I Feel as Strong as a Bull Moose!

[The Govanah Jake]

Next on the list was more of a bipartisan issue: conservationism. Carter Glass was very found of the land and nature and often went on hikes from his Virginia homes in his younger days. As a senator he was a keen supporter of the republican president's efforts towards conservation. Now he decided to act on it. In a bill to target some areas of this issue, he supported the National Preservation Act by Republican Senators Ralph H. Cameron and Lynn Frazier. The bill supported the creation of dozens of new parks and was to strengthen the National Park Service, created by Teddy Roosevelt in 1913, by allocating more funding and resources from the government to the organization and hiring hundreds of new officers with it to patrol these new and old parks. First drafted in the Senate, it went to the house where it was well received by all sides and united most people. It passed the House 400-12 with 23 abstaining. It then entered its birth place of the Senate where it passed 78 yea to 10 nay with 8 abstaining. It received full bipartisan support with former President Hiram Johnson supporting it too, along with Charles Hughes and George Norris. It received popular opinions with an aggregate of 87% supporting it and 90% supporting the creation of new parks and park related services. It was signed into law by the president on November 15th, 1925 and when into effect the following year on January 2nd, 1926. With his first year nearly ending, he sought for one last victory to end it with: Foreign Policy.

U.S. Coups and Revolutions had left the Latin America's in scrambles. The reign of Roosevelt brought down many stable governments in the region including Mexico where a U.S. backed dictatorship via coup was established. Johnson, a extreme isolationist, decided to stop these intervention's but kept the occupations in place. Glass was also a a extreme isolationist into regards to wars and occupations and decided to remove the occupation of Haiti in 1923. He decided it would be a wise move to end most of the rest of the occupations. First off in Nicaragua where American troops had been stationed since 1912. They were removed as per the president's orders and without the US there to support them, the Liberal rebels soon overthrew the government by 1927. In the Dominican Republic which had been occupied since 1915, was removed and supported their new government under a parliamentary democracy after the occupation killed more than a 1000 Dominicans and 100 Americans. The last troops would leave on Christmas of 1925 and thus the so called Banana Wars, which were first led by McKinley and supported by Taft and Roosevelt was effectively over. And with that the year had come to a close with a new year on the horizon and the Midterms at the end of it.

The congressional break was over by early February and on February 11th, the Congress was back in session. The winter months were largely uneventful. A above average snow storm totals in places like the Mountain West and the South lead to some deaths and in some places, up to 13 feet fell in total, but that still compared in comparison to the 1920-1921 winter storms the Midwest and Northeast had received leading to hundreds of deaths. Carter Glass meanwhile in this time did little except with foreign visits including to the Prime Minister MacDonald in the UK whom he discussed trade relations with, and also a surprise visit with Joseph Stalin in a joint event in Warsaw. They discussed supposedly about the situation of the German People's Republic between the two. This was the first time that the US President had meet with the Soviet counterpart and it was largely a small gathering.

Prohibition was first enacted at the federal level during the reign of Hiram Johnson. Considered a progressive position, it would ban the sale, manufacture, and production of Alcohol of all kinds. Considered by them as a abomination on traditional society and a source of production they were able to get enough states to approve the amendment that by 1920 it was enacted. It soon began a fierce issue which could make or break campaigns. The two sides: The wet and the dry factions come from all backgrounds for different reasons. The wet factions were led by many different people but were most famously associated with the Governor Al Smith of New York who called for a end to prohibition due to him being a former mayor the nation's largest city. He was seen as corrupted by soon and anti-traditional society to others and both formed the dry faction supporting the ban. This group encompassed many social conservatives, older populists and liberals, and Evangelical Christians in the South and Midwest. The Wet faction was led by newer progressives down as Urban Progressives who hailed for the big northeastern cities like New York City and Boston. The large number of immigrants in these city's meant they had a permanent lock there. The President himself was a dry on the issue along with most of his cabinet and his southern democrat colleagues minus the occasionally rebellious Oscar Underwood from Alabama who voiced support for the wet faction saying it wasn't the federal government's job to regulate alcohol, it should be decided by the state and local governments. Nevertheless, Glass maintained a ardent dry position distancing and gaining more supporters from it. In Early March the issue was raised again when a group of House Wet Democrats created new legislation to end the legislation posing the first threat to the existence of Prohibition since it became a amendment. Arguing on moral and legal grounds saying the government regulating alcohol by banning it is limiting choices and is un-democratic. Designed to appeal to both small and big government democrats and some republicans, it was apple to gain traction in the large wet minority democrats in the House. H.R. 3113 was soon created by the bill and after being in stall mode in the house for months, it was finally given a chance to be voted on. Called the "Prohibition Repeal Act" it would face many challenges as both the House and Senate Leadership opposed it while the President made it clear he would veto it if it came to his desk. It finally got its time in the spotlight when on May 17th, it came to a vote. In a 304 yea to 127 vote fashion with 4 abstaining the bill was denied to the president's joy. However the bill would not end there. Those list of house democrats who supported it did not let it die, however the House leadership stalled it and after a second failed attempt to get another vote, the bill died in the house. Prohibition was thus protected as a amendment for now. And in fact was strengthened later that year by the Wright Bone Dry Law which increased penalties and jail time for prohibition violators.

Another major issue to make headway in the year was with Farming. The American Agricultural community had seen a high in production during the Great War as farming produced goods were needed for the soldiers in Europe and Asia and for the war effort. However the recession of 1919-1921 hit them especially hard. Without the war, the demand for the products were much lower than the supply the farms held and thus that production high soon dissipated. The large voting block blamed their troubles of the lack of tariffs and the decline of international trade and they were able to be easy pickings for the Republican Party wanting to keep them as a voting block. Hiram Johnson used this to his strategy and he supported high tariffs and protectionism to appease them along with his populist rural appeal. He thus was able to win the farm areas in the Plains States and elsewhere in landslides, much larger than seen previously. The policies of appeasing the farming bloc was seen by the party as a way of taking back whatever democratic vote came from the farming bloc and was official party policy, even if it already was since Lincoln, it was reinforced. Carter Glass and the democrats didn't much care for the plight of the farmer, already being a very democratic group, and they found their new base in the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the midwest from disaffected republicans to be much more electorally successful and so backed smaller tariffs and free trade. In Late June, House Republicans drafted the "Agricultural Recovery Act of 1926" calling for a increased amount of government subsidies to farmers and with it a increase of the tariff rate by 5%. Supported by almost all republicans in the House along with the few socialists left as a almost bloc. It faced one big obstacle: The Majority Democratic House. There leadership made it clear that the democratic party does not accept the act and the house leader called it a outreach of the government. However it was very popular among many progressive democrats and the very important Glass Democrats from farming majority districts who thought they this was there only chance to stay electorally viable. Thus the bill was able to gain some traction. Though to deciding key that made or break its passing was Carter Glass. Glass, who supported low tariffs and international free trade was not a fan of the republican position of those same issues. But he did in the 1924 election was able to sweep many majority farming states due to his successful governance and he thought it was only his duty to serve those same people who voted for him in 1924. He supported the bill saying "It's the moderate reform we need". With that some top house democrats backed off a little on the bill and it was led to a vote on August 1st in the house. In a 227 yea 138 nay with 70 abstaining fashion . The high number of abstaining votes was due to it being a summer break. The Bill passed the House and went to the more friendly senate. The House was the real challenge but the Senate was much less as difficult. The whole Republican coalition was behind it along as all socialists and most progressive democrats. Thus when it came to a vote on August 5th, it passed the Senate 60 yea to 23 nay with 13 abstaining. It was passed by both houses and Glass signed it into law on August 16th after some hesitation. The act would come into effect on February 2nd, 1927.

[The Govanah Jake]

Carter Glass by now had had a very productive second term year and a half. He did so much that there was not many more major issues to pounce and and he had fulfilled almost all of his campaign promises. He had instituted a flat tax for the sales and income taxes, he had removed troops from Roosevelt-Era wars in Latin America, he had strengthening conservationism and prohibition, and he even added to that a appeal to help the american farmer, a voting bloc he largely ignored except if it was southern from the old south. America was at peace abroad and domestically and he could use that to his advantage. As the midterms were coming and now the American people would decide if the democrats had represented them well. His now full 6 year in office was coming to a close and he had built up a name for himself so far. He had done away with the progressive politics of before and issued a return to normalcy. Will the American People continue to support this? This was the real question going into Carter Glasses last round of midterm elections.

[TheSaint250]

>flat tax

[The Govanah Jake]

The British Commonwealth of Nations

(Wilfrid Laurier on the Left, Robert Borden on the Right)

The Rise of Republicanism was gaining steam throughout the world during the late 18th century's forward. The Old Great European Colonial Empires once considered untouchable in there own rank became to see the start of industrialization bring new ideas of liberalism to the forefront for the first time since the ages of the Roman and Greek civilizations. Calls for reform in the system and for individual liberty for different peoples in overseas colony's and at home began to pop up. In the United Kingdom, key enlightenment came from new and upcoming philosophers advocating a return to the Grecian democratic process and a formation of a new ideology collectively known as "Liberalism" which main priority was one for the individual to have the right to liberty and individual choice which went directly against the social normal's of the 17th and 18th Century English Monarchical Traditions and support for traditionalism and the crown.

A key luminary in this movement was one of John Locke. Born in 1632 in Wrington as a son of a county clerk and captain of a cavalry force under the Parliamentarians in the early parts the English Civil War, his family were puritans. He attended the prestigious Westminster School in 1647 where he was exposed to new radical ideas of modern philosophers like René Descartes and came much more interested into there works then the classical philosophers of the old.

He became in close contact with Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury. He would greatly influence his future works and he would later go on to co-found the Whigs Party which supported the rule of the Parliament over the king, advocating a Constitutional Monarchy and helped spearhead the early Liberal Movement. John Locke himself would spend the rest of his life as a political theorist and would himself move between England and the Netherlands often. A active writer he would write dozens of books on political theory and philosophy and would became one of the great thinkers to come out of 17th Century England. Along with his theory's on the mind and identity, he also wrote on his ideal perception of what a good government would look like.

In his 1689 essay, Two Treaties of Government, he directly countered the the prevailing theory of absolute monarchy and divine right to that rule best summed up in Robert Filmer's work Patriarcha in which these ideals were held up as truth and the ideal government. Locke called for in his essay a Social Contract between the individual and society. In it he said that human nature is both reasonable and tolerant however also selfish and that in the natural state of being, all individuals are equal and had the right to defend there Life, Health, Liberty, or Possessions as Locke wrote it. This was theorized by some to be where the Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness in the United States Declaration of Independence originated from.

This along with his other works helped create the Traditional Liberal ideology of liberty and self-governance and this directly went against the European Monarchical Absolutism of divine rule of Kings and Queens and the minimal rule of there Representative parliaments or houses of representation. Although at first this was just seen as a small and minimal ideology soon to be let go by the vast populous as nonsense; it soon began to grow and as more people began to hear Locke's and his pears work on Republicanism and Liberalism, it became more and more apparent that this idea of thinking would not go away. Even in Locke's lifetime his ideas became more visible with the Glorious Revolution.

After a successful handing over of the crown to the Dutch backed William III and Mary II, they created the English Bill of Rights in 1689 directly based off of the Lockean principles which included regular parliaments, free elections, freedom of speech, and prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments by the state. Thus laying the groundwork for constitutional monarch in England and the beginning of the end of absolute monarchy in not only England but all of Europe and the old dynasty's of Europe knew it and feared it. Meanwhile once the colony's got a hold of the Liberal Tradition, they began to demand it. In the British Thirteen colony's on the American East coast stretching from Georgia to Maine, readers of the works of Locke began to question the legitimacy of the English crown and there right to tax without representation or known as taxation without representation in which unreasonable high amount of taxes were planted over the colony's for them to pay for the problems of the English homeland in the British Isles.

In America, new philosophers advocating the same liberalism and republicanism began to pop up including Thomas Paine whose 1774 pamphlet titled Common Sense was a instant successful in the growing discontented American Colony's who finally in 1775 rose up in Lexington and Concord to finally defeat the British in the 1783 Treaty of Paris and create the American Republic we know today. The new nation would for the first time in century's advocate a form of representative democracy first in the Articles of Confederation, and second in the United States constitution and bill of rights.

