Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-15
MONTANA the SUFFERER.

Whatever may be the result of the sem
atolial investigation in progress III
Washington, Montana will be the SUI
ferer. Though the Chicago Inter ocean
is right when it says that it is a tight
to the death between Mr.. Daily and Mr..
Clark, and that the rivalry between those
two gentlemen is behind the controversy
now being waged over a senatorial seat
it does not follow that the defeat OF
either confines the consequences to him.
self. Were it possible for a feud of this
character to FIND expression without in
Jury to the state, the champions of III
respective ~combatants would be per-
mitted to line up in battle array without
a protest from our independent citizens,
and eliminate each other if they so de-
sired. r.
But in the nature Of things, there can
be no outcome to the fight now in prog
ress at Washington which will not COM
mel thes state of Montana to make vicari-
Gus atoneme1pt for the personal preju-
dices of two multi-millionaires The peo-
pie, and not. Mr.. Daily and Mr.. Clark, will
be the real sufferers as the tangled
history Of our state.
If Mr.. Clark is unseated it win doubt
less give Mr.. Daily the personal satisfac-
ton Of realizing that his declaration that
his hated rival should never occupy a
seat in the senate chamber has been
practically verified. n that he has the
longer sword in the measurement of
apo If, on The other hand, Mr..
Clark retains his seat as the final out
come of the contest, he will do the hilar
ity act with all the frills with which the
celebration of a hardSwon victory can be
embellished. But whether the Fates
decree that the laugh shall be on Mr..
Clark, and with Mr.. Daily; or on Mr..
Daily, and with Mr.. Clark, it will be a
solemn moment for Montana, whose be-
draggled skirts are indelibly soiled by
the filth of the contest. Insofar as the
good name of this commonwealth is con-
cerned it will have been thoroughly be-
smirched,y and it will require decades to
redeem its reputation from the stains
that have been placed upon it.
="
No state has complete immunity from
crime of one type or another, but it !:
a wise commonwealth that settles it,
family disputes at home, thereby show
ing to the world that it has within itsel
the elements of honor and probity ant
justice sufficiently developed to suppress
and destroy any agency of evil that ma.
arise. The reputation of such a state i
safe from the corroding breath of scan
dial, and invites the home-seeker to
place Of security within its borders. Blu
when a state confesses it's inability t
punish crime by dragging it's home quar-
rels into a national forum, it invites tn
criticism of the world.
If even one-half the charges p~referre
against Mr.. Clark be true he was directl
amenable to the courts of this state, an
had he been brought before the bar @
justice through the judicial channels pro
vided by law and found guilty of tn
offenses named, Montana would have ha
the credit of being able and willing t
protect it's own good name without a
appeal to the senate of the United State
But when our local courts were ignore,
on the theory that judges and juries ca
be bought, and that public sentiment
rotten to the core-a confession that WI
made to the world when the fight again.
Mr.. Clark was taken to Washington.
Montana was given a blow from whie
she will suffer for years.
If Mr.. Clark is expelled from the sena
for cause it will merely emphasize tt
fact that the courts of Montana ougl
to ave aiken the case in hand at I'll
outset, and that their failure to do so
a standing advertisement of the inabil1
of this state to punish a ~violator of tt
law within our borders. If Mr.. Clark r
tains his seat. the story Of political 70
tenness brought out by the witnesses I
both wings of the democracy will st
remain a matter OF history-a story