Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909Hichborn, Franklin
History
Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909
Hichborn, Franklin
California -- Politics and government
No sooner had he received the courtesy of reconsideration than both he
and Leavitt were to the fore with a suggestion that the Senate should
refuse to concur in all the amendments and let them be threshed out in
the Assembly. The purpose of the two machine leaders was apparent.
Had the Senate concurred in the ten Assembly amendments made necessary
to correct typographical errors, and refused to concur in the seven
objectionable amendments, all that would have been necessary would have
been for the Assembly to recede from its objectionable amendments. But
if Wolfe could so engineer matters that the Senate would refuse to
concur in all the amendments, then it would be necessary for the
Assembly to recede from all its amendments, including those intended to
correct typographical errors, or send the bill to a conference
committee, to be selected by Stanton and Porter. From a Committee on
Conference to a Committee on Free Conference, also to be appointed by
Stanton and Porter, and with full power to amend the bill to its liking,
was but a step. The Committee on Free Conference was Wolfe's aim. He
eventually got it.
Boynton and Walker were quick to see the trend of Wolfe's requests,
however, and Walker moved to vote on the seven vicious amendments on one
roll call, and on the ten correcting the typographical and clerical
errors on a second.
As a substitute Wolfe moved that the seventeen amendments be passed upon
under one roll call.
At first Senators Cutten and Stetson apparently could not see the trend
of Wolfe's scheming. In the debate that ensued Wolfe pretended
indignation that his motives were being questioned.
There was very good reason for questioning Senator Wolfe's motives, but
Cutten and Stetson and even Walker assured Wolfe that no reflection upon
him was intended. What these men should have done was to have denounced
Wolfe right there as a trickster and made no bones about it. But on the
absurd assumption that a member of the State Senate is necessarily a
gentleman, the much deserved denunciation did not come.
However, Wolfe's motion did not prevail and the amendments were taken up
one by one. Six of the seven vicious amendments were rejected, the first
of the six by a vote of 19 to 20.
This brought the Senate to the amendments intended to correct
typographical and clerical errors. And here the vote switched. The
reformers had up to this time been voting to reject the amendments,
because the amendments were objectionable, while the programmers in the
first instance voted for concurrence. But when it came to amendments
intended to correct typographical and clerical errors only, Wolfe and
his following, with the exception of Burnett, who refused to stand for
any such dastardly piece of work, voted to refuse to concur in the
amendments, while the anti-machine Senators, of course, voted to concur
in them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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