Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 18

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 18

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*Chapter XXIII.

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tion by practical politicians because of rock-ribbed regularity in returning unfailing major- ities for one party or the other. The two Republican factions and the Democrats were amply supplied with campaign money to cover every conceivable legitimate expenditure-for rent of halls or theatres for mass meetings, for traveling expenses of speakers, for bands of music, for printing and paying postage on circular literature, for advertising in newspapers and on billboards; and, besides, there were rumors, because the three known candidates for the Sen- ate were very rich men, that there was an abundance of money that might be made available for other purposes.

The participation of "strangers" in party primaries, and unusually large registration in several towns were alleged as reasons for suspicion that plans had been made for the use on election day of "repeaters," that is, persons who registered and voted in more than one polling place. So tense had the situation become by election day that watchers were placed by the good government party at the polls in every precinct, and a central headquarters was main- tained for the purpose of receiving reports from watchers. The watchers were instructed to note unusual procedure, to challenge irregular voting, and not to leave the polls unless relieved until the counting of ballots had been completed and the bundles of ballots sealed up for delivery to the Secretary of State. Following the election, complaints of illegal voting were made and followed by arrests. In one case the Supreme Court held that a complaint alleg- ing that an elector had voted twice illegally was bad for duplicity .; After the popular elec- tion in November the state waited patiently for the opening of the General Assembly in Janu- ary, 1907, and the voting in joint assembly with the purpose of choosing a Senator.

The election of a Senator by the General Assembly followed procedure established by statute before the Civil War. The first vote was taken by roll call in the Senate and House of Representatives sitting apart; if the first vote resulted in a clear majority the meeting of the joint assembly was simply for accepting and announcing the result. If the first voting in separate houses failed to produce a majority for any candidate, then the joint assembly pro- ceeded to ballot. The statutory procedure required a roll call record vote. In 1907 eighty- one successive ballots were taken without the majority required. On the first ballot the vote was: Robert Hale Ives Goddard 41, Samuel Pomroy Colt 38, George Peabody Wetmore 30, George H. Utter I. The proceedings in joint assembly were dignified and impressive as Governor James H. Higgins presided. The roll call proceeded rythmically as the names of Senators and Representatives were called by the clerks, and the members responded, rolling out the complete names of the candidates, "Robert Hale Ives Goddard," "Samuel Pomroy Colt," and "George Peabody Wetmore." The nominating speeches in joint assembly at the opening session were splendid orations, eulogizing the candidates and enumerating reasons why one or another should receive the suffrage of the Assemblymen. Notable was the address of Roswell B. Burchard of Little Compton, who had been absent on the day on which the first roll call was taken and whose position had not been disclosed until he cast his first ballot. If these were anticipations of weakness or changing of votes, these were soon dispelled as the joint assembly, meeting day after day and balloting once always and occasionally several times, continued to reach the same result. On the eighty-first ballot the vote was practically the same as on the first: Robert Hale Ives Goddard 40, Samuel Pomroy Colt 39, George Peabody Wetmore 30. The General Assembly adjourned sine die after the eighty-first ballot on April 23. Neither Colt nor Wetmore could be persuaded in favor of the other, and Goddard sup- porters were adamant. Thus the joint assembly failed to elect a Senator, and from March 4, 1907, when Senator Wetmore's term expired by limitation, Rhode Island had only one Sen- ator in Congress.

State vs. Custer, 28 R. I. 222 and 228. See State vs. Fitzpatrick, 4 R. I. 269.

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With the adjournment of the General Assembly preparations were begun immediately for a new canvass in anticipation of the election of 1907, in which a new General Assembly would be chosen. As between Democrats and Republicans there was little change in the General Assembly of 1908 from that of 1907, but there had been a change of sentiment within the Republican party. Colonel Colt, who was seriously ill, was no longer an active competitor. On the first ballot in 1908 in separate houses the result was: George Peabody Wetmore 68, Robert Hale Ives Goddard 36, Samuel Pomroy Colt 5. The joint assembly, meeting on the following day, declared George Peabody Wetmore elected as Senator for the unexpired por- tion of the term of six years beginning March 4, 1907. In the election of 1907 the total vote cast was only 400 less than in 1906, and Governor Higgins, candidate for reelection, increased his plurality only slightly as he defeated Frederick H. Jackson. Essentially the electors had maintained steadfastly their preferences of 1906, with the exception indicated with reference to the Republican senatorial candidates. Colonel Linkaby Didd related, in one of his letters to the "Journal," after election, a story of a colonial coach with six horses which had been pre- pared to carry a new Senator on a triumphant journey from Bristol to Washington. The coach had been repainted and refitted with new wheels and springs; the horses were sleek prize-winners at horse shows. No longer needed, the coach was returned. once more to the coach house to gather dust and cobwebs. Colonel Linkaby Didd himself retired from "public life" at the same time, venturing out only occasionally thereafter to express through the "Journal" his opinions of men and things.

