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
Senators Roseberry and Rush were absent from the room when the vote was
taken but both were for the Stetson bill, which would have made the vote
22 to 18 in favor of the Wright bill.
The twenty Senators whose names are printed in Italics are the twenty
who voted with Leavitt and Wolfe to maintain the deadlock on the Direct
Primary bill that the measure might be so amended that the electors of
California would be denied a practical, State-wide vote for United
States Senators. But one of the twenty, Lewis, voted for the Stetson
bill, while nineteen of them voted for the Wright bill.
On the other hand, only three of the Senators, Estudillo, Anthony and
Walker, who stood out for an honest Direct Primary law, voted against
the Stetson bill and for the Wright bill. Walker had supported the
Stetson bill in the Committee on Corporations, but stumbled into the
machine ranks when it came to final vote. Had the anti-machine had an
organization, such as the machine Democrats and Republicans maintained,
Walker's blunder could have been prevented. Probably, too, Estudillo and
Anthony would have remained with the anti-machine forces[65]. This would
have given the Stetson bill twenty-one votes, and assured its passage.
Another vote that should have been saved to the reformers was that of
Burnett. Burnett was clearly tricked into voting for the Wright bill.
When the Stetson bill received the favorable recommendation of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, machine claquers filled the air with the
indefinite promise that in the event of the Wright bill becoming a law,
a constitutional amendment would be adopted, by which all ambiguity in
the State Constitution on the question of maximum and absolute rates
would be removed. The amendment was then pending before the Senate
Judiciary Committee, which finally reported it favorably.
After the Wright bill had been passed, the amendment was defeated by
machine votes, as will be shown in the next chapter.
In the closing days of the session, when Burnett was urging that steps
be taken for investigation into the increase of freight rates, he called
attention to the fate of that railroad-regulation amendment.
"I was led to vote as I did for the Railroad Regulation bill," he said,
"on the understanding that that constitutional amendment would be
adopted. As you know, it was defeated. My attitude on the regulation
bill would have been very different had I known that the amendment was
to be rejected."
The Wright bill met with practically no opposition in the Assembly,
being rushed through the Lower House in the closing hours of the
session. Had the Stetson bill passed the Senate, the machine would have
tried to block and amend it in the Assembly as was done with the Direct
Primary bill, but the measure would probably have been passed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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