The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-15

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the earth In fact, not a solitary individual
whom the tainted and tainting hands of cor
ruption could approach has found it possible
to gain admittance to the gloomy structure
which towers up on Beacon Hill Or, as it is
ingenuously put by the committee, they ''have
had no reason to suppose that any member
either of this or any previous Legislature has
been influenced by any improper or dishonora-
BILE motives"
This verdict would certainly entitle Boston
to the claim of being the great centre of m oral
ideas, as well as to that of being the burning
axletree" around which the universe revolves
were it not for an unfortunate admission by
the ingenious committee. Despite the purity
of the men who are called to the important
task of legslating for the old Bay State, their
annual gatherings on Beacon Hill call to-
gether horde of monstrosities known, even
in Boston, as lobbyists. These men, say the
committee, 'are not lawyers, and have no le-
gitimate professional calling at the Capitol
but are supposed to have more or less inlu-
ence in private talks and conversations by par
tial presentation of matters to individual mem
bers. Our readers will recognize these men at
a glance by this description. They belong to
precisely the same species which fourishes so
luxuriantly at Harrisburg. But they possess
one quality which is not always found in their
Harrisburg rivals-that of making the people,
and especially the persons who are interested
in legislation, believe that their ''private
talks and conversations" are potential with
individual members" when the precise re-
verse is the truth. The committee ''believe
that money expended in the employment of
these men is wasted by the parties who ex-
pend it," This state of facts is not entirely
in accordance with our old-time notions of
Yankee shrewdness, but we suppose that the
apparent inconsistency may be reconciled on
the presumption that it is only rivalry in
shrewdness, in which the lobbyists come out
best. Yet, although the Legislators of Massa-
chusetts to a man, have been upright and
incorruptible from time immemorial, and all
attempts at improperly influencing their
action by 'private talks and conversations"
have ever proved futile, the committee are
forced from sheer honesty, to confess that
the practice of fleeing the lobbyists has "a
tendency to demoralize legislation "a confess
sion to which the people of this locality will
be inclined to give full credence. But the man
ner in which this Generalization is effected
and it's results are a little singular, and not
altogether as clear to the mind of the average
reader as they might be, In the words of
the committee, ''the influence of such expen-
diture has a tendency" not only ''to demora-
lize legislation, " but. as natural result, ''to
create suspicious of integrity of members
where suspicion should never rest" Yet,
despite all these disreputable and demora-
lizing surroundings, the members of the
General Court stand forth upon Beacon Hill
as beacon lights to the political world.
Shall not we of the State of Pennsylvania
make desperate effort to profit by the light
so shed upon us? Have we not in our midst
men who are as thoroughly incorruptible as
the Solons of Massachusetts? ? Can no per-
son born outside Of that State resist the Sc
ductive influences of ''private talks and con-
versations?' Does Boston monopolize the
political virtue, as well as the literary culture
of the country? We submit that the poorest
way of going about the task of giving salts
factory responses to these inquiries will be
by sending back to Harrisburg such men as
Stokes, Davis. Bum, Adaire, Cloud, and
Hong. These individuals have been tested,
and they have not proved themselves to be
quite up to the standard of the Massachusetts,
lawmakers. Let no honest Republican, there
fore, vote for any one in the list.