RHODE ISLAND'S OPPOSITION TO FEDERAL TAX MEASURES-Congress submitted the six- teenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, income tax, on July 12, 1909, and the amendment was proclaimed on February 25, 1913, as ratified by thirty-eight states, four others ratifying later. Rhode Island, Connecticut and Utah rejected the income tax amend- ment, the Rhode Island action taking the form of a resolution, in 1910, that Rhode Island "refuses" to ratify. Congress submitted the seventeenth amendment, election of Senators by popular vote, on May 16, 1912, and ratification was proclaimed on May 31, 1913. Rhode Island was the only New England state that did not ratify the seventeenth amendment. The eighteenth amendment, prohibition. was submitted December 17, 1917, and proclaimed as ratified on January 29, 1919. The Supreme Court held* that the amendment became part of the Constitution on January 16, 1919, when ratified by Nebraska and North Carolina as the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth states. Rhode Island and Connecticut did not ratify the eighteenth amendment. The nineteenth amendment, woman suffrage, was submitted June 5, 1919, and proclaimed August 26, 1920. Rhode Island ratified the woman suffrage amendment January 6, 1920.

Rhode Island protested against a federal inheritance tax in 1909, and increased the state tax on transfers of net estates, inheritance, only to take advantage of the maximum rebate permitted by the federal statutes. The last was a measure purposing to obtain as state revenue a tax that would have been taken by the federal government otherwise. The General Assem- bly in 1914 protested against the literacy test in the Burnett immigration bill, and in the fol- lowing year urged the President to veto the Burnett-Smith bill prohibiting the admission of illiterate immigrants. The Assembly resolutions recalled the veto of similar bills by Presi- dents Grover Cleveland and William H. Taft and continued: "This bill would forbid the entrance into the United States of men like those who blazed the trail of civilization across this great Republic; men who have built its railways, constructed its streets, done all the hard, manual labor in camps, mines and forests, men who have been a valuable addition to our citizenship, men thrifty, honest and law-abiding."

*Dillon vs. Gloss 256 U. S. 368.

