New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1906-02-24

the people have elected him to an,
office OF trust, great or small. Fix
cept, then, for the negligible rea
son of his oath, he has no reason
to represent the people. His "sen
atorlal duties of more than two
thirds of his colleagues-to serve
his master, the plutocracy, in his
old age as he has served it from
his earliest youth. He has or has
borrowed enough Of the estates.
man S supreme courage" to act
upon the theory that, if he should
resign from the Senate, he would
be elected from his seventy and
odd directorships which bring HIM
In upward of $50, 900 year in at
tendance fees alone; whereas if he
resigns the directorships aud cllngS
to his senatorial seat, his plutocra
tie associates, needing his vote
there. will treat him with what he
regards rs consideration.
Tc show what he represents in
the Senate, in whose service his
vote and his talents are entirely en-.
listed, we must look at his past
For, a man is his paSt-not its pre-
lenses and palaverings but its per
formances.
In January 1S62-forty four
years ago--there appeared at Al
bany among the members of the
Assembly young man of unusual
opportunities, gifts and promise.
His name was G. M. Depew, and
soon everybody was calling him
Chauncey, and was liking him. He
was q years old, was a graduate Of
Yale--and G3bt&hat day a degree
from a college, while it perhaps
rs to attainments, GER
jalnl yfneant more in the ears and
maglnatlOns Of men. He was a
young lawyer from Peekskill, good
rs lawyer, better as n mixer, best
If all as a jollier; for nature had
given him that dangerous flexibil-
ty which tempts a man to seek
success by the sideling, cringing,
'rawling way of the courtier.
1t was the day of big enthusiasm
or country, and so the politicians
we're even more offensive with their
hallow shOutlngs Of patriotism
han now. The Depew youth de-
'eloped fine talent for "tall talk"
or making the proud bird soar"
And he laid well the foundations
t tie pualic reputation behind
which he has so industriously piled
lis cowardly trade these 40 years.
n those days the big ''intefests" |
ad not yet appeared, and graft I
'as not consolidated and glozed I
llmy with respectability, as now. l
tut the politicians were for the
1ost part grafters, as now; and t
cry bold and coarse they were c
bout it. Graft wasn't Campaign I
and retainers"
nd such smooth and delicate eva $
ions; it was plain bribery, plain I
assing of money from briber to b
ribed. The Legislative bodies of Il
'-day are no more corrupt than s
1eD; the corruption is simply Il
lOre subtle, more "gentlemanly," p
lore respectable. The vast differ =
nee, the vast excess Of peril in the b
ow over the then, lies in the fact a
lat the cOrrnpting force is to-day f
le national dispenser of the shar- v
'gs in prosperity where then it t
as simply small corporations and a
stealing relatively il
nall part of the peoples abund- p
ice. n
DEPEW FINDS A MASTER. h
Young Depew was looking about ii
II master. Nature has made p
m the kind of man who, whether d
,od or bad, cannot be self.owned. n
bon his glib tongue and fertile n
ain had ingratiatrd him into ia b
n with Thurlow Weed, the boss Il
the Republican party in that day =
ID corruptionist who will never
It his dues in history because so :
any men so much more skilled at I
S speciality, rotten politics, have
red since and have ecIipsed his
me. Depew at 80, was nomina- q
d for secretary Of state by trick =
Q boss was beaten in convention tl
It the nominated candidate de. 9,
ued to run aud Depew, whom i
e convention had rejected, was 8,
II on the ticket by the boss state Il
Depew was elected, fc
ID proceeded publicly to parade y =,
i branding mark e
He took boss cpusns of the .
ate and, to cut down New York Ct
US Democratic representation, p
u. a t.... 1890, = hn, |