(Transcribed by Leora White, September 2007)

THE PUBLIC CAREER OF ARSENE P. PUJO

LOUISIANA CONGRESSMEN, 1903 - 1913

A Thesis

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the

Louisiana State University and

Agricultural and Mechanical

College in partial fulfillment of the 

Requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

in

The Department of History

by

James Carroll Beam

B. A. McNeese State College, 1955

January, 1963

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author wishes to express his gratitude to Professors Donald Millett, William Hair and Burl Noggle for their assistance in the preparation of this thesis.  Professor Millet suggested the topic and rendered assistance in research and Professors Hair and Noggle aided in research and in reading thesis drafts.  The writer also wishes to acknowledge his wife whose patience has made completion of the thesis possible.  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT          

ABSTRACT  

CHAPTER
    I. CITIZEN PUJO
    II. PUJO AND LOUISIANA POLITICS
    III. THE EARLY YEARS IN CONGRESS, 1903-1907
    IV. LATER CONGRESSIONAL TERMS, 1907-1913
    V. THE MONEY TRUST INQUIRY
    VI. THE PUJO REPORT
    VII. THE SENATE RACE AND RETIREMENT

BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX
VITA  

ABSTRACT

Arsene Paulin  Pujo (1861-1939), prominent Lake Charles, Louisiana attorney, devoted much of his lifetime to serving local, state, and national governments.  An advocate of the direct primary, he always put his candidacy for public office before the people of his state.  His individualism was apparent throughout his public service.  From 1903 to 1913, he served the Seventh Congressional District of Louisiana in the United States House of Representatives.  Labor, industrial, and agricultural interests benefited from the legislation he supported and the appropriations he secured.  An examination of the public records reveals that Pujo voted for and supported many of the progressive measures characteristic of the period in which he was a representative.  At the same time, he supported conservative views which indicated he was not confined in his political thinking.

Pujo gained national recognition when he served as chairman of the Money Trust Investigation of 1912-1913.  The inquiry revealed that J. P. Morgan and his associates controlled corporations with assets greater than the assessed value of all the property west of the Mississippi River. The investigation did not result in any direct legislation, but it did influence laws designed to remedy the existing financial inequities.

During World War I, Pujo served on the United States Selective Service Board for the Western District of Louisiana and on the Louisiana Council of Defense.  His adeptness in the interpretation of the Selective Service Act illustrated an inherent understanding of most laws dating back as far as the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1898.  Pujo’s effectiveness as a public servant may be judged in light of the fact that while in Congress, he secured appropriations for the Seventh District which exceeded all the money expended by the Federal government in the district during the century of American rule before his election.  

CHAPTER  I

CITIZEN PUJO

Paul Pujo emigrated from Tarbes, Haute-Pyrenees, France in 1837 and in 1849 settled in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  Paul’s father, Pascal Pujo, and his brothers were soldiers in the armies of Napoleon.  His mother, Rose Margaret deBroca, was the daughter of Count Paul Francois deBroca of Tieste, Haute-Pyrenees, France.  After settling in Louisiana, Paul married Eloise Minerva LeBleu and later fought in the Civil War.  When the war was over, Paul returned to Lake Charles and established a mercantile store in the growing Louisiana town.  At that time most supplies were hauled overland by wagon into Lake Charles from Houston, Texas.   Located on the lakefront, Pujo’s store was the only one in Lake Charles in 1868 and the merchandise he stocked was said to be worth less than one hundred dollars.  His business was successful and he remained a merchant until two years before his death. (1)

Paul’s wife was a native of Louisiana and the daughter of Arsene and Eliza Milhomme Le Bleu.  Arsene LeBleu was a planter and stock raiser and one of the wealthy and influential citizens of his community.  The Pujo family made their home at Rose Bluff, a small area located on the Calcasieu River about two miles west of Lake Charles, and spent remainder of their lives in the community.  Pujo was prominently identified with the growth of Lake Charles and one of the main streets of the city bears his name. (2)

Arsene Paulin Pujo, born December 16, 1861, was the third of four children born to the Pujo’s. (3)  Although Arsene attended public and private schools in Lake Charles, he was described as a self-educated man.  Although not entirely a self-made man, a friend said of him in 1902: 

Mr. Pujo is not the product of any college or university.  He is a self-educated and self-made man.  He began to learn what he knows at that late period of life when others more fortunate went out of colleges already well equipped for the battle of life; yet he ranks high in the state of Louisiana as a scholar, a writer, an orator and a jurist.  He earned his diploma by patient industry, with a fertile brain. (4)

Paul Pujo died in 1883 and Arsene became administrator of the family estate.  As administrator, he developed an interest in law. (5)  He read law in the offices of Gabriel A. Fournet, a Lake Charles attorney, and was admitted to the Louisiana bar before the state supreme court October 23, 1886.  He immediately began practice in Lake Charles. (6)

Pujo began building a home on the northwest corner of Bilbo and Mill streets in Lake Charles in October, 1889.  On December 16, 1889, he married Gussie Brown of Orange, Texas in the Presbyterian church of that city.  Gussie Brown was the daughter of Dr. Samuel Moore Brown.  The couple moved into their new home on December 25, 1889. (7)  Later accounts described the home as a mansion when compared with most homes of its time.  The Pujo home was a Lake Charles landmark until it was demolished about 1947. (8)

Two daughters, Elaine and Mona, were born to the Pujo's.  (9)  The family traveled frequently, spending a considerable amount of their travel time in New Orleans.  The summer of 1896 was spent in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Pujo’s interest in national politics was awakened on the Colorado journey judging from a newspaper account which said on his return to Lake Charles that he was “fully convinced that Bryan and the Chicago platform are right, and should be elected by the American people.” (10)  Although the family traveled extensively, they were not active in the social affairs of Lake Charles until after Pujo was elected to Congress in 1902. (11)   Pujo did become a member of the Boston Club in New Orleans. (12)  He was a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

Arsene, unlike his father, was not a quiet, unassuming man.  One account describes him as “a man of strong will and resolute character, always dominating every situation by his personality and ability.” (13)   A well-built and decidedly handsome man, he was described, at age fifty-one, as dark haired and mustached.  He was five feet, nine inches in height. (14)  A law partner said he was quick-minded, legally adept and a charming man personally.  In describing Pujo’s personality, the partner remarked:

He had a nice little habit I’ve always appreciated.  He had three offices and mine was next to the hallway.  He always stopped in and chatted awhile.  He always had something historical or amusing to relate.  I looked forward to his chats. (15)
 

Hunting was his favorite pastime and he was a member of the first gun club in Lake Charles. (16)  His law partner said, “He was a fine quail, snipe, and woodcock shot and carried a shotgun with the stock sawed off.  He used the gun like a pistol. (17)

Pujo formed his first law partnership with his former tutor, Fournet, and the firm of Fournet and Pujo continued until 1892.  In that year, Fournet was elected judge of the Twelfth Judicial District of Louisiana.  Calcasieu, Cameron, and Vernon parishes made up the Twelfth District at that time.  Pujo had been offered the judgeship nomination because his active participation in the fight against the Louisiana State Lottery, but declined in favor of his law partner and former teacher. (18)  During a lifetime of legal practice, Pujo had formed legal partnerships with Clem D. Moss, E. D. Miller, Leon Sugar, W. B. Williamson, C. R. Liskow, and U. A. Bell.  From 1930 until the time of his death, he was the senior member of the firm of Pujo, C. E. Hardin, and Thomas F. Porter. (19)
 

As a lawyer, Pujo was highly regarded by members of his profession.  C. A. McCoy, in a eulogy during a memory service for Pujo at a formal session of the Fourteenth Judicial District Court, said of Pujo:

Mr. Pujo was a lawyer of unusual ability, eminently successful and in public matters at all times frank and open in supporting what he thought was right or condemning that which he thought was wrong; and tolerant toward the views of others. (20)
 

Another lawyer said, “Younger members of the local bar had lost in Mr. Pujo an excellent adviser.”  Presiding Judge Mark C. Pickrel said, "There is no better trial lawyer in this court than Mr. Pujo nor any more courteous." (21) Others described him as one who could impress others with his views and captivate them by the force of his logic and his store of information.  Once acquainted with the law, he never forgot it.  He never let a client tell him how to conduct a case but instead inspired confidence in those who sought his advice. (22)

Numerous trips taken by Pujo for legal purposes were an indication of a large and lucrative practice.  He made trips to New Orleans for Supreme Court cases and to Alexandria, Louisiana for United States District Court suits.  (23)  Such a large practice caused criticism during the congressional campaigns, a criticism to be discussed in Chapter IV.

