TH

HE founders of the Republic established the Congress as distinctly the people's branch of the Government. It is elected directly by the people, and the more numerous branch-the House-must return to the people every two years for new instructions and authority.

Complete and effective control of all policies of the nation is insured to this branch by the provision that all revenue measures must arise in it.

Our fathers built well. Institutionally the Congress, and particularly the lower branch of it, is a perfectly conceived tribune of the people—it is "the people's own"-the palladium of their liberty.

SEARCHLIGHT ON CONGRESS

And on the DEMOCRACY which gives it EXISTENCE

LYNN HAINES, Editor

DORA B. HAINES, Business Manager

Published Monthly by

LENOX BUILDING

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Subscription, $2.00 per year-Please send check or money order to above address.

PRESIDENT-JAMES H. MCGILL
TREASURER-DORA B. HAINES

Lenox Building
Washington, D. C.

Subscription rate: $2.00 a year. Single copies 20 cents.

Entered as second-class matter May 26, 1919, at the Postoffice at Washington, D. C., under the Act of March 8, 1879.

THE SEARCHLIGHT last month struck a respon

sive chord in the thinking mind of this country. Through personal calls, by wire and by mail, a surprising number of prominent men and women have expressed approving confidence in the course of citizenship action we then suggested. The verdict appears to be unanimous that there is no other practical way to reach and remedy the political perversions which at present so acutely menace representative government in America.

In "The Case of the People versus Partyism," as you will remember, we pointed out

That any attempt of the people, either in choosing or in influencing the Presidency, whether through an old party or a new party, will always be futile, unless certain reconstructive changes in the conditions and instrumentalities of politics have first been brought about by national legislation. Until "the rules of the game" are altered, regardless of how determined the people may be, or of how often the effort may be made, there will be less and less likelihood of any Federal election resulting as it should -in a triumph of statesmanship over spoils and privilege.

That the weapons are all in the hands of the politicians and their predatory partners-a hopeless handicap which will continue, and ever increase, until, through national legislation, there be accomplished a recapture of these weapons by the electorate itself.

That this truth applies, not only to the Presidency, but also to all other public positions now prostituted to the selfish aims and ends of politics.

We said, in this editorial, that Congress, and not the Presidency, must be our election objective, the great purpose being to secure national legislation which would remove the barriers to the Presidency, and deal adequately with all other unfair and unscrupulous advantages now in the hands of Big Politics and Big Business.

Summing up the common-sense necessities of the situation, we advocated that "there be launched, at once, not a new party, but a non-partisan campaign of country-wide proportions, to elect a Congress in 1926 which will legislate every perversive bulwark of partyism out of existence. Then, as the second step (which can not possibly be taken first), in 1928, will come the first modern opportunity the people have ever had to deal effectively with the Presidency."

There is no necessity for any description of the political depravities now rampant in America. Everybody knows the existing situation, and what it means.

All thinking citizens are agreed that the basic

trouble is end-in-itself politics; that, to politicians as a class, public service has come to mean "serve us;" that the public business of the United States, more stupendous and momentous than any other enterprise, has become subordinate to the spoils and perquisites of politics.

Nor will any one dispute that these perversions have grown so general and so malignantly un-American as to threaten the very stability of our institutions.

It has come to a point where we must admit that representative government is a failure, and accept defeat, or else do something vigorously vital.

Only two methods of correction are possible: One is through partyism. That, of course, is an absolute absurdity. These organizations are largely unofficial. Their motives are not public, but political. They are not publicly sponsored, financed or controlled. They have long since ceased seriously to consider any issue save that "to the victors belong the spoils."

The other method is through national legislation. That means electing a Congress, committed to the task of legislating the evils out of politics, and sufficiently independent, courageous and competent to carry out such a program.

What should this program include?

That is the question everybody is asking. Without exception, each interested, person has requested The Searchlight to discuss the character and scope of the national legislation which would be the real objective of such a movement.

