular distrust of the Senate after the
middle nineties can be given. There was a widespread belief that a
controlling fraction of the body had achieved membership through
wealth, through the assistance of corporate interests and because of
skill in the manipulation of political wires. The charge was common
that a small coterie of powerful strategists held the Senate in their
hands and with it the control of important legislation. Most of all,
and especially in the West, many thoughtful people believed that the
state legislatures were easily influenced to choose inferior or
untrustworthy men as senators. Whatever the reasons, however, there
grew increasingly after 1870 and particularly after 1893 a demand for
the popular election of senators. Between the latter year and 1911, at
six different times resolutions were presented to Congress proposing an
amendment to the Constitution which should secure popular election. At
length Congress gave way, adopted an amendment, and sent it to the
states. Within ten months thirty-six states had agreed, and after May
31, 1913, senators were elected by the people.
The demand for greater popular control over the choice of senators was
a part, merely, of a somewhat general political trend. Distrust of the
state legislatures had long been observable, and new state
constitutions had been notable for detailed prohibitions placed upon
law-making bodies. The West, which had gone to greatest extremes in
framing new state constitutions, was also the testing-ground for the
initiative, referendum and recall. The first of these devices--the
initiative--is a plan by which a specified percentage of the voters may
initiate legislation--that is, propose a law and require the officials
of the state to submit it to the electorate. If the people accept the
proposal, it becomes law as if enacted by the legislature. Under the
referendum system, any measure already accepted by the legislature is
held in abeyance on petition of a specified number of voters, until
presented to the people for approval or rejection. Both the initiative
and the referendum had been commonly used in Switzerland before being
adopted in South Dakota in 1898. In less than two decades they had been
accepted in twenty-one states, all but four of which were west of the
Mississippi, and in one of the four eastern states, Maryland, only the
referendum was tried. In Oregon, which made the most complete trial of
these methods of legislation, both the initiative and the referendum
were extended to the municipalities. The reasons for the innovation
were to be found in the determination to discover a means of compelling
negligent or boss-controlled state legislatures to respond to public
opinion.[8]
The recall is a process by which any public official may be withdrawn
from his office by popular vote before the expiration of his term. Los
Angeles adopted the plan in 1903 and was imitated by a small number of
other western cities; Oregon in 1908 applied the device to all state
officers, and in one form or another it has been adopted in ten states
(1920). During the campaign of 1912 Roosevelt proposed that the voters
be allowed to ratify or reject the decision of the courts on the
constitutionality of legislation. The results of the suggestion were
negligible.
More significant than the recall as an indication of the prevailing
desire to increase popular control over the processes of government was
the adoption of direct primaries. Under this expedient the nominees of
a party for office are chosen directly by the party voters, rather than
by a party convention. Wisconsin first used the system in 1903 and from
that state it spread rapidly. At the present time most states have some
form of direct nomination. The peculiar circumstances surrounding the
campaign for the Republican nominations in 1912 gave force to the
demand for presidential preference primaries which were held in about a
fourth of the states. Only the future can tell with assurance whether
the demand is more than temporary.
The agitation for women's suffrage was another example of the
increasing desire for popular control of government. Suffrage for women
was first granted by Wyoming in 1869 when its territorial government
was organized, but the movement lagged thereafter until the early years
of the twentieth century. At that time increasing numbers of states
began to grant political privileges to women, and finally in 1919
Congress passed a proposed constitutional amendment expressly stating
that sex should not be a bar to the suffrage.[9]
Accompanying the increased popular control of government after 1896 was
a gradual demand for a higher level of political ethics. The
revelations of the insurance investigations of 1905 were significant of
this change. Early in that year certain newspapers made charges against
the Equitable Life Assurance Company which were taken up by the New
York legislature and referred to a committee for investigation. The
committee's task was the examination of the affairs of life insurance
companies doing business in the state of New York; its attorney was
Charles E. Hughes. The results of the investigation amazed the country.
