Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-19
is 1T A cAsR OF MUCH ADO ABOUT
NOTHING?

There are a great many things that
can be Justly said about the failure of
Americans to discharge the duties OF
and about bad and defective
features of our institutions. This kind
OF writing is found most frequently in
that portion Of our press that is fond of
admiring England and her institutions,
and Englishmen and English things
generally-the admiration of English
women we see nothing to object to.
With these people all the American salt
has lost it's SAVIOR. In the July number
of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine we
find the following lugubrious passage:
Even the upper chamber of our ma
tional Sanhedrim is now notoriously
filed, with some exceptions, by men
who have gained their legislative places
through their enormous wealth, which
has been so applied as to crush compe-
tition, and legislative action there is
now controlled mainly by those whose
merit is neither character nor states
manship. A former clerk of the United
States senate recently stated that ma
tional politics were dying out at Wash
ington. st is rare to find man,
said he, sin either branch of congress,
who engages in legislation with any
thing but personal view."
As matter of fact, this is greatly ex-
aggerated, especially that portion of it
which relates to the senate of the United
States. That there are great
many millionaires in that body must be
admitted, but their number is much
less than is generally supposed, and
some of them are not in the senate sim
ply because they are millionaires. TAX
ing the southern states, there are very
few millionaires in the list, Joe Brown,
of Georgia, being the only one that oc-
ours to us just now, and he is not there
because he is rich, but because he is a
public man OF great ability and con-
summate political tactician. We thus,
at blow, dispose of thirty-two of the
eighty-eight senators. Of the two New
York senators in tine last congress
it cannot be said OF either of
them that they were elected because
they were rich. No man will suppose
that William M. Evarts was elected be-
cause he is money bags, and Hiscock
is not rich enough to come into the
category of rich senators. David Ben
nett Hill is poor man. He would be a
bold man who would say that John
Sherman is senator from Ohio simply
because of his bank account, and the
HERALD would not say it. although this
journal is politically opposed to him and
has special detestation of his political
and financial career.
In truth, when we get down to the real
facts, there have only been half a dozen
senators at any one time in the senate of
the United States whose election can be
referred to money and nothing else.
AS to the lack of public spirit in the
United States, there is something in
that, and it can be easily remedied. As
a matter of fact, when any real crisis
occurs in the history of this country it
always is remedied. The people come
up with a spontaneity and patriotism
that are positively electrical and alway 8
prove victorious. The twaddle about
the superiority of Englishmen in this
respect lie laughable. the amount OF
money that is spent in the kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland on the occa-
sion of parliamentary election would
make the persons who talk this rot
ashamed of themselves. England has
abolished great many of her rotten
boroughs, and bribery at parliamentary
elections is not so open as it was won't
to be, but even now it is much more
prevalent than it has ever been in the
United States-yes, five to one. We
have much to reproach ourselves with
in this country, but it is not necessary
to carry our introversive agonies to such
a ridiculous extent as characterizes the
writer in Lippincott's.