Basic Policy and Program

We are presenting, for your patriotic consideration, the tremendous and practical importance of PROCEDURE throughout all the public affairs of the American nation. Keep in mind, as you read, that, remedially, these are the big things to do:

First, elect, non-partisanly, a Congress of statesmen, rather than politicians; then,

Second, secure from such a Congress a program of national legislation which will—

(a) Establish the principle that every election is exclusively a public function (rather than one of endin-itself politics), more vital to public welfare than any public utility or national resource, and that all elections, from beginning to end, shall be publicly (rather than politically) sponsored, controlled and paid for.

(b) Organize Congress on a non-partisan basis of efficiency (rather than spoils, perquisites and boss power), so reconstructing its procedure as to secure openness and true parliamentary deliberation.

(c) Restore the rights of popular sovereignty, with respect to the Presidency, through needed changes in the processes and procedure of the nominating machinery.

(d) Deal adequately with the procedure of all official agencies, whether elective or appointive.

No single American, nor any one circle of individuals, is fully qualified to formulate a complete and detailed program in this field. Certainly no one connected with The Searchlight would be so presumptuous. But we do feel competent to present certain fundamentals which must form the foundation of any adequate effort to "demote politics from principal to agent in government."

Representative government, as it was institutionally established in America, means just two vital things:

1. The free functioning of the people as an electorate; and

2. The functioning of the deliberately chosen representatives of the people as responsible and responsive officials in public position.

Back of all this sovereignty of citizenship, and of all these delegated duties and powers, is the principle of a public interest in elections, legislation and administration which is prior and paramount to the selfish interest of any individual, group or class, either political or industrial.

Theoretically, we have all that. Actually we have none of it, because

There has been developed (of, by and for politics) an obstructive and perversive system of procedure throughout all the processes of politics and government.

Therein lies most of the difficulty. Both the powers and the privileges of politics originate at that point.

Practically the whole problem is one of procedure, of operation.

It is to problems of procedure, therefore, that national legislation must be directly and specifically applied.

This means the very antithesis of "tinkering with our institutions."

Foundationally, this nation is more perfect than any other ever conceived by man. It is based upon principles eternally just and sound. Its primary divisions and adjustments of governmental authority are fundamental, and need no alteration.

But the whole magnificent structure is breaking down, and solely because of prostitutions and perversions that are entirely political and parliamentary, or both.

These menacing evils are not institutional. They are not at all inherently related to our system of government, but pertain entirely to its operation. From beginning to end, our real public problems are problems of procedure.

It makes no difference at what point, or in what particular, you apply this test. Unvaryingly the truth will be revealed that the principles that should prevail are negatived, and worse, by the practices that have come to exist in every phase of public affairs.

What's wrong with national conventions? Many evils, but chiefly procedure.

If the right procedure were established, either by constitutional amendment or federal legislation, that in itself, without other changes, would be sufficient to break the now almost absolute power of the bosses over Presidential nominations.

Here is a simple convention rule which, in the form of a federal statute, would obviate obstructive tactics and prevent practically all of the manipulations, trades and deals that, under existing conditions, give unquestioned control to a self-seeking few:

On the first ballot for President, each candidate receiving less than five per cent of the votes of delegates shall be dropped from the list, and on each succeeding ballot the lowest candidate shall be dropped, until a nomination is made by majority vote.

(For a fuller discussion of this particular problem, go to your file and reread the Searchlight article on "How to Reform the Nominating Machinery," published last July. See also the chart on page 5 of this issue, which suggests the outstanding convention evils and their remedy.)

Think, for a moment, of the staggering difference between the administration of justice in the United States and England.

Our systems of jurisprudence and theirs are fundamentally the same, based upon the same principles and precedents of Anglo-Saxon law.

Our courts are basically and organically as sound as those of Great Britain.

Yet the English judicial results are incomparably swifter, surer. They move straight to the truth, and the truth prevails. Here it is a common expression that "you can not convict a million dollars," whether the criminal offender be a person or a corporation.

