Election of United States Senator.
Opposition to Perkins Overcome by the Dead Weight of the Machine
- Movement Against His Re-election Failed for Want of Leadership
- Proceedings Without Warmth or Enthusiasm.
No funeral was ever attended by greater somberness than was the
re-election of George C. Perkins to the United States Senate, January
12-13, 1909. The nominating speeches were made without enthusiasm; not a
cheer greeted Senator or Assemblyman charged with the task of putting
the aged Senator in nomination. Pulcifer of Alameda, who made the
nominating speech in the Assembly, was received with icy calmness. Even
when the Alamedan referred to the veteran Senator as "one whose hair has
grown white and whose eyes have grown dim in the service of his
country," not so much as a ripple of applause stirred the chamber. When
the speaker concluded his review of the Senator's life and political
career, the incipient murmur of approval which somebody started died
away for want of vitality.
In the Senate, the task of nominating Perkins fell to Stetson of
Alameda. But Stetson's nominating speech was received with no more
enthusiasm than was that of the shifty Pulcifer. The "system," the
"organization," the "machine," have it as you will, returned George C.
Perkins to the United States Senate. The people of California had no
voice in it, nor, for that matter, the Legislature, although the
majority of the Legislature was opposed to the machine. In carrying out
the ignoble part prepared for them - prepared for them by the "machine"
which a majority of them opposed - the members of Senate and Assembly
went through the forms prescribed without a hand clap and without a
cheer.
But it must not be thought that the re-election of Senator Perkins was
without opposition. Indeed, it met with the same sort of honest but
ineffective resistance that attended the election of Stanton to the
Speakership of the Lower House. And like the campaign against Stanton
the opposition to Perkins got nowhere because of the lack of leadership,
organization and plan of action on the part of the resisting
legislators.
The machine had been preparing for Perkins' re-election for months; but
the opposition to Perkins made no move until after the November
elections.
The first outward sign of opposition came from Assemblyman E. J. Callan
of the Thirty-ninth District, the fighting reform district of San
Francisco. Callan, three or four weeks before the Legislature convened,
fell into a trap which the wily Alameda County politician had set some
time previous. Perkins had long before invited criticism of his
"record," which meant his votes on issues that had been passed upon by
the United States Senate. As a matter of fact, such votes mean little,
for the misplaced "courtesy of the Senate," under which schemers betray
the people, makes it possible for even recognized "reformers" to be
forced to vote against most desirable measures. The other fellows of the
Perkins stripe when brought to book on their "record" can always give in
defense: 'Why, your reformer, Senator So and So, did the same thing.' To
be sure, a La Follette does kick over the traces once in a while, in
which event he usually votes alone, while the solemn victims of
"courtesy" vote against him according to Senatorial custom, not to use
the more expressive word, stupidity.
Thus, when Perkins craftily invited his opponents to attack him on his
record, they dodged the trap gingerly, all save Callan. Callan didn't
walk, he rushed into it, sending a scathing letter to Perkins on that
gentleman's Senatorial record. Perkins' reply and explanation came as a
counter blow. The fire was tempered out of Callan's letter. Callan had
permitted Perkins to select the fighting ground, and Perkins had
exhibited admirable judgment.
The attack on Perkins had better been made on his attitude toward the
shipping interests of California - the development of the isthmian route
to New York, for example; on his attitude toward the machine, whose
strangle-hold upon the State is locked with federal patronage; on his
attitude toward the so-called "Roosevelt policies"; on his attitude
toward the Roosevelt administration, upon which he hung with the dead
weight of crafty, persistent obstruction. There were plenty of
vulnerable points in the Perkins armor, but naturally in selecting the
point of attack, Perkins carefully avoided them. So Callan's bolt
rebounded harmlessly, to the astonishment of the various well-meaning
reformers, and the intense satisfaction of the machine, whose somewhat
anxious leaders recognized full well that Callan's discomfiture would
discourage attacks from other possibly effective sources.
The next move against Perkins came the week before the Legislature
convened. A number of anti-machine Republicans met at San Francisco to
canvass the situation, and formulate a plan to defeat Perkins if
possible. It was found that on joint Senate and Assembly ballot, the
Democrats would have twenty-nine votes and the Republicans ninety-one.
Sixty-one votes are required for the election of a Senator. The
Republicans at the meeting considered these twenty-nine votes as with
them in the selection of an anti-machine Republican for Perkins' place.