The British Empire knowing America was a lost cause from the day of their defeat in Yorkstown sought to contain it and stop its spread into other colonial territory's of the British Empire. They did this by increasing military presence in supposedly loyalist colony's like Canada and the Indian princely kingdoms while in a attempt to keep any revolts liberalized some institutions and made local affairs much more autonomous then before. This was able to work, at least for now, and the British Empire was able to stay mostly untouched post-American Revolution up until the the turn of the 20th century.

Meanwhile there continental neighbors were not so lucky. In France, war debt from the American Revolution was finally enough for the French people and they soon became to Republicanism, Liberalism, and then radicalism, and in the process a Republican styled monarchy was restored under Napoleon I who would restore France to greatness and in less then a decade take half of Europe by storm. But him unsuccessful invasion of Russia combined with War fatigue by his army was finally mounting and Napoleon ultimately failed. But his legacy of Republicanism and Republican themes monarchy's stayed with Europe and year by year the absolute monarchy's of Europe became less and less absolute. A period of revivalism of the absolute monarchism of Europe occurred between 1815 and 1848 as Napoleon in the short term discredited Republicanism as a ideology only leading to dictatorship. But the people would not fail into the same trap again and the revolutions of 1848 would finally end many of the continental monarchy's or at least these monarchy's more in line with the representation of the people or little more then a puppet head of a representative house of congress in other cases.

France was one of the cases were the monarchy ended forever and with the abdication of Louis Philippe I in February 24th, 1848 due to the July revolution of 1848, a Republic was established in France. Meanwhile in other states like the Austrian Empire the revolutions failed and the absolute domination of the monarchy, of which ruled the Hapsburg's, remained firm. What did remain constant however was a European wide push towards liberalism by the end of the 19th century and entering the gilded age, most absolute monarchy's in pure form were lost to history in Europe and a series of constitutional monarchy's scattered the lands. The Progressive Era posed a threat to the order of Europe as did the revolutions on 1848 and the Napoleonic Wars however unlike those, the new era was a response to the faults of capitalism and liberalism, both social and economically wise. The new liberal order in Europe knew how to handle this and in order to quell potentially socialist revolvers, a series of welfare states emerged throughout Europe: first in Germany and then throughout the western European powers of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. And thus these were quelled and instead nationalism ruled Europe once more and the late 1800's even say a re-emergence of traditionalism and monarchism in places like Germany. What can be said through all of this is that Liberalism, as Locke was one of the main contributors to, was able to successfully end the major absolute monarchy's of Europe by the dawn of the Great War.

And in many cases even constitutional monarchy's were abandoned in favor of raw republics in places like France. In places like Locke's birth place of the English Empire, the monarchy which Locke was against was able to reform itself into a constitutional monarchy in Locke's own lifetime, however the English Monarchy remained and was much more influential compared to the late 19th century major powers and even rivaled the influence that the German and Austrian Monarchy's held on government decisions. In a Irony most of all, while the rest of Europe favored Lockean Liberalism, in England a type of Reformist Lockean pseudo liberalism was established in the homeland of Locke himself. Then we arrive to the turn of the century. The early 1900's brought increasingly left wing politics to the United Kingdom and the Lockean Liberalism was to many to right wing and not enough for true reform. New socialist splinter groups began to advocate for either the reform or overthrowing of capitalism in favor of a socialist or communist economic system.

[The Govanah Jake]

The United Kingdom's establishment like with Bismarck in Germany helped create a welfare state under the Gladstonian Reformist Liberals of the Liberal Party which was basic at best. And this was able to quell much of the more socialist aspects of the revolutionaries. In its place stood the foundations of the modern british left as Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism took center stage under the newly formed Labour Party whose main goal was to better the conditions of the workers.

This obviously meant they were able to first grow and prosper in the industrial northern city's including Manchester and Liverpool where the products of the industrial revolution were evident in the horrible living standards of the industrial family. The Labour Party would for the first decade find themselves scrapping for fourth and third place but the 1919-1921 recession brought a new opportunity for them and they were able to use it first becoming a member of the majority government in with the Liberals in 1923 and soon became majority party in a Snap election a few years later.

And thus Ramsay MacDonald became one of the first Labour Prime Ministers in the country's history. His new policy's overseas were vastly different from his predecessors in regards to the colony's. He gave each individual colony the right to self governance in ordnance with the British Empire and effectively independence in all but name. These colony's still had to pay taxes, respect the English crown, send troops in wars if needed, and still overall support the British if they asked for it but in regards to local governments, they were much more independent then before. Under him and in alliance with King George V, in 1925 The Balfour Declaration of 1926 was created in which the Commonwealth of Nations was formed.

In the territory's such as Australia and Canada, Governor-generals of each nation of would now serve as independent of there own affairs in foreign policy while supporting the institution of the crown as a symbolic and political figurehead for each country. Also a new rank system for colony's would be established with nations like Canada and Australia holding most of the same equal rank as the United Kingdom itself. This British Commonwealth of Nations would not be the centralized state it once was but still was a formidable force as each country pledged to defend the United Kingdom if attacked and thus the British Empire in a sense was still around.

But with the declaration, each colonial country's government gained more power in legislative affairs. Each country's politics got much more interesting (in a competitive sense) hence the increase in power and thus the decentralized system allowed for new parliamentary democracy's to fully be recognized by the British Crown legitimate and new parliamentary democracy's would led to the modern political theaters to these major English speaking nations

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General Elections at the Federal and State level in Canada had been going on for much longer then the 1926 Balfour Election. The First General Election in fact occurred in 1867 with the election of conservative John A. Macdonald over the unofficial Liberal leader George Brown and Anti-Confederation leader Joseph Howe who opposed Canadian Unionism. Of course up to the signing of the Draft, it didn't mean much to be Prime Minister of Canada however mass self autonomy by the British allowed for the Canadian Prime Minister post to at least be powerful in the Canadian Territory's. Which was a desired destiny for both of the major political party's of Canada: The Liberals and Conservatives.

Unlike some of its commonwealth members including the United Kingdom, Canada was very much a two party system. Rarely did any party get over 5% of the vote during the 19th to early 20th century political period in Canada that wasn't the Liberals or the Conservatives. These two party's dominated both at the federal and the provincial level and the occasional third party or rebellious MP was quickly put down after a year or too of immense pressure. At the General Election level, the election was really just a hand off between the Conservatives and Liberals. From from the formation of the confederation to 1896, the conservatives only lost once in 1874 to Alexander Mackenzie and were led by John A. Macdonald who was the first prime minister of Canada. However from 1896 to 1911, the Liberals dominated under Wilfred Laurier and under him reached new peaks as a party when they nominated there first Francophone Prime Minister. Under him, he underwent his compromise between French and English Canada's and sought to unite both as one under the confederation. Besides that he pushed individual liberty and a decentralized form of governmental federalism and further declared more autonomy against the British Empire which the British were forced to accept as reality, not wanting a potential bad relationship or even perhaps war. He would go down as one of the Great Statesman of Canadian History.

In the policy realm, the ideas of both major party's were in obvious contention with each other. These varied from MP to MP with some on the more progressive side of each party and others on the more traditionalist end however the main idea went like this: The Liberals under Laurier were a party of continentalism, anti-imperialism, support for the aspirations of the Quebecois, support for free trade, and a responsible or a reformist government (this varied from MP to MP). This was not a centralized party and was only managed at the provincial and even smaller governmental levels by the individual Liberal politician. Laurier tried to change this with a national party goal and agenda push for the goals listed as the official party policy. He was denied this chance at first but soon the Liberals got the message. The Conservatives on the other hand supported national protectionism outside of the British Empire and its Commonwealth, closer ties to England, overall conservatism and traditional Toryism supporting the crown and support for imperialism. Originally called the Liberal-Conservative Party, it dropped Liberal in 1873. They had strained relations with the Quebecois and under the ministry of one of the Quebecois own in Laurier of the Liberals, this divide grew for the Conservatives. By policy alone they were very much like there Republican Party neighbor to the south and like the Republicans were often seen as the professional class or businessman party with high tariffs only in place to protect Canadian business. This Tariff issue was the main divided line between the two party's as besides in affairs with the British Empire, America, and International Trade, they were very similar on the domestic front advocating some form of a more effective or smaller federal government and some more of a moderate to a weak form of government decentralization.

The Conservatives after being in the dark for more then 15 years under the Liberal Wilfrid Laurier, finally thought they had there chance in 1911 under the increasingly murky waters the Laurier Ministry had left on the issue of Trade. Laurier and the Liberals were very much in favor of Free Trade and under Laurier's terms in office had signed away many free trade deals. Most of these with the Americans which left Laurier opponents seeing a opportunity. The Conservatives argued Laurier wanted to sell Canada off to the Americans and Americanize the country. After Champ Clark remarked I look forward to the time when the American flag will fly over every square foot of British North America up to the North Pole. The people of Canada are of our blood and language in the United States House of Representatives discussing trade deals with there northern neighbor, there was a attempt and a introduction of a resolution by Republican Representative, William M. Bennett who proposed the United States talk with Canada on a way to annex Canada. This embroiled many Canadians and
infuriated most conservatives and Anti-American Sentiment was at a all time high in Canada. It got so bad that many newspapers even advised Americans to, if visiting Canada, to not tell the Canadians that they are American in case of a violent response. In Canada, many in Laurier's cabinet and in the supposedly major Liberal leaning Newspapers began to realize that support for the free trade bills with America was not the most popular position. The Conservatives took this opportunity to win the 1911 election and nominated Robert Borden of the district of Halifax. Running on a platform of protectionism, he called out Laurier for his attempts to end Canadian Sovereignty and Americanize Canada. Canadians agreed with this message and Robert Borden began prime minster defeating Laurier with 48% of the vote and winning 132 seats in a 47 seat gain.

The Borden ministry would prove to be rather successful. On his promise to end the free trade deals with the United States, he ended all current trade deals that Laurier had been working on with Taft and with Roosevelt ended most of the past ones. In 1914, the German Empire declared war on the enemy's of the Austro-Hungarians and thus the Great War started. After Belgium was invaded by the Germans, the British Empire joined the war. As per being a colonial entity of the British, Robert Borden and the country of Canada declared war on Germany and the central powers and soon started conscription. This conscription was felt as morally wrong by some Canadian and a ensuing Conscription crisis occurred on whether to send Men to die in Europe and how much was enough. Borden was a staunch defender of British interests and ignored these concerns aiding the British with troops. So he sent more troops to fight for the British then any other British Colony during the Great War. Meanwhile the issue of the right for military officers to vote were solved in Military Voters Act of 1915 allowing them too do so. Second the issue of Women Sufferage was acted upon partially by him in the Wartime Elections Act. This act gave the vote to the wives, widows, mothers, and sisters of soldiers serving overseas. The 1917 General Election was held and he held a high rating of approval by the Canadian public. The Liberals on the other hand were scrambling to reorganize. Laurier still maintained a high rank in the party itself and the crucial Quebecois machine in the party backed him fully. However he died with a heart attack in July of 1916 at 73. His funeral was unite the nation with tens of thousands lining the streets in the capital to pay tribute to him. With such a major figure gone, the Liberal Party scrambled to find a leader to hold up against the popular Borden.

[The Govanah Jake]

There was calls to just unite with Borden under what was called a Unionist Party Coalition. The Party held a national convention on this in Quebec City. In a decisive vote, most Liberal MPs supported the unionist in the election with Borden. In the ensuing election was the least competitive election in Canadian history. With no major opposition, Borden was basically handed another term while his party gained massively.

He was re-elected in a absolute landslide taking 89% of the vote (though that was because Liberal decided not to run but coalition with them) and them winning more then 200 seats in the Parliament while the Liberals barely held more 30 at the moment. Canada was there's for the taking and Borden and his conservatives held master sway over the politics of the country. The Unionist alliance however soon broke up with the Liberals not wanting to become a vassal of the conservatives and thus a extinct party. At there lowest point yet, they needed a leader. In order to elect one in 1918 they held there first leadership election. The main contenders was William Lyon Mackenzie King, a close friend of the late Laurier, he found himself on the left of the party and was supported by the radical wing of the party. On the other side was a multitude of other candidates but the main contender for the right wing of the party was the former Premier of Nova Scotia and a moderate in his own right, William Stevens Fielding. The convention was continuous and considered competitive but finally the first ballot was cast

Fielding was able to be King on the second ballot in a quicker race then thought and secured the nomination rather easily after. With the Liberals having nominated Fieldings, this represented a sharp return to classical Liberal politics and of even Pre-Laurier Liberal politics with support for a platform that seemed to come out of the late 1800s of not only continued Free Trade, but of the classical Liberal ideas of independence from the United Kingdom, though this time fully, and a decentralized government. Fielding meanwhile, not wanting to disturb the very crucial Quebecois voting block for the party, allowed for the classical Laurier Liberal support of Quebec autonomy and support for them to be at a equal advantage as English Canada. Though to try to get in more English Canadians, he toned down on the Quebec nationalism and made a pivot towards the Anglo Canadian professional with support for internationalism and pivot towards the Anglo Canadian westerner with a domestic policy full of the classic Liberal ideology wrapped in a populistic hybrid framing the Conservatives as the party of the Rich and a increased support for farming.