During a time when Lake Charles was in the throes of growth and expansion, Pujo was associated with many of the initial movements indicating the city was to develop into an active Louisiana community.  Lake Charles was, as it presently is, the parish seat of Calcasieu Parish.  In 1896 Calcasieu Parish was the largest parish, territorially, in the state.  Its area stretched sixty miles from east to west and seventy miles from north to south.  In addition to Lake Charles, the principal parish towns in 1896 were Jennings, Roanoak (sic), Welsh, Iowa, and Westlake. (24)

An early office held by Pujo in Lake Charles was that of president of the Lake Charles Steam Engine Company No. 1. (25)  Pujo’s interest in the growth of Lake Charles was evidenced in his association with the Lake Charles Board of Trade.  Although the railroad was coming into its own in the Calcasieu and Southwestern Louisiana community, waterways continued to occupy the time and efforts of Lake Charles leaders. (26)  The Board of Trade was the primary group identified with the progressive steps being taken to improve commercial conditions in Lake Charles area.  Pujo was a charter member of the board.  Being a man of letters, he was often asked to handle correspondence for the board.  During April of 1896, a Senate committee in Washington removed all but one harbor improvement in Louisiana from the continuous appropriation system.  Plaquemines Parish was to be the favored area.  A letter from the Board of Trade to Louisiana Senator Don Caffery protested the action of the Senate committee and viewed the committee’s decision as one of serious consequences to not only Lake Charles, but  to the Southwest Louisiana area as well.
 

Subsidies had been voted by Lake Charles to secure an additional railroad from the northwestern part of the state, a plan which was felt would bring the commerce of several states valued at millions of dollars to the Gulf Coast area.  The Board of Trade feared that failure to continue river and harbor improvements on the Calcasieu River would result in commerce finding its way to Texas outlets on the Gulf of Mexico.  Louisiana Senator Andrew Price wired Pujo in behalf of the Board stating he would attempt to have the Senate committee put the appropriation for Calcasieu Parish back into the bill.  On April 27, again in a wire to Pujo, Price said the Senate committee had decided to leave Calcasieu on the contract system. (27)   Pujo’s role in Board of Trade affairs continued until 1903, the year be began his first term in Congress. (28)   His interest in Board of Trade activities did not come to an end, however, because waterway improvement and commercial affairs were paramount in his program of legislation.

Civic betterment groups mushroomed in Lake Charles and in 1897 the Commercial Club was organized to “push the city forward.”  Pujo joined the club and was appointed to the executive committee.  His ability at organization, a characteristic demonstrated on future occasions, was obviously, known to and appreciated by Lake Charles citizens. (29)

Also in 1897, Lake Charles citizens met to plan a Calcasieu Parish fair.  An indication of the value of Pujo’s thinking to the community is found in a newspaper article which said:

Hon. A. P. Pujo was then called upon to state the object of the meeting.

Mr. Pujo said that they had made a mistake in calling on him to state the object of the meeting, as he knew nothing about it other than it was called for the purpose of considering the holding of a fair here; but that he was heartily in favor of the movement. (30) 

Pujo was named to a twelve-man organizational committee and at a subsequent meeting of the group, he was asked to prepare a charter for the fair association.  He outlined the essential elements of the charter which conformed to charter provisions of the laws of the state.  The following evening the charter of the Calcasieu Fair Association was adopted. (31)

In these early years of growth, Lake Charles lacked hospital facilities and number of interested citizens were interested in determining the feasibility of establishing a city hospital.  As had been done on similar occasions, the interested persons gathered at the parish courthouse to determine a means of financing the proposal.  Pujo attended the initial meeting and was one of fifteen men appointed to a committee to consider ways and means of financing the project.  The committee later recommended that subcommittees be formed to begin solicitation of the necessary funds.  About $5,000 was thought to be sufficient to operate the hospital for one year.  Although contributions had been pledged, the hospital project languished and finally died in 1905. (32)  A similar, but separate, proposal was a plan to build a sanitarium for the city.  Pujo was a member of the board of trustees of the planned sanitarium, but resigned his position in 1906 because he was away from the city often during the years he was a congressman.  A short time later, the proposed sanitarium plans were abandoned. (33)

Progressive members of the Lake Charles Community were delighted in 1899 when Pujo was appointed as a delegate from Louisiana to the Western Waterways convention in Memphis.  A newspaper account said “the people of Lake Charles will be glad to know that the governor has recognized Mr. Pujo as eminently able to care for them (waterways).” (34)  About 1,500 delegates attended the convention to discuss internal waterways and to determine means of waterway improvement.  Pujo was named a member of a committee to organize a permanent waterways organization.  Lake Charles received word on November 16 that the convention had adopted a resolution introduced by Pujo which urged the further improvement of Calcasieu Pass and River under the continuous contract system.  Endorsement of the convention was believed to carry considerable influence with Washington officials. (35)          

While in Memphis, the Louisiana delegates formed a temporary state waterways association and steps were taken to plan the organization of a state waterways group.  A state organizational meeting was planned for New Orleans.  The New Orleans meeting was held December 18, 1899, and Pujo was one of twelve delegates from Lake Charles.  Again, evidencing an aptitude for organization, Pujo was named to the committee on permanent organization of the state association.  And he was selected a member-at-large of the executive committee to guide the organization along with the newly-elected officers. (36)

Community betterment was the goal of Lake Charles citizens when in 1899 purchase of the Lake Charles Light and Waterworks Company was planned by the city.  As a member of the franchise committee, Pujo was active in bargaining with the company to close the terms of the purchase.  A price of $85,000 was suggested by the company and bargaining began. Circulation of a petition was the means whereby the citizens of Lake Charles registered their approval or disapproval of the proposed purchase. The waterworks company caused opposition to the purchase in September 1899, when it raised the price of installation to $100,000.  Added improvements to the plant were cited as the reason for the increase.  At a city council meeting in November, Pujo remarked that there was considerable lethargy about the waterworks petition.  Finally, on November 15 all negotiations with the company were cancelled. (37)

Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropic enterprises had their impact in Lake Charles and, as in other cities throughout the country, a Carnegie library was planned for the city.  Pujo was chosen a member of the board of trustees for the planned library.  The library opened March 7, 1904. (38)

Banking and finance, two personal interests of Pujo, were to occupy much of his time, not only locally, but on the national level.  His adeptness in finance on the national level will be discussed in later chapters. In 1903, Pujo was elected president of the First National Bank of Welsh, Louisiana, an office to which he was renamed the following year.  He was also a director of the First National Bank of Lake Charles for a number of years and was employed by the bank as legal counsel.  The Lake Charles bank is the oldest in Southwest Louisiana. (39)

One of Pujo’s chores as civic leader following his election to Congress was to serve as guide and host for official visits to Lake Charles and the surrounding area, and to preside over opening ceremonies of new installations. He served as official greeter for an agriculture institute in the city in 1903 and a newspaper account said, “Congressman A. P. Pujo greeted the distinguished visitors in one of his happy little addresses.” (40)

Community projects of lesser importance then those already indicated merited the attentions of Pujo.  He attended a meeting to plan a sewerage system for Lake Charles in 1906 when plans were made to determine the type of system the city needed. (41)  In 1903, then he was a delegate to the Interstate Levee Association meeting in New Orleans. (42)  Contributions were made by him or his law firm to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union Library in Lake Charles, the proposed city hospital, the Galveston Relief Fund in 1900, and a public school fund in 1908. (43)

Participation by Pujo in affairs of Lake Charles and the surrounding community were but a prelude to his involvement in affairs of the state and nation.  While engaged in numerous civic activities, he was at the same time participating in some of the political affairs for which he is remembered.  These early civic interests, however, helped to foster in Pujo those qualities that would be called forth when he broadened and multiplied his interests.  

CHAPTER II

PUJO AND LOUISIANA POLITICS

Arsene Pujo was not a professional politician.  It would be more accurate to say he was both a professional man and a politician.  During a life time of political interest and activity, he continued his legal practice in Lake Charles, and when faced with the opportunity early in life to accept, or at least to vie for political renown, he chose to devote his energies to legal pursuits.  And when he retired from his congressional post in 1913, he cited pressing professional duties as his primary reason for stepping down.  However, when he held public office and when political affairs gained his attention, he devoted his full energies to those affairs.  It will be the purpose of this chapter to discuss Pujo’s early political background, tracing those interests to the beginning of what was to be his major political achievement, that of serving as congressman from the Seventh Congressional District of Louisiana from 1903 to 1913. 