The anti-machine Republicans thus in revolt against the machine,
themselves numbered twenty Senators and Assemblymen, which made
forty-nine votes against Perkins. In addition, an even dozen Republican
Senators and Assemblymen were counted upon as willing to vote against
Perkins if his defeat could be shown to be certain. This would have
given the anti-Perkins element sixty-one votes, just enough to elect.
For one of their number to fail, meant a deadlock; for two, if
Republicans, to fail meant Perkins' election. It was a slender chance,
but the possibility of success kept the movement alive until the hour of
the Senatorial caucus.
Those who were promoting the movement were not at the time aware that
six of the Democratic Assemblymen and one of the Democratic Senators
were governed by such high conceptions of their duties as citizens and
responsibilities as legislators, that they were to cast their votes in
the Senatorial election for a San Francisco saloon keeper, on the ground
that he is a "good fellow" and had "spent money liberally for the
party." This of itself made the defeat of Perkins impossible.
The anti-Perkins forces were also handicapped by the fact that they had
no candidate. The machine had been craftily booming Perkins for years;
the reformers had boomed nobody[19]. They were, then, without material
for a positive fight; all they could do was negative, which is always
confession of weakness. In addition, aside from the Bulletin, there was
no San Francisco publication that could be counted upon to back their
movement. The Call was openly supporting Perkins. The movement against
Perkins, while it admittedly represented the attitude of the majority of
the electors of the State, and the feeling of a safe majority of both
Houses of the Legislature, was without one element of real strength[20].
Under the United States Revised Statutes, the Legislature was called
upon, to proceed on the second Tuesday after organization, to elect
Senator Perkins' successor. As the Legislature had organized on January
4, the second Tuesday fell on January 12. The call for the Republican
caucus to go through the form of selecting a candidate for the Senate,
was circulated the third and fourth days of the session. The Republican
Senators all signed it, not a few of them with the non-resistance of a
wretch in the hands of a hangman.
More opposition developed in the Assembly. Callan and three or four
others kept up their resistance to the last, but when the caucus
assembled on Friday evening, January 8, all the Republican Senators and
Assemblymen who could do so were in attendance[21].
The caucus was of course hopelessly programmed for Perkins.
Nevertheless, the better element of the party endeavored to secure some
expression from Senator Perkins as to his attitude toward the Western
transportation problem. This led to a heated debate which kept the
caucus in session until a late hour. The debate turned on the celebrated
Bristow letter.
For years, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company has been able to
prevent effective water competition by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The
Government has a line of steamers running from New York to the Isthmus,
and a railroad line across the Isthmus. With an additional line of
steamers running from San Francisco to Panama, the Government would have
a through line from San Francisco to New York. This would give genuine
competition with the Southern Pacific system, and free the State from
the grasp of the transportation monopoly.
In August, 1907, Hon. J. L. Bristow, now United States Senator from
Kansas, was appointed a Special Panama Railroad Commissioner, to
investigate the necessity and feasibility of putting on the Pacific
line. Mr. Bristow, in a report that fairly sizzled with criticism of
Southern Pacific and Pacific Mail Steamship Company methods, recommended
that the government line be established. When Pacific freight rates were
arbitrarily raised just before the Legislature convened, shippers of the
State appealed, not to Senator Perkins or to Senator Flint, but to
Senator Bristow from interior Kansas, asking that he concern himself
with having government steamers put on the San Francisco-Panama route.
Bristow replied that he would do what he could, that he was receiving
many letters from Western shippers who favored the plan, but that the
chief difficulty in the way was the opposition of the California
delegation in the Senate.
This Bristow letter caused all the trouble at the Perkins caucus. The
suggestion was made that Perkins owed it to the State to explain the
charges brought against him by the Senator from Kansas. A resolution was
accordingly introduced providing that a telegram be sent Senator Perkins
calling upon him to state whether the charge made by Senator Bristow
were true.
Immediately the pro-Perkins people assumed the dignified position that
such a telegram would be an insult to the venerable Senator from
California. Nobody seems to have taken the trouble to state that the
Bristow charges were untrue, but that the requesting of the Senator to
answer them would be an insult to that dignitary was made subject of the
warmest oratory. So warm was it, that the opposition to Perkins melted
away like wax - or putty, if putty melts - until but five members of the
caucus had the courage to vote to ask Perkins to declare himself on the
transportation problem. Callan of San Francisco voted for it, so did
Drew of Fresno, so did Young of Berkeley and two others. But 77 members
of the caucus voted against the resolution. Senator Perkins was
permitted to maintain a dignified silence on the Bristow charges. After
the vote on the resolution, Assemblyman Callan left the caucus.
