The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-12-08
MONEY BAGS AND THEIR TOOLS.

Ex-senator Ingalls,, while granting that
some men Of great fortune without special
training or aptitude for legislation or
| Craftsmanship have been sent to the
United States Senate, maintains that the
number of millionaires in the Senate has
always been relatively small. He says:
'The great majority of senators are men
of moderate means, and many Of them are
dependent wholly On their salaries for
support"
Nominally this il true, but it is chiefly
true OF the South and the new states Of
the West. There are several senators
from the older states that never would
have been selected for their present po-
sition had they been men of moderate
means. Stanford, FELTON,, Stockbridge,
Mcmillan, Brice, Cameron and Sawyer
are men that would scarcely have been
thought of for the Senate had it not been
for their ducats; and among the really
able men of the Senate are number who
have grown so rich during their public
career as to create the suspicion that they
are dangerously likely to vote with the
money power against the people. To illus
trate-Roscoe Conkling, a greater lawyer
than Edmunds. entered the Senate
1867, and retired in 1881 a poor
man, while Edmunds leaves the Senate
rich. As soon as he left the Senate, Conk-
ling earned money so rapidly that he left
property of over $500. 900, all acquired in
about seven years. While in the Senate
rof,1 fn ho foiy oil Nv
corporation in any matter that even re-
motely promised to come before him for
his voice and vote as United States
senator. Consequently Conkling had
little or no practice. but Edmunds
had no such scruples, accepted
retainers from corporations having great
interests before congress for adjudication.
He was not only conspicuous for his eff
forts to save the Northern Pacific railroad
from the forfeiture of its unearned land
grant, but he opposed and voted against
the bill prohibiting United States sena-
tors from taking retainers from corpora
tions. who were presumably If not actually
htigants against the people before the court
OF the United States Senate.
1t is not the wealth of certain United
States senators that has made the United
States Senate an odlous body at times to
the people, but the fact that the Senate
has become the stronghold of the great
railroad and other corporations of the
country. To lllustrate-the senators
from Pennsylvania and New Jer-
sey stand for the Pennsylvania railroad;
Brice, of Ohio, stands for the
| Standard Oil Company, as did Senator
| Payne in the last congress; Stanford
stands for the Central Pacific, and Ed
munds was his helper in the last congress.
Vest, of Missouri, takes care of the Mis-
| souri,, Kansas e. Texas railroad and the
| cattle syndicates. Senator Sawyer looks
| after the Northwestern railroad, which
| sent Senator Spooner there to help him,
| but could not keep him there. German
| and kenna take care of the Baltimore 81
| Ohio interests. Dolph and Mitchell, with
| the help of Edmunds, took care of the
Northern Pacific in the last congress.
| Plumb had the credit of caring for jay
Gould's railroads. Edmunds and Evarts,
| in the last congress, were corporation at
| torneys, who took the views of corpora
| ton attorneys when corporation interests
came before the Senate. 1t is not so much
the presence of a few money bags in the
United States Senate that has discredited
1t with the people: it's the presence and
domination of what are known as cor
| poration senators, who have been accur-
atev described and defined as follows:
The corporation senator simply holds that the
public domain is better in the hands OF corpora
tons than in that OF the government: that the
railroads have developed the lands and ought to
own them that land syndicates can manage
aud develop ami use great estates better than
the people going on them small settlers and
that al the talk about land forfetures and
about reserving the public domain for actual
homestead settlements by the people is senti-
| mental bosh.
They hold that the railroad corporations are
the benefactors of the country and ought there
fore to have all sorts of privileges and ought
never to be held to the strict enforcement of
tEeir contracts; and as most OF the CORPORATION
senators are lawyers, and have besides the ad-
vice of other corporation lawyers not vet in the
Senate, they know how, by shrewd and cunningly
drawn amendments, TO stultify and cripple any
honestly drawn bill; how by delays to prevent
the passage Of bills which they dare not openly
tect corporations ard prevent the peoples rights
from being established.
Spooner, of Wisconsin, who has been
succeeded by Villas in the Senate, was
elected TO please Senator Sawyer, Wiscon-
sins money bag statesman and lumber
king, and Mitchell, of Oregon, was elected
TO please the trading factions Of both par
ties. The drift toward money bag sena-
tors, and senators who hold the bag for
those who pocket the money of the peo-
pie, is not a sign of a sound, healthy pub
lie opinion. Fifty years ago nearly all our
congressman rose from poverty to public
eminence by native tact and talent, with
out any adventurous aid Of hereditary or
acquired wealth. We then recognized
other forces in politics than the N oney
power. Capacity and character; brains
backed by distinct moral purpose ought
to open all places in politics to the aspira-
tons ofhonorable, intelligent poverty The
really great and pure prizes of public life
ought never TO be for sale any more than
the love Of woman worth winning Is for
sale. The decent places in public life
ought to fall to capacity and courage that
never surrenders to sordid appeal or drops
its Tag to bribe. Out of the unexhausted
and exhaustless bosom Of the plain people,
whence both Lincoln and Grant came,
ought TO be constantly recruited the in
fuential lawmakers and administrators of