Machine Amends Direct Primary Bill[57].
By Trick Prevents Senate From Concurring in Amendments to Correct
Clerical and Typographical Errors, Thus Creating a Situation Which Threw
the Measure Into a Committee on Free Conference With Power to Amend.
It is a very good rule to be sure that your rattlesnake is dead before
placing yourself in a position to be bitten. The reform Senators
neglected this rule, with the result that after they had the machine
element whipped on the direct primary issue, they placed themselves in
a position where the "performers" struck at them viciously, and snatched
victory from them.
As was shown in a previous chapter, the Direct Primary bill, after it
had originally passed the Senate in the face of machine opposition, was
allowed to go to the Assembly containing several serious clerical and
typographical errors. The Assembly corrected these errors by a series of
ten amendments. It was necessary for the Senate to concur in these
amendments to get the bill into proper form. The amendments added in the
Assembly to which the anti-machine Senators took exception, were seven
in number and dealt principally with the changing of the method of
electing United States Senators, from the plan of State-wide vote, to
that of district, advisory vote. The seven were known as the "vicious
amendments"; the ten correcting the typographical errors were called the
"necessary amendments." There is no good reason why the ten necessary
amendments should not have been made before the bill was first sent to
the Assembly. But they were not, and the errors which were thus left in
the bill served the machine most advantageously when the final fight
came. After Wolfe had given up hope of compelling the reform Senators to
concur in the vicious amendments read into the bill in the Assembly, his
play was to bring about a situation by which the bill would be thrown
into a Committee on Free Conference. The committee would be appointed by
President Porter of the Senate, and by Speaker Stanton of the Assembly.
Such a committee would, of course, be in sympathy with machine policies,
and could be counted upon to amend the bill to the machine's liking.
There is little doubt that the machine leaders in the Senate and the
machine leaders in the Assembly acted in conjunction in the proceedings
which followed Senator Wolfe's action in abandoning his efforts to force
the anti-machine Senators to support the so called vicious Assembly
amendments.
Wolfe's first move was to ask as a matter of courtesy that the Senate
adopt his motion to reconsider the vote by which it had the week before
refused to concur in the Assembly amendment. This request the reform
element granted, purely as a matter of courtesy. Wolfe then edged up a
step nearer.
No sooner had he received the courtesy of reconsideration than both he
and Leavitt were to the fore with a suggestion that the Senate should
refuse to concur in all the amendments and let them be threshed out in
the Assembly. The purpose of the two machine leaders was apparent.
Had the Senate concurred in the ten Assembly amendments made necessary
to correct typographical errors, and refused to concur in the seven
objectionable amendments, all that would have been necessary would have
been for the Assembly to recede from its objectionable amendments. But
if Wolfe could so engineer matters that the Senate would refuse to
concur in all the amendments, then it would be necessary for the
Assembly to recede from all its amendments, including those intended to
correct typographical errors, or send the bill to a conference
committee, to be selected by Stanton and Porter. From a Committee on
Conference to a Committee on Free Conference, also to be appointed by
Stanton and Porter, and with full power to amend the bill to its liking,
was but a step. The Committee on Free Conference was Wolfe's aim. He
eventually got it.
Boynton and Walker were quick to see the trend of Wolfe's requests,
however, and Walker moved to vote on the seven vicious amendments on one
roll call, and on the ten correcting the typographical and clerical
errors on a second.
As a substitute Wolfe moved that the seventeen amendments be passed upon
under one roll call.
At first Senators Cutten and Stetson apparently could not see the trend
of Wolfe's scheming. In the debate that ensued Wolfe pretended
indignation that his motives were being questioned.
There was very good reason for questioning Senator Wolfe's motives, but
Cutten and Stetson and even Walker assured Wolfe that no reflection upon
him was intended. What these men should have done was to have denounced
Wolfe right there as a trickster and made no bones about it. But on the
absurd assumption that a member of the State Senate is necessarily a
gentleman, the much deserved denunciation did not come.
However, Wolfe's motion did not prevail and the amendments were taken up
one by one. Six of the seven vicious amendments were rejected, the first
of the six by a vote of 19 to 20.
This brought the Senate to the amendments intended to correct
typographical and clerical errors. And here the vote switched. The
reformers had up to this time been voting to reject the amendments,
because the amendments were objectionable, while the programmers in the
first instance voted for concurrence. But when it came to amendments
intended to correct typographical and clerical errors only, Wolfe and
his following, with the exception of Burnett, who refused to stand for
any such dastardly piece of work, voted to refuse to concur in the
amendments, while the anti-machine Senators, of course, voted to concur
in them.