The outspoken quality which evoked admiration for Pujo in the legal sphere was also characteristic of his years in politics.  A resolution honoring his memory said of his political interests:

In his political activities from the time he enlisted in the crusade against renewing the charter of the Louisiana lottery in the memorable campaigns of 1888 and 1892 until his death, he never hesitated to make known his position on any political question, and always stood for improvement of political conditions, either local, state or national. (1)

A faithful member of the Democratic Party, he was not only a true member of the party, but he believed political parties were essential to progress  in city, state, and nation.  A newspaper interview in 1907 indicated Pujo’s firm party allegiance when he said:  

Our national and state governments are conducted by parties - republican or democratic.  This is also true of all municipalities of any importance. 
 

Party nominations and party governments usually give the best results.  The party in power is held to strict accountability by the people.  Should its administration be incapable or corrupt it is ousted from control.
 

Reformers and independents represent merely the political whims of the moment.
 

It is a misnomer for persons to designate themselves as independent democrats or independent republicans.  In neither case do they belong to either party.  They are independents, considering themselves free from party obligations and party nominations unless approved by them. (2)

During his lifetime, Pujo was associated with city, parish, district, state, and national organizations of the Democratic Party. 

His earliest interest in politics and involvement in Democratic Party affairs is found in his association with the Nicholls Club of Lake Charles in 1887, less than a year after he was admitted to the Louisiana bar.  Ex-governor Francis T. Nicholls was touring the state that year, promoting his candidacy for the 1888 gubernatorial nomination.  Pujo was a member of the finance committee of the local Nicholls Club, and he was on the reception committee that welcomed Nicholls to Lake Charles on his state tour.  He was also a member of the Calcasieu Parish committee which sponsored a resolution pledging support of Nicholls when the Democratic State Convention met to name a candidate for governor.  When the convention met in Baton Rouge, January 10, 1888, Nicholls was nominated over the incumbent, Governor Samuel D. McEnery. (3)

Pujo’s endorsement of Nicholls was the beginning of a series of endorsements in which he supported successful candidates for the state Democratic nomination for governor.  Nicholls was elected in 1888, and in 1892 and 1896, Pujo backed the successful candidate for nomination, Murphy J. Foster.  He supported Newton C. Blanchard in 1904, and Blanchard was nominated.  Pujo made a number of speeches in behalf of Blanchard, and was on the arrangement committee for the Lake Charles Blanchard Committee.  The successful nominee in 1908, Jared Y. Sanders, received Pujo’s support; in 1912, he supported the nomination of Judge Luther E. Hall, candidate of the Good Government League of Louisiana. (4)  In presidential campaigns, however, Pujo did not meet with the same success, for he supported William Jennings Bryan in his unsuccessful bids for the presidency. He was named a member of the Bryan Advisory Committee from the state of Louisiana in 1908, spoke for Bryan in the Seventh Congressional District, and donated one hundred dollars to the Bryan Campaign Fund.  In 1912, Pujo was a Champ Clark supportee, and his candidate was defeated for the Democratic Party nomination by Woodrow Wilson. (5)

The initial party role for which Pujo was to be remembered during his lifetime, however, was his participation in the Anti-Lottery Campaigns of 1888 and 1892.  The Louisiana State Lottery Company, “destined to be the most famous, or infamous, in the history of such ventures,” was licensed to operate in Louisiana by the legislature of 1868.  Although company headquarters were in Louisiana, the company operated throughout the United State, receiving ninety per cent of its proceeds from without the state.  Proponents of the lottery justified its existence on the basis of revenue it produced for the state, and claimed it kept gambling funds from being lost to other states.  Opponents attacked the lottery, claiming the institution fostered corrupt practices in government; odds were said to be so high, and prices so low people who could not afford to gamble were the very ones who were encouraged to “take their chances.”  The company faced a critical period in 1879 when the legislature revoked the company charter, but retaliated by applying for an injunction from the United States Circuit Court to prohibit the state’s action.  The injunction was granted, but, fearing a reversal in a higher court, the company decided its best chances lay with the constitutional convention then in session.  Debate on the lottery took eight days in the convention, and the company emerged the victor when Article CLXVII of the new constitution provided the company would be tolerated until 1894.

Although the company had gained approval in Louisiana, many states passed laws outlawing the lottery in those states.  Each Louisiana legislature was involved in the lottery question, and by 1890, the lottery became a “burning issue” in the state.  The lottery company had been courting popular favor in the state with its charitable grants, and in 1890 one million dollars was offered the state for a new charter. S. O. Shattuck, member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Calcasieu Parish, in 1890 introduced a bill providing for submission of the lottery question to the people of the state in the form of an amendment to the state constitution.  Shattuck, in a personal interview in 1928, said he was opposed to lotteries, but he believed the people should decide if the company charter was to be renewed.  The Shattuck measure, House Bill 214, passed both the House and Senate with the exact two-thirds vote required, but Governor Nicholls vetoed the bill.  His veto was overridden, leaving the final choice of renewing the lottery license to the electorate.  The amendment was to be submitted to the voters in the general election for state officials in 1892.  Passage of the Shattuck Bill was the signal for dissident elements in the state to organize in opposition to the renewal of the lottery charter and defeat of the amendment. (6)
 

On February 28, 1890, the Anti-Lottery League was formed in New Orleans, holding its first public meeting in the city in April, 1890.  Proponents of the lottery responded to the Anti-Lottery League by forming the Progressive League, an organization designed to promote continuance of the lottery.  A description of the situation in 1891 stated:

Take all men in Louisiana who are opposed to Lotteries, whether rated by character, ability, acquirements, property, family or social position, and they can be matched, man for man, in every characteristic of excellence, from the friends of the lottery amendment. (7)

Almost all of the press in the state supported the lottery along with those who felt the financial assistance of the company was necessary.  The big New Orleans banks were said to favor the company, and most Negroes were in favor of its continuance.  The ranks of the Anti-Lottery League were swelled with clergymen and persons who believed the lottery was responsible for many political and moral evils pervading the state.  On both sides were found those individuals who felt their stand on the matter would be beneficial to them politically. (8)          

The Anti-Lottery League held an organizational convention in Baton Rouge on August 7, 1890, 956 delegates attending from fifty-three parishes in the state.  Pujo was a delegate to the convention, being listed as “N. P. Pujol (sic),” a member of the Committee on Credentials from the Third District. (9)  As was the case often in these early years, Pujo’s name was frequently misspelled or confused with the Pujol name of New Orleans.  A biographical sketch of Pujo appearing in the New York Sun in 1913 attributed Pujo’s early prominence in the state to his participation in the Anti-Lottery League.  The Sun said:

The lottery was really a very popular institution, and in those days, to be in the forefront of opposition to it was not conducive to political success.  It might even be bad for the law business to assume such an attitude.  But Mr. Pujo has never been a seeker of popularity. (10)

Anti-Lottery activities received added impetus in August, 1891 when the League and State Farmers Union agreed to unite in opposition to the lottery.  It was agreed that Thomas Scott Adams, state president of the Farmers Union, was to be nominated for governor by the combine at the Democratic State Convention. (11)  The Democratic State Central Committee met at Baton Rouge on December 15, 1891, and Pujo participated in the meeting, holding a proxy for G. A. Fournet, Calcasieu member of the state group. (12)  The committee made plans for the state convention which convened December 16.  Pro and anti-lottery differences at the convention resulted in the division of the party into two convention camps.  Pujo was certified as a delegate to the Anti-Lottery-Farmers Union faction which met in the State-house in Baton Rouge on December 17.  Adams was nominated by acclamation for governor, but to the amazement of the delegates, he declined the nomination.  Murphy J. Foster, an Anti-Lottery League sugar planter, was then nominated for governor by the anti faction; Pujo was one of seven delegates to second the Foster nomination. (13) Meanwhile the pro faction nominated Samuel D. McEnery for governor. (14)   Even the Republican Party was divided over the lottery issue, the pros supporting Albert Leonard for governor, and the antis backing John A. Breaux.   A Populist Party candidate was also in the gubernatorial race.  The stage was now set for the 1892 state election. 

