The Minneapolis journal., 1902-05-15
STUDY OF ALDRICH.
The "Shrewd Old Man" Of the
Upper House.
HE is CARELESS OF ELoQUENcE
But He Usually Gets What He Il
After-No Patience With
Orators.

The United States senate is more than
100 years old, but only twenty eight indi-
viduals have served tenure Of twenty
years and upwards in that Industrious
body. And of that number we do not find
the names of Clay, Webster, Calhoun,
Douglas. Wright Seward, Toombs, Fes-
sender, Thurman, Bayard, Conkling, Nor
ton, and many others whose statesman
ship, learning, eloquence and personal
character made the senate so great. OF
the twenty-eight twelve represented
New England states.
In the national house of representatives
but twenty seven persons have served
tenure exceeding twenty vars, and of that
number seven came from the common
wealth of Pennsylvania.
There are few to controvert the asser-
tion that New England and Pennsylvania
have been excellently we'll served in the
American congress.
Only two of our public men had legis-
lative- career in the two houses of the
American congress exceeding forty years
Justin S. Morrill, Of Vermont and John
who have served in our great national
council thirty years and upwards number
less than half score. .
That is a beggarly record compared with
the British house of commons, of which
body William E. Gladstone was member
above three score years. Fox was mem
iber of parliament before he attained his
majority and continued an ornament OF
that body until his death. Pitt died at
Al and fol more than half his life he sat
in the house of commons. Disrael could
have been deprived of his seat In partial
ment only by a liberal victory in every
borough and county in the realm. Eng
land is governed by parties and the term
has more significance there than with US.
In our country party may lose the
services of. its greatest parliamentary
champion through the whim of a, single
constituency. That is impossible in Eng
land and ought to be impossible wherever
parliamentary government is maintained.
In England such men as William ]. Bryan,
Frank Hurd, Bourke Cochran, Thomas F.
Marshall, Humphrey Marshall and men
| of that class would have no trouble IN re
tanning their seats in the grand council
of the nation. How different wlthf us.
Even Allen G. Thurman and Matthew n.
Carpenter were deprived of their seats
in the senate John G. Carlisle and
David B. Hill, were lost to. that body:
| John C. Cannon was defeated in 1890, and
BENJAMIN F. Butler lost his seat In l8ti.
+ In that respect the English system is
better than ours. England is never with
out the services in parliament OF ner
| ablest and best of all parties.
In 1881 four members from New Eng
land entered the senate of the United
| States and they are members OF that
body to the present. Nelson w. Aldrlcn
| was one of them, and for more than TWEEN
| ty years he has exercised powerful in
f1uence upon the legislation of the Amerl-
| can congress. He is not lawyer, not
| scholar, not an orator. He is man OF
business and "a man Of affairs. He leads
| men. He controls things. He is ac-
quainted with manufacture and commerce.
| He knows the Office of capital. and the
potentiality of labor. He understands
supply and demand. He distinguishes
! between value and price. he dlscerns
| what it lis to produce and to consume.
E. Burke's matchless speech on the Nabob
of Arcots debt, Fox assailing Pitt S
breach with the first consul, Webster and
Calhoun discussing the constitutional lin
itations of the federal government. Doug
Has argument for the repeal OF the Mis-
1 souri, restriction, Summers utopian ora
tions, Trumbull S reasoning on the con
stitutional power Of congress to recon
1 struct the seeded states, Conkling,s
i stately eloquence; Lamar's perfect SEN
Itences, Ben Hills powerful logic, Car
/ penter and Thurman elucidating a per-
l'plexing legal question, Hoar's scholarly
| addresses, Blaine's delightful oratory, In
! CALLS classic invectiye-these would not
interest Nelson w. Aldrich half SO much
as the broken and confused sentences OF
a mill operative at Pawhucket announc-
ing that he had discovered a process by
which a bolt of cotton cloth could be pro
!. duced for one mill less per yard than 1t is
now produced. ...-. =.
Senator Aldrich is practical states
man. :. Things interest him more thar
principles He believes in doing things
more than in saying things. Academic
discussion has little charm for him. He
raely addresses the senate, and when ht
does it is to talk, not to give an exhibi
; tion of elocution. He deals in facts
facts, facts-fgures, figures, figures.
One Of the most powerful thinkers tn
senate has ever known is John G. Carlisle
In the debates of the wool schedules o
( the Mckinley bill, Carlisle and Aldric1
met in a grapple of the giants, and ever,
man who expects to 1egislate intelligent
: upon the subject of the tarif-its practi
cal workings-will profit by turning t
that discussion, reading it carefully an
digesting it's arguments thoroughly.
Sena tor Aldrich had charge Of the Ding
J. ley hill in the, senate-at least he wa
I chairman Of the inan nee committee an
4 opened the debate. He has single ges
! ture and that not very graceful--the sam
I the late William S. Holman used, t
employ, the open hand going out from IN
waistband like a housewife >scatterin
breadcrumbs before chicks. His voice
too. is somewhat like Ho1man's. If on
will examine Aldrich's speech presentin
the .Dingley bill to the senate he will fin
very simple exposition of the practica
side Of the tariff. 1t is no such handlin
, of the subject as is found in the speeche
of Henry Clay, George Evans. William D
, Kelley John<A. Kasson and William Nc
Kinlev. It is r,ore after the method o
John Sherman. Justin S. Morrill,, Rober
G. schenck and Nelson Dingley, and We
!. different from these. too, more simple ant
: direct, more practical There never wa
a more marked contrast of parliamentar, r,
discussion than is found in the speeche
of A.irich and Vest-unon that occasion
. Aldrich does not undertake to persuade
or even 20 convince an adversary; h
Leaves that for the orators and lawyers
7 He contents himself with finding and pre-
senting facts and figures for the justifica
tion of men who believe as he does touch
ing a great economic question.
He has contem1t for the epigrams o
| Rastiat, whose treatment of the subjec
e of ''the balance of trade he considers ar
: rant nonsense He has no patience witt
t such orators as William Jennings Bryan
who quoted the poet Moore or Bento1
. McMillin, who quoted the poet Byron. a
an authority on the nrosv and practica
d subject Of the tariff. His is subti
mind. but it. is the subti1ity of the count
ing room, not of the closet. and henc