The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-31
SOME DIRTY POLITICS.

Newspaper readers nave been leo tV believe that Delaware and Pennsyiva- mia could show the limit in the way of disreputable politics, but we can't say that Rhode Island is much behind either. In the language of The New York Evening Post it lis staying the slain to review the rottenness of Rhode Island politics, to reiterate that In certain towns of that State the voters of honest old American stock are bought and herded like cattle, and to dwell on the shameful and shame less manipulation of the Legislature by the local boss, Charles R. Brayton. The point is that this debauchery of commonwealth has brought wealth and power to a few men,"
 And that point" seems to be thoroughly reciprocating affair. If the debauchery of which The Post speaks has brought wealth and power to a few men 1t is doubtless equally true that these few men have had their full share in bringing that debauchery about. For one, there Is Nelson W. Aldrich who has held a seat in the Senate of the United States during the last two dozen years. and has managed to pick up enough of the various spells to make himself rich and to still further entrench himself with the ma chine which he helped to build and of which he is also a part.
 But it Is not merely with the po1i- ticians and place-hunters that the ma chine is powerful. for it appears to have fastened itself on the entire citizenship of the State. To again quote from The Post, the machine throws retain CTS and receiverships to the ablest law yers; its members subscribe handsome ly to charities; they are on boards of The plain inference is that these law yers thus become the beneficiaries. if not the abetters of the machine; that good people and even the churches hold their peace because much of the ma chine profits go for good causes, and the further inference Is that even the clergy is induced to refrain from de- nouncing such a disreputable condition because they reap some of the benefits In short, at the risk of giving undue space to a dirty subject we will copy part of The Post editorial to conclude with. as follows:
 Neither in Rhode Island nor else- where are people in the habit of telling the whole truth about Aldrich and the crew of political pirates of whom he is captain. Seniority of service in the United States Senate, remarkable shrewdness both as q politician and a business man, and unswerving devotion to large corporate interests, have made him extremely wealthy, the most in fiuential member of the Senate, and, as some have dubbed him, the boss of the United States. The Presidents power, aside from that conferred directly by law. and involved in his right of ap- pointment, rests largely upon per sonal popularity. In an emergency, direct appeal for the support of the masses of citizens. From AldrIch such an appeal would be ridiculous; he would never dream of such folly, for his per- sonal popularity is a negligible quanti- ty. Yet in an emergency he, too, can summon hosts that are likely to defeat those of the President. If the plans for tariff revision or further control of railway rates are to be killed, Aldrich Is the man for the deed. He will have at his back the eminent responsibility of those protected industries which are robbing the many for the benefit of the few; he can dip his hand into the treasuries of those private car mono polies which are plundering shippers from California to Maine; he can reckon upon all the subterranean and dis reputable strength of the Standard oil and other trusts which have fattened on secret rebates. To speak out ones mind about a man of such might is dis courteous anywhere; in Rhode Island, 1t is lese-maJeste.