Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

probably decided for whom he is going to vote and is an interested, though almost voiceless, participant in the proceedings. The caucus is called to order by the chairman of the caucus committee, an organization is effected by the election of a chairman, secretary and other officers, nominations and nominating speeches are made, and the new member rises in his place and announces his choice when his name is called on the roll call. When the selections have been made, a caucus committee is appointed for the year and the caucus adjourns.

The next day, at noon, the new member is in the chamber ready for the opening of the session. He has been about the capitol for some time and has taken his oath of office before the Secretary of State. He He takes a seat where he can find one, and at the stroke of twelve, the assembly is called to order by the clerk of the assembly of the preceding year. The roll is called and the business of selecting a speaker proceeds promptly. Each member rises in his place when his name is called and announces the name of his candidate, voting for the man who was selected in his caucus. The candidate of the majority party is elected speaker, and the candidates for speaker of the minority parties become the leaders of their parties for the session. The newly elected speaker takes the chair and the other officers are elected. So soon as the organization is effected, committees are sent to announce the fact to the governor and to the senate; and the governor sends in writing his first message of the session, which is read by the clerk.

The new member is now anxious to know where in the chamber he is going to have his permanent seat. The majority party has by custom the right side of the house, facing the speaker. The other parties are on the other side of the center aisle. A committee is appointed and the names of the members are drawn by lot in groups,

according to years of previous service. The names of the new members are, of course, drawn last. When the name of the new member is finally called, he takes what he considers the best seat of those that are still unselected, and there he stays for the remainder of the year.

He hears some bills introduced. The copies of the bills have been dropped into the bill box at the side of the clerk's desk, and the clerk takes them out and gives them their first reading by reading the name of the introducer and the title of the bill. The speaker thereupon refers the bill to the appropriate committee.

Then the new member wants to know upon what committees he is to serve. The committees are appointed by the speaker and frequently are not announced until the adjourned day, which is usually the following Monday evening. If the new member is from the city, he is desirous of obtaining committees that deal more particularly with city legislation; if he is a lawyer, he would like one of the law committees, such as judiciary or codes or general laws; if he is from one of the rural counties, he would choose agriculture or internal affairs. The member in his first year has slight chance for appointment on the committee of ways and means to which are sent all bills involving an expenditure of money; or on the committee on rules, which has only six members, and which takes control of all legislation during the closing days of the session. If the member belongs to the majority party, he presents to the speaker his claims for committee assignments and is told that so far as possible his wishes will be complied with. If he is a minority member, he consults the leader of his party who suggests to the speaker the names of the members of his party for the places assigned to that party on the various committees. The speaker invariably appoints the minority members to the places suggested by their

leaders. The new member is not always satisfied with his committee assignments, but at least one of the two or three on which he is appointed is likely to be one of those he asked for, and is probably an important and hard working committee.

He is now ready for the real work of the session. If he has some legislation to introduce, he takes the rough draft of his bill, or possibly only his idea, to the bill drafting department where it is put in shape for him and the copies are prepared for him in form. for introduction. He introduces the bill and it is referred to the appropriate committee. It may be that he waits some time expecting his bill to be reported, and looks for it daily on the printed calendar of the bills for the consideration of the house. But it does not appear. He goes to the chairman of the committee and makes inquiries. He is told that in order to get action he should appear before the committee at one of its stated meetings, ask for its consideration and explain his bill. The title and substance of his bill have been published by the various reporting agencies and the chairman may have received a communication from some one in the State who is interested in the subject matter and who wishes the committee to hear him in opposition to it. The chairman then fixes a date for the hearing. All interested persons are notified, and the member appears with the friends of the bill and argues in favor of it before the committee. If he is successful in convincing the committee that it has merit, it is duly reported and appears on the calendar of the house on the order of second reading. It is then that the new member may be called upon for the first time to speak in open session. It may be that the bill is local and not controversial, but some member, knowing the introducer to be new and timid, when the title is read, moves to strike out the enacting clause, and states that he desires from the introducer an explanation of the bill. The introducer

must get on his feet and explain. Possibly some questions are put to him, and then the bill is advanced to the order of final passage, to appear on the third or final reading calendar on a subsequent day. When that day comes, if there is no serious opposition, the new member, with great satisfaction, passes his first bill. But it is not yet a law. He has had the same bill introduced in the senate by the senator from his district, but no progress has been made with it there. He requests his senator to substitute the passed assembly bill for his senator's bill, and, if he is fortunate, in due time secures its passage in that body. Then, if he is able to convince the governor that his bill has merit, it is signed and becomes a part of the statute law of the State. His work as a legislator has begun.