The exorbitant salaries paid to officers, the unreasonable expenses
incurred and the disregard of the rights of the policy holders were of
concern chiefly to persons doing business with the companies. But it
also appeared that several of the larger concerns had divided the
country into districts, and had systematically influenced legislation
affecting either insurance or financial interests to which they or
their officers were related; enormous sums were expended and records
not kept, or so kept as to conceal the real purposes of the
expenditure. The report of the committee showed that Chauncey M. Depew,
a member of the United States Senate, was paid $20,000 a year for legal
services, without his rendering any return that seemed to warrant the
payments made. The contributions of the companies to the Republican
campaign funds were very heavy--$50,000 by one company in 1904. It
appeared from testimony that Democrats also sought contributions from
the companies but were refused. The final report of the committee
unsparingly condemned these abuses and embodied a program of
legislation for their reform, which was put into effect. The public
received an education in the connection of corporations with politics,
and Hughes himself at once became a figure of national importance, the
favorite of the reform element, and was launched upon a career that
made him governor of New York, a member of the United States Supreme
Court and candidate for the presidency.[10]
Laws regulating campaign expenditures had long been on the statute
books although they had been little heeded, but as the result of the
insurance investigation, New York in 1906 forbade contributions by
corporations for political purposes. In 1907 Congress passed a similar
law concerning federal campaigns, and most of the states have since
passed laws placing restrictions on the use of campaign funds. In the
campaign of 1908 Bryan requested that the Democratic National Committee
receive no contributions from corporations, that no sums in excess of
$10,000 be received from any source and that a list of contributors be
published in advance of the election. By a law enacted in 1911 Congress
compelled a statement of the amounts of money spent by committees, and
limited the amounts which might be spent by candidates for Congress. In
1919 the Chairman of the Republican National Committee announced that
the party would raise funds for the next campaign in amounts from $1 to
$1,000. Both parties were discovering that public sentiment opposed
large contributions from individuals and corporations, because they
expect a _quid pro quo_ after the election.[11]
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The best brief general accounts of recent conditions are in F.A. Ogg,
_National Progress_, with an excellent bibliography, which may be
supplemented by the _American Year Book_. On hours and conditions of
labor, J.R. Commons and J.B. Andrews, _Principles of Labor Legislation
_(1916). The decision in Lochner _v._ New York is in _United States
Reports_, vol. 198, p. 45. For the courts and economic legislation,
C.G. Haines, _American Doctrine of Judicial Supremacy _(1914), already
referred to. An excellent historical account of the workmen's
compensation idea is by A.F. Weber in _Political Science Quarterly_
(June, 1902). Ida M. Tarbell, _New Ideals in Business_ (1917),
describes the accomplishments of the industrial leaders rather than of
the rank and file.
Some of the political innovations are discussed in A.L. Lowell, _Public
Opinion and Popular Government_ (1913); _Proceedings of the American
Political Science Association_, V, 37, "The Limitations of Federal
Government"; Elihu Boot, _Addresses on Government and Citizenship
_(1916), "How to Preserve the Local Self-Government of the State." The
most complete account of the historical development of the power of the
president is in Edward Stanwood, _History of the Presidency, II
_(1916), Chap. V. The fullest account of the movement for popular
election of senators is G.H. Haynes, _The Election of Senators _(1906).
The initiative, referendum and recall have given rise to a literature
of their own. Convenient volumes are: C.A. Beard and B.E. Shultz,
_Documents on the State-wide Initiative_, _Referendum and Recall_
(1912); W.B. Munro, _The Initiative, Referendum and Recall_ (1912);
J.D. Barnett, _Operation of the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall in
Oregon_ (1915).
_American Political Science Review _(Aug., 1915), "Presidential
Preference Primaries." The articles in A.C. McLaughlin and A.B. Hart,
_Cyclopaedia of American Government_ (3 vols., 1914), are a convenient
source on most topics considered in this chapter.
On the use of money in politics: _Report of the Legislative Insurance
Investigating Committee _(10 vols., 1905-1906), Armstrong-Hughes
committee; _Testimony before a Sub-committee of the Committee on
Privileges and Elections, United States Senate, 62d Congress, 2d
session, pursuant to Senate Resolution 79_ (Clapp Report).
* * * * *
[1] Above, pp. 320-323.
[2] Below, p. 508.
[3] Above, p, 442.
[4] An act of 1906 had been declared unconstitutional.
[5] It should be said, however, that the meaning of this law is far
from clear and is yet (1920) to be interpreted by the courts.
[6] Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt also favored it. See Ogg,
_National Progress_, 123-130.
[7] Below, p. 571.
[8] By 1920 twenty-three states had adopted the referendum or the
initiative and referendum.
[9] The amendment reads: Section 1. The right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or
by any State, on account of sex. Section 2. Congress shall have power,
by appropriate legislation, to enforce the provisions of this article.
The amendment was ratified by the required number of states and
proclaimed in force August 26, 1920.
[10] The election of Senator Isaac Stephenson of Wisconsin occasioned
another outbreak of reform sentiment. Investigation betrayed the fact
that he had expended $107,793.05 in his primary campaign. The salary of
a senator at that time was $7,500 per annum.
[11] An investigation of federal campaign expenditures conducted in
1912-1913 by a committee headed by Senator Moses Clapp uncovered much
that had hitherto been only the subject of rumor. The Standard Oil
Company, for instance, contributed $125,000 in 1904. Archbold, the
vice-president of the company, testified that he told Bliss, the
Republican treasurer, "We do not want to make this contribution unless
it is thoroughly acceptable and will be thoroughly appreciated by Mr.
Roosevelt"; and that Bliss "smilingly said we need have no possible
apprehension on that score." Archbold complained later when the
administration attacked the company, but Roosevelt declared that he was
unaware of the contribution at the time. The Republican fund in 1908
was $1,655,000. The testimony of Norman E. Mack, Chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, indicated his perfect willingness to
accept money wherever he could get it, and that he refused to receive
contributions from corporations only because of Bryan's scruples.
Roosevelt declared, on the authority of an insurance officer, that the
Democrats in the campaign of 1904 were after all the corporation funds
they could get.