Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-04-03
People and Senate.


ST. Louis Republic: The United
States senate is wroth at the maya
zines and is saying so. In the course
of complaint Senator Spooner, who has
been maligned himself, says. almost
daily | receive communications from
constituents filed with doubts inspired
by those who make a living by manu-
featuring public scandal"
Undoubtedly there is some justice in
the complaint. but we should not take
the case to heart as deeply as does
the New York Sun, which shakes its
fist ar the magazine scribes and then
grabs its pen TO call them scurrilous
and indecent mad mullahs who do not
hesitate to indict whole nation as
degenerate Nobody that We know OF
has yet called the whole nation de-
generate, unless it be Carrie Nation.
and she is not yet on the regular staff
of McClure's or Everybodys.
There was a spark OF common sense
in the remark which Speaker Cannon
is said to have made to Mr.. Lincoln
Steffens on the occasion of the latters
recent WISH 10 w W
view some great statesmen. IF | own
ed a magazine" the Sage OF Danville
is quoted as saying, I'D send q young
man here 20 write things up, just as
you have been sent-only | wouldn't
let him touch his pen to paper until he
had stayed here for 10 years and found
ont something about the way the
country is actually run and just who
and what run it,
There is a good deal of the touch
and-go about the reform scribes. MI
Poultney Bigelow spent but "a hours
in acquiring the comprehension and
elaborate and intimate knowledge he
must have possessed in order TO crltl-
else the canal management at Panama
David Graham Phillips perhaps comes
il a little rough-shod over the senate
in his Treason" articles, without
knowing quite as much about his sub
iect as that other exponent OF lurld
linguistics. Thomas Lawson, knew
about life insurance evils, for instance.
Mr.. Phillips was anything but gentle
with that soft old national idol beloved
for his benign but messy post-prandial
humor: yet in the more recent article
about the anything-but-soft AldricE'
which is obviously the article which
Senator Spooner particularly dislikes,
Mr.. Phillips at times dealt carefully
and scientifically with facts. Inciden-
tally when he calls Mr.. Spooner
"Mouthpiece SDooner' he is not far
from the fact. The Aldrich machine
has no better mouthpiece than this pro-
foundly intellectual, shrewd and elo-
ouent lawyer He is intensely reliable,
but his reputed individuality and indie
pendence OF thought and conviction
clothe his utterances with significance
and effect. When this great and free
mind has reached an Independent con-
clusion and utters it the fact is at
tended with eclat. That the conclusion
happens to coincide beautifully with
the machines plan is lost sight of in
admiration for the statesman. AS a
matter of cold fact, when in recent
times has Senator SpOoner done aught
but further the plans OF the close cor
poration in the senate or preach It's
purposes on the floor?
1t is to be hoped that Mr.. Phillips
will always be as right as he was in
the main in charaeterizing the Aldrich
group. describing its processes and re-
counting its frauds and injustices upon
the people These are strong terms
which he uses. but it is not true that
NO railway legislation that was not
either helpful to or. harmless against
the interests; no legislation on the
subject of corporations that would in
terfere. with the interests which use
the corporate form to simplify and sys-
tematize their stealing; no legislation
on the tariff question unless it secured
to the interests full and free license
to loot; no Investigations of wholesale
robbery or of any of the evils result
ing from it, have been permitted by
the machine under the Aldrich leader
ship?
The Sun believes that the magazine
reformers are overdoing-which is
probably true-and that as a result
there is bound to be a reaction in
favor of the senate as the body thar
assimilates and legislates, by contrast
with the house, which does not digest
its information and passes bills either
under the caucus whip or the spur OF
emotional sentiment" Perhaps there
will be a reaction some day. but GER
tainly it will not come while the senate