Meanwhile out west in the same area that the Liberals were trying to target, a new party emerged. In 1919, angry over the extremely high tariffs on farm goods by the Borden Government, a collection of mostly Liberal though some conservative MPs from the Unionist alliance, split from the coalition in dispute with there farming policy and formed the newly formed Progressive Party. Basing there support out west they support agrarian and farming interests and under Thomas Crerar supported a Social Democratic domestic plan along with Free Trade, a issue they thought the Liberals were too weak on.

Back in the Conservative Party, the popular Robert Borden was begged by many members to run away. However a increasingly aging Borden declined and having been just knighted by the Queen in 1915 would retire from politics. He appointed Arthur Meighan, a key cabinet members of his administration. Generally seen as weak and indecisive leader, his lack of real leadership of the party and the resulting trouble that brung in the party resulted in a much lower rating of approval then his predecessor. He was considered vulnerable going into the 1921 elections and the world wide recession of 1919-1921 did not help his cause.


The race was very competitive with all three candidates having a real shot at winning. If the Progressives won, they would be the first real third party to win a plurality or majority of seats in the Parliament. If the Liberals one then they could retake control of the government for the first time since 1911 and if the Conservatives won then they could continue on there government since 1911. Each candidate attacked each other during the brief but intense campaign season. Meighan accused Fieldings of being a American Puppet while Fieldings called Meighan A weak, indecisive, and corrupt leader. Meanwhile Crerar accused the Liberals of being weak on Free Trade and accused the conservatives of working against the Average Canadian Interests. Meanwhile at the same time Meighan called Crerar a A Communist agent of Moscow! while Fieldings called him a Idealistic Idiot who should not get near the Prime Ministership. Ultimately the campaign ended on December 6th and the Canadian People decided that to lead them into the 1920s, they wanted...

In a split decision, Canadians choose a hung parliament. The Liberals ultimately came on down though more then 20 short with just 95 seats due to there heavily wins in Quebec and the Maritime states. Meanwhile the newly formed Progressive to everyone's surprise came in second place defeating the conservatives and becoming a opposition party. This was the first time in the country's history that a party other then the Liberals or Conservatives beat out either one and they were in a close second place spot gaining 77 seats and about 700,000 votes while winning almost all of the western provinces, minus Yukon, and gaining a strong second in Ontario. Finally the Conservatives were humiliated. They lost 138 seats and came in third for the first time in the nations history. They barely held onto there strongholds in the Yukon to the insurgent Progressives and in Ontario to the insurgent Progressives and Liberals who gained mass amounts of supposed safe conservative seats. The whole political diaphragm was changed with this election, and the conservative majority in Canada once seen impenetrable after the 1917 election crumbled in a instant to a insurgent third party and the Liberals.

Needed a majority government, the Liberals natural friends were the Progressives. The Progressives were originally mostly former Liberals and very free trade like the Liberals. After some negotiations a agreement was made. The Progressives would join with the Liberals in coalition in return for farming concessions and a move to the overall Left on economics. The Liberal Progressive Coalition hence was formed and William Stevens Fielding was elected Prime Minister by now a more then 150 seat combined majority coalition with the conservatives in a distant third.

In his new government Fielding got to work. A strict fiscal conservative, he sought on the domestic front that paying down debts, especially from the war, should come first. He alliance with the Progressives however forced him to compromise. But his support for lowering War time debt was supported by both factions. So in a 1922 resolution the Canadian parliament passed a act mandating the lowering of wartime debt by 75% by 1929 to be fully completed in the mid 1930's. His deadlines however were much longer then expected and he already made his 75% goal by 1927 and would be finished by late 1928. Meanwhile on Tariffs, Fielding significantly lowered the tariff rates from there highs under Borden with full Progressive support and he made several free trade deals with America and France with much more success then the last time it was attempted and so the opposition was muttered. In 1926, Fielding along with the other leaders of the British Empire meet in London to create the beginning of the Commonwealth. Fully backed by Fielding who wanted greater independence for Canada, he was able to reduce British influence over Canada to mostly just symbolic then actually militarily and politically.

By 1925, Fielding so far had governed a successful and non-controversial first term and the 1925 General Election was seen as a victory waiting to happen for the Liberals. The Conservatives still in shambles decided to reorganize and were confident in making at least gains in 1925. On hearing his defeat Meighan resigned from his leadership of the conservatives and nominated high ranking cabinet official in his administration and MP from London, Canada John Franklin White. White, a relatively unknown and little MP from London, was born to a industrial family and he managed the London Rolling Mill company and then as city alderman for London and then the city's controller up until he was elected to parliament in the tight 1921 elections as one of the few conservatives to hold there seat for the Conservative Party. Politically wise, he was again a unknown though in the parliament however when he did vote he was known to support the party line on protectionism, especially since he was from a industrial city, and also Toryism supporting the Great War and sending troops over there and supporting British influence over Canada.

White was handed over a destroyed party with only 63 seats in the Parliament. He sought to restore that and fought hard for his party in the 1925 elections against the popular Fielding. His way of accomplishing this he thought was by regaining the western provinces for the country and campaigned for farming subsidy's and farming tariff relief, which to some in the party was frowned upon. He personally campaigned in the Provinces of Alberta and Manitoba while also campaigning in his home province of Ontario. Knowing Fielding, from the Martime Provinces, would hold onto them and the very Liberal supporting Quebec and so refused to campaign there. Even though the very first proto-polling for this election out of all past elections should that Fielding would win with a decisive win and build up on his gains. They were even showing the Liberal's themselves would get a majority while the Progressives and Conservatives lagged

[The Govanah Jake]

Fielding meanwhile refused to campaign much relying on the Liberal Party, local MPs, and advertising to do it for him. He touted his successful first term however and told how his free trade policy's helped the average Canadian more then it hurt Canada. His main goal for the election was too gain a majority in the Parliament and finally remove the shackles of the Left Wing Progressives. He wanted to govern independently for himself and the Liberals and this was the only way this could be done.

Finally, the Progressives. After a major success in 1921 and success in forming there first majority government with the Liberal, they had high hopes for 1925. They themselves hoped for a majority or at least a plurality bigger then the Liberals who they knew would abandon the Progressives if they got a majority. There leader Thomas Crerar had showed signs of leaving the party back for his farming business in Alberta but the success of the Party forced him to stay as the prospect of being Prime Minister was much likely then before. Crerar campaigned hard in 1925 and especially in 1925. He worked in the western provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba the longest and wanted to solidify there gains there for future elections while gaining the remaining Liberal and Conservative MPs in those provinces. However they did face a challenge in there own home area out in the West by the Conservatives under White who themselves wanted the West back. On October 29th, 1925 the country voted and in the end they wanted to keep Fielding to not many's surprise

The election came in and it proved to be decisive. Fielding and his Liberals won in a absolute landslide. They know held a majority of seats at 130 out of 245 total seats and took more 10% more the popular vote then there nearest opponents. On the map they were able to win back British Columbia for the party and gain a slight plurality of seats in Ontario, Whites home province, though White held on by a large margin in his London home. The Progressives meanwhile lagged behind and lost a decent 12 seats and lost ground in there core western provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. They also lost the province of British Columbia itself with a slight Liberal plurality there. Finally the Conservatives were perhaps the most disappointed with the results. Expecting to gain seats in the election, they lost one seat while losing the core conservative province of Ontario. In fact it was so bad, on the map the Conservatives barely held onto there Yukon province. The one bright spot for them was slight gains out west in Manitoba, Alberta, and Sakatchewan winning about 5-10 seats throughout. Though this was made up elsewhere by further losses. By Margin, the key to the majority status of the Liberal was by holding nearly every single seat in Quebec for them while gaining near total domination over the Maritime states winning about 75-90% of seats throughout the three maritime provinces. This along with plurality wins in Ontario and British Columbia was able to give them a majority. Overall it was a good night for the Liberals, a bad night for the Progressives, and a terrible night for the Conservatives not because they lost much seats but because they lost seats in the first place.

Now entering the later half of the 1920s, the economic boom of the world and especially in the Canadian and the American homelands looked long and endless and the Liberals hoped this prosperity would last and could not collapse. Little did they know that this own attitude would inevitably led to there collapse later into the timeline of History.

[The Govanah Jake]

(Shameless bump to keep the TL on the FrontPage so i can find it for the next update)

[The Govanah Jake]

A Unequal Continent

Louis Botha, First Prime Minister of South Africa

Ever since the beginning of Human civilization, the continent of Africa has always been plagued with the curse of lagging behind the other continents in civilization, culture, and empire building. Although it was theorized to be one of the, if not the first place of Homo Sapiens and there ilk, it failed to get any real grasp of power over the rest of the world. While it is true that the Ancient Kingdoms of Nubia and Egypt, both in Africa were among the first kingdoms on earth and one of the most influential, after there downfall any real speckle of major influence besides the few tribal kingdoms and chiefdom's that dotted the land was mostly gone. The few real empires to form on the continent up until the dawn of European Colonialism were either from outside powers based in different continents like in the case of the Arab Caliphates, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Persians, ext.. The rest were African based and mostly based in the African North and East where Arab influence along with the occasional European influence was able to form African Empires, though still lagging behind there Middle Eastern, Asian, and European counterparts. Some of these like the Moroccan Empires were able to last in a series of up to 1000 years where different Moroccan kingdoms and empires formed to at times dominant the Western Sahara.

Others like the Egyptians and Malian's came and went and the short lived African based kingdoms of the Malian Empire and the Ayyubid Dynasty were able to reclaim the thrones of Africa and push out the foreigners for a time. The Malian's themselves at one time were some of the richest in the world and were the envy and European and Arab/Persian merchants who wanted there gold and exotic African goods. By the late 1300s the creation of these new Empires began to pop up more and more on the continent in the historical record and new kingdoms in the Congo, East Africa, the Sudan, Zimbabwe, and South Africa flourished and developed to rival there counterparts in places like Feudal Europe and the Middle East where the Black Death, which devastated places in both areas, had taken its toll. Africa was for the first time since the spawn of the Egyptian and Nubian culture, at the pinnacle of world politics. However for varying reasons and in many mysterious ways, the ways of African dominance was put out as fast as it was started.

The Malian Empire began to decline with the recovery of Europe and the Middle East and in 1670 collapsed into dozens of petty kingdoms. Egyptian independence meanwhile was put out finally by the rising Ottoman Turks who took over the Mameluke Sultanate based in Cairo and by 1600 controlled almost all of the North African coastline. The rest of the continent soon followed in said decline and once important places like the Kongo Kingdom and Ethiopia were reduced to minor footnotes in world politics and soon themselves ravaged by internal conflict and war with other nations. The real blow to any African influence was with the start of European Colonialism. Europe by the 1500s had made a spectacular and complete recovery from the affects from the Black death and new powers in the English, the French, the Spanish, and the Portuguese in the West were emerging as the leaders of Europe. Each of these aimed to be the most powerful empire of them all and looked for new ways to gain wealth. One big way was colonialism and land conquest. As Europe was crowded and the amount of sparse land limited and taken by rivals, they looked to the seas. Some looked to the West in the Americas while others looked South to Africa which was on a decline.