By this time, the session is well under way, possibly near its conclusion, and the new member has found himself. He has attended the meetings of the committees of which he is a member, has listened to the hearings before them and taken part in their discussions. It may be that he has spoken very rarely on the floor of the assembly. possibly not at all, but he has had a part in the shaping of legislation as to his own bills, in his committee work and by his vote. He has carried on a considerable correspondence with his constituents who have written him in favor of or against all kinds of legislation. He has visited and become familiar with the work of many of the great State departments whose operations affect the people of his district. He has come into personal touch with men from every part of the State, broadening himself, and learning of the State's activities and resources as he did not know them before. He becomes finally, as are a great majority of the men in the legislature, a capable, energetic and conscientious representative of the citizenship of the State. In brief, this is the story of the making of an assemblyman.

STATE PRIMARY WEAKENS LEADERSHIP

T

[blocks in formation]

HE most important legislation that can be considered by the incoming legislature relates to the restoration of nominating conventions for state officers and judges. The one supreme call in military and civil government is for effective leadership on sound principles. How can ten million inhabitants and three million six hundred thousand voters deliberate upon leadership except under the principle of representation? We have representative government in state affairs. We must have it in party affairs. Without it there can be no sufficient deliberation and without deliberation we cannot have judgment and without judgment we cannot have principles or efficiency.

New York State is too big to be run on the town meeting plan. New York's interests are too great to be managed by parties that do not assemble for deliberation. New York's interest in the United States is too great to be handled without judgment after deliberation. New York's stake in the civilized world requires that the maturest judgment of her people be expressed through her strongest and most representative men, and that when the judgments of her parties differ the issues be laid bare before the electorate. This can be done only through party conventions. The declaration of principles and the choice of leaders must go hand in hand. If they are separated both may be inconsequential.

The rules of the Republican State committee provide that it shall call a State convention in each even numbered year, to be held at least five weeks prior to the

official primary day "for the purpose of formulating platforms and policies."

66

The Republican State convention of 1914 declared in favor of the retention of the State convention and the direct election of delegates to such convention." But the governor elected by the same party that made this platform declares that this plank shall not be embodied in legislation. Deliberation and judgment go for naught because the convention does not nominate.

Party prudence would dictate silence upon this issue at the present time, but party prudence has no place in the present national crisis. Neither has party predilection. Only power and efficiency can be kept in view during the war, and after the war, in the nation and the State by the Republican party and the Democratic party, or whatever party serves the nation and the State.

Great business deliberates and acts through representative bodies. Our State is governed by parties and the State's affairs are the most important business of its citizens. The great The great weakness in State affairs is the lack of party deliberation and judgment. The State nominating convention affords opportunity for deliberation and exchange of views impossible under a direct primary.

The impropriety and unfitness of choosing judicial nominees at the direct primary are too obvious for argument. The spectacle of a judicial candidate personally conducting a direct primary contest is revolting. The practice is a menace to the integrity of the bench and to public security.

WHEN THOMAS F. GRADY QUELLED A MOB

At a political meeting in the Presidential campaign of 1884 he won a mem

orable oratorical triumph

Refused to support Grover Cleveland for President

BY RALPH W. THOMAS
State Tax Commissioner

but he was bitterly opposed by John Kelly, then the leader of Tammany Hall, and by some Democrats throughout the State who declared that he had not recognized the party workers in the distribution of offices. Senator Thomas F. Grady was recognized as one of the orators of Tammany. Daniel Manning of Albany, owner and editor of the Albany Argus, was chairman of the Democratic State Committee and one of the party

Ralph W. Thomas, one of the three members of the State Board of Tax Commissioners, was a young man residing in Albany in 1884 when he attended the stormy political meeting which he here describes for STATE SERVICE. Mr. Thomas has never forgotten that interesting incident in the presidential campaign of thirtythree years ago when Grover Cleveland was Governor of the State and nominated the first time for President. Years afterward, Mr. Thomas became a professor in Colgate College in this State and was elected in 1909 from that district to the State Senate, where he became acquainted with Senator Grady. He recalled the incident to the senator who said that he well remembered chat evening in Albany, and laughed over the experiences of leaders in this State who strongly favored the meeting. EDITOR.

