Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-29

had been vainly trying TO hammer home
the real Bailey, Bailey The statesman,
and had found it next to impossible
to overcome the popular preconception
of the freak Bailey who wouldn't wear
a swallow-tail coat. Another miscon-
ception is gone forever.
$50 tremendously has the person
atty of Aldrich doomed up in this con-
troversy that it is difficult to realize
that a short time ago he was only
name to the average newspaper read
err Six months ago it is safe to say
that his face. now so well known
through portraits and cartoons, was
hardly known to such readers. A year
ago. in steering visitors through the
senate galleries, Washingtonians were
exasperated to have their explain
ations met with. What is his name.
did you say? Aldrich Where is he
from? Oh. is Senator Depew here?
Aldrich may be regarded as an eX-
ception to the statement that only
Bailey and Tillman have come through
the ordeal with increased reputation,
but the kind of reputation Aldrich has
won is kind that man pays dearly
for. Whether it is just or unjust, Al
drich is now fixed indelibly in the
minds of a majority of his country
men as the representative of certain
interests a majority would like to see
curbed. That is one picture which
this debate has added to the portrait
gallery of the nation. and it is quest
ionable whether Aldrich regards the
universal admiration for his genius as
a politician, a snatcher of victory out
of defeat. as balancing the account.
1T has been bad winter for Spoon
er. His fame as lawyer and states
man was already so great that he did
not need the admiration for his speech
to complete it. and TO pay for that
both he and Knox had to suffer their
complete rout and total eclipse in the
speech of Bailey. That is something
that never happened to them before.
Spooner went so long unchallenged
and victorious that the impression
became conviction in Washington that
nobody could overcome him. He was
supposed to be invincible and invul-
nerable. Bailey demonstrated that
Spooner was an Achilles. That irwin
chile one was found vulnerable and fell.
So. balancing the account, neither he
nor Knox. who had not SO much to lose
because he had not built up SpOoner's
for invincibility. came out of
the fight without a loss of fame.
How Foraker is regarded now in
the country at large it is difficult for
Washington to tell. Here there is moth
ing but admiration for the courageous
and logged way in which he stuck to
his unpopular convictions TO the very
end. Foraker had presidential ambi-
tons last year. 1t is assumed that he
has given them up for the sake of his
"Dolliver. Clapp, Cullom and Long
have suffered all through the fight, and
for weeks they have presented a hui
morous rather than an impressive spec
tacle. They started out to voice the
presidents desires. but found them
selves unable to accurately follow the
changes of the chief executives mind.
THAT the president has suffered i'm
pairment of reputation as a result of
the Tillman-Chandler-B Bailey affair seems
and it is regarded here as a
pity, since no one withholdS from him
the credit attaching to the passage of
the bill. That his fame should have
been clouded in the moment of triumph
is a matter for sorrowful comment
here. There is no question that his
mistake was due to the constant warn
ing dangled before his eyes that if he
passed the bill with democratic votes
he would split his party. He yielded
to that at last, and did himself incalcu-
liable damage"