The Portland daily press., 1893-04-05
EXECUTIVE SESSIONS.
Some Powerful Reasons Why They
Should Be Secret.
A Phase of Popular Question That Is
Not as Well Understood as 1t
Should Be-A Few Inter-
esting "Reminiscences.
Especial Washington letter.

I0er0 Is ualllC5Uly du increasing Ten
dency on the part of some of the
Younger members of the United States
senate to abolish the custom of holding
executive sessions in secret. A few Of
the older senators, bowling to the will
of their people, have recently been adj
vocating open executive sessions; SO
that the advocates of this new system
are growing continually more aggres-
sive in the advancement of their ideas.
I cannot confess to entertaining any
great degree of respect for the older
senators who favor this scheme. 1t is
their duty, out of their wisdom and ex-
perience, to teach the people and en-
tighten them, rather than bow cring-
ingly before a sentiment which they
know is wrong. For the younger sena-
tors who advocate open executive ses.
sions no man cherishes resentment.
They will know more and be wiser
when they are older. Some of them
deem it wise, smart, and an assertion
of their independence" to violate all
presidents, trample upon the sense of
propriety of their elders, pose and pa
rade before the galleries; just as we
always have seen new members of the
house exhibit themselves. Such men,
otherwise talented and learned, cannot
be expected to be wise and dignifed.
They have already, within the past two
years, lowered public respect in the ma
tional capital for the hitherto most re-
spected Legislative body in the world.
It is not to be wondered at that such
men want to play the iconoclastic act
in every particular. The bull in the
china shop attracted a great deal of at
tention while he was smashing his way
through valuable property, but not
even Eli Perkins or Joe Mullholland
has undertaken to convince anybody
that the bull received any applause or
encores for his performance.
Executive sessions of the senate
should always be held in secret, and the
senators should all of them have re-
spect for their colleagues even if
they have not sufficient self-re-
spect to refrain from talking
and telling to outsiders what was
said and done behind closed doors.
Treaties with foreign countries and dis
cussions concerning strained relations
with any foreign power, even our new
iconoclasts concede, should not be made
public. They realize that, for the gen
eral welfare, it would not be wise to
give publicity to such discussions, par
ticularly when the people are stirred to
intense feeling over any international
occurrence, such as the Valparaiso in
cident of the last year. But these re-
cent acquisitions to the senate affect to
believe that the consideration of presi-
Dental nominations to public office
should be considered and debated in
open sessions of the senate. In other
words, they will think that the United
States senate should be degraded into
a common arena for political dog
fighting or cooking mains. That would
be the result. One example will prob
ably suffice to demonstrate the folly OF
open executive sessions.
Nearly SIX years ago there was con-
templated d change in the postmaster
ship of Terre Haute, Ind, That is a
presidential Office of the first class, and
it is valuable appointment. Of course
position, and the papers in the case Of
each candidate were pouring into the
post Office department daily for months,
before the case was finally decided.
Four card boxes, such as merchants use
for packing dozen shirts. were used
by the clerk in charge of the case in
order to successfully file the papers con-
corning the various candidates for the
Terre Haute postmastership Those
boxes contained papers which, if read
in the United States senate, would have
created commotion not only in Terre
Haute, but throughout the entire coun-
try. You have no idea what candidates
for Office say of their rivals, and what
they put in writing. After President
Cleveland had examined all of the pa
pers in that case, he selected man for
the postmastership, and sent his NOM
nation to the senate for confirmation.
Now if that matter had been considered
in open session of the senate it would
have been necessary to have read all of
the papers, in order that each senator
might know all about the case, in order
to vote intelligently upon the nomina-
ton. The reading of the papers would
have made them a part of the public
records of the senate, and they would
have been printed in the Congressional
Record, together with the remarks OF
senators CONCERNING them. There would
have been something to pay in Terre
Haute, and some of those candidates for
the position would have been scalp
hunting.
Another instance land could give a
score or more from memory was the
case of the postmastership at Kankakee,
ILL., There were papers in that case
which would have provoked murder,
if they had become public. If that case
had been considered in open session OF
the senate there would have been
trouble in Kankakee, and probably ;r
the surrounding country. It would
have been monstrous to have sullied the
pages of the senate's record with the
Kankakee case.
Viewing the matter from the point OF