The European empires sent out explorers and military officials to examine this still vastly unknown continent. Upon there return they told of a continent full of treasures and exotic goods to be traded. The relationship at first between Europe and Africa was mostly on economic terms as each political entity traded European items for African goods including Gold and exotic African goods including Ivory, Animal skins, and African specific food items including Fruits. They set up new trading posts for these exchanges to occur and new trading areas between the two continents dotted the coastline of Africa. However this wasn't enough. As it was shown in America conquest was preferable to trading with the local peoples as they didn't have to give up much in trading when they held the others at gunpoint. They thus followed this tradition of conquest into Africa taking large swaths of land and easily defeated the Tribal kings and small Petty Kingdoms who did not have Guns and were massacred if they led a resistance. At first the main colonizers were Spain and Portugal as they sent out the first explorers to the continent.

However the riches of Africa soon got word and Northern European Empires like the British, French, Dutch, and Later French got to colonizing. Eventually almost all of Africa had been taking and the few remaining areas were either areas of extreme climate conditions (Deserts and Deep Rain forests) or the few kingdoms who refused to give up including, most prominently the state of Ethiopia who thought off attempts by the Italians to colonize. In the Berlin Conference effectively established European dominance other Africa and divided the continent between mostly France and the British with some areas like Tanzania for Germany and Angola for Portugal. Even smaller country's like Belgium got in on the action and took large swaths of territory in the Congo under the repressive regime of King Leopold II who also killed millions of Congolese in his own African fiefdom. The rest of the world however batted a eye and the prevailing theory was that native Africans were barbarians and Europeans helped civilize them. The end result may of been partially true as European culture and technology seeped into native African life and thus unintentionally advanced Africa into the 20th century. In the new Colonial Africa life was much different them pre-colonial times.

The native Black African majority had been removed from power entirely and were forced into slave like conditions and poverty working for the now white domination governments of these new colony's. They were revoked off any political duty's including voting and were thus at the whims of the White minority in almost all new colony's who were virtually all crown controlled in the early days and sometimes directly appointed by the mainland to rule over the colony's. The few political party's that existed both preserved the African System by any ways necessary including sometimes brutally putting down riots by the disenfranchised majority and locking up political dissidents.

The rule of fear lead to the limitation of riots throughout many colony's as most were told to enjoy new western standards of living and technology in exchange for not rioting or having political say. Centralized power over there African colony's was the official policy for most European empires ruling colony's in the Empire and it wasn't until the early 1900s in which these same empire's agreed to give there colony's more autonomy. In was in this time in which the first slivers of autonomy crept into African politics and the first sense of free choice in African elections (for the white voters) was established. The sense of change came in 1908 when King Leopold II was forced away from his personal fied of the Congo when the Belgian Parliament forced the creation of the Belgian Congo as an autonomous colonial entity and thus allowing for the creation of a wider and more free Belgian Congolese Government.

This occurred as the first news of King Leopold's atrocious behavior in the Congo broke. In the parliament the issue of the status of the Congo was put to a vote. With the backing of the Socialists and the Radical's the parliament ruled in favor of the creation of the establishment of the Belgian Congo and on November 15th, 1908 the Belgian Congo began a officially part of the Belgian Kingdom and thus the old fiefdom of the Belgian Free state was swept away. In the new government the country was at first divided into 4 provinces and later into 6. These were divided into chiefdom's. The ruler of the territory like before was the Governor-General and the government was lead by colonial administrators. Both the White Belgian Congolese and native one could not vote these officials in and were appointed from Belgium itself. However in a big change the new colony allowed for a equal court system of both European and indigenous ones.

Both held limited power and resided over the administrators. Overall in the country a separate but equal segregation was enforced between the races which was a big improvement from slavery before. Not soon after the colony of South Africa fell in reforms. In 1910 following the 1909 Union act, the Union of South Africa was formed as a united South African british colony under a independent colonial government under British supervision. Thus in 1910 the first South African General election was held. The two main party's in the newly formed parliament proved to be both the newly founded South African Party and the Unionist Party with the SAP gaining 67 seats too the Unionist 39 seats our of 121 total. The new majority party, the SAP, were the party of national conservationism, white nationalism, and were supporters of the Afrikaner Dutch. The new minority party on the other hand, the Unionist Party, were formed around the principles of Liberals, Protectionism and Anti-Immigration, and supporter of the reform system known as the Commonwealth. They also supported a British oriented culture rather then a Dutch one advocated by the SAP. The SAP was lead by Louis Botha and the Unionist were lead by Leander Starr Jameson.

Botha proved to be a moderate figure establishing reforms while distancing himself from the extremes of the SAP and supported a reconciliation between the Dutch and English populations. This resulted in the formation of the far right National Party in 1915. The Unionist's ran Thomas Smartt. Aided by the fracturing of the SAP and the global progressive trend of politics spearheaded by the win of Teddy Roosevelt in America resulted in a much closer then usual election lead by Smartt who advocated reformism, support for further South African independence, and with a moderate position of Dutch-British relations was able to defeat Botha and become Prime Minister.

[The Govanah Jake]

In the end Smartt was able to pull it out with a small victory gaining 3 more seats then the SAP. They still held a hung parliament however and the National Party held as the king maker. Lead by popular general J.B.M. Hertzog, they were able to get more then 25% of the vote and 23 seats in just one election and he declared himself the real winner of the election saying to a newspaper "I turned a fringe group into a viable political party, i think i'm the real winner in the election". The National Party being a break off of the SAP was naturally more inclined to back the SAP compared to the Unionist. Hertzog decided to back Botha in exchange for a coalition government which both party's on a equal level.

Botha desperate agreed to such offer and the Unionist where left in the dark even if they held a plurality of seats in the Parliament. Botha was swept back into the Prime Minister role with a coalition of the SAP and NP of a combined 75 seats to the Unionist's 55. In his second term as Prime Minister, Louis Botha stood at a knifes edge. He knew he had to appease the National Party in order to keep there alliance and majority intact and so abandoned any attempt to establish cultural harmony between the British and Dutch. Instead he pushed the opposite pushing native Dutch culture over British ones and appointing a mostly dutch cabinet of officials. The NP on there part voted as a block on Botha's more moderate legislation and pushed mainly in his second term domestically for more reforms in the area of farming for poor white farmers in the rural regions.

These reforms where also backed by the Unionist's. Come 1920 another general election was called to order. In international news the 1919-1921 Post War Recession hit South Africa like it did the rest of the world. The polling of the party dropped dramatically as there economic policy's was seen as against that of the poor. However with Louis Botha dropping dead in 1919, his successor Jan Smuts took most of the blame. The Unionist's and the National Party sensed a new opportunity here with the the decline of the SAP. The Nationals again put up Hertzog and he ran a populist campaign advocating economic reforms for working class White Africans of both Dutch and British descent, though campaigned to protect Dutch culture, and attacked his coalition party member of the SAP on there ineptitude.

Meanwhile on there left the Unionist ran many of the same themes and ran Thomas Smartt once again. He ran a coalition campaign for the small Labour Party, formed in 1910 and held only 4 seats, to unite the Left fully. Labour realizing they probably could not amount to much being a party of mostly Urban Whites agreed to said coalition and Unionist Labour was thus born. They attack the South African Party for its corruption under Botha and sought to fight for the working man. They also attack Hertzog for his extremism and anti-british sentiments gaining most of the colonial british population behind there banner.

EDIT: Should be 14 seats

The result showed a decimation of the SAP. They lost dozens of seat and held less then 15 seats at only 14 seats still holding there party afloat. Meanwhile the big winners on election night where the Unionist-Labour Party and the National Party each gaining massively with the ULP gaining 5 seats to hold there plurality at 60 seats while the National Party gained a massive 32 seats too become a minority party at 54 seats crushing there forming SAP masters.

They won big in the Dutch dominated North and Western Farming regions and were pushed to over 90,000 votes. Interestingly however the SAP still held the popular vote at 34.48% over the National's 34.01% due to the party's extreme popular vote advantage. The Election once again produced a hung parliament with no candidates gaining a majority. The National Party know far ahead of the SAP in seats would be the de-facto leader of any coalition with the SAP and J.B.M. Hertzog called upon them to back him. After some struggles by the moderate factions within the party with many wanting to end the extremism of the NP, Jan Smuts coalitioned with the Nationals forming the first National Lead coalition government. Unionist-Labour was once again left in the cold having failed to gain a majority of seats which no viable partners in the parliament.

Under his first term he would lead the country into the 1920s. He was able to re-establish the country from economic instability after the recession with mass reforms with the White populous creating new relief programs for the poor whites affected by the recession including with the Miners in the North. He ended any unheavable brought on by the depression and successfully ended much of the Socialist threat in the country with his economic populist agenda. His successful handling of the Rand Rebellion increased his popularity by negotiating for higher wages for the miners. He was able to meanwhile successfully negotiate with the British for increased autonomy laying the groundwork for the 1926 Commonwealth Treaty while at home opted for a Afrikaner preservationist agenda appointing much to his cabinet and going out of his way to preserve Dutch influence in South Africa. At the same time he didn't try to upset the British White population by extending relief programs to them too and opting to maintain there influence too in a Joint Influence White African nation. Come the 1925 election, Hertzog was immensely popular.

He ran against Jan Smuts of the SAP and the newly elected F.H.P. Creswell of the Unionist Labour Party. He hailed from the party's left and campaigned on the struggles of the White proletariat. The campaign was brief and uneventful and come election time the winner of uncontroversial and clear.

Hertzog won in a easy victory. Gaining 13 seats now he was just 1 short of a majority and only needed one SAP seat to due it. Unionist Labour took a dive meanwhile losing 18 seats and reduced to 42 in total due to Hertzog winning in many Labour friendly White Working class areas with his economic policy being favorable to them.

Finally the SAP gained 10 seats but where still in a distant third. Hertzog, this time, had a much easier time forming a majority government with the SAP easily falling in line behind him. More and morei t looked like the SAP was but a arm of the National Party, not the other way around. Coming into his second term now with a coalition of 91 seats, he would find himself flying through his agenda in the Parliament. First in 1926 he easily ratified the Commonwealth act allowing for South Africa to be a commonwealth country. It easily passed the parliament with a Joint consensus between the three party's. Only the most extreme British loyalists disagreed. Being one of the first country's to ratify the treaty Hertzog was able to make South Africa one of the top tier colony's on a mostly equal footing with the United Kingdoms.

This was again very popular, especially among the Afrikaners who supported much independence from Britain after the British had colonized the country a had a century prior. On the domestic front he passed many reforms for his white constituency including the Wages Act of 1926 which covered for a federal minimum wage for most workers excluded from one prior.. He also signed into law the Pensions Act of 1926 which provided retirement benefits for white workers with a reduced amount for coloured ones. Perhaps his most important achievement of his second term was the enfranchisement of white women in 1928 allowing them to vote in elections in a example off of the many western country's which already have done so, the United States being one.

Again he proved to be immensely popular and was well liked by just about everyone. Nearing 65 by the 1930 Election, there was some questioning on whether he would run again. He dispelled those rumors in early 1930 when he did in fact announce he would run again. Running on mass reforms and a growing economy, he was well set for the 1930 election. The SAP ran Smuts once again who refused to let go of the minority leadership position. Meanwhile the Unionist Labour Party nominated Frederic Creswell once more

He had finally done it. He had secured 2 more then a majority and formed the first National Majority government in the new Union's history. He could now govern from his party alone and didn't need the SAP for governing. The Unionist Labour Party continued to lose and stood at 34 seats now losing 8 and growing farther apart from National in terms of seats. The SAP still gained seats and stood a 3 seats but National gaining a majority was a major blow to them forcing them out of government and into extreme minority status.

Hertzog would now go into his third term with a official majority. He now had much power to his disposal to fully implant the National Agenda on South Africa. However unknowing to him, him and his administration would soon see that the good times have come to a close...

[The Govanah Jake]

1926 Senate Elections



Thaddeus Caraway, Majority Leader of the US Senate, at his Office (Circa. 1927)

 Victory after Victory reigned over Carter Glasses administration. Virtually all the policy's they promised to the American People would be enacted as enacted. The Republicans, Socialists, and other opposition were left in the mud as the ruling Democratic majority in the House and ruling Democratic plurality in the Senate were able to remove alot of the influence the Republicans held since the end of Lincoln when they dominated presidential elections and congressional politics.

They were reduced to a rump party, at least compared to its former state, and after the 1924 election many said the Republican Party would die with continued prosperity under Democrats. Dying may be a harsh term and they were far from a dead party however they were in the worse shape since Cleveland's first term in congressional and presidential control. And since the Democrats had been voting like a solid wall for virtually all of Glasses agenda with only a few progressive defections (due to, among other things, fear and intimidation), the united front for Republicans to block policy's would be even harder as they too were divided Left, Right, and Centrist with the division end more so then the Democrats.

