New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-03-11
RETAINED LEGISLATORS.

| HEIAINED LEUfoLdlOho'
Bribery ia very hard and offensive word
| II startles even the man who has just dropped
into the hand of the voter a currency con-
sideratiOn for his vote 1t sounds harsh, has
| the smack of law-breaking, and the flavor OF
personal dishOnOr and men who do 1T most
like tho name of it least. So they go round
il. They are charitable" toward men who
have shown by their political action that they
are observing of charity" they pay voters
" for their time )" they "retain" members OF
Congress and the Legislature; they do it all
by indirectiOn and circumlOcution, and invent
| euphuisms for it, But refined down to the last
analysis, it is simply bribery. That is the honest
name and definition of it when the disguise is
stripped off and the cOrrupter of voters and
legislators stands face to face in his own con-
science chamber with his motive and purpose.
| Human ingenuity is taxed for expedlents ana
shifts to carry on this business under such
name and guise as will not only evade the
law, but will appease the conscience OF the
offenders. The increase of special legislation
| of all Sorts from the charter of an insurance
company to the grant of half continent in
| subsidies, has enlarged the field and multi
piled the demands and the opportunities for
transactions in votes. Large corporations with
| immense consultations of capital, and no
corporate conscience, are able to pay great
sums of money for the influence and votes OF
| legislators and so to divide up and dilute
the disgrace of corrupting their fellow
| citizens that the godly men who figure in the
direction and profit by the crime have never
the slightest twinge of conscience or blush OF
shame. With our lowered and corrupted
standards of political morality it seems to be
confessed that these things are necessary, and
being necessary should not be complained of,
so they be vailed by some indirectiOn and not
Haunted violently in our faces. AS though
anything was ever anywhere under any cir
cumstances so necessary in. business or politics
as to justify the telling of a lie or the perpe-
tratiOn of q crime.
The most common Of the processes of in
direction by which legislators are bribed is
this practice of retaining men who are either
already members or are candidates for the
Legislature or Congress. In both branches
of Congress there are to-day men some
of them we'll known and of notorious con-
nectiOn with lobby operations-whO are with
good reason believed to be under general re-
tanners from corporations interested in the
legislation Of Congress. They perform no
service for such corporations never appear in
court or argue a case or even give an opinion.
And yet they draw their general retainers as
regularly as their salaries, these fees being in
one or two cases as high as $4,000. Doubt
less some of the attorneys so retained delude
themselves with the idea that it is bona Jfds
business operation, that the companies which pay
them such handsome fees have no ulterier end
in view, but mean only to provide as usual where
general retainers are given-fOr the centin.
gency of possible lawsuits in the future.
And yet there is 80 much doubt in their own
minds as to the character of the transaction,
such glimmering suspicion that 1t is at least
liable to miscOnstruction, that they all of one
accord dodge questioning concerning it and
are very careful that the facts shall not be
made public. Are these men strictly honest
in their relations as legislatorsi Do they
believe themselves entirely impartial and I'M
predjudced in legislating upon subjects in
which their clients have large pecuniary in
terestf 1t is not possible. No man with the
keen sense Of personal honor and profound
appreciation of the function and responsibility
of the law-maker, which we have right to
look for in our public men, could continue
holding such relations after the suspicion
begins to dawn upon him that it is not
strictly professional service for which he is
retained and paid. Men of sensitive conscience
or nice sense of personal honor would spurn
such retainers as thinly disguised brides.
1t is not alone in Congress that tho hired
attorneys may be found legslating under
large general retainers from corporations and
small daily pay from the State. They are in
every State Legislature in the country, fool
ing themselves and trying to fool others into
the belief that their relations with the people
as legislators are entirely consistent with their
relations with their clients who seek from the
people special protective privileges or grants.
The large pay is from the client, the small
pay from the State. In the collision of inter-
ests between client and people, what chance
is there for judicial fairness or honest adjust
mentf
1t is an evil hard to reach and difficult to
remedy. But that it is an evil, crying
shame, in Legislatures and Congress cannot be
denied. There is no cure for it in any spas
modic effort to get better and purer men into
public life and consequent exposure to temp
tation. That is good so far as it goes but so
long as Congress and State Legislatures have
great pecuniary rewards for distribution the