The age-herald., 1898-01-09

of luxurious men, some of whom were sus- pected of having bought the seats which they occupied but did not adorn. To certain extent this reproach has been taken away. Other influences have been at work to fill the senate. But the visitor in the senate gallery vain,y listens for any such statesma..Iike deliverances on great ques- tions as those which he might have heard in the chamber during the elder time. Of that race of senators I recall few promi- nent names Delaware was represented by James A. Bayard; Illinois by Lyman Trumbull, o. H. Browning, and Qater) Richard Yates; Indiana by Henry s. Lane; Iowa, by James w. Grimes and James Tarlan; California, by John Conness and James A. McDougall; Michigan, by Zach" Chandler and Jacob M. Howard; New Hampshire, by John P. Hale; Massachu- setts sent Charles Sumner and Henry Will son; Ohio, Benjamin P. Wade and John sherman; Pennsylvania, David Wilmot; Kentucky, Garret Davis; Tennessee, An drew Johnson Maine, William Pitt Fes- senden and Lot M Merrill, and so on to the end of the chapter. Who are their suc- cessors, renowned for forensic ability shrewdness in legislative management and fertility of resource?
 It must be admitted that the increase in the numerical strength of the senate, caused by the admission of new states into the union, has not correspondingly in- creased the dignity and power of that body. On the contrary, leaving out one or two notable exceptions which will occur to ev- erybody, the introduction of senators from the newer states has weakened the char acter of the upper house. As a rule they have been of very light calibre-smooth bores. Asked off-hand to name the sem ators of any half dozen of the far western states, even the best informed of public men and measures would be puzzled Per haps it is an early failure to find good men to send to congress that induces the con- stant changes that go in the congress- ional delegations of these new states. They may be experimenting with their abund- ance Of raw material hoping to find the best men after a while. But this vicious habit of giving congressman only short terms of service has not been confined to the newer states. It Is nearly fifty years since California entered the federal union, and during all that time she has consistently refused to give any one of her citizens mnre than one term in the senate until the present senior senator from that state, MT. Perkins, broke all records by succeeding himself Long before, however. Aaron A. Sargent was actually elected three times to the house, (but not for con- secutive terms), and was then given the str1cted terms) and was then given the restricted single term of senator. It is the cheerful custom of California politi- cians without distinction of party to turn upon a man and rend him limb from limb as soon as he becomes prominent in state politics. If he is named as a possible ap- pointee to an important place in the fed eral government every mans hand is against him. If he is elected to high office his political destruction is already deter mined. Contrasted with this jealousy and fickleness is the s,eadiness with which Maine has maintained in both branches of congress delegations whose abilities have always commanded the respect of the nation which owes so much to their experience and labors.
 The degradation of American politics. which hGS given us the boss and the tools of the boss, is chiefly responsible for the deterioration of the United States senate. The man who has a genius for the baser sort of politics fixes his eye upon the legis- lature of his state; for through that body he is able to hold his grip on the reins of power; he can levy tribute on men and cor rsrations who may loathe him, but who arc too cowardly to resist his exactions A legislature dominated by boss will not send to the United States senate any man who does not reflect the debasement of pol itics in the state from which he comes As was intended by the founders of the re- public, the house of representatives more directly reflects the will and temper of the whole people. It is "the popular branch" of our national legislature. In the inefff- ciency and incapacity of the senate, which even the sterling qualities of a very few