They rarely could get a united front for the Party since the time of Roosevelt united both wings for a time under his Progress oriented Republicanism. However there was one bright spot for the Republicans. While the Democrats held a majority in the House, they only held a plurality in the Senate having only 45 seats to Republicans 44 seats. This forced the Democrats to seek after some republicans to pass bills and thus the party's position in the Senate was that of kingmaker. However it wasn't as simple as the party leadership simply telling senators to vote with or without democrats. Some senators voted with and without democrats without the party leadership consent. When Curtis said all Republicans must stand united against one Democratic bill, a defection of 2-5 Republicans could occur.

Most of the time, the Republicans who defected were on the more conservative side siding with the more conservative president. They strongly backed many of Glasses social and fiscally conservative policy's and often came from states where there was a strong conservative history or was a border state where the threat of Glass and the Democrats sweeping there seats away forced them to side with them and be on good terms with him. The Flat Taxation Act for example was a clear area of Republican defection in contrast with the opinion of party leadership. Charles Curtis and most of the rest of the Republican leadership opposed the bill with Curtis calling the bill "Not what Smaller Government means" and seeing it as a open end benefit for wealthier Americans. In contrast the bill caught fire with the shrinking but still prevalent strong fiscal conservative audience in the party.

The ones who didn't defect to the American Conservatives would most likely vote for the bill while Curtis and the rest of the Moderates, Liberals, and not supporting Conservative Republicans would vote against the bill. In total the party saw close to 15 senators defect to vote for the bill while the rest voted against it, or about 33.3% out of the total republicans. With these Republican defections which were often not called for by the party leadership, the Democrats held a de-facto majority in the senate and the Carter Coalition extended into the Senate with perhaps up to 60 members of it total ranging from Democrat to American Conservative to Republican voting for Carter Glasses bills. This had been the situation in the senate from 1924 to 1926 for the Republicans and they sought to change it like they sought to change it in 1924. They sought to in the Senate win a clear majority again like they tried to, and failed to due in 1924.

Going into the 1926 midterms they reused there national campaign strategy and kept a few of the same basic republican guidelines with a few exceptions.

First they removed a federal Anti-Lynching stance. Knowing this was a killer in Southern and Border States they wished to expand into, they decided to remove it and allowed for more vagueness on the civil rights issues into order to end its perception as a "Northern Negro Party" to many southerners and cement itself as the party of business and progress. All in a attempt to win over some swing voters in the south and upper south particularly, where the chance of republicans winning was higher.

The Second change to the national platform was the end to national interventionism as a official framework of ideas for the party. Seeking to restore many conservative's trust in the party and regain the Republican defectors to the ACP members, they ended national interventionism into the economy as a official policy allowing for vagueness on the issue and allowing more fiscally conservative minded people to join and vote for the party which could stand for there economics. They however did not remove any support for the Rooseveltian Welfare State and included in it a continued support for the social welfare and benefit programs made by the Roosevelt-Johnson administrations in a attempt to keep the Progressives in line too. This was again criticized by many conservative republicans who said the party should not embrace big government social programs.

They made this same claim two years ago but the Northern Moderates and Liberals challenged with making the national platform for 1926 led by none other then Charles E. Hughes said the Welfare programs where simply too much and too important to just end supporting them. Hughes said "Roosevelt was a Republican too. He was a progress minded one and we shouldn't just abandon his achievements because other Republicans say he was too pro-government intervention to be a real Republican". The tensions were not as high as in 1924 and with many republicans just wanting to win quickly fell in line between the national agenda of these principles. They sought to ride these to a senate majority or at least plurality where they could work with other voters to form there own majority where they believed they were more favored to govern then the Democrats.

On the other side of the coin stood the democrats. They had governed as a plurality since 1924 but they held a de-facto majority since 1924 with the working together of many conservatives in all other party's on different issues. With Carter Glass being ever so popular and the party itself being ever so popular, they sought the 1926 Senatorial Elections to be a wave for them. They thought this was finally the year where they could win the Senate decisively and have a fully united Government.

They did not write and national principles or platform and continued to be as vague and big tented as ever allowing for such people as Franklin Roosevelt and Harry F. Byrd to be in the same party though each supported the exact opposites. They saw this as a net positive as there party could not be defined to policy's and thus could take in anyone and grow more.

There main message for 1926: "The Republicans don't care for you and give you misery while the Democrats give you Hope and Prosperity". Long but true to what the party wanted to convey to the American People too give them a Senate Majority.

Democrats were massively effective when making this argument and made the Republicans very much the underdogs.
          ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New York

In New York the incumbent senator was James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr, a Republican. Son of Union general James S. Wadsworth. First elected into political office in 1905 when he became a member of the New York State Assembly from the Livingston County's district, he soon worked his way up the ladder first becoming speaker of the New York Assembly, and then elected in 1914 to the Senate becoming the first popularly elected Senator winning 639,000 votes to his opponents 571,000 and winning election. In the senate he would be known as very constitutionally minded clashing with President Roosevelt many times over his Government Interventionism.

He said Government Interventionism and the Social Welfare programs Roosevelt had supported and set up hurt the rights and freedoms of the individual. He called them unconstitutional and supported removing virtually all of them. He also rejected any future ones and said support for Universial Healthcare was socialistic and the Minimum Wage was "Extremely antithetical to freedom". However he extended this policy on Non-Government and constitutionalism into other issues. For the same reasons listed previously he opposed Prohibition calling it unconstitutional (saying the Constitution protects private use to substances like Alcohol as a individual right) and a ban on personal freedom which was to drink it. He also called Prohibition supporters in favor of Big Government.

As Prohibition was a heated issue and he took a very firm wet position on the issue, he grew to have much dislike from the more Dry minded senators in his party. In a heated argument on the Senate floor in 1922 with William Borah even Borah called upon Wadsworth to change party's to the Democrats. He said he would be more welcome there among the likes of Al Smith. However he tried to differentiate himself from the other Wet backers standing on stricter constitutional grounds and not on urban or political grounds like those Al Smith who governed a city and state.

In a state that was one of the few that the Wet position was at equal level or perhaps above that of the dry position, this did not hurt him as much as in other states where Pro-Wet politicians went down badly. As while the more traditional Upstate New York opposed it, the new and emerging New York City area vastly supported the Wet position and emerging industrial city's like Buffalo and Rochester began to lean towards it with new immigration's from Europe booming there respective populations and leaning the population away from traditionalism and the dry position.

[The Govanah Jake]

It was with this in which he maintained good approval ratings and won re-election easily despite a national democratic trend over a horrible opponent. In his second term Wadsworth continued he pro-individual rights and constitution streak supporting many of the President's conservative economics including the Flat Tax while opposing the presidents more socially minded policy's. He opposed many of the Southern oriented policy's calling them unconstitutional while still against Anti-Lynching legislation on a States Rights reasoning. Carter enacted to get him on good favor with his Southern base.

In the international scheme he was much like the rest of the New York Republicans in the fact that he was a internationalist full and full. He was much like Hughes in this regard supporting the joining of the United States into the Union of Nations and went against much of the isolationist crowd in the party in fully supporting the War in Europe in his early years and supporting ground troops in Europe to prevent any disturbances from occurring again. He also disapproved of the Presidents actions in removing troops from Latin America saying they must be there to protect the freedom of there inhabitants.

Going into the 1926 Senate Election he thought he was headed for re-election again, 6 Years ago he won 66-32% against the Democrat and he thought he was popular enough to do it again. However the Democratic trend in the country had finally gotten up to him and he knew this would be a harder job then before. Initially the most favorite for the Democratic nomination was Franklin Roosevelt who had been speculated for more then a year now since his departure from the Secretary of Navy post on wanting to run for higher office in New York. He lead all polls up until January of 1926 when Roosevelt announced his intention to run against Governor Al Smith and ending any speculation he would run for Senator. The field was thus packed with members seeing a chance to knock off Wadsworth from his spot.

However the two main contenders for the spot was between Robert Wagner and Jeremiah Wood. Wagner represented the Progressive agenda saying if elected that he would support programs to help the poor. He promised also to fight corruption. "Corruption has ruined our great state and out great country, If elected i will fight to end this monster" he said to crowds of hundreds and perhaps thousands as he campaigned. His opponent was Jeremiah Wood, a Republican turned Democrat from Nassau County.

Very much a Glass Democrat, he switched party's in 1920 as Glass won election that year and proudly called himself part of the Moderate Majority. He ran much on the policy's of Glass himself calling for lower state and federal taxes.

The Primary began one of the most intense in the Nation with the very clear divide serving as a proxy between the Progressive and Conservative wings of the Democratic Party. Wagner was favored initially and led in all polls but Wood ran a strong campaign and come election time a upset was in order.



In a clear upset, Wood beat his opponent by a percentage point and a couple thousand votes. Off the back of a strong Long Island combined with winning the overall vote of the five boroughs was able to give him victory. A clear loss for Progressives, the Progressive caucus in the State was very disillusioned at this loss and many could not support Wood, who was viewed by many as still as a Republican. However the the institutions still backed Wood and the party fell in line.

James Wadsworth while costing to victory in his primary over unknown winning 89% of the vote, was still shocked how the polls viewed the race. He remembered all the popular legislation he passed and he remembered how he held 65% ratings less then a few months ago. Now he was shocked to read the paper.

Reading the New York Times it read "Wadsworth Up only 4% According to New Polls, Re-Election in Jeopardy". He did not know what he had done to make it this close. He asked his secretary Nancy.

"Nancy, have you seen these numbers. There horrible"

"Yes i have Mr. Senator. Your only up a couple of points"

"I don't know how this can be. The people loved me less then a few months ago. Now i stand at barely 51% approval. How can this happen?"

"I don't think it changed because of you, but because of the trend on the federal level. Democrats have been winning alot lately"

"I guess that makes sense. Those damn Democrats keep winning for some reason. And i'll tell ya its because the party has betrayed its small government values for Rooseveltian Big Government"

"I agree Mr. Senator"

The election was prove to be one of the closest on record. Decided within less then a point, the winner was disputed for up to 2 weeks after it was called.

Finally in late December it was called for Wood. He had won the Senate seat and picked up one for the Democrats. The "Constitutionalist of the Senate" was gone in favor of a newer Democrat face.



          -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The United States Senate Elections of 1926 were a absolute blowout for the Democrats. Under a flying economy and a booming economic output, the Democrats were able to beat out the Republican message in favor of there own.

They gained a total of 11 seats boosting there total to 56 seats in total. In addition to being in the majority, they were 7 seats over that majority. The Republicans lost nearly ever race they fought for besides a small victory  by Arthur Robinson over incumbent democrat Samuel M. Ralston. They lost seats in Colorado, Utah, Ohio, Kentucky, New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland and barely held onto supposed safe republicans states in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. They were know severely in the minority and there plan for sucess backfired completely.

The Socialists meanwhile lagged behind and lost most of there seats resulting in the worst result for them in the decade so far. They had lost more then half there seats and there leader Famous Socialist Author and Senator from California Upton Sinclair had been defeated by a Democrat. Meanwhile the Socialists lost there seats in Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma, and all except Oklahoma were over 5% losses. It was a bad night to be a Socialists.

Going into Washington the new Senate would be a majority Democratic one and full Democratic majority in all houses became a reality for the first time since before the likes of Abraham Lincoln and the founding of the Republican Party.

[The Govanah Jake]

United States House Election, 1926

Fred Gillette on eve of 1926 House Elections

Unlike in the Senate, going into the 1926 midterm elections, the United States House of Representatives had been controlled by Democrats. They held a absolute majority and after a 1924 sweep were able to muster a little other 260 total seats giving them a clear governing majority in the House. They proved to be much more loyal to the Democrats then much of the Senate Democratic Caucus too. As under the new Speaker Andrew J. Montague, nearly all House Democrats were kept in check and with many different tactics was able too keep the threat of mass vote defection aside and non-existent. Thus the many bills that Glass passed in the 1924-1926 time period almost always passed the House before having a little more difficulty in the Senate.