F

OR over thirty years in the political history of New York, Thomas Francis Grady held a brilliant place. A scholar by temperament and education, widely read in history, literature and the classics, a skilful Ralph W. Thomas parliamentarian, an orator of renown, a hard fighter and yet possessed of a kindly personality which endeared him to his colleagues and made and held a host of friends outside the Senate such was the Grady that many of us knew, and hold in memory.

It may be of interest at this time, for one who was there, to tell the story of one of Grady's memorable oratorical triumphs.

By his vetoes and his reputation as Mayor, Grover Cleveland had become Governor of the State of New York in 1882. In that year up-state Democrats generally favored him for the party's presidential nomination,

the nomination of Cleveland. Prior to the holding of the Democratic national convention in Chicago early in July of that year, there was a bitter struggle throughout the State for Cleveland or anti-Cleveland delegates. New York was entitled to seventytwo delegates in the convention.

At Chicago, most of the anti-Cleveland delegates united on Roswell P. Flower as their candidate for president, but at a meeting of the New York State delegates the Cleveland men by a vote of 47 to 25 adopted the unit rule, which forced all seventy-two delegates from New York to vote for Cleveland in the convention. At this meeting of the delegates both Kelly and Grady protested vigorously against the adoption of the unit rule, declaring that the delegates should be permitted to exercise their individual preference in the convention. Kelly and Grady carried their fight against the unit rule to the floor of the convention, and in doing so both expressed their unrelenting opposition to the nomination of Cleveland. This objection was based largely upon his alleged unpopularity with the laboring class. The Governor had vetoed the five-cent fare bill

[graphic]

affecting New York city, and it was argued that he had done this at the behest of corporations. For that reason laboring men would not support him for the presidency. The vote in the convention on the adoption of the unit rule was 463 for and 332 against. It was the first test in the convention which foreshadowed the nomination of Cleveland, and on that occasion Senator Grady made a memorable speech in the course of which he predicted that Cleveland would

be defeated in New York State, and that the Democratic party would lose the presidency.

The natures of the two men were essentially antagonistic. In October, 1883, Governor Cleveland wrote a letter to John Kelly then leader of Tammany Hall - in which he said: "I am anxious that Mr. Grady should not be returned to the Senate. I do not wish to conceal the fact that my

personal comfort and satis

faction are involved in the

matter." That letter the sena

tor long kept in memory.

ton could not pass a civil service examination to-day for a $1,200 clerkship. For myself I want frequent changes in office in order that the tendency may be away from aristocratic life offices." In the campaign which followed, the leading advocate of the election of the Greenback and Labor ticket was Benjamin F. Butler himself. Acute of thought, of incisive expression, and of piquant and striking vocabulary, his speeches attracted attention everywhere.

For many weeks after the national convention at Chicago there was no doubt that Tammany would support the Democratic national ticket. On the evening of September 12th, the Tammany Hall general committee finally indorsed the nominations of Cleveland and Hendricks. The big wigwam in New York city was crowded and the orators of the organization vied with each other in their eulogy of the candidates. Near the end of the meeting there were loud calls for Grady, and great cheering arose when he stood up to respond. Evidently many of the members did not know exactly whether he had undergone a change of mind since his return from the national convention. He mounted the platform and launched one of the most bitter attacks upon Cleveland ever made by a man of any political party. For incisiveness of diction and vigor of denunciation, that speech has seldom been surpassed. He reviewed the personal history and characteristics of the man, went in detail into the record of his

[graphic]

Thomas F. Grady

Among the delegates from Massachusetts was Benjamin F. Butler, who subsequently bolted the ticket and became himself the Greenback and Labor candidate for president. Butler made his canvass on the platform of friendship and sympathy with the common people and the laboring man. He was also opposed to civil service reform. In his speech at the Chicago convention he said: "There is not a man in this convention in favor of civil service except it may be a schoolmaster. George Washing

« AnteriorContinuar »