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NEW CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS-From 1902 the Democrats carried the First Congres- sional District regularly until the presidential year of 1908, when William P. Sheffield defeated Congressman Granger by eighty-one votes in a total of 37,514. In 1910 the First District reverted to the Democrats, and George F. O'Shaunessy defeated Congressman Sheffield decisively by 1800 plurality. In the same year ex-Governor Utter carried the Second Con- gressional District, defeating Thomas F. Cooney, by 5200 plurality. Congressman Utter died in office November 3, 1912, two days before election. The old division of the state into two congressional districts passed with the reapportionment of representation in Congress follow- ing the census of 1910. The First District had included Newport and Bristol counties, East Providence and Providence; the Second District, Washington and Kent counties, and Prov- idence County except East Providence and Providence. In 1912 the state was divided into three congressional districts, thus: First District-Bristol and Newport counties, East Prov- idence, and twelve Assembly districts in Providence ; Second District-Kent and Washington counties, Foster, Scituate, Johnston, Cranston, North Providence, and nine Assembly dis- tricts in Providence ; Third District-Burrillville, Central Falls, Cumberland, Glocester, Lin- coln, North Smithfield, Pawtucket, Smithfield, Woonsocket, and four Assembly districts in Providence. In the first election after re-apportionment and redistricting the Democrats car- ried the First and Second districts, and the Republicans the Third, the Congressmen elected being George F. O'Shaunessy, Peter G. Gerry and Ambrose Kennedy. The year was extra- ordinary in politics. The national Republican party had split after the regular convention had renominated President Taft, and a seceding wing of the party, calling itself Progressive, named Theodore Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson, leading the Democratic party, was elected President. The division in the national Republican party reached Rhode Island, and Wood- row Wilson carried the state with a plurality of 2700. The poll was: Wilson, 30,412; Taft, 27,703 ; Roosevelt, 16,878. Governor Pothier was reelected by a small plurality of 1400, when Albert H. Humes, Progressive, polled nearly 8500 normally Republican votes. In the First Congressional District Congressman O'Shaunessy polled a clear majority, with 13,057 to 9,663 for William P. Sheffield, Republican, and 3044 for John E. Bolan, Progres- sive. In the Second Congressional District Zenas W. Bliss was substituted for Congressman Utter, deceased, as Republican candidate on the eve of election and was defeated by 393 plurality. Claude C. Ball, Progressive, polled 3,642 votes, enough to defeat Bliss and to explain the regularity with which the Second District returned Republicans thereafter. Ambrose Kennedy carried the Third District by 1877 plurality over F. X. Leonidas Rattey, Democrat ; the Progressive candidate, Edwin F. Tuttle, polled 2158 votes. Eventually most of the Progressives returned to the Republican party; for them the net result of the move- ment in Rhode Island was to bring new men into prominence, some of whom ran for office for the first time as Progressives and found it easy subsequently to obtain recognition in the ranks of regular Republicans. Congressman O'Shaunessy, who had redeemed the old First District from Republican control in 1910, continued to carry the new First District biennially until 1918, when he was drafted as Democratic candidate for the United States Senate. He polled majorities except in 1914, when Roswell B. Burchard challenged and in a closely con- tested race reduced the normal majority to a plurality of 900. An analysis of the vote by towns indicates that Burchard's vote in Providence was sufficient, had he received normal support in Newport County, to win the election; in the city of Newport, where local political contests frequently transcend in interest state or other divisional elections, Burchard ran so far behind as to suggest trading in which he was the loser. From 1918 Clark Burdick car- ried the First District biennially, by pluralities ranging from 3000 to 20,000, defeating Theo- dore Francis Green, 1918; Patrick J. Boyle, 1920; ex-Congressman O'Shaunessy, 1922;

R. I .- 45

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Alfred H. Jones, 1924; Arthur L. Conaty, 1926; John J. Cooney, 1928; and Samuel W. Smith, 1930. The new Second District was reclaimed for the Republicans in 1914 by Wal- ter R. Stiness, who defeated Peter G. Gerry, 1914; Sumner Mowry, 1916; Stephen J. Casey, 1918; and Luigi De Pasquale, 1920. From 1922 Richard S. Aldrich, son of Senator Aldrich, has carried the Second District regularly as a Republican, defeating Percy J. Cantwell, 1922; Charles M. Hall, 1924; Clarence E. Palmer, 1926; Sumner Mowry, 1928; and Arthur L. Conaty, 1930. Republican pluralities in the Second District have varied from 975 to 19,500. The Third Congressional District was Congressman Kennedy's own for ten years from 1912, during which he defeated F. X. Leonidas Rattey, 1912; Thomas P. Haven, 1914; Joseph McDonald, 1916; William G. Troy, 1918; and Herve J. Legace, 1920. In 1922 Congress- man Kennedy was candidate for the Republican nomination as Governor, was disappointed by defeat in the convention, and refused renomination for Congress. Isaac Gill was nomi- nated with the expectation that Congressman Kennedy might be persuaded to change his mind, and was defeated overwhelmingly by Jeremiah E. O'Connell. The Democratic landslide in 1922 which swept Governor Flynn and Lieutenant Governor Toupin into office was prin- cipally in the Third Congressional District. The Republican plurality in 1920 of 12,389 was replaced by a Democratic plurality of 14,566. In three succeeding elections Congressman O'Connell was opposed by Louis Monast. Congressman O'Connell won in 1924 by 2271 plurality, lost to Monast in 1926 by 457 plurality, and in 1928 defeated Congressman Monast by 11,382 plurality. Congressman O'Connell resigned in 1930, and was appointed as an Asso- ciate Justice of the Superior Court. In 1930 the Third District returned Francis B. Condon, Democrat, as victor over William R. Fortin, Republican. The election in the Third District was closely contested in 1918 with William G. Troy challenging Congressman Kennedy, whose plurality had been reduced to less than 1000 in 1916. On the Saturday afternoon before the election the "Providence Evening Bulletin" printed a "leader" charging that Troy had been removed from federal office for misappropriation of money. The charge was repeated in the "Sunday Journal," and iterated in the "Journal" and "Bulletin" of Monday and Tuesday. Without question the charge of misappropriation and the publicity given to it by the "Journal" and "Bulletin" affected the casting of many ballots; Congressman Kennedy was reelected by 1861 plurality. Troy sued the "Journal" for libel, asserting that the charge was both false and malicious. The question of truth turned upon an issue as to the proper disposition of a check paid to Troy and as to the time within which a return should be made to the United States government. The libel suit dragged through the courts, reaching the Supreme Court for decision on a technical matter of pleading* and being remitted to the Superior Court for further proceedings ; there was no final verdict or decision. The Superior Court record is that the case is a closed case, with no entry of procedure after the papers were returned from the Supreme Court. The record does not include an entry of the agreement to "settle" reached by counsel.