Results of the primary held March 22, 1892, by the Democrats were so close that both McEnery and Foster claimed the victory.  Although the election committee said Foster had won, McEnery refused to abide by its decision and entered a general election in April, 1892.  Foster defeated McEnery and the other three candidates by a decisive plurality in the April election; in addition, the lottery amendment was defeated by a vote of 4,225 for and 157,422 against.  The final blow to the company came when the 1892 legislature passed a bill prohibiting lottery tickets sales after December 31, 1892. (15)

Pujo and Fournet were the only two members of the Calcasieu community to be cited for their active roles in the anti-lottery movement. (16) As already noted, Pujo was offered the nomination for district judge by the Anti-Lottery League, but declined in favor of Fournet.  Apparently satisfied with Foster’s administration, Pujo in 1896 became a member of the “Foster Democratic Club of Calcasieu Parish.”  He was a member of the campaign and reception committees of the club, and he served as the club’s secretary pro tem. (17)
 

Democratic Party activities in the congressional district next occupied Pujo’s attention. A democratic convention was held in the Third Congressional District in 1889 for the purpose of naming a successor to E. J. Gay, district congressman who died in office.  Pujo served as temporary secretary for the convention which nominated Andrew Price as Gay’s replacement.  Pujo was active again in district affairs when he toured the district “in interest of the free silver, Bryan and congressional tickets’ in 1896. (18)
 

There was no doubt about the primary reason for calling the convention.  As a New Orleans daily newspaper remarked on opening day of the convention: 

To-day at noon the seventh constitutional convention of the state of Louisiana will ….take the initiatory steps towards reforming the suffrage of the state so as to eliminate the ignorant and vicious elements and to wipe out the stain on civilization enacted by the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States. (21) 

Pujo was a member of the patronage committee of Democratic caucus from the Third District.  After the committee on rules and organization reported on what official staff would be necessary, the patronage committee was designated to equally distribute the clerical patronage between the six districts of the state. (22)  In the early days of the convention, Pujo was named a member of the judiciary committee.  The judiciary committee assigned to subcommittees the task of drawing substitute ordinances to be presented to the delegates.  Pujo was appointed to the Judiciary System for the Country Parishes Subcommittee; a group assigned the task of revising the judicial elements of the constitution of 1879.  The final draft of many important amendments was the work of Pujo and Judge Frank A. Monroe of New Orleans, chairman of the subcommittee. (23)  Pujo was the author of the change in the constitution requiring sessions of court to last as long as cases were up for hearing and the provision allowing trial of misdemeanor cases without a jury. (24)  Other committees to which Pujo was assigned were the Limitations and Apportionment committees. (25)

Pujo introduced three ordinances at the convention, none of which were adopted in their original form.  One dealt with the election of sheriff and coroner and was reported without action on May 11, 1898. Creation of the office of tax collector for the parishes was the substance of the second ordinance introduced by Pujo, but it was reported by substitute and in the final draft of the constitution, the sheriff remained the ex-officio tax collector of state and parish taxes. (26)  In an appearance before the committee on taxation, Pujo showed that:

 .…the function of tax collection was entirely foreign to the duties of the sheriff.  The ordinance (Pujo’s) provides the payment of 5 percent on the first $40,000, the percentage decreasing as the sum increased.  His purpose was to discourage “the profession of office holding.”   He sees no reason why men possessing often very limited abilities should be receiving from the state higher compensation that the supreme justices. (27)

The final ordinance sponsored by Pujo provided for resting juries with authority to assess punishment in criminal cases.  This was also reported without action on May 11. (28)

Private measures introduced by Pujo were not the primary role played by him at the convention.   Of vital concern to many delegates was the adoption of a suffrage provision in the constitution which would preserve the doctrine of “White Supremacy.”  The earliest suffrage proposal introduced to the delegates would have permitted everyone who voted in 1897 to vote as long as they live, and then establish educational and property qualifications from that point.  Pujo objected to the plan on the grounds nothing could be gained from the proposal.  He said that only 72,000 whites and about 11.000 Negroes were registered to vote in 1897; with 110,000 white voters in the state, 20,000 to 25,000 of whom could not read or write, he maintained that only a small percentage of those illiterate whites would be allowed to vote under the proposal. (29)  A preliminary report from the suffrage committee provided:

No person who was Jan. 1 1868 or at any time prior thereto entitled to vote and no legitimate male descendant of any such person shall be denied the right to register and vote by reason of his failure to possess the educational or property qualifications prescribed by this constitution. (30)

         
This was to be the proposal on which the final suffrage provision was modeled.  The proceedings were going rather smoothly until some of the delegates decided a poll tax feature should be incorporated into the suffrage provisions of the constitution. 

It was at this point that Pujo came into prominence at the convention for he was chairman of the group of delegates who favored the poll tax plan. (31)  Plans called for use of poll tax receipts in the individual parishes for support of public education.  After weeks of indecision, the suffrage provisions of the constitution ware finally adopted.  In final form, the provisions stated that all persons twenty-one years of age or over possessing the following qualifications would be allowed to vote:

1.     Resident of the state for two years, the parish for one year, and the voting precinct for six months.

2.     Legally registered.

3.     Able to read and write in the English or mother tongue.

4.     Owner of property assessed at not less than three hundred dollars.

Section 5 of the constitution, which has come to be known as the “grandfather clause.”  Stated:

No male person who was on Jan. 1, 1867, or any date prior thereto entitled to vote, and no son or grandson of any such person not less than 21, and no foreign born male naturalized prior to Jan. 1, 1898 shall be denied the right to vote by reason or failure to possess the educational and property qualifications prescribed. (32)

Pujo’s poll tax committee was successful in having the poll tax feature incorporated into the constitution, for Article 198 said that no person under sixty years of age would be allowed to vote, if, if in addition to the above qualifications, he had not paid a poll tax amounting to one dollar per year. (33)  Some delegates expressed concern over the constitutionality of the suffrage provisions; however, Pujo urged the adoption of the provisions and voted for them, the vote being eighty-five to forty-five in favor of their adoption. (34)

Delegates paused midway in the convention to welcome William Jennings Bryan to New Orleans.  Pujo was selected a member of the welcoming committee which went by train to meet Bryan and escort him to the city.  During his brief visit to New Orleans, Bryan visited Tulane Hall and spoke to the convention; his speech was well received by the delegates. (35)

Establishment of the state railroad commission was a second major consideration of the convention.  Pujo made an unsuccessful attempt to include watercraft under the supervision of the commission when those watercraft were used in conjunction with a railroad.  When the final vote on the establishment of the commission was taken, it passed eighty-three to forty-six, Pujo voting in favor of its adoption. (36)  Pujo was lauded for his efforts in establishment of the commission, a supervisory body that later became the Public Service Commission. (37)

Pujo voiced his opinion on a number of matters which came before the judiciary committee in its sessions during the convention.  He said he favored the abolition of justices of the peace and allowing police jurors to issue warrants.  He said he preferred the establishment of smaller district courts with the authority to try small cases without the intervention of a jury, a provision which in part was adopted by the convention.  Smaller districts were preferable, he said, because a man with a small claim would get the same kind of justice as a man with a large claim. (38)

The constitutional convention completed its work at 11:45 P.M. on May 12, 1898, and all but two delegates signed the final draft of the constitution. (39)  The satisfaction felt by many delegates may be found in the closing remarks of Ernest Kruttschnitt, president of the convention, who said:

May this hall where, thirty-two years ago, the negro first entered upon the unequal contest for supremacy, and which has been reddened with his blood,  now witness the evolution of our organic law which will establish the relations between the races upon and everlasting foundation of right and justice. (40)

This satisfaction, however, was not as pronounced in other quarters; twelve of the state’s newspapers were very critical of the convention while only four were said to approve of the work of the assembly.  One newspaper, quoting the Shreveport Evening Journal, remarked:

The Shreveport Evening Journal thus commences an elegy on this body:  The Constitutional Convention is about to draw its last breath, and would that it could be buried and forgotten. (41)

Parish Democratic affairs were to occupy much of Pujo’s time in 1889 and 1900.  He presided over a forum of candidates who were vying for district, parish, and ward offices in November of 1899.  Delegates to a parish convention, who in turn were to select eight delegates to the state convention, were also to be named in the parish primary. (42)  Adding unusual interest to the election was the fact that, for the first time in a Calcasieu Parish election, the direct primary method was to be used.  In an interview in New Orleans following the primary, Pujo praised its success, saying:

On last Saturday the first primary election for the selection of the parish nominees was held in Calcasieu Parish.  This was the parish that the old nominating convention had not held say.

