The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-25
JOHN F. DRYEN A PERFECT TYPE
 OF MEN WHO GO TO SENATE BE
 CAUSE OF THEIR MILLIONS ALONE

son why Dryden should pc senator from New Jersey. 4or anywhere else except his money He had been cheerful contributor to the party purse in his State for years. and when the time came he collected his interest in the shape of a Senatorship.
 Dryden's service in the Senate has been dilIgent That Is the best that can be said of is. He is business man. and he went about his Senatorial duties as he would go about his insur- ance duties. He was there nearly every day. He voted with his party. He looked out for New Jersey as well as he could It was a dull gray level of medocrity. Nothing moro could be ex- pected. He had no knowledge of the Government save in a perfunctory way. He was not a student of the theory and practice of the conduct of the Republic. He was man with millions who want ed to be Senator because being. Senator added to bis personal esteem and to the him or of him.
 That was all there was to it. Dryden came to the Senate with no idea that he wanted to impress the country. He had no message to deliver. He had money. That was why. In addition, he was friendly to the Public Service Corporation that controls New Jersey
 
 was particularly the agent of the Pub lie Service Corporation in the Senate. Undoubtedly, he would do what he could for 1t. but not in the sense of be- ing a servant or representative. There Is a vast deal of twaddle about Sena- tor being the tools of corporations. The facts do not bear fl out any more than the facts bear out the lobby sto- ries which are generally circulated by ana arnnJfc aTd axrffad VoflnR nArs0na who write as they think, not as they know.
 Still, Dryden is a type. and a perfect one, of the man who came to the Sem ate because of his money. There are others. most of them lacking in Dry den's intelligence,
 Take Wetmore of Rhode Island. He is a millionaire. one of the richest meff in the Senate. Studying Wetmore from every possible angle. there Is no reason, apparent or concealed. for his representing Rhode Island except that he Is rich. He is a nonentity as a Sem ator. He is merely a voting machine, who votes right" when he votes at all. And 1t is bis sad fate to be opposed for man whose only qualification for ser vice is that he has millions
 Clark CoIexEess Senator. other. He is richer than any of the William A. Clark oe Montana, is am Senators-richer than three-fourths of of them put together. His struggle to get the title and the seat lasted for years and was smirched with bribery and corruption. His service as Sena- tor has been colorless. He has neither the respect nor the confidence. of his colleagues. He is great miner, but of less consequence as q legislator than any man in the body, with the possi- hle exception of hls prototype Wetmore. He Is retiring disappointed. While his money could get him his seat. 1t could do nothing more for him. for his abilities are not as legislator, and the Senate Is ruled by brains and by nothing else, the whole crew Of muck rakers to the contrary notwithstanding.
 Guggenheim, who IS coming from Colorado when Senator Patterson re- tires next March. Is another of the same general type. He is of a great mining family. His fortune is probably ten millions. He has gone as far as he could as a mining magnate. He has all the money he can possibly need. What next? A Senatorshtp; for how much better 1t ls to be referred to aa Senator Guggenhein, the mining king of Colorado. than Guggenheim, the mining king. There is no other reason for Guggenheim's appearance in the AN@hAphaA AAC5lGtdIufesf ttG mas no lGEf0~ lative experience or ability, so far as Is known. He is rich. and he is coming for the same reason Dryden came and Clark and Wetmore, and for the same reason Thomas F. Walsh wanted to come and Charles M. Sehwab and sam ual P. Colt want to come,
 By and far the largest of the merely money senators--and there are a few more of them than have been mentioned Dryden is entitled to the most consid- eration. because, after he acquired the title and the added dignity that went with 1t, he did not soldier on the job (. He worked steadily and diligently to the best of his legislative abilities. He toek his duties conscientiously. To be sure, he did not make much of a dent, but he was there.
 It Is Q sad reflection on our political system that there should be any merely money Senators. but after we have shed our bitter, bitter tears over 1t, 1t might be we'll to cheer up and reflect that there are five times as many poor men in the Senate as there are rich ones and that the number of Senators who use their official position to make money for themselves is small enough to be counted on the fingers of one hand. One of the men who was a Sem ator and tried 1t Is in Jail, and another is dead. and dead after conviction. And even when making the count there is no proof. nothing but implication, for if there was proof the Senators would be in jail also; along with the unhappy Burton. hAt
 That men get in simply because they are rich. like Dryden and Clark and Wetmore, cannot be held against the people who put them in, At that, these men are of such small eonsequence that they simply serve to emphasize the dignity. the power and the char acter of the majority of their colv leagues and of the Senate itself