Like in the Senate, a coalition of Glass supporting politicians was able to broaden support for his bills too. The so called "Glass Coalition" in the House held up to 280 total reliable voters in general and dozens more as partial/part time voters. These defections mostly came from fiscal and social conservatives from the American Conservatives and Republicans who saw the new conservative shift under Glass as a possible and saw many of his bills align with there own. The Flat Tax bill was a clear example. While the House democrats faced staunch liberal disaffection from the bill resulting in a higher then average defection rate for liberal democrats; the bill gained widespread support among conservative Republicans and nearly all A.C. members and thus passed the House easily. The Liberals in the house tried to resist the conservative push in the House and tried to push back against Jackson and try to stage a party revolt.

In Spring of 1925, a collection of up to 27 Liberal Democrats signed a petition to Carter Glass asking him to remove Jackson in favor of a more moderate liberal and compromising figure. They also claimed this representation the view of dozens of more silent House Democrats on the speaker. They called for him to back a vote they had put up to remove him in favor of virtually anyone else. In the letter they called upon the president himself to name a challenger if he wants to replace Jackson. The likelihood of this working was mild at best and when it got to his desk he automatically rejected it.

"Have you seen this petition David"

"Yes, i have Mr. President. Rather pathetic if you ask me"

"Andy is a very good speaker and has gotten through nearly all of our legislation. The fact these liberals don't like him because of ideology is disgusting" he said, followed shortly after by "And the best part is they expect me to decide who to replace him with"

"Moderate Liberal my as.." Glass said after a moment of silence

"Why don't these damn liberals just leave towards the Republicans. There more welcome there" said David cutting off the President

"That question begs me every day David. Anyway once i'm done with it, ill finish the party off as the party of Andy Jackson and state rights!"

"Amen"

The vote was able to be put up in the House after some harsh opposition by Glass himself. The Democratic House Members voted and it resulted in 234-21 victory for Andrew M. Jackson over any liberal opponent.

"Now let this tell you folks on the side of the Party that hate me: almost all of the party support me and the president agenda. The more you hurt us, the more you hurt the party and the more chance you have of a republican takeover ... now you don't want that know don't you" Andrew proclaimed to a Fundraising event shortly after his victory in the House

The Democratic Strategy for the House going into the 1926 Midterms was to keep there earnings and build on there gains in the same areas where they won them in the first place: In the Northeast, and the Midwest. They also added to the list the Western districts where the 1924 election brought out hopes that a democratic voting west could be a possibility. Democratic candidates for these swing states campaigned heavily on the booming economy.

"The goal is to bring up the economy as much as possible. Remember: The Economy is good under Democrats while its bad under Republicans" read Jackson aloud as he read the party manifesto aloud in the house for all to hear. He received intense boos from the republicans in the crowd.

"That's baloney" heard one voice from the Ohio Republican Delegation while shouts of profane language could be heard from a member of the New York Republican Delegation.

Nevertheless, this policy of associating the Democrats with Good Economy was very effective. In all available polling in the swing districts, the democrat was winning badly. "Democrats To Sweep House and Senate" read the New York Times the day before the midterms based on the polling. Carter Glass was hoping to add onto the permanent democratic majority.

Twas a absolute blood bath. The Democrats smashed above the 300 seat threshold with brute force and now held 69% of all seats, the most since before the presidency of Lincoln. Now holding 301 seats there gains mostly came at the expense of Western of Northeast Republicans and reduced the Republicans to a true rump party. Having only held 121 seats, they were at there lowest point in decades upon decades of republican dominance and held virtually no sway in the House going forward. They lost whole state delegations and Gillett faced a tough re-election battle in the 2nd district of Massachusetts. Gillett won 53-45% however 21 of his fellow republicans failed in that task.

Going down the third party list, all lost seats. The ACP lost two seats and lost seats for the first time since there founding. The Prohibition Party lost there only seat remaining and now officially were a party without any real representation in the House and Senate, and thus ended a era. However perhaps the real story of the night was how badly the Socialists in the House lost by. They lost 8 seats or 72% of seats. They only held 3 seats left and risked going the way of the prohibition party. There leader Victory Berger was one of the lucky few who remained and still remained popular in his Socialist Milwaukee based district. However even he "only" won 54-39%, the closest in all of his attempts. The Socialists would look to re-evaluate themselves after the election seeing that the American Voting Populous roundly rejected the Socialist Party itself. The struggle between whether this was due to there hatred of actual "Socialism" or due to the party itself would be the main talking point between the factions in the party post-election.

The Democrats would say this election was a testament to there claim of being a "popular/peoples" party. They claimed that the Party of Jackson was the true representative of the people with there largely white ethnic themed populism.
Glass meet with leader Montague the day after the election too discuss the results in the House
(Oval Office, November 3rd, 1926)

"Hi Andrew, i see you're excited about last nights election results'"

"Indeed. The Results were glorious. We crushed those darn republicans in there own territory. Ha!"

"Whats the gain for us so far?"

"28 seats as i last checked them"

"Wow. So that.. uh.. puts us around 300 seats. ... Wow i thought i would never see the day when Democrats would hold the House by this much. Specially with, ya know, the Republican advantage and all"

"My favorite part is those Un-American Socialists getting crushed as they should be"

"I hope this kills them off. The last of 'em, the betta. Now, Andrew, i also called upon you today to discuss the coming congress."

"Yessir. What do you want to discuss"

"Well. In regards to the House, now that we have around 300 seats. I can finally get that plan of mine rollin'."

"What plan exactly?"

"Wait, Caraway didn't tell ya. I asked him too."

"Not to my recollection"

"Well i'll tell ya. Now, this couldn't be possible without a large House majority." He paused; and drank from a local glass of water "So i got too plans set for the rest of my term..."

Glass continued "First, you know the Negro problem right?"

"Of course. Those damn Negroes just rioted in St. Louis last months."

"I know. They have been a problem ever since those Republicans freed them from there chains. Now the chains part can't come back but white supremacy can be continued. The South been good with this, but the rest of the country not so much. Segregation needs to be ensured throughout the country, not in the south."

"Segregation for the Northern states? They never go with it"

"But they will. What i'm suggesting here is separation between the races in all parts of the country. Ensure the North never comes back banging on the Souths front door in a few decades from now demanding us to give the Negro more rights! We will make the Negro know that America is a White nation first and foremost and he must live under white rule and respect us." Another sip of water "I'm supporting a constitutional amendment to institute official segregation in all 50 states. I know this will have trouble passing the Northern congregations when the states vote on this, but i have been in talks with a few of these state congregations. We already have the South on lock for this and Dixie from Texas to Virginia to Kentucky and West Virginia have ensured me they support it. 15-20 states already and we need a majority!"

"I like the idea but this will never pass. I will try my best to pass it through the House but i doubt the Northerners would support it in the Senate where its closer"

[The Govanah Jake]

"All we need to 50 votes in the Senate. We already have the Southern senators on lock and also the upper Southern senators. Stanley is the only one opposing. Though i think i can work this out with him" ... " Going up north we already have the Ohio senators on lock, along with the one Democrat Senator in Indiana. I worked out some fiscal policy with them and from i last heard of them, they were on board. The Dems in the Northeast are a lost cause but the Dems in the West could be convinced. I've talked with a few senators including the Senator elects from Utah and Arizona and they told me they would back the amendment if i tweaked it a little to end the poll tax part in the amendment which i agreed.. So we can get there"

"Ok. If you think you can do it, i will back it 100% Mr. President"

"Good. Now the second think i wanna tell ya. I want to add the Flat Tax to the constitution"

"Now this i can see more likely"

"Yes. We need it official that the country needs financial restraint. What better place to put that in then the constitution!" Glass stared at his watch "All real democrats are on board and we have a lot of Republicans and all A.C. members too"

"I'll see what i can due in the House when this comes to a vote"

"Thank you Andrew, you've been a big help"

"Thank You, Mr. President"

Gillett epic loss for the party so far had taken its toll in the Party. His moderating figure between the two factions failed to be doing any good for the party and was now leader of a rump party. There was calls for him to resign his post as Minority Leader. A vote to replace him was called too order in the House. The agreed candidate for his opponent was Albert Henry Vestal. From Indiana's 8th District, running on a platform of hope and optimism for the future of the Republican Party, he fell mostly in line with the Moderate mantra with a Progressive streak. Calling on all republicans to denounce the failure of Gillette, he saw Gillett not as the moderate he said he was, but as a dangerous conservative trying to destroy the party.

"That Man in a American Conservative Agent" he declared to the Washington Times Newspaper

Gillette dismissed the claims as rubbish.

"I assure you that i'm not puppet"

In the end the party in the House voted for Gillette by a 66 - 41 voting margin. Gillette and been saved from a embarrassing defeat but was him holding control of a party in the house with embarrassingly low amount of seats any different?

The Midterms had been a failure for the Republicans and now they entered the final two years of President Glass.

[Bidenworth2020]

you really put in the work, this is very historically realistic!

[The Govanah Jake]

you really put in the work, this is very historically realistic!

Thank You!

[DFL]

This is an incredible read, thank you for the effort you put into this!

[The Govanah Jake]

This is an incredible read, thank you for the effort you put into this!

Glad your enjoying it!

[The Govanah Jake]

The Final Years of Carter Glass

Glass on the cover of the New York Times, Circa. 1927



Going into the final two year stretch of the Carter Glass presidency, the Democratic Party was at its Height. 300+ seats in the House, almost 60 seats in the senate, and a massively popular president. So far they had already accomplished a massive checklist of policies that they promised the American people. From a Flat Tax, to a rollback of the Rooseveltian Welfare State and the end of rampant internationalism. They had been able to enact the Democrats agenda by a massive coalition of formal and informal supporters of the president known as the “Glass Coalition” in the House and Senate.

This was composed mostly of Democrats, and would still hold a majority with only democrats, but held many Republicans along with it. The New Democratic push towards fiscal restraint appealed to many conservative republicans who themselves found their ideas growing more and more unwelcome in the party, as they started to embrace the welfare state and big government as an effective reform to capitalism (in direct spite of the Socialists). The democrats meanwhile maintain a staunch support against the basic welfare state and big government in general. They called for reform in government however not through bigger government.  

“We are a Party of Jackson and Cleveland. This means we are a party of the people and their freedoms, and as the government grows and centralizes, the less freedom we the people have” Glass said in a speech in 1920 during the election that year.

Already doing big goals and measures at the moment, they knew this prosperity would not last. They knew eventually the Republicans would come back to power in some way and that they would roll back many of the Democrats reforms and measures. So they seemed to make them more permanent. They seeked to preserve their achievements in stone and stone in the legal sense meant the constitution. They seeked, through a series of constitutional proposals, to make sure there acts could not be removed by future republican attempts. Spearheaded by Glass, Jackson, and Caraway; they proposed a series of amendments for the next 2 years.

The first amendment proposal to come up was one on the Flat Tax. Sending the bill to Jackson, H.R. 4075 or officially the “Flat Taxation Amendment Measure”, was put before the House to be voted for. The measure sent shock waves around the congressional world. A amendment hadn't been attempted in decades. When first seeing the bill many saw it as a simple power move

“This proposal is a outright political move. They know that eventually we (republicans) will come to power and remove all this nonsense those Democrats have put us through, and so they seek to make their moves permanent. This is not have the constitution works. It is meant to preserve our rights, not ensure one party's agenda over another” wrote one Republican columnist for the New York Times

The House voted on whether or not to precede and vote on the bill.

And they did. In a 359 - 73 motion, the bill was put before the House to be voted on. Jackson campaigned hard for it to past. His efforts became noticeable one day when he shouted down a attempt to end the discussion by a group of Progressive Republican, Democrats, and Socialists

“I call to order further discussion of the amendment to preserve the Flat Taxation bill to order…”

“Stop trying to destroy the purpose of the constitution” shouted the gentleman from Ohio

“Now … now congressmen. We don't need to get disorderly in this House. Let's have a legitimate dis…”

“This is treasonous what you're doing” shouted a voice from the Wisconsin delegation. There was pause “I know you're a good man Andrew but try to be independent, but some puppet of Glass which we all know you're are”

Quick to reply “Now you listen here. I'm a independent man fully. My goals happen to intertwine with the president's goals because we both agree a lot, nothing more.” … Now I will call order to this House and call for legitimate discussion, not a shouting match. This bill was be voted on April 9th and you can't stop it by shouting”

Going on his word, the bill was voted on the 9th. Voting started early and ended late. In a oddly full house for a random April morning. The voting began at 7 AM. Jackson preceded over his fellow representatives.

