The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-02-11

ward suicide--How m Il lg,ish Sea Cap
tain Was Intimidated By . Publisher.
WASHINGTON, Feb. a-ISpecial. lin
the press gallery of the senate the newspa-
per mon were talking of the men on tho
floor below. What tho correspondents OF
the big papers do not know about the
statesmen 10 Is not worth trying to find
out. "In my opinion" said one CORE
spondent, "a great change has come over
the senate In recent years There was q
time within my recollection-you know l
have been hero nearly quarter OF a CEN
tury--when tho leaders and most OF the
members of the senate were lawycrs-men
trained to dealing with idoas and law and
philosophy men who were students and
thinkers. Now the controlling factors In
tho senate are business men-men who
measure everything by money. In dealing
with practical questions they may be the
superior of the old fashioned statesmen,
but they are too prone to think first OF
business interests, OF railway corporations,
of manufacturing, of trusts and such
things, while the older class of legislators
had tho people first In mind. Don't I'M
derstand mo TO bo severe critic OF the
senate of tho present day, for 1 am not. 1t
has its good points, but in my opinion IL
is poorer senate for the masses of tho
people than the senate of 90 or 20 years
ago. can remember a time when such
lobbying as we have lately seen about this
end of the capitol would not have been
tolerated for an instant. The old senators
of the days gone by would have kicked
some OF these fellows down stairs. Now
IL Is such common thing for men con-
trolling millions of money TO send their
lawyers and agents here TO influence legis-
lation that we do not notice It. We have
become accustomed to 1t, just as the sena-
tors themselves have. All this, to my
mind, indicates decadence of public
morals, lowering of the tone of states.
manship."
Business Men to the Front.
"This change is the more to be regretted
from our standpoint as newspaper men,"
said another veteran correspondent, "be-
cause 1t has put tho business man to the
front and driven tho orator out OF public
life. can remember the time when the
great orators OF the senate were power
In this country simply through their
speeches. When IL was known that one
of them was to speak on big question,
we correspondents prepared for sending
elaborate reports. Now all these things
are left to tho press associations No SEN
ator is reported In full. The newspapers
won't print long speeches made on this
floor, and IL doesn't matter how impor-
tant they are. How many OF you ever had
orders from your managing editors to re-
port senate speech ia full? Not one OF
you in recent years, venture TO say. Tho
natural result of this neglect of orators is
the decadenoe of oratory. Eloquence is
not the power here it once was. Nova
days statesmen caro- moro for work In COM
mittees, for their friendships and their
| coteries on tho floor, their combinations
and trade, than they do about making
| great speeches"
| An UnlucIsy Investment.
"This reminds me of a story OF a man
now see down on the floor, !" remarked q
third correspondent. II won't mention
his name, but perhaps some of you will be
able to guess whom mean. Last summer
he was invited by syndicate of specula-
tors, including number OF senators, to
90 into the stock marekt He declined.
Ho did not think it right for senator to
speculate In stocks that were affected by
pending legislation. He kept out of it.
But after the syndicate had accepted his
refusal and dropped him he came to the
conclusion that he would do little quiet
speculatlng on MS own ACCOUNT WitnOut
saying word to any one. 1t seemed to
him that IL no did this without joining
any clique or entering into any scheme 1t
would not be wrong. So no invested a
pretty large sum of money. AS 1t happen
ed, he bought for rise just at a time
when the syndicate was selling with a
view to forcing the market down prepara-
tory to a long advance, on which they
were TO reap rich harvest. The senator
of whom am speaking thought it very
queer the market went the wrong way for
him. It dropped lower and lower till ho
became so disgusted with his losses and
With himself for going into the business
at all that he closed out at a big loss and
quit the business altogether
"Now, this is only prelude to my story.
As result Of his losses and the fear OK
exposure as speculator In stock when the
scandal as TO the Sugar trust and the sem
ate spread over the country, this senator
became frightfully alarmed. His con-
science troubled him, and his timidity