But even with the Republican caucus nomination, Perkins did not receive
the entire Republican vote. In the Assembly, Callan voted for Chester
Rowell of Fresno, and Sackett for Thomas R. Bard of Ventura. Fifty-six
of the Assembly votes, however, were cast for Perkins.
In the Senate, Perkins received thirty-two votes. The thirty regular
Republicans voted for him, as did Senator Bell, the
Independent-Republican, and Senator Caminetti, Democrat. Senator
Caminetti voted for Perkins because Caminetti regarded Perkins, as
nearly as could be determined, the choice of the electors to whom
Caminetti owed his election. Caminetti believes that the United States
Senator should be selected by the people of the State. The nearest he
could get to this was to ascertain the wishes of the people of his
district. He was convinced that the people of his district wished to see
Perkins re-elected. So, regardless of partisan considerations, Caminetti
the Democrat voted for Perkins the Republican. Caminetti's explanation
of his vote is worthy of the most careful consideration[22].
The regular candidate of the minority for the Democratic complimentary
vote was J. O. Davis, a gentleman of the highest character. But eight of
the Democratic members voted against him. Seven of the eight,
Assemblymen Black, Collum, Hopkins, Lightner, O'Neil and Wheelan and
Senator Hare voted for Harry P. Flannery, a San Francisco saloon-keeper;
the eighth, Senator Kennedy, voted for William H. Langdon. Six
Democratic Senators and thirteen Democratic Assemblymen voted for Mr.
Davis. They were: Senators Campbell, Cartwright, Curtin, Holohan,
Miller, and Sanford; Assemblymen Baxter, Gibbons, Gillis, Irwin, Johnson
of Placer, Juilliard, Maher, Mendenhall, Odom, Polsley, Preston,
Stuckenbruck and Webber.
[19] It is interesting to note that when a good citizen gives effective
resistance to the machine, that the machine invariably starts the cry -
"He is a candidate for the United States Senate." The open candidacy -
and liberal advertising - of a machine man for the Federal Senatorship
causes no adverse comment. For an anti-machine man to so aspire - or the
suspicion in machine breasts that he so aspires - is heralded as
evidence of his complete unworthy and irresponsibility.
[20] But when the machine Republicans of a State unite with Democrats to
elect a machine man to the Federal Senate, no such difficulties attend
them. Note the election by a coalition of machine Republicans and
machine Democrats in Illinois of "Billy" Lorimer, the notorious "blond
boss" of the stockyards, to the United States Senate.
[21] Senator Bell, although a Republican, was excluded because he would
not make his peace with Walter Parker, the Southern Pacific boss of the
political district lying south of Tehachepi. See Chapter 11,
Organization of the Senate.
[22] Caminetti's explanation of his vote, as printed in the Senate
Journal, is in full as follows:
"Mr. President: During the campaign of 1906, in the Tenth Senatorial
District, resulting in my election as Senator, I made the question of
'The election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people'
one of the leading issues upon which I asked the suffrage of the people.
I then pledged myself in all my speeches and in the press, to endeavor
to secure the passage of a law by the Legislature in case of my election
having that object in view, and in case of failure in the effort I would
nevertheless follow that principle and vote for the choice of a majority
of the qualified electors of that district in the selection of a Senator
during my term of off cue.
"The last session of the Legislature failed to enact the necessary
legislation on the subject, but the people of my district have
nevertheless plainly indicated to me that Hon. George C. Perkins was at
the last election, and now is, their choice for the United States
Senatorship.
"Under these circumstances I feel in honor bound by my pledges to the
people of the Tenth Senatorial District, to record the choice of a
majority of the qualified electors thereof for Hon. George C. Perkins
for United States Senator, hoping in so doing that it will never again
be necessary for a member of the Legislature to vote the choice of the
people of his district in this, or any other, indirect way, but that
this Legislature will rise superior to partisanship and give to the
people hereafter an opportunity, under suitable laws, to vote directly
for candidates for that office. Should this Legislature fail in this
high duty to the public, I trust that the people, in whom all power
resides, will hereafter take up this matter in the way the people of the
Tenth Senatorial District did two years ago, and thus be able in all
legislative districts of the State to record their choice for the
exalted office of United States Senator."