The present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William Howard Taft, has said:

"The administration of criminal law in the United States is a disgrace to civilization."

In a report of a special committee of lawyers to the American Bar Association, we find:

"In England, trial follows arrest so quickly that in the perspective of the public the two are almost simultaneous; while in the United States, trials are frequently so long delayed that witnesses disappear, false defenses are framed, testimony is lost and the public forget the connections between the trial and the circumstances of the crime. We have recent instances of men being executed two and even three years after the commission of their crime.

"All the preliminary procedure in England is so simplified as to place no obstacle to the rapid disposition of the case. Little attention is given to technicalities on the trials. The judge in full control of the investigation directs it straight to the heart of the controversy.

"In English courts, as we have shown, justice is not only swift in its decision, but also in the vast majority of instances that decision remains final. Often with us, for purely technical reasons, when the defendant has the means, a first verdict judgment forms merely the preliminary skirmish. Our own Courts of Appeals, too frequently, do not

make their chief concern the question as to whether or not justice was done, but whether the courts proceeded according to the rules."

Our judicial system is not functioning in law enforcement. That is incontrovertible.

And why?

Not because of any inherent organic flaw in the structure of the judiciary.

Nor, except in occasional cases, because the judges are biased, or incompetent.

The fault, practically the whole trouble, as every thinking person sees and says, is a matter of procedure.

Extend your inspection to any other field of public affairs, and the same simple truth will be revealed.

Take the Federal Trade Commission, for example. Gradually, but surely, the "interests" are "getting" this body.

They are doing it, partly by a deterioration of personnel, but largely through an attack to make its procedure obstructionary and abortive.

The point is that, throughout all phases of politics, and in the organization and functioning of every governmental agency, whether elective or appointive, the all-important element which determines conformity to public welfare, or the reverse, is the existing system of procedure.

Consider Congress itself in this connection.

The national legislature was intended to be, and obviously it should be, the outstanding branch of our government. It is in every way closest to the people. The Constitution gives it supremacy in all matters of policy and appropriation. The power of impeachment marks its institutional superiority over the executive and the judiciary. It affords the only possible means of dealing with incompetency and corruption in other fields. It is at once the fullest expression and the most far-reaching safeguard of our whole governmental systemin itself, structurally and functionally, the keystone of the arch of American public life.

Today, the Congress of the United States is at the lowest level in all our history.

And why?

Not because of its institutional character.

Nor because of its personnel. It has at this moment a quality of membership higher than that of any other official circle and higher than it ever had before. For several years, the character and capacity of Congressmen and Senators have steadily improved.

Yet, simultaneously, and continuously, the Congress has sunk deeper and deeper into thoroughly deserved disrepute. Its dignity and decency have almost disappeared. Its independence is nearly gone. The President plays politics with it. The courts make a mockery of its powers. In its decisions and enactments, it no longer presents more than the merest shadow of deliberation. It has become the depraved and pitiable object of a public scorn as widespread as it is justified.

And the explanation is simple.

The procedure of Congress is unspeakably vicious. That is the whole trouble.

Each succeeding session, for the past two decades, its procedure has developed and exemplified more and more of political and parliamentary evil.

Bossism, the most dangerous and repulsive expression of un-Americanism, is the basis of everything. Through seniority (which too often means senility), a few "leaders" occupy dominating positions. They are a minority, but theirs is the power to obstruct, to control spoils, to impose secrecy. The existing parliamentary system, perfectly adapted to boss purposes and boss tactics, has given them these powers and, at the same time, made their entrenchments impregnable.

A year ago The Searchlight presented the principles upon which parliamentary reconstruction should be builded, as follows:

1. Neither the House, nor any subsidiary body, official or partisan, shall meet in secret nor without duly recorded proceedings open and accessible to the public.

2. Majority rule shall prevail throughout all the proceedings.