Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-07-09
THE RAILROAD ATTORNEY BILL
The Debate in the senate on the Bin In
troduccd by senator Beck.

The bill introduced by Senator Beck of
Kentucky, to prohibit members OF Con
gress from acting as attorneys for land
grant railroads, was before the senate the
other day, on Il motion to refer it to the
judiciary committee An amendment
had also been proposed to prohibit mem
bers of Congress from acting as attorneys
for any bank, or corporation of any kind,
or persons engaged IN the manufacture
or production of whiskey, oleomargarine,
tobacco or any taxable product or article.
The bill was sustained and the amend
ment opposed by Mr.. Beck. He said
As to gentlemen who have been the at
torneys of those roads and who are the
attorneys of those roads now, If there are
any such make no reflection upon them.
| They have right to be railroad attor-
neyS, as the law now stands, but think
the law ought to be changed III order that
those great questions may be considered
/ by the representatives OF the people OF
the United States in the two Houses of
Congress on the one side with lawyers i'll
no way connected with the government
on the other, and thus avoid all scandal as
to the want of fairness and impartlality
in the consideration Of questions in which
land grant and subsidized railroads are
interested
committee was supported by Senators
Teller, Call, Hawley, Evarts and Ed
munds. Mr.. Teller said
do not suppose there is an attorney Tor
one of these railroads upon this floor, but
if there is he has voted for the bill. If
/ there is a man who would accept from Il
| railroad company money and come here
and vote for their interest, he is the first
man who rallied to the support of the bill
/ upon the theory that the man who steals
/ a pOcket-book upon the streets Is the i1rst
| fellow to join in the run and shout stop
/ thief :" ! am prepared to vote for any
proper restriction upon the legislative de-
/ partment of the government that its
members may not only be honest but that
they may appear honest But am not
ready to Join in cry to do that which is
unseemly and as if there was necessity
to put Shackles upon members OF TINS
body and thus endorse the demagOgical
cry that has gone out that this Is Il
body of corporate attorneys, who have no
| interest and no connection with the great
mass of the American people. / have
voted against the bill Will 50 vote again,
at least until it has gone to a committee
and come to this body in an orderly and
decent manner.
MIR. Evarts mentioned the fact that of
the Is members of the senate 90 are law
yers, and pronounced the bill an asper-
sion both on the legal profession and on
the senate. He was a newcomer in the
body and had never before belonged to any
body that needed new penal provisions in
order to secure propriety of conduct. He
said:
do not myself think very highly OF
that kind of penal sanctions which sur
round public men. | do not believe much
in the notion that a handcuffed pickpocket
is an honest man, and never shall myself
90 INTO legislation of that kind. QUd
lcgcs, sine mOribus l'dltT prGfciunt
Andif that be maxim that will stanC
us in stead as members of this great body
of the senate of the United States, anC
the great popular body at the other end o
the Capitol, and the great profession o
the law, | do not think that anybody vii
find in this species of criminal sanctions
: thrown around what is not immoral an!
support of the moral tone which shOulC
characterize legislative bodies.
Mr. Beck having quoted another sena
tor who had referred to time when sen
ator Edmunds uniting his great talent
and his great zeal with Judge Thurman
representing the interests of the peOpl
and of the government, displaying equa
= devotion and equal earnestnesS, ate
many discontinue and many a deiea
succeeded in passing Il law III this bod
requiring that the great Union Paciti
railroad corporation should he held to
strict accountability in its financial rela
tions to the government OF the Unite'
States" Mr., Edmunds took the floor II
said
MIR. EpMUND>'s REMARKS.
My friend from Kentucky has done m
I.., 70 "a t m "a
that of ex-senator Thurman in, ate
many defeats and many struggles, at las
accomplishing the passage of bill Whlcl
: did something toward bringing the great
- est of land grant corporations to terms. |
illustrates the fact which has been true i
all the time have been i'll the senate, am
is probably true in every legislative body
=, that the gentlemen who have, like SUI
y geons, done particular work professional
. ly, for corporations or other great client
= or patients, are the men who when in pul
: lie station those clients or those patient
" come to he considered, are found to b
Il perhaps quite as skillful in treating thel
= in their political relations to the state G
to the United States.
think that is true of the profession {
! the law everywhere, of which the senate
" from Kentucky is an honored and, rs n
u says most truly, Il highly successful men
" Der, If there is any one profession an
i calling in this life that leads man TO /
!, able to distinguish between one line {
Il duty and another line OF duty, and
- know where he stands, and to do eac
- duty upon its own merits and with It's ow
= consequences, am bound to say ii is til
- profession of the law, without any derog
7 ton of any other profession, from that {
=, farmer down, because farming is the be'
Il and highest of all professions.
=, That is the commentary upon TINS ID
u asa practical thing. have been counst
~ for some of these railway companies no
~ and then, in causes in the courts of Il
y United States and in causes in courts
'e the states and so having been counse
~ and in those old times probably then b
" ing counsel, did what | could and in n
- humble and Intellectual, but At last som
u what effectual, way-not as eifectual as
:; wished it had been-to bring my client
W. in other relations, to their duty TO the OF
u er and the greater client whom | repr
" scented, the people of the United States.
d ~ Now, the fundamental basis of this b
" is the idea that gentlemen in the profe
" sion of the law having a client are und
~ a bias in favor of that client and that
~ order to make free and pure legislation
y iu IA aNf1uI. that hiuG TN