The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-01-05
Wealth In the Senate.

Wealth In the Senate.
The youthful appearance of tn
new House is not more noticeable Il
the casual spectator in the CALLER,
than Is the large proportion of mil
lionaires in the Senate to one VIII.
makes q study OF the upper branch
Never before in the history of thi.
country has wealth been so promi
nent as . characteristic of Senators
New England still maintains hel
character for judging q man by the
quality of his bSaln rather than the
length of his purse. OF the dozen
Senators from that section, Hale, Of
Maine, is the only millionaire. and
he married his money" after he had
become prominent in politics as q
poor lawyer. Edmunds, of Vermont,
is growing rich out of his heavy fees
as q pleader before the Supreme
Court, and Anthony, of Rhode Is
land, has made q comfortable fortune
Oot OF MS frOvl0euvo journal Dro-
perty, but the other Yankees In Tic
Senate are either poor or men of but
. modest competency. Miller, Of
New York, is q rich paper m~anufact-
urer; Mcpherson, of New Jersey, has
become q millionaire out of his great
dealings in live stock, as has his COL
league, Sewell, from his long con.
nectl0n with the Pennsylvania Rail-
road; while Cameron, of Pennsylva-
MIA, inherited great fortune, which
has grown in his hands.
The South has resemkled New
England in making poverty ne bar
to political preferment, and a MAORI
ty OF her Senators are still poor men,
who live in the most modest style at
Washington. But of late years
wealth has come to be 3 potent factor
III that part of the country. German.
of Maryland, is the guiding spirit of
the powerful Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal Company; Malone has grown
rich as a railroad president BY his
own account, and as q railroad
''wrecker'' according to other people:
Camden, of West Virginia, has be-
come wealthy out of the Standard oil
monopoly: Brown, of Georgia, is the
richest man in the Empire State of
the South, and Gibson, Of Louisiana,
inherited an ample fortune.
But 1t is the great and growing
West which pays heaviest tribute to
the god of gold. Of the twenty-six
Senators who represent the thirteen
States which stretch from the Allie
ghanies to the Pacific, it is safe to
say that q full half are m1llionaires.
The list would include both Pendle-
ton aud Sherman of Ohio, Palmer.
the great capitalist of Michi9au:
Sawyer, the king of Wisconsin lum-
bermen; Sabin, the young but very
rich newcomer from Minnesota: Al
lison, of Iowa, who has acquired his
fortune during his twenty years in
one or the other branch of Congress:
Plumb, the Kansas banker and spec
u!ator; Hill and Bowen, the ri wal
silver kings of Colorado; Jones and
Fair, the bonanza monarchs from
Nevada; Dolph, the rich corporation
from Oregon; and Miller, of
California, the wealthy president of
that most profitable corporation. the
Alaska Seal Fur Company.
Here are twenty-three Senators |
different parts of the country !
whom it would be fair to rate a. mil |
llonalreS-mOre than one Of them /
several times q millionaire. Even if
name or two should be stricken
rom the list, there are others whose !
to be added might probably |
established. In other words. it ia |
he simple truth that a third of the
senate is composed Of men of great
wealth, to say nothing of a number !
more who would once have been |
allied rich.
OF course wealth should not consti-
ute a positive disqualification for
public service any more than poverty
Ihould of itself entitle a man to Of
Ice. If candidate is otherwise the
'est in the field, the fact that he is a
Millionaire ought not to rule him out.
he trouble is that wealth is coming
o be too often the sole qualification,
nd a long bank account a better re.
ommendation than high character
r proved capacity. Michigan grows
'etter men than Palmer, Wisconsin
lA~A e0WyCAS MluU0SOtA IMAM |
but for their wealth they
vould never have been chosen as the
|ttest representatives of these vigor-
us commonwealths. The Nevada
'enatorsbips are openly put up at
uction to the highest bidder, aud
ne scandal is almost as glazing in
Colorado. New jersey would hardly
ave sent MCPHERSON to the Capitol
he had been a poor man; Maryland
F1rman; or West Virginia, Camden.
Both parties are tarred with the
ame stick, and all sections, with the
exception of New England,
yielding to the decentralization.
here has been a great-it is not too
luch to say an alarming-change
thin the last fifteen years. The
enate which witnesses the close
T Arthur's Presidency has, at the
cry least, about twenty-five million
res. The Senate which heard
rants first message in 1869 had not
yer a fifth as many, and of these few q,
ch men Sprague, OF Rhode Island,
ID Cattell, of New Jersey, were the (
lily ones whose political advance .
ent had been due largely to their :
rtunes. 1t is high time for the !
untry to call q halt. The people of
ese United States cannot afford to {
g their highest legislative body de.
nerato into q rich mems club