“I call to order the bill to make the Flat Tax a constitutional amendment.”

“..Ok so that's 114 for 53 against..”

“193 to 148 now”

“285 to 131 as we are nearing the end”

“And the final count is 296 for to 135 against. This Body passes the Flat Tax Amendment proposal” Jackson smashed his gavel into his chair.

The bill showed a great victory for Carter Glass. It passed decisively with 2/3rds the House vote off the backs of a massive late surge in Republican defections and almost all democratic backing the bill. The bill now entered the Senate. The margin in the House was able to cheer up the bills supporters including the president entering the senate. However as the senate was known as being a less friendly place then the House for the President, there was a great fear it wouldn't be passed. However Thaddeus Caraway ensured the President and the bills supporters that he would pass the bill with ease. The threat of the filibuster however made sure it would not be as easy a process. A collection of Liberal and Progressive Democratic Senators refused to vote for the bill. Spearheaded by the Senator from Montana Burton Wheeler, they joined with moderate republicans lead by Curtis in filibustering the bill. Wheeler led a 10 hour filibuster himself

“The Bill is a disgrace…”

“The bill is for big business and against the common person”

“... this is clearly unconstitutional”

We're just some of the things that could be heard from him during his filibuster. Another prominent senator from the Senators to speak up against the bill was Senator Stanley from Kentucky. He called the bill an “absolute nightmare to the American people”

Standing up before the senate during one day of discussion he said of the bill “Carter is trying to make himself king with Amendment. I hope the American people will see through this facade”

These defector Democrats were joined with the Republican Party establishment led by Curtis and the moderate faction.

Curtis like others before him displayed his disgust for the bill. “The proposal is unconstitutional and is a true power move. The Republican Party will not stand for such tyranny”.

However the Republican Party faced defections to the other side too. To their right, the conservative republican caucus of up to 14 Republican senators. The official group in the party known simply as the “Conservative Caucus”, was always a thorn on the side of the Republican establishment. When they endorsed the bill, it came as no surprise to most. Not only had they actively campaigned for the passage of the legislation in the House, they also endorsed many pieces of legislation out of spite of the moderate faction.

This gave the for campaign a much clearer gain from this swap of party's. This was because the 14 members was still much more than the measly amount of 7 Democrats who defected from the bill, a half less. The filibuster was defeated after more than a month of it. But Caraway had enough of it and called on a vote to end the filibuster. 58 to 33 was the defeat. In a stunning defeat of a mighty oppositional coalition was rejoiced by the president and was seen as the last defense against the anti-Flat Tax movement in regards to the amendment.


On June 11th, 1927, the Senate passed the Flat Tax amendment in a swift 66-28 motion with 2 not present at voting time.


“FLAT TAX AMENDMENT VICTORIOUS” read the New York Times front page the following day. Carter watched on with glory. As his first attempt at a amendment so far was all successful. The opposition however still had hope. After the Senate the amendment would go to the state legislatures to be voted on. If ¾ of those state legislatures vote in one way or another, then it is passed and put into the constitution. Glass had the backing of the Southern delegations and got 13 states approved for the amendment by September of 1927. All in the Deep South. Intense fights and floor debates raged on in dozens of state legislatures over the proposal in the following few years. Progressive groups tried there best to lobby swing legislatures against the bill. A newly formed group, known as the “People for Progressive Change” was formed just to fight the issue. Mass amounts of money was spent at the state levels by both sides at state levels to try to elect favorable state senators and legislators to their sides. After the Deep South, the next states to fall were in the west. The Plains states were able to sign onto the bill and Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and the Plains states fell by December of 1927.

Attempts to pass the bill however failed at the same time in Minnesota, New York, and Michigan. In 1928, 18 more states signed onto the bill of which 11 went for the amendment. By early 1929, the bill stood at 32 for - 11 against with no side with a 3/4th majority of 36. The map showed for states comprising of the South and advanced into the west while holding Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut. While the against vote was concentrated mostly in the Northeast and Midwest in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, with Montana falling to their side too in the west. The final hold out states were in the Upper South and Pacific Northwest. By the middle of 1929, Tennessee passed the amendment bringing up to 33 after heavy fundraising for it by former president (by 1929) Carter Glass. In Kentucky, the state mostly made up of Appalachian and rural poor whites was not too fond of the Flat Tax itself. Stanley, senator from Kentucky, campaigned actively against the measure and the state ultimately voted overwhelmingly against putting the proposal into the constitution. Missouri, was seen as a swing state as the state held a State Senate and Legislature full of Anti-Flat Taxer Democrats and Republicans. Going into the Summer of 1929, the bill was able to narrowly pass the legislature on the backs of the Democratic majority in the body. The bill went to the senate. There, Senate leader Edwin Curfman, a republican from North Missouri, refused in any way possible to pass the bill. A member of the progressive republican wing, he refused to proceed over the bill and stalled it for months.

[The Govanah Jake]

It wasn't until Democrats in the Senate led by Russell Dearmont and Ralph Wammack finally managed to override his filibuster and get it to vote. Off the backs of Dearmont, he was able to campaign his fellow democrats around the bill. The Progressive Democrats in the state were virtually dead and Dearmont was able to round up all the Democrats to his camp. Curfman, so started a war of public opinion. Advertising mainly through posters and radio, he was able to round much of the populace against the measure. “A Flat Tax may sound nice but it only hurts you!” or “Flat Taxes are for the Rich” were just some of the lines that were displayed on posters and on the radio throughout much of the North and central regions. In St. Louis, the Republican city was a site of brutal attack ads for each side. Democrats under the St. Louis mayor William Igoe used racial sentiments to win their way. In a city strife with racial animosity between the Black and White populations, Igoe approved radio ads on the against side saying they “were owned by Negroes” and “against the white man” while saying the local race riots of 1929 in the city were caused by Anti-Flat Tax agitators. The Anti-Flat Taxers meanwhile argued there issue with the bill was mainly economic rather than racial. Though it didn't help this cause by the fact that the black population overwhelmingly were against the bill. After weeks of back and forths in the Senate, the final filibusters were voted down and in a 49-42 motion, the amendment passed.

The Democrats rejoiced and so did the supporters nationwide. Curfman refused to go down easily trying to stall the bill as much as possible. A.W Nelson, the democratic governor signed the bill into law on October 2nd, 1929. Out west Oregon easily passed the measure while in the east, the Byrd Machine and corruption carried the day in West Virginia giving the bill 36 states and thus a 3/4ths majority. Too top it off, Washington voted for the bill and thus in a 37-11 motion, the bill was put into the constitution on January 1st, 1930. Putting it as the 20th amendment

The next amendment Glass wanted to put up was a lot more controversial. After much discussion with many congressmen and senators, Glass put up H.R 4226 or the “Natural Restoration Act”. The act would enforce legal segregation in all 48 states and enforced the supposed natural authority of whites over “the negro races”. The bill, when first revealed, proved to be extremely polarizing. Supporters including most Southerners held the view as a positive. As Senator Duncan Fletcher said “I support this bill to vote against the moral decay of this country after decades of social barbarism by Negroes”. The Southern congregation fell in line. Meanwhile on the opposite side, critics regarded the bill as “fascistic”, “morally horrible”, “racist”, and “inhumane”. The bill was put up to vote on October 29th, 1927. This time however, the bill did not have as easy a time passing the House. Republicans stood solidly against it. Some for moral reasons and many of the conservatives for constitutional or governmental reasons. The Democrats faced mass defection. Many democrats from the north and west refused to sign into the bill.

Glass had his time tested as he meet with dozens of democrats per day too try to get there vote. He removed the last references of poll taxes in the amendment due to fears of it hurting poor whites and made the definition of negro races to include just blacks of more than “half negro blood”. He also changed it to exclude governmental segregation of “extremely old” and “young Negroes” and changed the meaning of the bill to only apply to healthy Black males excluding women too. This was able to quiet most for now, and he was able to keep the defections to a minimum. Some Northern Democrats refused to sign onto it. Franklin Roosevelt, who was looking for some political office after his defeat, called the bill “legal fascism” and “Anti-American”. The republicans in the House sensed a defeat of Glass in the making and put in all their efforts against the bill. Following Hughes example, they portrayed themselves against the bill not for civil rights but for the fact that it was unconstitutional and “legalizing morality”. They spent hundreds of thousands on advertising nationwide in order to rally public opinion against the president. It worked to do extent and it hurt his approval ratings which fell down to 52% by February of 1928. The bill was voted on November 1st however to the republicans doubts. Jackson again proceeded over the rulings.

“I call to order the “National Restoration Act”

“The vote right now is 16 aye to 12 no. The gentlemen from South Carolina will now vote on the matter”

“From what I can read here it's a tie at 85-85”

“123 no to 157 yay”

“Thank you gentlemen. It's 134 no to 247 yay now”

“The vote results so far. 290 yay to 143 no”

“The final votes are being counted…”

“291 yay to 214 no with 2 abstaining” Jackson spoke with glee “The National Restoration Act has been passed with a 2/3rds majority this body declares” cheers could be heard from some southern democrats while boos were heard from the other side. It next went to the Senate, there it had a similar problem. The Democrats faced widespread animosity towards the bill from Republicans, A.C.P. members, and Socialists with many democrats themselves holding sustain for the bill mostly situated in the North. Burton Wheeler again led a filibuster along with Senator Stanley and David Walsh of Massachusetts. The Democrats in the senate however held a large number of southern democrats in it and background deals lead by Caraway ensured most democrats fell in line behind the bill. He also made an appeal to the AC saying of the bill that it would maintain social conservatism. On November 4th, the Senate voted on it.

Caraway called an end of the vote by the 4th hour and in a 65-30 vote, it passed holding a bare 2/3rds majority. The president rejoiced as the bill went further than any had expected. But it wasn't over. Unlike in the Flat Tax bid, segregation did not have as much nationwide appeal. Mostly concentrated in the South, Glass had a intense problem with the Northern and Western congregations who refused to vote for the bill. By January the first states to vote showed this clear divide. The proposal won in landslides throughout the South and even won in the proposals in West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Oklahoma. On the other hand it failed in all Northeastern states north of Pennsylvania/New Jersey and won in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. 17 for 15 against. By the summer of 1928, the bill passed in New Mexico, Arizona, Indiana, Maryland, and Oregon, but failed in Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. 22 for and 25 against. By now it was impossible for the bill to get ¾th of all 48 states and thus dead in water. The final vote was 22 for - 26 against.

On foreign policy the Glass administration continued on its isolationist streak. On his first act of the new congress he issued a treaty with the Japanese Empire on water territory's and land rights. Between the two, the Pacific was divided de facto between the United States and the Japanese empire. The far away American naval outpost of the Midway Islands was seen as the dividing point. Meanwhile the treaty also set up a economic and military pact between the two supporting a free trade deal with Japanese businesses and cooperative military technology production supporting the increased military power of Japan in exchange for joint military technological development and respect for American territories and waters. The reason for signing the bill was according to Glass “to protect the remaining free countries of the world against international communism. Japan has shown time and time again that they despise communism”. The congress easily passed this measure 363-64 in the House and 76-14 in the Senate. The Pacific Cooperative Treaty was signed into law on July 18th, 1927.

To the north meanwhile, Glass meet with the Canadian liberal prime minister to create a new trade deal in regards to the lumber trade. Following in the free trade tradition, he lowered the lumber tax significantly from his predecessor, Hiram Johnson's 75% tax on Canadian Lumber. Instead he lowered it to 40%. A move widely praised by democrats and booed on by republicans, he also lowered the tariff rate on overall trade between the two countries from the median tariff rate of 56% to 32%. Finally he also finally ended any real territory's disputes with Canada in the Border treaty of 1928 ending the disputes in Maine, Washington, Alaska, and Minnesota with often favorable end results for the United States. Down to the south meanwhile, he tried to work with the Mexican Government and the de-facto dictator of Mexico, though failed miserably after he declared to the president that “I will not work with him unless Mexico gets her rightfully owned land stolen from us in 1848”. Displaying his obvious fascist tensions, he invaded Guatemala in June of 1928 in order to restore the Mexican empire. His swift advance into the country surprised and worried many other Latin American countries including the United States. Glass refused to intervene even when a large amount of his acquaintances urged him to do it. Instead he used trade sanctions to try to crush the country economically. This did hurt the country but didn't stop there advance.  

