New-York tribune., 1906-06-05
ARTHUR p. GORMAN.

Senator Arthur p. German belonged polit-
lcal leader to a school now rapidly and Justly
falling into disfavOr He got his earliest In
struction in politics in Reconstruction days and
fashioned his career on ideals then generally
pursued. He was political boss of the class
that believed IN the efficacy of organization
held together by discipline and self-interest He
considered patronage. the handspring Of party
loyalty and supplemented the appeal to cupidity
with appeal TO passion and prejudice Lead
of this type have had little faith In the
potency OF ideas. They have distrusted the in
telligence of the voters Their theory of man.
agement was autOcratic. not democratic. and
with the subsistence of party rancor and the
broadening of popular knowledge their power
has vanished and their methods have become
obsolete, With Mr.. German the last figure of
consequence in that school Of leadership passes
from the national stage.
The Maryland Senator's career developed two
distinct and somewhat contradictory phases. In
the politics Of his own state he played an un-
gracious and often sinister part. Settling IN
MARYLAND in the late SOS as a federal office
holder, he made war on and overthrew the old
aristocratic element in the Democratic party
achieving a domination against which that ele
ment remained in more or less open rebellion for
twenty-five years. He founded a political ma
chine whose practices were scandaIous and Grim
inal, and which through the aid Of vicious cleo
ton laws OverrOde for long periods the will Of
the people. One revOlt-that Of 1S95-proved
successful but the fair election laws enacted In
1896 were repealed when Mr.. German triumphed
again in 1899, the race issue, and that victory
was used a means of forcing on the state
vicious limitation of suffrage by constitutional
amendment-a project which. though successful
/ in the Legislature, decisively repudiated
1 last November at the polls In state affairs Mr..
Germans influence uniformly cast against
honesty, progress and intelligent political deve-
| opment and in favor of prescription, partisan
/ ship and misrule His failure to comprehend
| the march of events toward truer democratic
| government shown in the cTOwning blunder
of the dSfranchisement agitation, which wrecked
| his prestige and so far as state activities We're
concerned, terminated his career.
| IN contrast with this clouded record at home
AIr. Germans work in the Senate was in many
respects helpful and broadmnded. he assisted
| from the beginning in the creation of the new
navy. and as member of the Appropriations
Committee he could always be counted on TO
defend liberality in a good cause and TO rebuke
ii in a doubtful one. Disagreeing with his party
on the issue OF protection TO American industries
he had 10 suffer much unmerited abuse for the
part he played in revising the Wilson Tariff bill
in 1894 But Mr.. German wanted to keep the
.
the Louisiana sugar growers in the campaign of
1S92-prOmises which the Wilson bill repudi-
ated-and he also wanted To make the tariff bill
{ a revenue producing measure-an end which
Mr.. Wilson and the other House leaders had left
entirely out of their calculations. From the
point Of view of practical craftsmanship Mr..
German die a national service when he rewrOte
the defective House measure and saved the
Treasury from bankruptcy. In accomplishing
the defeat Of the Lodge HOar Election bill of
1S9O'91 he put the Democratic party deeply in
his debt. and helped to prevent q recrudescence
OF sectional feeling which. as Republicans now
admit, would have resulted only In evil. II
should be remembered also TO his credit that
of all the Eastern Democratic leaders he alone
held his state in line with sound money policies
IN the critical campaign of 1896, for Maryland
never adopted n platform which declared for
the free coinage of silver In national politics
therefore Mr. German exercised an influence
and enjoyed a consideration somewhat min
imized or grudgingly recognized at home In
his personal character he was kindly and cour.
teous slow TO anger and always capable of self
restraint. On the Democratic side of the Senate
chamber his was long the guiding hand and the
which has followed mis- enforced retirement
through this session is a striking tribute TO his
resources in generalship and TO the ease And