The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-05-26
NEW IDEALS ABROAD
Peculiar Loneliness of MIR. Hoar In
the Senate.
BUSINESS, NOT MORALS, NOW
Politics More md More Has to Do
With the Commercial
Situation.
From. Tho Journal Bureau, Room, IS. Pos.
Building, Wdshin4to,s-

From, Tho Journal Bureau, Room SO. Poa
Washington May 26.-Among seriously
disposed people who listened to Senator
Hoar's great speech on Thursday, the
comment most frequently heard was that
he and his ideals were typical in Pc
culiar sense of the age that Is passed.
In his personality this Is notably true.
He is an orator of the type which graced
public affairs in the early days OF the re-
public. Scholarship and learning have
been with him ideals. The senate to-day
Is not getting many men Of this class;
New England, more than any other part
of the country, adheres to the tradition
that a senator should be a man OF
and judged from its own standards, TINS
Is the tradition of the south Hut the
newer commercial states of the north,
beginning on the Atlantic seaboard itself,
are coming to look upon their senators as
representatives Of their great business
interests.
When observers here try to interpret
the course of Elkins and Scott of West
Virginia, and they are aggressive SEN
tors, the question is not raised 10 the
ideals Of public life which these men
stand for, as explaining their position on
one measure or another, but rather the
corporations, direct and allied, the ousl-
ness interests whose welfare they have In
mind. So it is in other states Their
senators are viewed as business represen-
tatives-copper, sugar, steamships, rail-
roads, silver, wool-Quite as much as rep
resentatives of the states from which they
secure election.
And on examination it will be found
that the American people have come to
look upon their government as business
institution very largely. or at least as an
Institution for promoting business sue
cess, for on that the material welfare OF
our people, capitalists and laborers alike,
depends.
All our recent presidential contests
have been fought on business questions:
While there was obviously a great moral
issue involved In the maintenance OF an
honest standard Of values, 1t was as
business question that the free silver pro-
posal was chiefly considered and opposed.
Would it be for the material welfare OF
the United States to go to the silver
standard? In the same way the tarlI
question, which divided the parties IN
previous contests. was one of business,
one of welfare, and in the presldentiai
battles Of the future the country is likely
to divide again on business questions:
This Is an evidence Of our commercial
strength.
There is obviously danger that the
business point of view may be carried too
far, This is illustrat ed, perhaps, in an
Interview which appeared in the news
papers beside Senator Hoar's Speech from
william Lorimer, the head OF the re-
publican organization Of Chicago, general !.
ly referred to as "the republican boss OF
Chicago" He talks, like Senator Hoar.
on the prospects Of the republic, and OF
its dominant party. But he takes I'LL
ferent line, saying:
"The greatest thing ve have to fear in
the way Of party censure is the prevailing
high prices of foods, particularly meats.
But this can be met with brief argument
and you will find, as the campaign pro
crosses, that the democrats will make
mighty little political capital out OF tn ne
high prices. The argument which will
meet them is the high wages of labor
and the general ability OF. the people to
pay for high priced articles.
That Mr. Loriner should look on gov
eminent in this way, and Mr.. Hoar on 1t
in another is the natural result OF thelr
diverse training and environment. At the
age in his life when Mr.. Hoar was pour
ing over Cicero and Thucydides, Mr.
Loriner was backing boots and selling
papers near the old, courthouse in chi
cago. When Mr.. Hoar, in young man,
hood, was attending the conventions OF
free-soilers and early repuollcans, rug
ing with addresses on the rights of man
and the essentials Of liberty, Mr. Lorimer
was driving a street car on the West
Side of Chicago, and carefully studying
how his acquaintance among his assocl-
otes might be made effective in the de-
velopment Of political organization
which would have to be recognized
The peculiar loneliness Of Mr.. Hoa1
among those who would naturally have
been his associates is almost pathetic
In an eloquent address recently in Boston
he told of his lifelong friendship with DR.
Edward Everett Hale, and yet Ut: Hale
does not follow him in the Philippine
HOaT'S
republican candidate for congress this
fall, in the Worcester district, will doubt
less have to stand on an imperlalstl
platform, and whatever his opinions ma,
be on the dominant issue, it is safe to sa!
that he could not as a party candidate
take the same position that his father ha
taken 1t will be recalled that >whe1
Amos Allen, Speaker Reeds private sec
rotary was nominated for congress Il
represent his chiefs old district, that b
took pains to say In convention that d
stood with the party on the expansion
tide sweeps along. "a. Nearly all OF tn
doubt concerning the Philippine pole!
when it began have dropped out of publ
life or are soon to be driven out. Well
ington Of Maryland, who came into tn
senate a few years ago, with grea
blowing of trumpets will soon 60 out 0
public life. Mason, Of Illinois, who wa
an original anti-imperialist was obliged
in the interest of his reelection, to adop
policy of silence; but even that did no
suffice to save him. Sewall Of New Jer
sey, originally forceful opponent Of Phil
ippine acquisition has died; Perkins 0
California likewise opposed, asked hi
legislature what he should do, and 1t de
cided with immense enthusiasm to in
struct him to favor the imperialistic poll
cy He has since done So OF his retire
nent from public life there is no dan
ger; any man who has the courage t.
delegate a great moral question upol
which he himself feels strongly to a par
ty assemblage at home, with less mean
of knowing what it is all about, possesse
the elements of strength, and his caree
in the senate will be long.
Thus one after another Of the doubt
ers" have fallen by the wayside, and n
new ones come to take their places. S
strong in this country is the momentum
of party policy that the man who in tn
futre shapes history most will be the on
who can succeed in shaping his party
When new Issue gets the run of
party it carries everything before 1t, an
those who do not succumb to the ne'
$. standard, gracefully or. otherwise, mus
be prepared to step one side
Z Mr. Hoars loneliness in the republica
party in the senate to-day will long re
main an interesting historical picture
The terrible earnestness pictured in HI
face as he read the most telling passage
OF his great speech, for he skipped niue
that appears in the public prints and
the Record, is something that those VIII