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EE MARKS OF IION. ROBERT L. OWEN OF OK LAH O M A IN THE SENATE OF TIIE UNITED STATES DECEMBER 9, 1913 On the importance of saving time in the United States Senate and need for cloture in order to have time for prompt considera tion of the numerous statutes required for the conser vation and promotion of human life, human efficiency, and human happiness W A S H IN G T O N 1914 24417— 12047 RE MA RK S OF HON . ROBERT L. O WE N Thursday, D ecem ber 9, 1913. T h e S e n a t e , a s in C o m m it t e e o f t h e W h o le , h a d u n d e r c o n s id e r a t io n th e b ill ( H . R . 7 8 3 7 ) t o p r o v id e f o r th e e s t a b li s h m e n t o f F e d e r a l r e s e r v e h a n k s , f o r f u r n is h in g a n e l a s t i c c u r r e n c y , a f f o r d in g m e a n s o f r e d is c o u n t in g c o m m e r c ia l p a p e r , a n d t o e s t a b li s h a m o r e e f f e c t iv e s u p e r v is io n o f b a n k in g in t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s , a n d f o r o t h e r p u r p o s e s . Mr. OWEN. Mr. President, during the last 10 days Senators on the opposite side of the aisle have frequently made it a mat ter of entertainment to be making the point of no quorum for the obvious purpose of delaying and wasting time. It is per fectly well known to every Senator who has made the point of no quorum that the Members of this body are in the cloakroom or in the immediate vicinity if they are not on the floor. I be lieve it has only occurred once, or perhaps twice, that it took some minutes to obtain a quorum. The country might as well observe what the meaning of this is. and I wish to call the at tention of the country to the attitude of Senators who are wasting the time of this body. Mr. BRISTOW. Mr. President-----The VICE PRESIDENT. Does the Senator from Oklahoma yield to the Senator from Kansas? Mr. OWEN. I decline to be interrupted, Mr. President. * Mr. BRISTOW. I thought the Senator would in making such remarks as those. Mr. OWEN. Yes; I do; especially by the Senator from Kansas, whose lack of self-restraint has been so obvious. The Congress o f the United States has a vast work to per form. This currency bill is only a part of it; the tariff bill was only a part of it. Under the head of currency matters we have still many other things which are necessary to be done by Con gress. We should have a codification of the national bank acts; we should have laws passed controlling the abuses, the outrages, of the various stock exchanges, of the exchanges that gamble with food products, with agricultural products, and help to fix high prices upon this country. We should pass laws that are necessary to control the abuses of the clearing houses. We should pass laws prohibiting interlocking directorates, which control banking systems and trust companies and great industrial companies and railways, linked together on a gigan tic scale and thus making effective private monopoly. We ought to pass laws establishing an agricultural credit system in this country, a matter of the most serious importance in promoting the food products of this Nation and in promoting the production of the raw materials which come out of the soil. We ought to pass the necessary measures which will control the abuses of private monopoly in this country, and yet day after 24417— 12647 3 day is wasted by idle talk upon the floor of the Senate and by call after call for a quorum, when it is perfectly well known that a quorum will immediately respond to the roll call. We ought to pass laws solving the problem of the high cost of living, which is making the ordinary citizen of this country tremble under the load he carries. We ought to pass laws providing for good roads in this country ; we ought to pass laws providing for the develop ment of our national waterways. I have some other things to present which this Congress ought to consider and act on. and I propose to place them in the R ecord now for the information of the country—not for the information of the Senate, for the Senate knows perfectly wrell what they are. We ought to pass a law establishing an independent bureau of puli'ic health to protect the public health o f this country, which i» w is simply under the jurisdiction of a branch of the Treasury Department, relatively obscure, smothered, ineffective, although not without much value. We ought to pass laws protecting child labor in this country; we ought to pass a proper employees’ insurance system; we ought to pass proper laws for the compensation of workmen; we ought to pass laws establishing proper safety appliances and steel cars on the railway systems of the country; we ought to pass a law for the “ probation of convicts” for the benefit of young men who are convicted for the first time, young men who are sent to their ruin by the cruel hand of society, liecause they make a single mistake. Year after year I have tried to secure the passage of such a bill through the Senate, and have made no progress. We ought to have cold-storage legislation; we ought to have legislation to bring about pure fabrics and honest measures of goods that are sold to our people; we ought to have a better system for the proper control of railway rates; we ought to have a better sys tem for the control of the issue of stock and bonds, so that the people o f this country may not be unfairly taxed by the issue of fraudulent watered securities; we ought to establish voca tional education in this country, so as to teach the boys and • girls, the young men and women, of this country bow to make a living. How shall we ever consider these things when day after day is used up in idle debate, without any economy whatever of the time of the Senate? That is the reason why these seats of Senators are vacated It is because Senators who have made up their minds, have studied the question, jlo not want to stay a whole week listening to a debate which no longer instructs or interests. That is evidently the reason why Senators vacate their seats—because the debate on the floor of the Senate has become a farce. We ought to establish postal telegraphs and postal telephones cheap and at the convenient service o f the people instead o f a monopoly controlled by a few men unfairly taxing the people and giving them indifferent and poor service. The Government of the United States ought to owu plants for making its own armor plate, for making its owm powder, for making its own guns and materials of war, and for build ing its own battleships. We have not time even to discuss such questions, but have spent about 10 hours during the last week debating a motion to meet at 10 o’clock in the morning. 