The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-02
GOOD EXAMPLE LOST.

GOOD EXAMPLE LOST
During the entire period of national existence,
generation after generation, in national and state
public life there have been men of whom has been
true that they have steadfastly refused while en-
gagged in official employment to allow their conduct to
be In the slightest degree influenced by personal
sdeations. Hundreds Of the ablest lawyers that the
country has produced have given their abilities to the
public service in the national and house with
out thought Of compensation aside from the salary
assured to them by the laws constitution. These
men have had the amplest opportunities grow rich
In the public service and to do So too by
as would not present themselves to the ordinary mimi
as involving any moral, ethical official wrong
Their services have always been in demand on the.
part Of the great individual interests engaging their
official attention. Large fees awaited them if they
would but assume the advocacy of interests either
before the courts or the departments which were at
fected by their official action. But to the honor of
themselves and the nation they served they never
swerved a single hairs breadth from the line of the
most exalted conceptions of their duty to the people
whom they served.
There never has been any sufficient public ac-
acknowledgement Of such conduct. Such men as Jeffer-
son. the Adamses, Madison. Clay, Webster, Calhoun,
Benton. Marcy. Douglas. Buchanan Seymour
Hendricks Thurman, PendIeton Conkling Edmunds
and Reed and hundreds of others only less dstin-
gushed have either died in public service or with
drawn from it leaving all it's opportunities of personal
enrichment utterly untouched. The example Of these
men will be inspiration to Americans as long as
our institutions survive.
But their example has not been always followed
and there other men, some of them quite as prom
inent, who have not been affected by it. There are
such men in public life today in the highest prom
inence of whom it is not true lawyers who, either
themselves or through the firms they Identified
with accept retaners from large corporations in bust
which is affected by their official conduct and
disposition. For the past few weeks considerable pub
lie attention has been directed toward controversy
prevailing between the proprietor certain daily pa
pers in Chicago, Mr.. Kohsaat and Senator Foraker
of Ohio During that controversy Mr. Kohlsaat has
distinctly charged that Senator Foraker in the ha bit
of engaging in the service of certain corporations
which he performs duties which of entirely
public nature. He instances case, in which he
declares that the Ohio received S12 900 for
putting a certain through the Ohio Iegisla
ture in the interest of Cincinnati railway cor
poration To this charge Senator Foraker answers
that his services strictly in the line his du1y
attorney and that he only received his regular
salary compensation. He does not specify what
that salary When it is considered that Kohl
saat charges Senator Foraker with being profess
sional lobbyist and with utilizing his prominence as
United States senator in the prosecution Of that call
ing, this surely is singular to make to
charge. 1t is virtually confession that Kohlsaat is
not far wide of the mark in his Characterization of
the public reputation of the he assails.
Neither this charge against Senator Foraker
the response to it to have attracted anything
like the general attention which it is entitled to- If
KOhlsaat says, Foraker has succeeded in few
years in becoming millionaire through his prosecu-
ton of such course perhaps that circumstance is
accepted insurng the senator, in the estimation
many from serious criticism However it may
be, it certainly bespeaks a decided lowering Of the
tone of official character and morals when senator
of the United States finds it compatible with his
cial and personal reputation to make such adj
mission 1t is no wonder, indeed when such things
possible, that the ablest of qualified for
public station pursuing private occupations, and
unwilling either to remain in to enter the pub
lie service.