New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-05-17
A FALLEN IDOL.

The Hon. Joseph w. Bailey had something TO
saw in the Senate last Saturday about broken
faith" and "men of clay" He spoke with much
anguish OF spirit for he was endeavOring to
cover by abusing others the notifying failure of
his latest essay at party leadership He had
persuaded himself that he was bound to play an
important role in shaping the railroad rate legis-
latiOn which was to pass the Senate. He had
hoped to consolidate the Democratic minority
and to construct an alliance with the more rad
zeal Republicans which would give final form
TO the court review section of the Hepburn bill.
His party refused to follow him. the coalition
he was engaged in engineering failed. and when
the results aimed at by that coalition were prac-
tically secured through the preparation Of the
AllisOn-CullOm amendments, accepted by clear
majority OF the Senate. he vented his chagrin
in charges that he had been humilated and
abandoned. His sense OF justice was outraged
because. as he asserted, a Republican admins
traitor with which he had been carrying on
negotiations had left him in the lurch.
The Texas Senator needed sympathy and did
not hesitate to ask for it. Yet If his sense of
humOr had been a little keener he would hardly
have ventured to air his griefs He was appeal
ing for compassion on the ground that compact
which he thought he making with repre-
sentatives Of the President had been sidetracked
But what was so stern and unbending cham
piOn of the theory of legislative isolation think
ing Of when he permitted himself to engage with
the administration in negotiations affecting leg
islatiOn"2 Senators who heard his Outburst last
Saturday must have recalled the moving picture
he drew not six weeks ago Of his own Spartan
virtue as a statesman who never sought or tOler-
ated counsel from the White House. In THE
Congressional Record" of April we find that
Mr.. Bailey thus outlined his unyielding policy in
this respect:
Mr. President: / belong to that very small
class Of Senators and Representatives who do
not believe that 1t is proper for them to be
influenced in the performance Of their legislative
duties by the views Of the Executive Depart
ment; and it has never been my practice since
had the honor to occupy a seat in Congress to
confer with any President, either OF my own or
OF the opposition party, in respect to legislation
The only exception / ever made-and that more
apparent than real-was in the case of the la
mented and martyred Mckinley. whose invita-
that We might find a way to avert the war with
Spain But. sir. have often seen-and this
applies not only to the present President, but TO
his predecessors in that great office-I have so
often seen the judgment Of Congress overruled
or controlled by Executive influence that early
in my service In the other House l resolved
that ii should never prevail with me.
l remember when mere schoObOy reading of
a great Virginia Democrat being invited to the
White House by a President of his party
and chosen from his own state to confer upon
an important question pending in the Congress-
and remember how my youthful blood was
made to run faster when l read how that great
Virginia Democrat said: Mr.. President the
Constitution of the United States has separated
the executive and the legislative departments
of this government, and by the help of God, 1
intend to keep them separate" l adopted
this as my creed, and have lived up to it from
that day to this.
No Pharisee ever exuted more unctuOusly
that he was not as other men are. Yet by the
Senator's own confession another public idol
has now fallen. He can no longer feel his pulses
quickened by the response of the Virginia patriot
TO Thomas jefferson. The very small class Of
Spartans to which he paid such feeling tribute
is now as extinct as the dodO. John Randolph
if he is the other statesman Mr.. Bailey had in
mind-has long been dead. and Mr.. Bailey's self
affixed label has been rubbed of in the rate bill
hurly-burly.