The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-22
pLuroCKATs IN THE SENATE.


PLUTOCRATs IN THE SENATE.
The proposition to amend the constitu-
ton of the United States so as to elect
United States senators by the popular
vote has the support of number of re-
spectacle statesmen of both the great po-
litical parties. Senator Palmer of Illinois
recently advocated this measure and Sena-
tor John Sherman has privately expressed
himself favorable TO its adoption.
The movement has its origin in the
popular disgust at the presence Of num-
Der of men in the United States Senate
who are plutocrats rather than patriots,
or, if not plutocrats, are what is equiva-
lent to the same thing, they are the tools
and obsequious slaves of ring of pluto.
Gratis. We are reapipg in many ways what
we have sown; we have allowed men
who buy and sell great public trusts,
like stocks, to the highest bidder to COM
pose our state legislatures. The Repub-
lican plutocrat sells the senatorship to the
Sharons, Stanfords and the Stewards; the
Democratic plutocrat sells the senator
ship to the Fairs, the Brices, the Paynes
and the Hearsts. Can anybody tell what
mental qualifications for service in the
United States Senate such men as Sena-
ators Sawyer, Stockbridge, Mcmillan,
Jones OF Nevada, Brice and Cameron pos
sess? Add to these money-bag senators
the senators who are elected as the mere
tools and slaves of corporate railroad
rings, such as generally control the legis-
latures of New Jersey and Minnesota, and
it is not strange that the people should
seek TO take the election of senators out
of the hands of the legislatures.
There is small prospect that the consti-
tutional amendment urged by Senator
Palmer will be adopted; there Is still
smaller prospect that if adopted it would
ever be ratified by the requisite number of
states, and there is small prospect that the
election of United States senator's by the
people would give us a less plutocratic
Senate. Congress is quite as good as the
people that elect it; and until the people
rise to higher mood and erect loftier
standard of public service the money-bag
will continue to go to congress, because
the money-bag is the name and sign under
which our present grossly utilitarian civil
ization conquers everything, measures
everything. Given a purely commercial
peddlers' civilization and you are sure in
time to have plutocratic Senate, and
no change in the machinery provided
for its election will make it less
plutocratic. As long as the popular stand
ard remains what it is today any ambi-
tious money-bag. or interested ring of
money-bags, will succeed in making the
United States Senate a body largely pluto
cratic or subordinate to plutocrats.
This gross utilitarian drift of our civili-
cation has always been apparent since the
introduction of steam transportation on
land and water developed our resources
and multiplied the opportunities on every
hand for the rapid accumulation of wealth.
The fine inspiration and noble life of the
war transiently lifted the people of both
sections out of the slough of public selfish
ness and corruption and deferred the evil
day. Before the war we had begun to be
affected by that plutocratic cancer that
has quelled so many great states. The
merchants of the great cities of the North
were peddling plutocracy of trade that
gave the hand to the aristocratic plutoc-
racy and oligarchy of slavery. The
plutocracy of the South Numbered in
their belief that the peddling pro-slavery
plutocracy of the North had the courage
of their convictions and threw down the
gage of battle, believing there was no
public opinion brave enough to pick it
up; but they were mistaken. The farmers
and mechanics rose up in a rage of
patriotic enthusiasm that made the
peddling plutocracy of Northern mer-
chants hide their heads or fall in with
the Union.
The manly work of the war. the inspir-
ing memories of its sacrifices, helped to
keep the greedy, unprincipled plutocrats
TO the rear for time after the war was
over, but by 1876 this moral influence had
clearly exhausted its best force. The
Northern plutocrat began openly to clasp
hands with the shotgun" statesman and
whisper in his ear: The war is over; let's
trade; vote my private schemes through
congress and you may suppress political
rights in the South as often as you like"
The age of national romance is over; the
patriots who fought for the flag are like
the poets who sing it-"not prac-
teal people" - and their day is
over; such men gnaw their crust in cor
ner, while the peddling plutocracy buy
and sell statesmen, suck champagne that
the state pays for, swagger about in stolen
broadcloth, gamble daily with the devil,
fiddle nightly in his orchestra, and scream,
after US the deluge"
The drift of the day is to time when
your popular orator is he who rolls UP the
starry folds of the flag as if ashamed of its
bloody stains of battle for existence. Until
this mood changes, what possible diff
erence would it make with the pluto
cratic ruling forces of our present
politics whether United States sena
tors were chosen by legislatures, as
at present, or voted for directly
by the people2 The mood of the people
is satisfied with the situation; q money
bag people is certain to have money-bas
Senate, and no change of constitutional
machinery will change the present situa-
ton. The money-bag will get there Just
the same, until the people are really de-
sirous aud anxious to be represented by
something more than moaey-bag. or the
tool and proxy of money-bag.