The primary was a complete success, and the people were pleased with the plan. The nominees, in my opinion, will receive the solid support of the Calcasieu democratic voters and that demonstrated the success of the scheme. (43)
 

Pujo’s participation in parish Democratic affairs helped to broaden his interest and he became an active worker in the party at the state level.  During a Democratic State Executive Committee meeting in 1900, he fought a resolution which would have permitted the executive committee to fill vacancies on the state ticket.  The resolution was introduced because some committee members felt it might be difficult to get all of the central committee together in a short time.  Pujo contended the committee could be summoned in twenty-four hours, but in spite of his opposition, the resolution passed. (44)  In May, 1900, Pujo was appointed a delegate to the Democratic State Convention which was to meet in Baton Rouge, June 4.  Following the convention, a Lake Charles newspaper editorially praised Pujo’s participation in convention sessions.  The paper remarked:

There is some sort of mistake regarding an incident of the state convention which ought to be cleared up.  One of the members of the committee on resolutions made a strong protest against the endorsement of the Chicago platform as a whole, because of this attack upon the Supreme Court.  The New Orleans papers refer to him as Mr. Pujo and evidently assume that it is one of the ward statesmen from New Orleans.  Our understanding is that it was Hon. A. P. Pujo, one of the delegates from Calcasieu.  Whenever a Calcasieu man gets up and talks out in meeting, no matter whether what he says is agreeable to us or not, we protest that full credit should be accorded to the parish.  Most of the delegates to the state convention seem to be too much scared to say anything. (45)

Pujo, along with Jared Y. Sanders, was a member of the Committee on Resolutions from the Third District at the June convention. (46)

The first hint that Pujo might be a possible candidate for Congress appeared in the Lake Charles Daily American in July, 1900.  The editorial in which it appeared stated Calcasieu Parish might be better off with a Republican congressman since the method of fixing representation in the Third District seemed to insure the renomination of the incumbent, R. F. Broussard.  Pujo and H. C. Drew were mentioned as possible congressional candidates, but neither was reportedly ready to oppose Broussard. The editor complained that, because of the way representation had been set, the eastern part of the district had control of the entire district. (47)  There had been some talk in 1899 that Pujo might be a candidate for attorney general of Louisiana, but at that time he said he was not ready to enter political life and did not want to neglect his business interests in Lake Charles. (48)  In 1901, he was again in the public eye as a possible replacement for a vacancy on the Louisiana Supreme Court.  The Lake Charles and Calcasieu bar associations were advocating his ability to fill the position, but nothing came of his appointment. (49)

Not only was Pujo a loyal member of the Democratic Party, but he was constantly associated with individual and group movements to improve the democratic system of government.  Following his announcement for Congress, he was asked to give his views on the direct primary.  He said:

I have given the matter careful consideration and study, and am unqualifiedly in favor of a white democratic primary throughout the district, the majority of all votes cast to nominate.  Should one fail to receive a majority, then drop all candidates except the two highest, and let those two settle it at a second primary.
 

A nomination by primaries is strictly democratic and is founded upon the right of the people to select those who desire political advancement at their hands.  The voters in a contest of that kind will have the opportunity of meeting the candidates face to face; of hearing him state his views on public questions, and of determining for themselves whether he is entitled to support.   The primary system will awaken interest in every voter, and thereby bring him in closer touch with his representatives and his government, thus guaranteeing its perpetuity.

If a candidate cannot win a primary within his own party, held under rules and regulations guaranteeing its absolute fairness, why then he ought to stay at home.  It is true it will be an arduous campaign and during a trying time of the year, but judging from the number mentioned, the people will have no trouble in finding some one willing to serve them. (50)

This election of 1902 was the first time the primary method was used to nominate candidates for a congressional post in the district. (51)  Showing a complete understanding of workings of a district primary, Pujo, at a Democratic State Central Committee meeting in New Orleans in 1903, made a motion to strike out the word election after primary, saying, “he did not consider a primary an election, and the use of the word had led to confusion.”  He received no second on his motion and the matter was dropped. (52)

Pujo again evidenced a strong belief in the primary method prior to his attendance at a state committee meeting in September, 1903, when he said he favored a primary for nomination of state officials.  By unanimous vote at the September meeting, the committee approved a resolution providing for election of state officials and United States senators by direct primary.  A second primary was planned to the top two candidates for each post in the event no one candidate received a majority.  During the meeting, Pujo was appointed to a committee on rules to formulate policies for the government of the general state primary. (53)  At a sub-committee meeting later, Pujo was successful in leading opposition to indiscriminate distribution of “tickets” and open voting as provided in statutes framed for the state election. (54) New Orleans ward leaders and some country members were said to be opposed to any measure of privacy in voting. (55)  Democratic Party participation by Pujo broadened in scope following his election to Congress.  He was named a delegate to the state nominating conventions in 1904, 1908, and 1912.  Stopping over from Washington for the 1908 convention, he was elected alternate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention to be held in Denver the same year.  At the state convention in 1912, he was named a delegate to the national convention in Baltimore. (56)   The top recognition Pujo would receive as a Democratic Party worker was his election to the post of Democratic National Committeeman from Louisiana in October, 1919.  He held this post until June 4, 1920. (57)

CHAPTER III

THE EARLY YEARS IN CONGRESS, 1903 - 1907

I will be a candidate for Congress in the Seventh Congressional District, subject to the wishes of the people of Calcasieu parish to be expressed in democratic primaries or convention. (1)

Arsene Pujo made this announcement in 1902 after years of civic and public service on the local and state levels.  First mentioned as a possible congressional candidate in 1900, he was reported as not ready then to oppose R. F. Broussard, congressman from the Third Congressional District of which Calcasieu Parish was a part. (2)   But the United States Census of 1900 altered the situation.  Louisiana in the last decade had gained population so as to be entitled to an additional representative in Congress.  An apportionment bill for Louisiana passed Congress in 1901, and the following year the state general assembly created the new Seventh Congressional District composed of Acadia, Avoyelles, Calcasieu, Cameron, Grant, Rapides, St. Landry and Vernon parishes. (3)   Pujo was not the only Calcasieu Parish aspirant for election to the House of Representatives. State Senator Harrison C. Drew announced his candidacy July 17, 1902, and two days later W. B. Norris filed. (4) William Polk and Judge W. F. Blackman, both of Rapides Parish, indicated they would be candidates for the newly created post, and R. Lee Garland of St. Landry Parish completed the list of candidates for the Democratic Party nomination for Congress. (5)  Since the congressional post was new and since, once elected, Louisiana congressmen are hard to defeat, the 1902 congressional election in the Seventh District was of special importance.

For years, Calcasieu Parish had hoped a native son would someday be elected to Congress; events of 1902 illustrated this longing.  Drew withdrew his candidacy in July, and Norris withdrew in August. (6)  News accounts in both instances stated they had withdrawn so the interests of the parish could be concentrated on one man.  An editorial the day preceding the election remarked:

Tomorrow the democrats of the seventh congressional district select a candidate for congressmen by the primary method.  Of the many candidates talked of, four have stayed in the race.
 

One of these candidates is Hon. A. P. Pujo, of Calcasieu parish.  For a long time, Calcasieu has looked longingly toward Washington and wished that one of her sons might fill the coveted seat.  Well, the opportunity is now here.  She has a candidate whose reputation is district-wide and who will command support from every parish in the district. She has but one candidate, so that here her energies need not be wasted and her opportunity imperiled.
 

A full vote from the empire parish tomorrow will put Mr. Pujo in a position to win.  There is not one valid reason why he should not command the full support of his party.  The man has enemies of course - every man, worthy of consideration has them.  If it were a question of Mr. Pujo personally, some of them might vote against him, though that would be a rather unsatisfactory sort of revenge, after all.  
 

But it is not a question of Mr. Pujo at all.  The question is, will you vote for a congressman from Calcasieu parish?  We have all agreed that Calcasieu should have a congressman.  Senator H. C. Drew and Capt. W. B. Norris, popular democratic leaders and loyal Calcasieu men, both of them, retired from the race in order that Calcasieu’s chance might not be lost…(7)  

The Seventh Congressional Democratic Committee met in Opelousas in August and voted to use the direct primary method for the first time to nominate the congressional candidate for the party. (8)  As noted in Chapter II, Pujo favored the primary method and his first candidacy for a major political office was to be decided by that method.  The district committee set September 11, 1902, as the date for the primary and ruled that any registered voter who was a member of the Democratic Party could participate.  A majority vote was necessary for nomination and a second primary would be held in the event no candidate received a majority. (9)

Pujo’s newspaper support came primarily from the Lake Charles Daily American, although he was also endorsed by the Vernon News of Leesville and the Rayne Tribune. (10)  The Daily American campaigned for him editorially and in news stories relating to the Election.  Since Pujo lacked political experience on the national scene, his friends and supporters stressed his personal qualities and his past participation in Democratic Party activities.  He was portrayed as a loyal Democrat, always abiding by the wishes of the party.  He was said to be thoroughly acquainted with the interests and industries of the Seventh District and possessed the courage and perseverance to fight for the needs of the district.  One account said he was conservative, though willing to change his views when his judgment dictated. (11)

Although Pujo traveled throughout the district, much of his campaign centered upon Lake Charles.  He had already advocated his belief in the direct primary, and Polk, on a trip to Lake Charles, did the same.  While in Lake Charles, Polk stressed the need for farmers having representation in Congress, saying labor and capital were already represented.  He said some people thought only lawyers could make the laws.  While in the city, Polk stated that he favored a tariff on lumber, rice, and sugar, three of the principal industries of the Seventh District. (12)