24417— 12647 We ought to have proper legislation to build up the merchant marine of the American Nation. Our flag is practically never seen in foreign ports, and hardly ever seen in our own ports. We ought to take steps, through the Legislature of this Nation, in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, to promote, bring about, and establish universal peace, which we could do if we spent the same amount of money and energy in promoting peace that we do in building navies and in supporting armies. Nevertheless, until we have a better condition, we ought to have time to consider the naval program and the development of our military forces. We ought to have time to discuss on the floor of the Senate the right o f the women o f this country to the equal privilege of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This question affects the right o f 45,000,000 Americans. Yet we talk from noon till 10 or 11 o’clock at night on Hetch Hetchy, a serious waste of time, because two or three days would be sufficient for the Frisco water supply. We ought to have an opportunity to discuss upon the floor licentiousness In the public press, which under present condi tions is able to give publicity broadcast and wholesale and con tinuously to things that are untrue and against the public in terest. The fountains of information for the people are fre quently poisoned by reckless publications that ought to be guided by law along the lines of decency and moderation, at the same time that full liberty of the press is preserved. We have not time to debate such questions, but can discuss questions of order at length. We shall have to pass in the Senate a thousand million dol lars of appropriations, and the time will come in the Senate when in a few hours you will see rushed through this body appropriation bills carrying $100,000,000 with very little analyti cal discussion. We never have had time even to pass on the ques tion of a budget or to take the necessary steps to adequately provide for the adequate ecouomy and efficiency of the Govern ment. We have had volumes of reports on economy and efficiency. I have tried to read them. I have read them in part. I doubt if many Senators on the floor have had time to read these re ports, which have cost this Nation thousands and thousands of dollars. Yet the recommendations there would seem to be of great value in promoting both economy and efficiency of gov ernment. We ought to have a national progressive inheritance tax as a part of the fiscal system, as every country in Europe has, because no State can make it effective. We ought to have the “ gateway amendment’’ passed by which to make comparatively easy the amendment of the Con stitution of the United States by the people, because whenever you come into a condition where a vested wrong is established you will find always that the Constitution is urged to prevent a remedy for the people. We could not pass an income tax be cause the Constitution forbade it, according to the interpreta tion of a divided court. W'e ought to pass an act providing for a presidential primary for the nomination and election of Presidents. 24417— 12647 I v 6 We ought to have an act passed that will establish the im provement o f judicial processes in this country, by which the people may obtain quick justice and cheap justice. We ought to have laws improving the conditions o f labor. We ought to have a legislative reference bureau and drafting division for the Senate and for the Congress. It is on the calendar. Every time it is brought up objection is made to its consideration. We ought to have the systematic development of our water powers and laws passed to encourage and direct them. We ought to have laws passed for the proper conservation and use of our national forests and of our national minerals, laws that will enable the living generation to enjoy them, to use them, and to conserve them. We ought to have our patent laws perfected. There are innumerable questions affecting the welfare of this Nation, in the way of social and industrial reforms, which ought to be considered by the Senate. The time of the Senate ought not to be washed, and I want to put in the R ecord my protest against it. I do not make these observations because of the banking and currency bill. The banking and currency bill is only one of the many things which ought to be passed by the Congress. The reforms have been pledged or suggested in various plat forms, not only Democratic platforms but other platforms, rep resenting large groups of people. I have in my hand a splendid statement of the various needed social and industrial reforms, which was put into the platform o f the Progressive Party of the Nation, a party which regis tered 4,000,000 votes. It proposes the conservation of human resources through en lightened measures of social and industrial justice. It proposes effective legislation, looking to: The prevention of industrial accidents; Occupational diseases, overwork: Involuntary unemployment and other injurious effects inci dent to modern industry; The fixing of minimum safety and health standards for the various occupations, and the exercise of the public authority of State and Nation, including the Federal control over interstate commerce and the taxing power, to maintain such standards; The prohibition o f child labor; Minimum wage standards for working women, to provide a “ living scale” in all industrial occupations; The prohibition o f night work for women and the establish ment of an eight-hour day for women and young persons; One day’s rest in seven for all wageworkers; The 8-hour day in continuous 24-hour industries; The abolition of the convict contract-labor system, substitut ing a system of prison production for governmental consumption only, and the application of prisoners’ earnings to the support of their dependent families; Publicity as to wages, hours, and conditions of labor; full reports upon industrial accidents and diseases; and the opening to public inspection of all tallies, weights, measures, and check systems on labor products; •24 tl 7— 12647 ( Standards of compensation for death by industrial accident and injury and trade diseases, which will transfer the burden of lost earnings from the families of working people to the in dustry, and thus to the community; The protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment, and old age. through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use; The development of the creative labor power of America by lifting the last load of illiteracy from American youth and establishing continuous schools for industrial education under public control and encouraging agricultural education and dem onstration in rural schools; The establishment of industrial research laboratories to put the methods and discoveries of science at the service o f Amer ican producers. These are some of the social and industrial reforms which ought to be considered, which ought to be provided for, as far as the Federal Government can do so or promote them. And I want to protest again against the waste of time in the United States Senate. The time has come for cloture in the Senate of the United States. The time has come when Senators who want to address the Senate upon a subject shall be given a reasonable time within which to do it, and then yield the floor to other Senators. 24417— 12047 o
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