The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-07-18
SENATORIAL SEATS.

Senators Hoar and Frye. in their
separate report on the Payne bribery
case. say that "for the Senate to refuse
to listen to this complaint would be
taken as declaration that it is indiffer-
ent to the question whether its seats
are to be in the future the subject OF
bargain and sale, or may be presented
by few millionaires as a compliment
TO friend" 1t is a sad thing that the
souls of these distinguished statesmen
should be so worried over what they
ASSUME to be strain of corruption that
is creeping into the elections of Sena-
tors. II is a pity that the notorious
New Englanders should have been IN
the Senate all these years to learn only
now that a suspicion of crookedness
prevails in Tegard1to the manner in
which one member gained his seat.
One cannot help the feeling that If
Senator Payne were a Republican,
Messrs. Hoar and Frye would still
be spared the anguish occasioned by the
hint that a shadow of bribery rests
athwart any seat in the dignifed upper
branch of Congress. In their report.
Hoar and Frye do not do credit TO
their intelligence. 1t has been notorious
for a quarter of a century that the
money of the candidate for Senatorial
honors, more than his brains or
knowledge of craftsmanship, was the
which achieved success. In the |
House. a very respectable mi ority OF |
the members are poor men, while there
are compa stively few OF what are re-
gsrded as rich men. The people elect |
the Representatives, and 2 mans |
do net always count
against brains with the people. In
the Senate, the only really poor men |
are dozen or so, most of whom came
from the south; the great majority are |
and the great majority |
owe their Senatorship either to the
TACT that they possess immense wealth.
Or TO the improper use of money. The |
richer the candidate the more certain
IS he to get the position; brains have
counted for little in the election of
Senator'S. This is proven By the fact that
while the members have been in the
senate from six to eighteen years. the
names of not more than a dozen Sem
ltors are familiar TO the peopl-. You
nay read the reports of the Senatori !
proceedings day after day and session
after session, and you will find the
anne old names; now and then a new
nan appears, and people ask from what
State he halls. The thinking and the
peaking and the labor are performed by
! dozen Senators, the efforts of the re.
naming sixty-four being confined 20
Toting with their respective parties. II
re Senatorial seats are not subject TO
'argain and sale, the State Legislatures
s rule. are made up of asses who ,
now no better than to send rich men ,
Without brains when there are so many
rainy poor men available. :
Hoar and Frye know how it is. They T
now that if there had been absolute I
onesty in the election of Senators. i s
honey had cut no figure in the selec-
on OF candidates, and the casting of
otes, four out of i've Of the seats in O
ne chamber would be occupied by T
iferent men from those who now sit b
/ them. The down east gentlemen, in {
leir report on the Payne matter, b
'sume for the Senate virtue which q
lie chamber has no right to claim, and Q
E don't believe there would have been 9
~ such assumption had the accused n
the case been Republican. n