HOW POLITICAL 



V ^° ! BUls Rashed Through 



Representatives of the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association recognized th; 

 dangerous possibilities of this legisla- 

 tion and immediately organized to de- 

 feat its passage. A joint hearing wa:> 

 called by the Revenue Committee o: 

 both Houses. I. A. A. representative!! 

 appeared at this hearing and callec 

 attention to past experience and pre 

 dieted that this upsetting of the basis; 

 of taxation would certainly result ii 

 greatly increased taxes, even though 

 property taxes were already unbear 

 ably high. At the close of the joinl; 

 hearing the Senate Committee met 

 and ignoring the question of a quorun 

 raised by Senator Flagg, passed th< 

 bills out with favorable recommenda- 

 tions. 



These bills were ruthlessly rushed 

 through the Senate. The key bilJ 

 passed the Senate by a vote of 27 to 

 20, with a bare one vote more than 

 the constitutional majority required 



Following is the roll call : 



AYES — Barbour, Barr, Boehm, 

 Broderick, Carlson, Carroll, Courtney, 

 Dailey, Deck, Denvir, Haenisch, Hicks, 

 Huebsch, Hughes, Joyce, Leonardo, 

 McDermott, Marks, Mason, Roberts, 

 Searcy, Starr, Steinert, Swift, Van 

 Lent, Woods, Wright. 



NAYS — Abt, Bohrer, Boyd, Burgess, 

 Cuthbertson, Dunlap, Emmons, Flagg, 

 Forrester, Hamilton, Jewell, Lantz, 

 McNay, Meyers, Reynolds, Smith, 

 Sneed, Telford, Thompson, Wilson. 



Fight Begins 



With the passage of the key bill 

 in the Senate the fight began in dead 

 earnest. About that time the Farm 

 Bureau presidents were called in and 

 members of both Houses were inter- 

 viewed by representatives of the folks 

 back home. This had a wonderful 

 effect and the bills met with a cool 

 reception in the House. ! 



The Chicago administration began 

 to marshal its forces and every known 

 means to get votes was used. After 

 a bitter struggle in committee, the bills 

 were passed out with favorable recom- 

 mendation and the fight became in- 

 tense. 



From the introduction of the bills, 

 the Illinois Agricultural Association 

 exerted its every effort to defeat them. 

 They were aided by a few civic organi- 

 zations, including the Chicago teach- 

 ers and others. The Chicago adminis- 

 tration was at this time receiving some 

 support from down state cities. 



In spite of Chicago's strength and 

 influence the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation was able to deliver a body 

 blow to the bills on the afternoon of 

 June 21, when a roll call was had on 

 a motion to strike the enacting clause 

 which would have killed the bill. On 



RESSURE WHIPPED VOTES INTO LINE 



this roll call the forces back of the 

 bill were routed by a vote of 70-62. 



1 Study This Record 



The following roll call resulted on 

 a motion by Mr. Schnackenberg of 

 Chicago, to table the motion offered by 

 Mr. Warren, to strike the enacting 

 clause from the Bill. Those voting in 

 the affirmative are those who favored 

 the bonding bills, those voting in the 

 negative are the men who opposed the 

 passage of the S. B. 446. 



AYES — Baird, Beckman, Boyle, 

 Church, Clark, Coia, Cork, Curran, 

 Cutler, Douglas, Durso, Eckley, Elrod, 

 Ewing, Franz Matt., Gallas, Garriott, 

 Gill, Gormley, Griffin, C. A.; Hoar, 

 Holmgren, Hrdlicka, Jacobson, John- 

 son E. A. W.; Juul, Kersey, Krump, 

 Lee, Lif^a, Lyon, Marinier, Martin, 

 McCarthy, McCaskrin, McSweeney, 

 Mintky, Mugler, Murray, Noonan, 

 O'Brien, O'Grady, Overland, Pacelli, 

 Perina, Phillips, Powers, Propper, 

 Rategan, Rew, Ryan, Frank; Shanahan, 

 Soderstrom, Steven, Stewart, Swanson, 

 Trandel, Turner, C. M., Turner, E. W.; 

 Weber, Weeks, and Weiss. 