LAST SENATORIAL ELECTIONS BY GENERAL ASSEMBLY-The quarrel in the Republican party that had produced the deadlock in the senatorial election of 1907 had not been aban- doned completely four years later, when Henry F. Lippitt was chosen Senator in joint assem- bly by a margin of two votes over the required majority. In the balloting in separate houses on the preceding day Lippitt lacked one of a majority of the House of Representatives, the vote standing Lippitt fifty, Brown thirty-four, Colt sixteen. In the Senate Lippitt had one more than a majority, the vote standing Lippitt twenty-one, Brown eleven, Colt seven. In joint assembly the vote was Henry Frederick Lippitt, Republican, seventy-two; Arthur Lewis Brown, Democrat, forty-four ; Le Baron Bradford Colt, twenty-three. Senator Lippitt, promi- nent textile manufacturer, son of Governor Henry Lippitt, and brother of Governor Charles

*Troy vs. Providence Journal Company, 43 R. I. 22.

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Warren Lippitt, had been opposed by Arthur Lewis Brown, Justice of the District Court of the United States, and by Le Baron Bradford Colt, brother of Samuel Pomroy Colt, and Jus- tice of the Circuit Court of the United States. In the next senatorial election, 1913, the last in which the Senator was chosen by the General Assembly, Judge Le Baron Bradford Colt received eighty-eight votes to forty-two for Addison P. Munroe, Democrat. Seven votes were cast for the Progressive candidate, and two members of the Senate were recorded as absent and not voting. Judge Colt was reelected in 1918 and died August 18, 1924, so close to the biennial election that no special election was ordered by Governor Flynn. There was a possi- bility then that, had Governor Flynn called a special election and become a candidate, as he did subsequently, he would have been chosen Senator by votes of Democrats and Republicans, as the latter saw in the designation of Governor Flynn as Senator promotion of Lieutenant Governor Toupin from his strategical position as presiding officer in the Senate. With Lieu- tenant Governor Toupin out of the Senate chamber the filibuster of 1924 would have come to an abrupt termination.

ELECTION BY THE PEOPLE-The Senatorial election of 1916, the first in which the people elected a Senator under the seventeenth amendment, was closely contested by Senator Lippitt, candidate for reelection, and Peter G. Gerry, who previous to 1916 had served one term in the national House of Representatives as Congressman from the Second District. The elec- tion was extraordinary for several reasons, including the facts (1) that Governor Beeckman was reelected as Governor by over 13,000 plurality, and (2) that Gerry defeated Senator Lippett for reelection as Senator by 7800 plurality. Governor Beeckman polled 10,000 votes more than Senator Lippitt, though both were Republican candidates, and the total vote for Senator and Governor was practically the same, a little over 88,500. Three explanations are suggested : (1) Strong opposition to Senator Lippitt by organized labor because of his out- spoken advocacy of the open shop and strong opinions with reference to capital, and, on the contrary, the friendship of union labor which had been assiduously courted by Governor Beeckman; (2) a continuation of the old quarrel in the Republican party, capitalized in dis- criminating voting at the polls; (3) wide circulation of a story crediting Senator Lippitt with a statement that one dollar per day was adequate wages for an operative. As a matter of fact, the statement was a garbled version of a remark made by Senator Lippitt's father, years before, at a period when one dollar had been reasonably good wages. The political situation was intensely complicated. The "Providence Journal" supported Senator Lippitt vigorously, and attacked Ezra Dixon, Republican candidate for Congress in the First District with such effect as to make Congressman O'Shaunessy's reelection almost a foregone conclusion. In spite of a canvass that was reassuring in its first stages, Senator Lippitt's defeat was definitely predicted by campaign speakers several days before election. The number of these was unusual; on the Saturday afternoon before election small groups of people were exhorted to vote against Senator Lippitt wherever at street corners a number could be gathered to listen to a man who carried a box, mounted it and began to speak. Very many of the soap-box ora- tors were leaders of organized labor, making a final effort to accomplish the defeat of Senator Lippitt. He had been a stalwart figure in Congress, prominent in writing economic legislation, and a worthy successor of Senator Aldrich because of his command of facts and statistics related to industry. Rhode Island factories could have no better advocate in Congress than Senator Lippitt. But he had incurred, because of his unequivocal position with reference to union labor, the enmity of men who worked in the factories, and these used their pencils at the polls on election day to accomplish his retirement to private life. Peter G. Gerry as Senator and R. Livingston Beeckman as Governor, both loud in declarations of friendliness for labor and sympathy for working men, were elected by large pluralities, though contesting under different party banners. The defeat of Senator Lippitt was only one instance of the change

