Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1897-07-08
SENATOR M'ENERY's IDEA.


''The brutal frankness with
which Senator McEnery OF
Louisiana confessed the selfish
impulses that influenced his vote
on the tariff bill the other day
sounds harsh in its isolation, but
after all it is the old story,
though less artfully told" says
the Kansas City Star. From the
beginning Of the agitation for the
reduction of war taxes to the Level
of a peace basis there has been
found at every crucial period
some statesman who was deter
mined that his constituents and
incidentally himself should get
share of the booty and by acting
on that idea the reform was de-
feated. For a long time the
Judases were found in the house
of Representatives, though prob
ably that was for the reason that
the Wood bill of 1875 and the
Morrison and Mills bill didn't
reach the senate. But in 1890,
when the Mckinley law was I'M
der consideration, it was in the
senate that the greatest selfish
ness was revealed. Three years
ago, when the Wilson bill, now in
mutilated form the law of the
land, was pending, it was again
! in the senate that treachery
achieved its purpose and now
with shameless boldness the con-
fession is made that it is again
the potent force that governs
legislation in that body.
In 1890 the reward of treachery
to the cause Of the people was a
bounty on sugar. There was no
warrant in the constitution or
precedent in history for such a
method of distributing largess.
But the cupidity of the sugar
planters had been excited and
through their influence the votes
necessary to pass the bill were
secured. In 1894 it was the coal
and iron interests that accom-
plished the work of peculation.
Senator German of Maryland
obtruded his selfishness into the
deliberations of the senate and in
order to preserve an unjust tariff
tax on coal and iron ore for the
advantage of his West Virginia
property he traded with every
senatorial huckster who had any
selfish purpose to subserve. The
result was, after a long delay, a
measure which, though an i'm
provement on the Mckinley law,
was nevertheless defective in
many essential particulars and
furnished an excuse for the con-
tinued agitation of the question.
Now the history of that disgrace
full episode is being repeated with
McEnery in the roll of chief
traitor. But in this candid con-
fession of motives which influence
his vote he serves the public a
good turn. Everybody should
thoroughly understand the sub
ject.
There may come time when
the senate of the United States
will be composed of men above
and beyond the reach of sordid
influences and selfish considera-
tons. If that happy day ever
dawns, the coal barons and the
manufacturing magnates will be
forced to relinquish their hold on
the threats of the people, and
give up their hopes of a ''full
share of the booty" But it will
be after the McEnerys and the
Germans have been retired from
the senate, and when the people
of the several states have resolv-
ed to restore that body to the
high standard of craftsmanship
and patriotism it once exempli-
fed. Then the earnings of the
people will not be taken by the
force of law to fatten trusts and
to crafty an Unsuitable appetite
for plunder.'
IT is the opinion of the Llano
Times that Congress sman Slayden
let his democratic loot slip when