[The Govanah Jake]

By Late July, Mexico had taken the Guatemalan capital and advanced into most major cities. The Guatemalan army largely defected and by late August, the government surrounded after an Mexican brigade caught and killed the Mexican president. Immediately after they surrendered, the countries of El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Honduras sent warnings to the Mexican dictator warning that they would declare war if the Mexican government advanced any further. Dismissing the warnings, he still stopped his advance wanting to salvage what he had and come back for the other country's later. Mexico annexed Guatemala as a province. Across the Atlantic Ocean meanwhile, Glass tried to work with the British and French government to combat the growing communist threat. At the League of Nations summer 1928 meeting of international leaders, Glass re mentioned the purpose of the group as an “international backlash against global, anti-Democratic and godless communism”. He recalled the new communist governments in Italy and Germany and said they needed to be checked or there would not be any non-communist countries to live in since it was growing so fast. He directly mentioned Stalin too saying of him that he was an “absolute madman”, “crazy person”, and a “mass murderer”. He stressed the need for international cooperation too while saying that empire building and interventionism in wars should be a way of the past for advanced western nations. His speech got a good response from the hall. The German and Italian governments issued a joint condemnation of the aggressive tone beefing up military forces to their western borders in order to protect their western flanks from the military placed along their respective borders. Glass too condemned the aggressive nature of his opponents calling it “clear communist aggression”. In October of 1928, in order to counter this, he supported the “Federal Arms Reinvestment Act of 1928” which was a increase in funding of 10 million annual towards military forces along with an increased focus of military technology. He said this was clearly for defensive reasons however.

Summing up on his accomplishments, nearing the summer of 1928 he knew his presidency would be coming to a closer very soon. The looming 1928 election proved to be momentous in the fact that he choose not to run again. The popular president banked on a democratic win in 1928 to hold and expand on his accomplishments as he was gone. For himself, he took the rest of term on a basic off. He put off and future work on domestic affairs and spent weeks on end on leisurely vacations and foreign visits. He was able to take this time to be able to speak at the League of Nations annual meeting in London for the second time, the first being in 1922. Looking back on his accomplishments, he hoped he would prove to be a great president and among the greatest presidents as he so hoped. Future historians would see his presidency as a period of prosperity, boom, and light on a America at the peak of its industrial prime.

The booming stock market and stock exchanges showed that the economy was as good as ever with the DJIA reaching a 16 year high in 1926 and a all time high in 1928. Americans attitudes on the future on bright for all people and it showed in the fact that 1925-1929 saw the highest amount of people acquiring stocks and other financial units than ever before. Not just the rich, merchants, and banking industrialists were buying these stocks, even common folks like farmers and industry workers were finding spare money to invest in. It was a great time. But the high involvement did come at a risk. If even a slight market downturn occurred it could all come crumbling down. Speculation was high and inflation was slowly rising in the last few years of the 1920s. The creation of this bubble would prove to be monumental too past the 20s. However for now, hopes were high and people were buying. Culture and Technology flourished as new technologies became mainstream like the Car and Planes, and progressive influence from the 1910s brought the beginning of new social liberation for white females as they slowly became equals with their male counterparts. But again not all was bright and happy. Glasses administration brought a regression to the pre Rooseveltian Progressive view on racial issues: specifically blacks.

Being a Southern Democrat, he resented much of the racial progress Roosevelt tried to bring to some extent. Even lending a figure to the Negro was considered treasonous to them. When Glass was elected he tried to please his southern base as much as possible by removing any and all advances on the issue by his predecessors and governed strictly as a segregationist on the issue favoring segregation fully between the races. He even was able to bring in fascistic legislation promoting national segregation between the races through the House and Senate and tried to make it a amendment. This failed after it failed to get much northern and western appeal from the state legislatures and state senates, but was perhaps the closest time America would see such type of advance by the segregationists on the racial political issue. However when all was said and done, Glass would be remembered as a fine man whose policies was able to bring a decade of prosperity. The task now was too try to continue this legacy past the decade into the 1930s. And the key to this was the 1928 election.

[Kingpoleon]

The amendment was nowhere close to two-thirds of the vote in the Senate...

[The Govanah Jake]

The amendment was nowhere close to two-thirds of the vote in the Senate...

Fixed.

[The Govanah Jake]

Next Chapter: Setting the Stage

A Party after Glass: The 1928 Democratic Primary's.

The Republican Primary's of 1928

Third Party's going in the 1928 Election

The Opening Point - The 1928 Fall Campaign for President

1928 United States General Election Results

1928 United States Senate Elections

1928 United States House Elections

The Inauguration of a New President.

[The Govanah Jake]

A Party after Glass: The 1928 Democratic Primary

John Davis (Right) and Franklin Roosevelt (Left) seen together, circa 1928

Carter Glass was popular. That was already said, and that was widely known. Holding upwards of a 65% approval rating, he could've very easily run for a third term in 1928 and won it easily against whomever the republicans decided to nominate. In fact there was an effort by some democrats to break traditions and support a third term for Glass, breaking the two term limit symbolically set by George Washington as a sign of democracy and transfer of power. A "Draft Carter" as it was known was eager to force Glass to accept a possible handover of the democratic nomination from the DNC to him. Calling on the long, almost 8 years of a growing economy combined with tremendous economic gains in the GDP and international peace abroad, posters supporting it used the phrase "He has already given you 8 years of prosperity, why not 4 more?".

Carter made it very clear, to the third term supporters, however that he would not run for a third term. He called to maintain the two term tradition of Washington and give the American people a new choice to pick from. With him out, the speculation did not end. The next in line for the handing of the Democratic nomination too was David R. Francis, the vice president. A relatively quiet second in command, he still held a bombastic and likable charisma to him and could very easily continue prosperity for 4 more years. He was Southern and a Moderate too who could appeal to Northern Progressives with a greater support for some welfare schemes but holding the party line in the Old South with a very clear Conservative and Southern style to his politicking.

Speculation for him to run and succeed Glass was greatest in the 1925-1927 period with the NYT showing its height with a June 16th, 1927 title read "FRANCIS MAKING MOVES FOR RUN, TOP INSIDE SOURCES SAY". What was unknown to them at that moment was that the inside sources were severely inaccurate. Speculation for his rise and run for the higher office was known throughout the newspaper business but it was halted to its feet come primary season with the simple fact that Francis was simply too old to run for office anymore. At age 76, he was already the oldest vice president to ever hold office, and he would nearing 80 not even a few years into a potential Francis administration.

He was also not the healthiest of people suffering two minor/major health incidents in his tenure as vice president so far: One in September of 1924 when he suffered a minor heart attack on the campaign trail and another in Late November of 1926, this time both severe. He survived both attempts and although some called for his resignation due to his age, both Carter and himself wanted to finish his tenure. On a warm August day, Francis addressed a anticipated press corp at his vice presidential home not too far from the White House:

Francis walked onto the stage. There he carried a simple slip of paper.

"Ain't it Hot out here" he mumbled. He wiped the sweat already forming on his upper brow. He looked down to look at his paper the press were charged up to know what was on.

"I Think we all know why I called y'all out here” he said with a somewhat humorous tone. “To keep it blunt: No i will not run for president and I intend, once I get home to the lovely state of Missouri, to never run for elected office again. Thank You!” the crowd fell silent. Some gasps and surprised sounds could be heard from the audience. The vice president walked off the stage with the page in hand.

With the Vice President out, the field of other potential candidates grew. The Progressives and the Glassite Moderates battled it out on potential nominee options. Names flew left and right as the Progressives themselves say a opening. As without any major candidates from the right of the party, a progressive could come in and save the party in there eyes. It would difficult for them to get past the Primaries and into the mainly personal fiefdom of Carter Glass which was the DNC, and the actual number of Progressives in the party in both the convention delegates and primary voters had shrunk as a mass exodus to the Republicans began but the Progressive House and Senate's still discussed for hours on end during the Summer to Fall Governing period of 1927 of the possibility.

The most major figure to have to talked about then and in progressive circles was not as long or unknown as some wanted their guy to be. It was none other than Franklin Roosevelt, the former secretary of war and long time frontman about running for President. Being from New York, the most populous and electorally rich state in the union, he was bond to be viewed as a very electable candidate. He already made his intentions before that he wanted to be president. He ran and came within an inch of the nomination in 1920 but was beat out in the edge by Glass. Since he had always held a issue with him. And when he used as a appeasement cabinet pick, he hopped off the administration to try to run for governor. His defeat in the 1926 New York Democratic Primary for Governor however was seen as the end of him.

Unable to win a simple primary in a state was seen by detractors as a sign that he was unelectable and unfit to run for president and win. The President went out of his way to ensure that he would not enter the race, even though he promised to end as impartial as possible in the nominating promise. When asked by the press Corp on the issue in a October press conference he said of Roosevelt, “That man is a true charlatan. He claims to be important but really is a leftist extremist that ruined our economy past decade”. He held the support of the DNC too and really what went past him was who really would become the nominee, not much of a democratic process. He activity talked with the DNC Chair from West Virginia, Clement Shaver:


“Clem, I got a proposition for ya. Don't make that damn Yankee Roosevelt to run!” Said Carter picking up the phone with a very sarcastic tone.

“Come on Carter. We already discussed this. We can't force people to not enter the race. It's undemocratic”

“Ok fine, I'll admit that. But he does run ya better make sure he doesn't win, this is important Clemmy”

“The DNC is behind you 100 Mr. President, don't worry”

“Good. I want to be remembered and we can't let some leftist like Roosevelt win our party over”

“Mr. President it won't happen”

“I appreciate it Clem” Glass hung up the phone and in came his 2 advisors

“Mr. President, Roosevelt is running"


(2 months earlier).   -------------

“Charles… Can you get Frank Roosevelt on the phone” called Senator Wheeler to his secretary Charles Ruttonhoft.

“He’s on” Charles exclaimed after a minute of phoning up Frank. Burton sat down in his chair, phone on the desk and started:

“Frankkk.. How are you”

“Wait… Is that Burt i hear, been so long”

“Indeed it is. Sorry you got beat in that primary.  Wood guy seems like a real hack”

“That suckah sure is. He was a republican and only became a democrat to win. Despicable i say!”

“Got any future plans?”

“Eh. I’m deciding whether i should end my political service or run for some office. Everybody thinks that i’m running for president. The press takes to speculation out of everything”

“Now that we can both agree on. Now i called ya Frank for a reason.”

“What is it?”

“Well i know you just said you ain’t running for president but please consider it. I’m asking you to run. For me, for the party, … for our country.”

“No, no, no. I can't…”

“Come on. Do it. Do it for Progressives. We finally have a chance to win back our party”

“I'm not the right person. I failed in that primary. If I failed in that then how am i suppose to win a primary run by that prick Glass. It's rigged against us Burt!”

“I know. I'm just say run for a meaning. Run to say we Democratic Progressives are not dead but alive.”

“But I would still lose…”

Burton interjected “I know. I'm saying if you do lose, don't make the end at the convention halls. We need to show Glass to his face that we are a big force”

“What do you suggest?” Franklin asked curiously.

“Run third party. Form a Progressives party. The people deserve a option this election who will fight for them. I along with at least 10 others senators I've talked too agree with me. I could join you on the ticket if you want…”

“Wheeler, let's be reasonable here. It could never win and give the election to the republicans”

“That's not the point. Just think about it”

Charles walked into the office saying “Senator Stanley is here to meet you”

Roosevelt replied back “Fine I will”

“Thank you. I have to go, Senator Stanley is here”

“Thanks for the offer Burt”. Roosevelt hanged up the phone. Looking outside he saw a city bustling with cars on the roads and people on the streets. A light dusting of snow covered the landscape as the December winter storms began to arrive. Thinking and contemplating, he finally made a decision

...

The former Secretary of War walked on the stage

“I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, have spent my life's work out to help people and battle the special interests. I can not sit idle nor I can not make action for what the last 8 years have brung. The party I once felt was truly the party of the people is no more. It has become the party of Big Business and corruption. The president has ensured that this process had become final. We as a nation … no, we as a party need to overcome this. I will run for president because of this”



...



"You will do it... right John" The President said

"Of Course, Mr. President. It is my honor" replied a eager John Davis

"Good. Knock out that leftist Roosevelt, and continue the prosperity!"

...

The Secretary of State walked on the stage, head held high.