Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-15
THE NEW DESPERATION IN OHIO.

Mr.. Calvin Brice was yesterday made
SenatOr-elect from Ohio, wanting only the
formality of approval by the joint session Of
the Legislature, which, of course, will come
to-day. The circumstances of Mr.. Brice's
projection upon the political horizon have
been so recent, and are OF such character
that it may be impossible to consider this
interesting event at all, unless at the i'm
minent risk OF doing him an injustice.
According to the undisputed accounts he
was little heard of until eight years ago, and
was not then studying for statesman. At
least the Democrats of Ohio planned their
campaigns, selected their policy and fought
their battles all unconscious that star was
rising at Lima. Mr.. Brice first became
known to the general public as the builder
of the Nickel Plate Road, by which, paral-
leling one ofthe Vanderbilt lines, he COM
PEELED the New York Cresus to shell out a
fabulous lot of money to buy up the watered
stock and bonds of the new venture, as the
only means of strsngling competition Mr..
Briee thus became millionaire. All his
business enterprises have since prospered on
a similar scale, and have partaken more or
less of the characteristics of his initial
stroke for fortune.
Mr.. Brice'S entry and rise in the political
armament has been as swift and as conspic-
uous as in business. The development of
his mind along the lines of craftsmanship
was only perceived by his party after he
had won his vast fortune; but when that
perception came it was with conviction
dazzling to the beholders. Like Minerva,
full-armed from his first advent in the new
his triumphal entry when he appeared at
the St. Louis convention to nominate a ma
tional ticket. He Immediately thereafter
became Chairman of the National Commit
tee, chased the rainbow of hope diligently
and cheerfully through the campaign of 'SS,
and before the close of 'S9. though non
resident of the State, was pitched upon by
the workers of his party as the proper per-
son, of all others, to represent Ohio in the
Senate.
1t is unnecessary to 90 over the charges
which have been made about bribery in this
election. Such ultra-Republican organs as
the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette and such
ulira-Democratic organs as the New York
World, which profess to fear plutocracy,
alleged bribery, but they offered no proof.
The general opinion is that Brice is far too
shrewd, to say nothing more, to put himself
in the power of anyone by bribing the
Legislators. But equally general is the
opinion that lavish use of his money in
making useful friends for the occasion was
the cause of his success.
The election is one which does not call for
much comment 1t leads to conclusions
which express themselves. Nobody will
seriously pretend that the Office sought the
man on account of mental qualifications
overwhelmingly surprising those OF any
other Democrat of Ohio, unless indeed the
belief is that the brains grow with the
purse. Had Mr.. Brice remained merely
hard-working country lawyer in Ohio, be
would have been to-day infinitely better fitted
to render to the people of the United States
that service in the Senate which their inter-
ests demand than he is now prepared to do,
taking into account the manner of his cleo
ton, his stake in various corporations, and
other features of his business and political
career. But the successors of the Legisla-
ture which chose Payne would in that case
have had no use for Mr.. Brice.
The instructive deduction to be drawn
from this choice of a Senator in Ohio is the
quick facility with which a man of nerve
and determined purpose, backed by millions,
can carry his point with Representative"
body, outstripping all competitors and COM
manding general homage. The reflection is
not exactly pleasant from some points of
view. The best to be hoped, we suppose,
under the circumstances. is that all the
brainy millionaires of the country may not
enter politics at once, else there will not be
seats enough for them in the Senate; and
evidently some of the legislative bodies
would be inexpressibly panied torefuse them
anything they might ask.