The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-05-01
THE EVENING TIMES, GRAND FORKS, N. D.

mitted any freedom of debate or clash
Ing of mind against mind that SO
marked its sittings in the past The
result is that the house is rapidly
losing caste even among its own mem
bers, and it no longer Yields the in
fuence in the affairs of the govern
ment which it once did. and for the
loss of which it alone is responsible.
In the senate. on the other hand.
there has always obtained unlimited
freedom of debate. There is absolute
equality of opportunity for any and
every member to show the best that
is in him. In the senate there is full
deliberation, and even though matters
of legislation are, carefully considered
and almost always licked into shape
in the committees. it is only when the
measure is a party one that the dis
cussiOns in the senate do not serve
to illuminate the question and produce
that wise and salutary legislation
which can come only from perfect
freedom of discussion and a clash of
mind against mind in trying to reach
a solution. The change which has
been wrought in the house causes
that body to register the will of a few
men rather than it's own deliberate
Judgment. and its legislation has more
and more OF recent years been con-
trolled or largely influenced by the
executive. The presidents power lies
i'll the patronage which he controls in
the thousands of offices he has to fill.
House Represents Corporations.
The great corporations and business
interests represented in the banks and
manufacturing industries have of late
years grown to have commanding in
fluences in shaping legislation. and
the house has come to represent these
rather than the masses of the people.
This is true. because these influences
have exercised controlling power in
party conventions and have year by
year increased the number of repre-
sentativeS who are but tools in the
hands of these elements of our ma
tional life. While the senate has not
escaped these same influences. and in
il large degree represents them as the
house does. the two bodies are wholly
dissimilar in many respects, and
comparison of their methods and work
is altogether to the Senate's credit.
There have been some sad and dis
honoring events which will be chron-
icled by future historians as marking
the decay and degeneracy of the SEN
ate in these first years of the twen-
tieth century. Senators have been
charged with unlawful and more or
less dishonest acts, and two of them
have been convicted in the courts of
crimes which brought shame and dis
grace to themselves ana humiliation
and regret to every member of the
body. Others stand pilloried in the
public gaze as unworthy and unfit to
hold their high places, and while these
instances OF turpitude can in no fair
sort of way be said to reflect in any
justice upon their colleagues, there is
still in the public mind feeling of
distrust which causes every mans ac-
tions and record to be closely scru-
tiniZed. The country is really watch
ing with expectancy, and the question
in many minds is, Which senator will
be caught next? 1t is in such trying
times as this and under this cloud
of obloquy that the student of his
tory turns to the record of other par
liamentary bodies to make compare
son, and also to compare the senate
of today with other transactions in
our legislative history.
In the British house OF commons,
Disraeli said that long after the close
of the American war, and within the
memory of men who heard him, a
member of the government stood be-
low the gangway at the final adjourn
ment of parliament and gave a five
UNDERGROUND note to every member
who had supported the administra-
ton. In the earlier part of the last
century it was common and neces-
sary method of getting a seat in the
English house of commons to bride the
constituency. and in the days of
George III. Walpole used bribery so
brazenly and unblushingly and SO sue
cessfully that he laid down the maxim
that every man has his price" Yet
English liberty and English constitu-
tional government have not proved a
failure; but in every way the Eng
land of today is the shining example
of the progress which a great people
inherently virtuous can and does make
toward higher things.
Senator HOar's Indictment.
Coming down to our own day, or at
least to period within the memory
of men now living, George F. Hoar
the great senator from Massachusetts
(nOW ALAS gone from orr midSt)