tSee Chapter XXIII.

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RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

in senatorial elections that followed the transfer of the function of electing Senators from General Assembly to the voters. The senatorial election of 1918 was characterized by no unusual occurrence. To oppose Senator Colt, who was a candidate for reelection, the Demo- crats presented Congressman O'Shaunessy, who had completed eight years of service as Rep- resentative in Congress from the First District. Senator Colt's plurality was 4482; Governor Beeckman's was 6651, not a remarkable variation in a Rhode Island election.

THE ISSUE ON ABSENTEE VOTING-In February, 1918, answering questions addressed to it by the Governor, the Supreme Court advised that the General Assembly, except under the provisions of Article IV of amendments, could not provide for participation in the elec- tion by electors who were absent from the state on war service. The court ruled* that military service included naval service, and that absent electors could vote for presidential electors, Representatives in Congress, and state general officers, but not for United States Senators or members of the General Assembly. Specifically the court held that "Representatives in Con- gress" did not include "Senators." The Governor, in April, renewed his question as to Sena- tors, asking the court whether or not the General Assembly could, under the provisions of Article XVII of the Constitution of the United States, make provision for the participation of absent electors in the election of a United States Senator. The court declined to rule on a question arising under the Constitution of the United States, on the ground that its function as an advisory body was properly limited to the Constitution of Rhode Island, and that a rul- ing would be merely a prediction of the decision that might be made by the United States Senate as judge of the election and qualification of its members. The General Assembly, as it had in the instance of an earlier decision which did not accord with its own view,§ ignored the court and made provision for the election in such manner as to permit absentee voting for United States Senators.

The court rulings together constituted factor one in a series of events which reached a climax in 1920. The second factor was the "Providence Journal's" "exposure" of William G. Troy on the eve of the congressional election of 1918, and the libel suit brought by Troy against the "Journal." The case reached the Supreme Court early in 1920 on exceptions, and was sent back to the Superior Court for further proceedings there, accompanied by a rescript in which the court, under the court and practice act of 1905 and the General Laws of 1909, reversed a rule of procedure which had been observed under earlier legislation. During the Assembly session of 1920 a quarrel over the election of a justice of the Supreme Court evoked a protesting letter, in which the method of electing judges was criticised by Justice Barrows of the Superior Court, who was an unsuccessful candidate for promotion at the time; this was factor three. Campaigning methods pursued by William G. Troy, who in 1920 stumped the state for the Democratic candidate, constituted factor four. The "Providence Journal" published reports of Troy's speeches, made from notes taken by "Journal" reporters who fol- lowed him on his speaking trips. Troy was exuberant and unrestrained. He was accused of declaring with reference to the Supreme Court, "These five individuals sitting in the court- house on Benefit Street had the colossal nerve to decree that the men fighting in the trenches had not the right to vote," a statement which the court characterized as intended "plainly to cast discredit upon this court by an unfair and incorrect reference to the opinions of this court." The court was sensitive; it had on an earlier occasion punished the "Providence Journal" for contempt because of the court's construction of a "Journal" report of one of its decisions as being false .; Troy was also accused of citing the letter written by Justice Bar- rows as proof of corruption, and of declaring at Woonsocket on October 26, 1920: "Seats in the Supreme Court of this state are a matter of barter, b-a-r-t-e-r" . . . "in plain words

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 18

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716