Blackman, the other candidate from Rapides, exuded confidence when he came to Lake Charles, saying that not only would he carry his home parish of Rapides, but “I will get practically the solid vote of Grant, and I believe I will carry Avoyelles and Vernon.”  He was sure he would be a second primary candidate. (13) The Opelousas Courier indicated that he was as confident when he spoke in that city. (14)  Garland, as will be noted later, was probably more vocal about his candidacy following the primary.  A news story August 23, 1902, said Garland would have a “rocky road” in his own parish of St. Landry. (15)  A Courier news story said of Garland:

The Clarion (another Opelousas paper) is begging the readers to vote for Mr. Lee Garland for Congress.  The Clarion has always plumed itself upon being a champion of Democracy and white supremacy.  The distinguishing feature of Mr. Garland’s brief political career has been his strenuous and more or less successful opposition to the political creed, the men and measures for which the Clarion stood… With the negro as an important factor in our political degeneracy of our people had become appalling, but we do not believe it had ever become as bad as that. (16)

Pujo, in a campaign address at Crowley, expressed his views on three major issues:  anti-imperialism, tariff, and trust.  A news account of his speech reported:

Mr. Pujo then directed his attention to the departure on the part of the Declaration of Independence and claimed that the maxim, that “all governments instituted among men derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” had been emasculated from that instrument by the republican party in its intention and control of the Philippine Islands.  (17)

He opposed control of the Philippines on the grounds that the islands were six thousand miles from the United States and that the ten million people there were “a race of Asiatics, foreign to us in blood, in thought and in ideas and system of government.”  He maintained the protective tariff benefited the wealthy manufactures of the East and North and he advocated protection for southern products.  Citing the high cost of products sold in the South and the cheaper prices in foreign markets, he said the difference in cost resulted in creation of combinations of wealth in this country “formerly known as trusts but to-day designated as the “community of interest” described as the “Morganization” of capital.”  During the minor issues, he said the government had appropriated funds to reclaim the arid lands of the West, and thus, there was no reason for the government not to assist in making Louisiana waterways more navigable. (18)

Election day found Lake Charles bustling with campaign workers and posters on cars, most of them for Pujo.  In the respect, one news story said:

Only one (poster) has appeared on the street for any other candidate.  The strange device it bore was “Polk, the laboring men’s friend; he favors deep water.”  It seems to be the consensus of opinion that the water is too deep for Bro. Polk, already. (19)

Confusion seemed the order of things election day and afterward, with candidates and others making charges and countercharges.  One citizen said voters in Grant Parish were voting without regard to registration or poll tax receipt and political activity in St. Landry had an “ominous appearance.” (20)  Blackman said later, “I do know that in St. Landry there are two thousand illegally registered voters.” (21)  Garland claimed there was fraud in Grant and Calcasieu parishes, saying 231 illegal votes were cast in Calcasieu, a charge to which Pujo delivered a lengthy reply.  In reference to the Garland accusations, Pujo said:

The demands of contestant (Garland) that the entire vote of Calcasieu, aggregating 1,776 votes, be cast out is arbitrary, unjust and highly improper, conceding that there might have been irregularities in a few precincts, which is denied. (22)

Garland said later there was no evidence of intentional fraud in Calcasieu and any apparent fraud was the act of individuals and not the parish or Pujo. (23)

Early election returns showed Pujo leading other candidates, but the final counting was slow.  Blackman and Garland were running close for second, and it was not until seven days following the primary that Pujo and Blackman were named second primary candidates.  Pujo had polled the highest number of voted, 2,076, while Blackman ran second with 1,778.  Garland placed third with 1,671 votes, and Polk was fourth with 492.  Over half of Pujo’s total vote came from Calcasieu where he polled 1,485 votes.  Garland received 1,338 votes in St. Landry, his home parish.  Blackman, on the other hand, received a substantial vote in Grant, Rapides, Vernon and Avoyelles parishes.   Cameron Parish was solid for Pujo, giving him 191 of the 192 ballots tallied. (24)

The second primary was scheduled for September 24, Pujo gained additional support from the Crowley News, and he was declared the nominee of the Democratic Party for Congress when second primary votes were tabulated by the district committee meeting at Alexandria.  He polled 4,094 votes and Blackman, 2,912, Pujo’s largest vote again coming from Calcasieu where he beat Blackman 1,860 to 105.  Other parishes carried by Pujo were St. Landry, Acadia, and Cameron; Blackman let in Rapides, Grant, Vernon, and Avoyelles. (25)

The Republican Party of the district held its nominating convention in Lake Charles September 20 and nominated Judge Gilbert L. Dupre of Opelousas for Congress. (26)  Pujo opened his campaign for the general election in Crowley on October 18.  In Lake Charles, when on October 31, he again stated his views on national issues, “the trusts particularly came under his scathing denouncement.”  He said the trust evil could be cured by a revision of the Dingley Tariff. (27)  Pujo carried every parish in the district in the general election November 4, receiving 3,233 votes to 545 for Dupre.  His majority was the largest of any congressman outside the First and Second Districts (New Orleans). (28)

At noon on March 4, 1903, Pujo became the representative of the Seventh Congressional District of Louisiana.  The Congress to which he had been elected was controlled by the Republican Party, having fifty-seven Republicans and thirty-three Democrats in the Senate and 208 Republicans and 176 Democrats in the House of Representatives. (29)  According to a biographical sketch of Pujo in 1913:

When he first came to Congress, in 1902 (1903), he had already a reputation for knowledge of financial matters.  The Louisiana delegation in the House of Representatives had him slated for membership in the Committee on Judiciary; but it so happened that there was no vacancy on the Democratic side of that committee, and so he was put into the committee on Banking and Currency…  (30)

Pujo was a member of the Committee on Banking and Currency during his first four terms in Congress, and he served as chairman of the committee during the Sixty-Second Congress from April 4, 1911 to March 4, 1913.

As a member of the minority party, Pujo voted for John Sharp Williams of Mississippi for Speaker of the House, but the old guard Republican, Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois, was elected for his first of four terms as Speaker. (31)  Pujo made his maiden speech in the House on April 13, 1904, discussing finance, a topic that was to occupy much of his time and attention in Congress.  The House was discussing the Lewis Bill, a bill authorizing national banking institutions to accept security on real estate for loans made by them.  Loans made on real estate were not to exceed twenty-five percent of the capital of the national bank.  Pujo said the National Currency Act of 1863 had recognized the value of real estate as security, but contained no safeguard limiting the amount of capital a bank could invest in real estate.  He maintained the people of the United States paid interest on bonds held by these national banks, but were denied the use of the real estate for loans from these institutions.  He said:

This legislative and commercial anomaly then results; that the people are partially maintaining by taxation institutions in which their greatest item of value is denied recognition. (32)

In support of his position, he submitted a statement showing the location of national banks, by states, the relative distribution of their capital, the amount of bonds deposited in each bank and the interest paid on these bonds.  A second chart listed the assessed valuation of real estate in the United States, as well as valuation by state. (33)  The submission of charts, statistics, and other data were to be a characteristic of Pujo’s congressional remarks and speeches.  He was always acquainted with earlier legislation pertaining to the subject he was discussing and presented evidence to support his conclusions.

After only a year in Congress, Pujo made a statement concerning the Negro and Southern politics that was unusual for a southern Democrat in that day and time to make.  When questioned about the possible reduction of southern representation he said:

My belief, based on observation of conditions in Washington is that the Platt bill for the reduction of representation is not a serious measure.  We hear very little about the Negro question in Washington, except when it is mentioned by southern representatives.  The disposition of republican senators and congressmen is to leave matters as they are, unless the question is continually agitated by the southern people in which event they will be compelled in self defense, to enact legislation of some kind. (34)

Pujo felt President Theodore Roosevelt had proposed legislation which, if adopted, would result in benefit to the American people.  He said Roosevelt was sincere, remarking:

President Roosevelt’s administration bids fair to redound to the advantage of the people, if the measures advocated by him are adopted.  He is no doubt sincere in his advocacy of legislation investing the interstate commerce commission with power to fix freight rates.  It is also common knowledge that he favors legislation regulating trust by requiring all corporations engaged in interstate commerce to incorporate under national authority. (35)

