INVESTIGATION OF CERTAIN CHARGES UNDER HOUSE RESOLUTION

NO. 543.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Washington, D. C., April 1, 1910.

The select committee to investigate certain charges under House resolution No. 543 met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., and organized.

There were present Messrs. Olcott (chairman), Longworth, Hawley, and Garrett, Mr. Humphreys being absent on account of illness. Mr. John J. Fleming was appointed clerk of the committee. House resolution 543 was presented and is as follows:

[H. Res. 543, Sixty-first Congress, second session.]

Whereas Mr. Halvor Steenerson on the third day of March, nineteen hundred and ten, submitted to the House a resolution calling for an investigation of certain charges reflecting on him in his official capacity and on the membership of the House generally, which resolution was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary for consideration, and to determine whether or not an investigation should be had, as provided for therein, and to report to the House its recommendation; and

Whereas said committee had hearings on the question submitted to it, and the evidence taken at said hearings shows that on December first, nineteen hundred and nine, there appeared in the American Flag, a publication purporting to be issued by the Merchant Marine League of the United States, an article headed:

"Congressman Steenerson, of Minnesota-Does he represent the foreign shipping interests or his own district?"

And said article contained, on page five, the following language:

"STEENERSON EXHORTS AND FOREIGNERS REJOICE.

"Halvor Steenerson, in opposition to the majority sentiment of his State, stood up in his place in the House of Representatives and to the delight and exultation of the foreign shipowners and ship operators used the power of his position, of his ability, and his voice to fasten on the country more securely than ever the grip by which foreign nations, through their subsidized shipping companies, largely control the foreign trade of the country and incidentally endeavor to dictate the commercial relations of the United States with the world."

And on page six the following:

"At the very beginning of the league's work its executive officers decided that the organization must be so conducted as to be in a position truthfully to assert at all times that it is free from connection with shipping interests, since such a charge is about the first one to be looked for from the foreign shipping combinations and their representatives in and out of Congress who bitterly resent the activities of the league in demanding such legislation as will restore the American flag to something of commercial importance and political dignity it once enjoyed on the seas of the world." And on pages fourteen and fifteen the following:

"WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?

"Is a man fit to hold high public office that will deliberately pervert and maliciously falsify the facts connected with any important public question? Is he safe-a trustworthy man? We hold that he is not. Such a man is dishonest and an enemy to his country and his country's best interest, and that he and men like him are a constant menace to American progress at home and abroad. There are not many such in Congress, but there will always be found a few, and the ninth district of Minnesota has one."

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