The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-03-18

Especial Correspondence to The Times
Dispatch.)
WASHINGTON, March 16.-"There's "
senator IN the United States Senate WHO
IS DEAD. Yes, dead. oh, he wnlks about;
fe holds his seat; II he Is prompted, he
can make a report for his committed.
YOU may call that llfe, il Vol, viii; I ca,l
i death. And 1 call 1t death because
there Is but one pin point OF vitality loft
III him that Is nil alive. Tint Is the loba
o. MS brain which guards Ills money.
Ihat Is NIL Vigilance. Most OF the tine
this man lies sick at homo on his bed,
but ne has large property which VIII
DO 4. affected by. n certain bill; a bill that
taxed. Let this bill como up at any
sstage and the ghost will walk. 1t Will
rise from Its bed, totter into the Senate
and there II will watch and wait, to OBJ
EJect and to vote-No. Senator 1900 lives
for his dividends. Life? Death? This IL
Immortality, the rotten Immortality OF.
an utterly corrupted soul.
A United States Senator said this Ho
was speaking OF a colleague. His descrip-
ton, delivered In anger, WAS vivid and
terrible. II q newspaper writer had said
: 1t so well. II would be called yellow
and Sensational" And II Is an exaggera-
tion. But there Is In It the truth, the
bottom truth about the Senator, tho
Senate and Washington. My angry Sem.
tor was pointing ut the typical form OF
our national political corruption.
have spent months on investigations
In cities whose Boards of Aldermen were
shown to have been corrupted by money
bribery, and the picture OF those al
ldermen, once good fellows. debased and
misshapen, was scandal. But what did
1T all amount to? Simply this: That by
this process OF .corrnpting men, THAT
hoard OF aldermen had been brought to
Representative britc-givcrs. We used to
think most Of us outsiders. that this
sort Of thing was political. and TINT our
political corruption was purely political.
But now, we realize chat the source of
the corruption OF our politics Is business.
and that the net result of that corrup-
ton Is to make our city governments reps
Now take the Congress. Suppose I
were able to prove that senator's and
representative took money? The picture
of them thus debauched and sordid would
be sensational. But couldn't produce
IN twenty years such a scene OF corrupt
squalor as my. senator sketched in a se-
.eond for me OF his rich colleague, a
man he has known intimately for years.
Yet that dead senator takes no tribes.
He has given bribes. but he doesn't re-
ceive them. He is business man. He
Is one OF the business men OF his State
who found Unnecessary to the success
OF their business to corrupt the people
n tyn vr1f ~ - "a :
Ing bought the Legislature to represent
their business, they sent him to the SEN
alto to represent-lIis business and theirs.
And he represented his business and-theirs
lie is MS base as any alderman, Judge
or legislator. he ever bought or "made,,:s
he has corrupted himself also with his
cwn money.
He Is q self-made 5boodler. But MS own
depravity is not his chief offence His
crime Is that hi represents business.
And that he is the crime OF the Senate.
The Senate represents business. Ess-
tablished to represent all men OF ali
1t represents those special businesses
which. having corrupted cities and
States. and having bought councils and
Legislature for business purposes have
come into possession OF seats in the
United States Senate: and having those
seats In the United States Senate those
businesses have sent here their presi-
dents their counsel. their agents or their
friends to represent their business.
Those businesses don't have to practice
bribery here: this Is no common coun-
Gil. But the net result Is the same.
The Congress stands like common
council. for business. Tie Congress
represents honestly what the State Leg
islatures represent corruptly-business
SF,oo ynr (suy, IT, "a.
Aldrich admits 1t: nobody denies 1t.
what else would you have us rep
,resent?" asked Mr.. Aldrich.
I thought of the bought voters Of
Rhode Island and OF the lLegislature
there. which like the United States
Senate. doesn't have to be bought. 4
thought of the legislators "retained' in,
Cincinnatti silenced by deposits OF pub
lie moneys and Of the manufacturers
made civic towards by protection"
everywhere. thought of the able cap
stains OF industry, like II. II. Rogers, and
II. Ryan and Charles -.
schwab, ma de--Well. what they are?
by prosperity q ii 4 81;
characterSon Capitol Hill When was
blythe Speaker, i referred
to such things, and his Oh, well. human
showed that such men have no
sense of the effects OF bribery and corr
ruption and artificial prosperity on the
character OF a nation Of men and women
SO long as business Is good, all must be
well. q
So to Mr.. Aldrich3 I meekly suggested
that he might ,represent{ the shippers, the
little shippers who can't get cars to
ship their coal or rates on oil to ems
able them to compete with the trusts
And what do you think he an wered !?
He answered that h was looking out
for the little shippers at hat very mo.
ment. IT. was ION a coun gSots the ship
pers,s not ofSthe railroad 4. tha G he wanted
to have put Into he IA epb urn rate bill
mn amendment providing for an, Il appeal
TO the courts on the facts "a: bit OF
news. at last Tor the shipper:
If they represented bushes general
", 1t wouldn't be quite SO bad. hut they
represent especially. those senators and
the kinds OF business that g
want license and advant ICES and y that
corrupt government from boards Of al
dcrnen up To thes United States Senate at
to got their license and to eep thelrs atl
ynntaEes. The present tariff laws are