After returning to Congress in 1905, Pujo felt the interests of the Seventh Congressional District were threatened when the Philippine Tariff Bill provided for a tariff on rice from the United States entering the recently-acquired islands.  An amendment was introduced which exempted the Philippines from the tariff provision relating to rice.  A chance for Pujo to speak up for the rice industry of his district had presented itself, and Pujo responded:  “The present tariff tax on rice from the United States into the archipelago results in discrimination against the people of our States engaged in that industry.”  Pujo considered the Curtis Bill, a pending bill proposing abolition of the duty on all goods coming into the United States from the Philippines with the exception of sugar and tobacco, an additional threat to American rice interests.  He quoted from a letter he had received from Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, a man he considered “perhaps the greatest living American authority upon rice culture in the United States and other countries.”  Pujo said passage of both the Philippine Tariff and Curtis Bills would result in Philippine rice coming to this country duty free while American rice exported to the islands would be taxed.  In his letter, Knapp said the passage of both bills “would completely ruin the rice industry of the United States.”  (36)   Proponents of the tariff said the Philippines needed the revenue the tariff would bring in.  During the course of his remarks, Pujo said, “Paraphrasing King Agrippa, one is tempted to exclaim, ‘Verily thou almost persuadest me to become a Filipino.’”  When the vote on the amendment deleting the tariff on rice was taken it was rejected. (37)

One of the primary accomplishments of Pujo’s congressional years was the introduction and passage of laws which benefited his district.  Aside from private bills, most of his legislation dealt with improvement of Louisiana waterways and construction of Federal buildings and post offices throughout his district.  He introduced his first bill on December 15, 1903, a bill asking for an appropriation to check sporadic outbreaks of the Mexican cotton-boll weevil which had begun to damage Louisiana’s cotton crop.  (38)  The agriculture appropriations bill passed during the Fifty-Eighth Congress appropriated $190,000 to meet the emergency caused by the weevil and other insects that were damaging the cotton crop. (39)

On December 16, 1903 Pujo introduced a bill asking an appropriation of $500,000 for improvement of the mouth and passes of the Calcasieu River.  The bill was described as “the first attempt that has been made for several years to place Calcasieu improvement upon a permanent footing….” (40)  Small appropriations had been made previously to dredge the inner harbor of the Calcasieu River, but there was no effort to construct jetties and make the harbor permanent until 1893 when Congressman Newton Blanchard got an appropriation of $100,000 for improvement of the river.  Pujo’s bill was the first major piece of legislation to follow that of Blanchard’s. (41)   His bill asked for funds in addition to $60,286 that had not been spent from a 1902 appropriation Congressman Theodore E. Burton of Ohio, chairman of the House Committee on Rivers and Harbors, visited Sabine Pass, Texas in June, 1904, and Pujo tried to get him to visit Lake Charles to inspect the work on Calcasieu Pass.  Burton wrote Pujo saying he would not be able to visit the area in his current trip.  (42)   In December, Pujo said the prospects of the harbor appropriation passing Congress were favorable in that the Board of Engineers of the War Department and the war department itself recommended improvements to the Calcasieu River. (43)  The Committee on Rivers and Harbors of the House first appropriated $80,000 for the Calcasieu, to which $20,000 was added later.  The Rivers and Harbors Appropriations Bill of 1905 included $100,000 for improvement of the Calcasieu River and $40,000 for destruction of water hyacinth on the Mermentau, Calcasieu, and Sabine rivers, and appropriation also requested by Pujo.  In addition, the bill provided for improvements to the channel, bay, and passes of Bayou Vermilion and the Mermentau River, $15,000 for the improvement of the channel at Alexandria, and an appropriation for a survey of Calcasieu Lake and River and the Mermentau River. (44)  Pujo wired Mayor C. H. Winterhalter of Lake Charles that the survey of Calcasieu Lake and River was the first step to make Lake Charles a deep water port. (45)

As a lawyer, Pujo had made numerous trips from Lake Charles to Alexandria to participate in United States District Court suits.  This, no doubt, made him aware of the need for a branch of the district court in the Calcasieu Parish city.  On January 11, 1905, he introduced a bill creating the Western Judicial District of Louisiana and providing for the terms of court to be held at Lake Charles. (46)  The bill passed the House February 11, later passed the Senate, and was signed by the President March 3. (47)   Acadia, Calcasieu, Cameron, and Vernon parishes were to be served by the new judicial district. (48)

Having had relative success in his first term as a United States Representative, Pujo formally notified C. H. Teal, chairman of the Seventh District Committee, in July, 1904, that he would be a candidate to succeed himself.  There was no indication the 1904 campaign would be as active as it had been in 1902, and one report, in discussing the election, said:

A congressman is looked upon as naturally entitled to a second term, and politicians who know their business are not inclined to make an attempt to supplant the sitting congressman until he had had a fair chance to show what he can do for his district. (49)

Once again, he received the support of the Lake Charles Daily American, which said his personal qualities, convictions, and American, which said his personal qualities, convictions, and previous efforts in Congress would insure his re-election. (50)  James J. Dailey of St. Landry Parish and Judge A. V. Coco of Avoyelles Parish had been mentioned as possible candidates, but both decided not to run. (51)  The Seventh Congressional District Committee met in Alexandria July 30, and since Pujo had no opposition for re-election from the Democratic Party ranks, he was declared the party’s nominee for Congress. (52)  Joseph Lasalle, the Republican nominee for Congress, was Pujo’s only opponent in the general election on November 8, 1904.  Pujo easily defeated Lasalle 5,432 votes to 1,007. (53)

The Fifty-Ninth Congress, like the previous Congress, was controlled by the Republican Party.  Although the Senate Republican majority was the same as the Fifty-Eighth Congress, the Republican majority in the House increased to 112 from the previous thirty-two. (54)  Pujo again voted for Williams for Speaker, but, as expected, Cannon was re-elected. (55)  In addition to being reassigned to the Committee on Banking and Commerce, Pujo was named a member of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce and Labor. (56)

One of the first major pieces of legislation to which Pujo directs his attention was the Philippine Tariff Bill, an extension of the similar bill which Pujo had opposed in his first term.  In 1905, the Philippine Tariff Bill approved by Congress provided for tariff duties on rice exported from the United States to the archipelago.  The 1906 measure provided that goods from the Philippines, which the exception of sugar and tobacco, were to enter the United States free of duty.  According to Pujo, the Philippines, if the 1906 bill passed, could make a profit on rice they produced, save money on rice they bought, and American rice would not only be undersold in the United States, but the Philippine market would be closed to the American product.  In his remarks, Pujo stated Japan was an example of a country that both imported and exported rice, buying a cheaper grade for home consumption and selling the better grade in other markets.  A second argument he used to support his position was the Democratic Party belief in a tariff for revenue purposes.  He said the bill under consideration was removing the duties on rice and lowering the duties on sugar and tobacco, all revenue producing commodities.  He admitted the Philippines were territorially a part of the United States, but emphasized the Supreme Court ruling (in the Insular Cases) which granted to Congress the right to impose duties in the New American possessions. (57)

 Pujo said he did not believe in free trade, giving as his reason the absence of an income tax to provide funds for operation of the government. His position was summarized when he said:

In the event of a reduction of the tariff we should take revenue-producing articles, make up own budget of expenses, and endeavor to raise enough money to have it equalized upon all products brought into this country, so that this Government could be properly administered and its internal development continued.  If protection should incidentally result from such revision, very swell.  But I do not want to see the interests of my section of the country discriminated against. (58)

A glimpse of Pujo’s views on imperialism and capitalism are found in his closing remarks on the Philippine Tariff Bill when he stated:

Mr. Chairman, it is a matter of common observation that the love of its accumulation is so great that no opportunity to enter profitable speculation will be overlooked.  It may be true there are no capitalists in the Philippine Islands who will undertake to exploit this field, but there is capital in abundance in the United States aggressively searching for quick and large returns. No greater inducement could be offered than that which would present itself should this bill be adopted. (59)

An amendment to the Philippine Tariff Bill was introduced by Pujo on January 16, providing for a tariff on rice, sugar, and tobacco amounting to 25 percent of the rates provided under the Dingley Tariff. The amendment passed, and Pujo said later he had hopes the Senate committee hearing the bill would increase the tariff rate to Tariff rate of 40 percent. (60)  The Senate committee, however, refused to report the bill favorably, and the measure was dropped. (61)

A bill being discussed in the House in April, 1906, was an appropriate indictor of Pujo’s willingness to change his personal viewpoint if the occasion warranted.  Although opposed to concentration of capital and benefits to men of wealth, he advocated passage of a bill which would allow national banks to loan to customers 10 percent of their capital stock and 10 percent of their paid-in surplus. The banking act of 1863 had permitted banks to loan only 10 percent of their capital to one individual, firm, or corporation, and the bill supported by Pujo would increase the maximum single loan to 20 percent.  He said the demands of business were so great in 1906, it was essential the lending power of banks be increased.  He opposed the placing of a criminal penalty on the bill because it would result in stockholders of small banks selling their interests, fearing they would be held criminally liable for actions of a bank employee.  In the event banking institutions loaned out more than the legal 20 percent of their capital and surplus, Pujo felt the Comptroller of the Currency could enforce the provisions of the bill. (62)