Burnett, voting with the anti-machine element, gave them twenty votes,
leaving Wolfe and his following only nineteen. But twenty-one votes were
necessary for concurrence. The machine, while it could not force the
Senate to concur in the vicious amendments, could prevent the Senate's
concurrence in the amendments to correct the clerical and typographical
errors. The bill was accordingly sent back to the Assembly with the
typographical and clerical amendments still in dispute.
Even before the bill had reached the Assembly, Senator Frank Leavitt and
George Van Smith of The Call were on the floor of that body, fighting to
prevent the Assembly receding from its amendments.
When the Assembly grasped the fact that the Senate had refused to concur
in the amendments necessary for correction of typographical errors,
those who were working for an effective Direct Primary bill were thrown
into the greatest confusion. Speaker Stanton's rulings which followed,
were not calculated to relieve the situation. Speaking from the desk,
Stanton said:
"If you recede from some of these amendments and not from others where
will your bill be? It will be dead. The only thing that you can do to
save the Direct Primary bill now is to recede from all the amendments
and let the typographical errors remain in the bill, or refuse to recede
from any of the amendments and let the bill go into conference. If you
recede from some of the amendments and not from others, your bill is
dead. We cannot send this bill back to the Senate saying that the
Assembly has receded from some of the amendments and not from others."
Assemblymen Preston, Bohnett and others who were standing for an
effective measure, were amazed at the position which Stanton had taken.
"I cannot for the life of me," said Preston, "see why we cannot recede
from part of the amendments and refuse to recede from the others. Some
of these amendments are really necessary for the good of the bill.
Others should be rejected. Give me fifteen minutes and I will guarantee
to dig up authorities which will show us the course to be pursued."
Assemblyman Bohnett confessed himself unable to understand why the
Assembly could not send part of the amendments to conference and not the
others.
By this time matters had got so warm in the Assembly that Senator
Leavitt found it necessary to lend dignity to the occasion by taking his
seat at the side of Speaker Stanton, whom he engaged in conversation.
The conference was, of course, carried on in whispers.
Assemblymen Young, Bohnett and others, finding that it would be
impossible under the assumption of the Speaker to refuse to recede from
part of the amendments while receding from the others, advised the good
government members to refuse to recede from all the amendments, and pass
the bill, typographical errors and all.
It was demanded of Bohnett if this would not lead to the practical
defeat of the measure. Bohnett insisted that it would not; that the
typographical errors, while deplorable, did not materially affect the
bill.
However, many of the better element of the Assembly did not dare to take
the risk, and the motion to recede was lost by a vote of 29 to 42[51].
Assemblymen who unquestionably stood for a good bill voted against
receding. Had the vicious amendments alone been under consideration,
they would have voted to recede. Among these were such men as
Assemblyman Drew of Fresno. The Assembly, having refused to recede from
its amendments, the bill went to a Committee on Conference, appointed by
Speaker Stanton and President Porter. The machine had gained its point.
The Conference Committee consisted of Senators Wolfe, Leavitt and
Wright, and Assemblymen Leeds, Johnson of Sacramento, and Hewitt. Of the
Committee, Hewitt[59] was the only member who favored a Statewide vote
for United States Senator, and opposed the advisory district vote. The
committee had scarcely been missed from Senate and Assembly chambers
before it was back to report that no agreement could be reached.
The same members were thereupon appointed as a Committee on Free
Conference, which gave them power to amend the bill. As a Committee on
Free Conference they recommended the advisory district vote plan for the
nomination of United States Senators[60].
Senator Wolfe, having got the bill in shape to his liking, with a suave
smirk upon his face, stated that he trusted that all the Senators
present would vote for the measure.
"Not on your life," came Caminetti's protest.
And Caminetti did not vote for the Free Conference Committee's report.
But in spite of Caminetti's protest, both Senate and Assembly adopted
the Conference Committee's report. They had to do so or defeat the bill
entirely. Caminetti was the only Senator who voted against it. The
machine, after a fight of nearly two months, in which it was twice
defeated in the Senate, and escaped defeat in the Assembly by only one
vote, that of Pulcifer, had carried its point, had succeeded in denying
the people of California the privilege of casting a practical,
State-wide vote for United States Senators.
