The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-18

and asked him If he had ever seen it. l They say:
 senator PIatt replied: have seen | 1t. I am against 1t because it conflicts. with my express money order business" He added, that while he was not in the Senate to represent the United States Express Company. at the same time he could not favor and would light any measure that seemed against the Inter- ests of the express compantes. Now, this is light not only upon Senator Piatt, but upon the Senate, and Washington. for when the said MT Post filed said affidavit, with charges, ask ing the Senate to expel the said Platt, the town laughed and the Senate did nothing. It was as funny as the f1rSt charges against Senator Mitchell, de- ceased. The charge might be true, but the express business was Platts graft, and by that unwritten law which Is known as the "courtesy of the senate, no man in that body shall offer to in terfere with the graft of any other man in that body, and if some common citi- zen of the United States attacks" 1t, there or anywhere else in the world of graft. the power of all the other gratis combine to protect him. That's BUsi- ness That's System. Politicians have the same law; they haven't any nice phrase for 1t, but they say that sewers is Gaffney's. yours is gas. mine Is gar bage. You scratch me and I'll scratch you, and we'll both scratch Gaffney. who'll scratch both of us See? What? Oh. well, human nature" came down here to find out whether the national government represented the common interests of the country, and wise men laughed. I don't blame them. It was funny. They know that the Feneral Government stood for just ha faA ri State ernments stood for-business. And had my suspicious, of course But didn't realize how obvious the whole thing was. l was looking for facts which were common knowledge and when I began to ask Senator and Rep resentatives about them, they didn't deny; they confessed: they defended rupt they are. Washington Is corrupt and proud of it, The National Gov ernment Is the ideal of a business na- tion; 1t is business Government by business men in the interest of husi- ness. And that's what's the mater with 1t and with all of us. We havt a class Government and we uon't know 1t. We have a Government, not of the people, by the people, for the people, but of the people. by the lawyers, the friends and the Presidents of corora- tions for the special. privileged Inter est .and-we want 1t to keep the corpo- rations within bounds.
 It won't. When Senator Aldrich complained of the Socialist waves" which critics of public men were rais- ing all over the country, I answered that not the critics of the Senate, but the Senate and the interests which the Senate represented were bringing on that discontent.
 "HowT' he asked.
 By being selfish, by being incapable of rising above your own interests. There is no reason why bankers ana corporation lawyers and railroad direc- tors and insurance men shouldn't sit in the Senate, but they ought when there to Iegislate in the common interests. But you can't It isn't in you. You'li hang on to all you've got and you'll grab more until you have exasperated a people who. no more honest than the Senate or the railroads are more pa tient and much fairer.'
 But what would you have us do?' he asked.
 T don't know" I answered. "A peo- pie should leave legislation to their leg islators."
 But I do know what to do. only it isn't anything that can be done in Washington. Washington Is only a re- suit, a result of our local folly, negli- gence and our own unconscious corrup- ton. Reform in the United State Gov ernment must begin out fin the United States, and the first thing to do. this Fall, is to exercise great care in the selection of Congressmen- Don't send here men to run your errands in the de- partments. Don't return a man be- cause he has got your friend job or your district a Federal building. That's the way they bribe Us with our own noney Send here men who have been tried out in some local office and wno, you know, will help to break up the speakers combine in the House and