Pujo’s voting record during the Fifty-Ninth Congress indicated his approval of additional government regulation of corporations, increased benefits for labor, and added protection for the American consumer. The Hepburn Bill, a bill designed to strengthen the Interstate Commerce Commission, had passed the House in the Fifty-Eighth Congress, but was pending in the Senate at the close of that Congress.  A major feature of the bill was its provision giving the Interstate Commerce Commission authority to regulate freight rates on railroads:  and, in addition, the commission was given jurisdiction over express sleeping-car companies, oil pipe lines, ferries, terminal facilities, and bridges.  Pujo had voted for the bill in 1905 and did so again when the bill came up in 1906.  All of the Louisiana members of Congress voted for the Hepburn Bill with the exception of Representative Robert F. Broussard of the Third District who was listed as “Not voting.”  The bill passed both houses and was signed by the President on June 30, 1906. (63)

One of the most notable reform measures passed, not only during the Fifty-Ninth Congress, but in the early twentieth century, was the Pure Food and Drug Act which “forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or fraudulent labeled foods and drugs sold in interstate commerce.” (64)  Pujo and all but two of the Louisiana congressmen voted for the bill and it became law on June 30, 1906. Senator Murphy J. Foster voted against it, and Representative Adolph Meyer did not vote on the measure. (65)  During the second session of the Fifty-Ninth Congress, Pujo voted for a bill, the Sixteen Hour Bill, which limited the hours of work for railroad workers.  The bill stipulated railroad workers could not work more than sixteen hours on any one shift. (66)

Far removed from Congress in Victoria, Texas, in 1905 was an event which was to involve Pujo, as well as others, in a proposal that would revolutionize commerce throughout the Gulf Coast area; this was the formation of the Interstate Inland Waterway League of Louisiana and Texas.  The League envisioned an inland waterway stretching from Boston, Massachusetts, to the Rio Grande in Texas, but was primarily interested in excavation of an intracoastal canal from the Mississippi River in Louisiana to the Rio Grande. (67)  Louisiana Governor Newton Blanchard appointed Pujo as delegate to the Inland Waterway League’s convention in Lake Charles in 1906, and he welcomed the delegates to the city saying:

I have every reason to believe that from data now in the possession of the war department the portions of the proposed canal from the Mississippi to Vermillion by and from Galveston to the mouth of the Brazos River, and from Corpus Christi to Aransas Pass will be favorably recommended. (68)

The Interstate Waterways Executive Committee named Pujo delegate to a hearing on the intracoastal canal before the Board of Engineers at Galveston, Texas in November. (69)  In February 1907, the Rivers and Harbors Bill was up for discussion before the House;  it contained provisions for the intracoastal canal from Franklin to the Mermentau River in Louisiana, from Galveston to the Brazos in Texas, and from Aransas Pass to Pass Cavallo, also in Texas.  As far as Pujo was concerned, however, a major portion of the canal was not included in the bill, the section from the Mermentau River to the Sabine River, Texas.  Calcasieu and Cameron parishes had been ignored in the bill because those two parishes were to provide the route the canal would take from the Mermentau to the Sabine.  Pujo quoted from a board of engineers report which said the prospective and existing commerce of the section omitted did not warrant the digging of that portion of the canal at the present time.  He said he recognized the Committee of Rivers and Harbors’ need for a board of engineers, but did not believe the board’s recommendations should be final, particularly its recommendations as to the economic and commercial advisability of a project.  

The engineers had reported lumber was the only principal product of the section omitted, but Pujo emphasized that “half of the rice produced in the United States, practically all of the sulphur in North America, and millions upon millions of barrels of oil constitute a part of the output of that locality…”  He quoted from a report by the district officer of the Board of Engineers which traced the various commercial interests of the Mermentau-Sabine area.  He presented statistics to lend support to his stand on the issue and was not critical of the rivers and harbors committee, saying:

From the outset of my remarks it was apparent that I was opposed to this bill because of its want of legislative logic.  I realize that owing the tradition of the House it is immaterial whether the bill be logical or not, as the committee’s report is always adhered to by the membership unless consent is given by the chairman to change the bill.  The chairman of the Rivers and Harbors Committee is entitled to the respect of everyone, yet he has his pride of opinion as well as others, and is in a position to weigh and exercise the great power in his hands. I have no hope of persuading him to change the report of the committee…

I was told that it (the section) was refused because the Board of Engineers declined to approve the report of the district officer.  Yet this record discloses the fact that the Board of Engineers refused to approve the Cold Springs Inlet project, Cape May. (The Cold Springs project was approved by the committee.) (70)

Regarding the Board of Engineers, Pujo said there seemed to be a disposition on the part of Congress to delegate power to commissions and bureaus, “and thereafter they awaken to the sad realization that the creature has become greater than the creator.”  He had offered an amendment to the Rivers and Harbors Bill providing for the digging of the Mermentau-Sabine Section of the canal, but withdrew the amendment, feeling the amendment would not pass and a vote against it in the House at this time might imperil its future passage.  Withdrawal of the amendment did not mean he had abandoned hope for the canal because he closed his remarks by saying, “this amendment will yet become the law of the land.”(71)  An appropriation was added to the bill in the Senate providing for the omitted section of canal, but it was deleted by a conference committee. (72)

Pujo was successful in gaining approval of other miscellaneous waterway improvements in the district.  The Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Bill passed during the session provided for $25,000 to improve the mouth and passes of the Calcasieu River, $25,000 for improving the Mermentau River and Bayou Vermilion, $2,500 for improving Johnsons Bayou, and appropriations for surveys of Bayous Courtableau and Plaquemine Brule and Boyce Landing on the Red River, and lighting of the Grand Lake Channel. (73) The pubic Buildings Appropriation Bill authorized $125,000 for building a Federal building and post office at Lake Charles. (74)

An evaluation of Pujo’s first four years in Congress was probably best presented in a resolution by the Lake Charles Board of Trade which said:

During his four years’ service in the house, Hon. A. P. Pujo, by his fidelity to the interests of his constituents, individually and collectively, has demonstrated in a most striking manner the value of the services an untiring, intelligent representative can give…

Our public thanks are due Hon. A. P. Pujo for his labors in behalf of the waterways of his district, all of which have received the benefit of his attention, and more especially are we pleased by the success he has so far attained in forwarding the construction of the Intercoastal canal, which will be immeasurable benefit to the greater part of his district…

Whether success finally crowns his efforts in this direction at the present session, or is deferred until some future session of congress, we are confident that our interests could be placed in no more capable, energetic and indefatigable hands than in those of the Seventh district representative. (75)  

CHAPTER IV

LATER CONGRESSIONAL TERMS, 1907 - 1913

Pujo’s intention to seek a third Congress was noted on July 19, 1906, in an editorial in the Lake Charles Daily American.   The editorial said his choice by the Democratic Party was a “foregone conclusion,” and urged “Seventh district voters to give Mr. Pujo, if not an unanimous re-election to congress, one as nearly unanimous as possible.” (1)   In addition to citing his efforts to aid the rice industry of the district, the editorial noted his prompt compliance with every request made by his constituents, a service the article termed a service not generally recognized.

The Seventh Congressional District Democratic Committee met in Alexandria July 3, setting September 6, 1906, as the date for the congressional primary.  Later the committee, meeting in Lake Charles, changed the primary date to September 6. (2)  Judge W. F. Blackman of Alexandria was once again mentioned as a candidate, to which the Lake Charles Daily American sarcastically remarked:
 

Judge W. F. Blackman of Alexandria states that he will be a candidate for the congressional nomination of this district this fall.  This is the judge’s favorite amusement.  Whenever the cares of the judgeship weigh too heavy upon him, the judge doffs his judicial ermine, has his bows scraped and his hull painted, and chases around the lake to show that he is able to run with any of them.  Then he goes back home and his admiring constituents present him with another term as judge. (3)

Blackman told the people of Jennings he would enter the race “when he is assured of fair treatment.”  The pro-Pujo Daily American continued to ridicule Blackman’s indecision saying:

The judge hesitates too long, as Col. Shakespeare remarks, “letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ like poor cat i’ the adage.”  The cream jug will be empty before he has his mind made up. (4)

Apparently harboring grievances from the 1902 campaign, Blackman withdrew from the race.  Pujo was critical of Blackman’s insinuations, remarking on July 27 that he could “not sit idly by and let Blackman criticize or question the political integrity of practically the entire citizenship of this district.”(5)

John A. Michel, secretary of state of Louisiana, notified Pujo on August 20, announcing that Puj