NAYS — Acker, Allen, Arnold, Babb, 

 Baker, Bandy, Bauer, Baxter, Bippus, 

 Branson, Bray, Breene, Browne, Bruer, 

 Bush, Castle, Choisser, Corzine, Davis, 

 Devine, Eisenbart, Fahy, Fekete, Fin- 

 neran, Foster, Franz C. D.; Greene, 

 H»nley, Hennebry, Holten, Hunter, 

 Hutson, Igoe, Jackson, Johnson G. J.; 

 Kasserman, Lager, Little, Lohmann, 

 Luckey, Martens, McAdams, McClug- 

 age, Mester, Miller, Peffers, Petri, 

 Porter, Reeves, Rennick, Rice, Robbins, 

 Robinson, Roe, Rush, Schnackenberg, 

 Sinnett, Snell, Sparks, Stanfield, Sulli- 

 van, Teel, Tice, Vaughn, Waller, War- 

 ren, Whitely, Wilson, Wood, and Wy- 

 lie. 



Chaos and Disorder Reign 



Here lack of control of the machin- 

 ery of the House was fatal to the in- 

 terests of the taxpayers of Illinois. 

 Before the killing operation could be 

 completed beyond hope of resurrection, 

 the House was adjourned under the 

 most arbitrary use of the gavel ever 

 witnessed by veteran members. When 

 the motion to adjourn was made there 

 were at least twenty members on their 

 feet demanding a roll call. The Con- 

 stitution provides that where five mem- 

 bers demand a roll call the request 

 shall be granted. 



In spite of the demand of the score 

 of members; in spite of the Constitu- 

 tion ; bang went the gavel and the House 

 was adjourned. The clever wielder 

 of the gavel in this instance was Wil- 

 liam Weiss of Lake County who was 

 called to the Speaker's chair just as 

 Senate Bill 446 was called for con- 

 sideration. 



At this time the votes of House 

 members were reflecting the best judg- 

 ment of the members and represent- 

 ing the interests and sentiment of the 

 folks back home. Reference to this 

 vote shows that the proponents of the 

 bill still lacked 15 of the required 77 

 votes to pass the bill. 



Much Night Work 



At the evening session of the same 

 day, with Representative Weiss again 

 in the chair facing a renewed effort 

 to kill the bill, the gavel was again 

 used in adjourning the House and 

 nothing was accomplished. Imme- 

 diately things began to happen in rapid 

 succession. Over night the most 

 powerful political combination ever 

 assembled in behalf of any legislative 

 measure swung into action. 



Just before taking up S. B. 446 in 

 the House, the proponents of the debt 

 raising program attempted to furnish 

 an alibi for some down-state members 

 by offering an amendment to S. B. 606. 

 This amendment purported to limit 

 the bonding power of all taxing bodies 

 outside Cook County to two and one- 

 half per cent. 



The position of the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association was in no way 

 altered by the adoption of this amend- 

 ment. It was the opinion of Mr. Wat- 

 son, tax director, and Mr. Kirkpatrick, 

 legal counsel for the Association, that 

 the amendment was probably uncon- 

 stitutional. Even if upheld by the 

 courts, it would only meet one phase 

 of the difficulty. We considered this 

 amendment nothing more than a politi- 

 cal palliative to get the necessary votes 

 for the passage for S. B. 446. In no 

 way did it justify any down state mem- 

 ber in supporting the bill. • 



The result of this high pressure cam- 

 paign was that within twenty-four 

 hours a number of down-state repre- 

 sentatives had succumbed to the lash of 

 political domination and the last roll 

 call on a motion to strike the enacting 

 clause failed by a vote of 76 to 63. 

 This wearing down process continued 

 until enough votes had been clubbed 

 into line to secure the passage of the 



bills. ,!■ .:-.' I-;' ■;.,.■ ■.■■•;;•■••■: ' " 



- All Sought Favor - 



It was a political effort by an or-." 

 ganized political lobby for a political/ 

 purpose. Every political influence and 

 every politican with aspirations for '• 

 political preferment vied with each v. 

 other to secure the favor of the ad- . 

 ministration of the City of Chicago. 



Members were routed out of bed at 

 all hours of the night and every device 

 known to modern politics was applied 

 to induce them to swing into line. It 

 was a combination that no force, rely- 

 ing on nothing but the righteousness of 

 its cause could withstand. 



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