Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1906-02-26
Graphic Description of the United States Senate
by Ernest Crosby.
In the Cosmopolitan Magazine. The Senate the
Mere Agent of the Money Power
Ten Years Ago This Picture
Would Have Been Termed
Popu1ist Dream.

Money makes the senate 90. 1t was
the intention of our simple minded an.
cestors to have h 'use Of representative
to represent the people, and senate to
represent the states. We have changed
all that. The senate OF the United States
has ceased to exist, and in it's stead we
have the House of Dollars. OF course
we don't call it that. We very rarely do
call things by their right names. They
had seuate in Rome which at one time
was patriotic, publc-spirited and indie.
pendent body, but the emperors gradu.
ally took away all its powers and it be-
came finally mere fgurehead. Still it
went on talking as if 1t we're the whole
state, and the emperors went on treating
it with the greatest respect in form. 1t
was still in appearance the great Roman
Senate, but in fact it was an empty
shadow OF power. The history OF our
senate is precisely the opposite OF this
on the surface, and precisely like it un.
derneath, and Twill show you how.
On the political surface Of things the
senate OF the United States has absorbed
the lions share of governmental power
at Washington. This is contrary to the
expectation OF the trainers of the Consti.
tuition. They intended the lower house
of congress to be the stronger force All
revenue bills were to originate with it,
and as it was expected to hold the purse
strings. they predicted that it would be
the dominant partner. That is the case
in England, in France, and in other con-
stitutional countries, where there are
two legislative houses. Only in the
United States OF America is it otherwise.
Why has our senate become 90 powerful?
For that it is the real ruler OF the coun.
try no one can deny. 1t treats the lower
house and the President OF the United
States with scant courtesy, amendin g
the bills of the former to suit itself and
throwing the treaties of the latter into
the waste basket with contemptuous
laugh. How has it secured this power?
Perhaps the second half of our inquiry
will show.
The senate has acquired this great
power on the surface because it has
ceased to speak in the name of its o n
constitutional rights, but represents in
stead a vast tutra.constitutional influence
which has gradually ousted the states
from their function. The senate is now
the agent OF the money power-the rep
resentative OF Wall Street. II is the
House OF Dollars. 1t has drawn to itself
the powers OF government, because it has
itself abdicated its own powers to the
lords OF finance, and now confines its
activities to registering their DEGREES. 1t
has, in fact, no more real power OF it's
own than the degenerate Roman senate
had, but it is strong in the strength OF its
imperator, and its lmperator is high
finance. Like the Romans, we keep up
the good old forms. The president of
the senate still addresses the members
as "the Senator from the State of New
York." or "the Senator from the State
of Rhode Is,and," when everybody
knows he means "the Senator from the
New York Central Railroad," and "the
Senator from the Standard Oil Trust"
Our political system was originally fair
expression OF the real life OF the country,
but it is today altogether outgrown and
serves only as veil behind which the
power of monopoly disports itself.
1t is because monopoly has gone so
much further in this country than in