The Elk Mountain pilot., 1901-03-12
THE "HAS BEENS."
Pettigrew. Lentz and Other Filipino Sym
pathizers Are Done For Politically and
Will BE In Congress No More

gress will have adjourned sine die, and
President Mckinley will have been in
augurated for another term of four
years. This Congress has been busy
| one, and has accomplished great deal
more than the average Congress, con-
plished, too, has been in the face Of q
persistent opposition which has known
no rest, and has omitted no opportunity
of trying to discredit the udministra-
don and the majority.
Fortunately for the members of the
Fifty-seventh Congress, nearly all OF
the most pestiferous, og-in-the-manger
members of the Fifty-siXth We're elect
ed to stay at home; and there must be
a new crop before the opposition be-
comes ugly and bitter as it has been
this session. OF course there is always
opposition, and probably always will
be; and the Democratic party is not
likely to change its nature at any pred
icable time in the future; but this last
session the opposition has been Of an
unusual and personal character on the
part of a number of members.
In the Senate of course the great
nuisance has been Pettigrew. Among
the army of "has-beens" he is the chief !;
and his departure Will probably cause
more general rejoicing in Congress than
that of any other man. He was always
cranky; but after he became soured by
defeat he grew entirely out of sorts
and antagonized pretty much every
body and everything. The number
of times he has made remarks during
the past session runs up into the hun
dreds. Senatorial courtesy is wasted
on a creature like him; he turns the
privileges of the floor into common
nuisance. Utterly irresponsible, he has
never Resitated to use his place in the
Senate to announce the most bare
faced fakes, to voice the foulest SIAN
ders, to give out the grossest misinfor-
nation. Usually n senator has friends,
often very warm ones, among his po-
litical opponents, but Pettigrew has
none; and even among his party associ-
ates Mr.. Teller is probably the only
vne, il he indeed be n friend, and not
vniy a brother scolder.
Not all OF the senators who are 60
ing out of office on the 4th of March
can be rated as has s-beens"-certainly
not such senators rs Shoup and Carter
and Wolcott, who are still young men,
as senator's go. and who may naturally
look forward to \ long time Of useful
ness and probably of public service.
But Pettigrew, and probably Butler
and Allen, are done for rs senators-it
is not probab bic that they will ever be
seen in their places on that floor again.
Butler Is the youngest Of any, and he
is bright and able man; but as n
senator he was the product Of certain
passing fad in politics and of n con-
junction of events which may never
occur again. While he has been a
strong Populist, he is personally liked
by Republicans and Democrats, too,
and will leave many friends among his
late colleagues. The same may be said
of Allen Of Nebraska, who is 'jolly
good fellow" IL he is Populist; and
can tell good short story as well as
talk continuously for twenty hours.
The House supplies a number of
"has-beens," some of them of the ag-
gravated kind. Lentz of the Columbus
district of Ohio has been almost as
much of nuisance as Pettigrew. He
has been just as pestiferous n Filipino
as the South Dakotan, and he Is nat
urally somewhat more coarse and bru-
tai in his language. His district is so
strongly Democratic that probably no
other Democrat than he could have
been defeated in it; but he was too
much even for the old-fashioned copper
heads of that district-or perhaps it
would be more correct to say that
there were not enough old fashioned
copperheads in the district 10 reject
him.
One of the House "has- -beens" who
created n momentary sensation recent
ly is Seth w. Brown of Ohio, who
was elected as Republican, but after
failing to get denomination turned
against his party and made Filipino
speech not long ago. He will soon be
forgotten altogether. Still another of
the same kind is Faris of Indiana, who
Is chiefly known as the man who was
willing to let Barcus be nominated in
MS stead-the Barcus who has been
James d. Richardson's partner in the
Messages and Papers of the Presi-
dents" swindle.
Poor Towne can hardly be called a