What the anti-machine Senators[61] thought of the outcome is best
expressed in the little speech which Senator Stetson made his
fellow-Senators in explaining his vote to accept the report of the
Committee on Free Conference.
"Before voting on this matter," said Stetson, "lest any one in the
future may think that I have been passed something and didn't know it, I
wish to explain my vote, and wish to say that this permission accorded a
candidate to go on record to support that candidate for United States
Senate, who shall have the endorsement of the greatest number of
districts, comes from nobody and goes to nobody. It means nothing -
mere words - idle words. The only way in which a candidate could have
been pledged would have been to provide a pledge or instructions to the
Legislature. The words 'shall be permitted' mean nothing and get
nowhere. I shall vote for this report, not because I want to, but
because I have to if we are at this session to have any Direct Primary
law at all."
[57] The plain citizen will marvel at the lengths to which the machine
went to prevent a provision being incorporated into the Direct Primary
bill for the selection by State-wide vote of United States Senators. The
plain citizen does not, however, look upon a United States Senator
through the same eyes as the machine. To the plain citizen that United
States Senator is desirable who represents policies beneficial to his
country and his State; to the machine that United States Senator is
desirable who will in effect turn his Federal patronage over to the
machine. The election of United States Senators by State-wide vote would
take their appointment out of machine hands, which would mean loss to
the machine of Federal patronage. For this reason the almost
unbelievable lengths to which the machine went to prevent the provision
for State-wide vote for the election of United States Senators being
incorporated into the Direct Primary bill.
[58] The vote was as follows:
Ayes: Messrs. Bohnett, Callan, Cattell, Cogswell, Collum, Costar,
Flavelle, Gerdes, Gibbons, Gillis, Hinkle, Holmquist, Irwin, Johnson of
Placer, Juilliard, Kehoe, Maher, Mendenhall, Odom, Otis, Polsley,
Preston, Sackett, Stuckenbruck, Telfer, Whitney, Wilson, Wyllie and
Young - 29.
Noes: Messrs. Barndollar, Beardslee, Beatty, Beban, Black, Butler,
Coghlan, Collier, Cronin, Cullen, Drew, Feeley, Fleisher, Flint, Greer,
Griffiths, Hammon, Hanlon, Hans, Hawk, Hewitt, Johnson of Sacramento,
Johnson of San Diego, Leeds, Macauley, McClelland, McManus, Melrose,
Moore, Mott, Nelson, Perine, Pugh, Pulcifer, Rech, Rutherford, Schmitt,
Silver, Stanton, Transue, Wagner, Wheelan - 42.
[59] Hewitt voted against the amendments the day they were read into the
bill.
[60] The Free Conference Committee's amendment was in full as follows:
"By nominating petitions signed and filed as provided by existing laws
party candidates for the office of United States Senator shall have
their names placed on the official primary election ballots of their
respective parties, in the manner herein provided for State offices,
PROVIDED, HOWEVER, THAT THE VOTE FOR CANDIDATES FOR UNITED STATES
SENATORS SHALL BE AN ADVISORY VOTE FOR THE PURPOSE OF ASCERTAINING THE
SENTIMENT OF THE VOTERS IN THE RESPECTIVE SENATORIAL AND ASSEMBLY
DISTRICTS IN THE RESPECTIVE PARTIES, and the Senatorial and Assembly
nominees shall be at liberty to vote either for the choice of such
district expressed at said primary election, or for the candidate for
United States Senator who shall have received the endorsement of such
primary election in the greater number of districts electing members of
his party to the Legislature."
[61] Stetson was not the only Senator to protest. Senators Campbell,
Holohan and Miller sent to the Secretary's desk the following
explanation of their votes: "We voted for the Direct Primary bill
because it seems to be the best law that can be obtained under existing
political conditions. We are opposed to many of the features of this
bill, and believe that the people at the first opportunity will instruct
their representatives in the Legislature to radically amend the same in
many particulars, notably in regard to the election of United States
Senators, and the provisions that prevent the endorsement of a candidate
by a political party or organization other than the one that first
nominated such candidate."
A second protest, signed by Senators Curtin, Cartwright and Sanford, was
also printed in the Journal. It reads as follows: "We voted to adopt the
report of the Committee on Free Conference on Senate Bill No. 3, not
because we believe it to be what is desired by the people of this State,
but because we believe it to be the only bill that can be adopted at
this late hour, as the Legislature is about to adjourn."