Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1906-02-26

most other countries-because our trusts
so overshadow the industrial combine
tions OF Europe, because the centraliza.
ton OF financial control in private hands
has reached with us such point of per-
fection-that our legislatures are more
money ridden than other parliaments.
Monopoly picked out the senate az an
easier body to handle than the house.
1t is smaller body than the house of
representatives, and its rules make it
possible to kill hostile legislation by in.
finite discussion and delay. Its personnel
changes gradually. 1t is the best club
in the country. and the trusted retaners
OF our billionaires enjoy beth there
as they might enjoy peerage. The in.
tricacies of graft may be pursued in it's
atmosphere with more comfort and dig
nifty than in the rougl.and-tumble of the
lower house. And 50 the trusts have
gradually sent their lawyers and mana
gers to the senate, where they continue
to earn their gratitude, and possibly
other more substantial evidences OF es
TEEN. They have many opportunities
OF usefulness to their employers. They
can prevent any alteration of an iniquit.
GUS tariff which robs the poor to pay the
rich. They can perpetuate a telegraph
franchise which makes us pay forty cents
for ten cent kilograms. They can refuse
to allow our postoffice to carry parcels
thus making our service inferior to that
OF any third.rate power at the command
o extortonate express companies. They
can throw the public money away in
p.ying the railways absurd sums for
carrying the mails. In dozens of ways
thev can serve their real masters by op.
posing the obvious interests of the peo-
pie.
They have carried the trust principle
into politics. In forming a trust it Is
usual to shut down all unnecessary
plants and continue Only those that are
needed. So in the political trust, the
house OF representatives is treated as an
unnecessary plant and it has virtually
been shut down for years. Then again
the senate itself is unnecessarily large,
and, as in the case of the Equitable
board of directors and other such iustitu.
tions, a small executive committee has
been formed consisting of four of the
ablest friends of monopoly, and this un.
official cabal determines what legislation
shall take effect and what shall not.
The political trust is thus modelled upon
the industrial trust.
The election OF such senators depends,
OF course, upon the ability to bribe the
electors, and it is much easier to buy up
state legislature than it would be to
debauch the entire electorate of state.
For this reason it is very desirable to
take away the power of selecting senators
from the legislatures, and to give it to
the people at large of each state. Even
the trusts cannot yet purchase the voters
OF whole state. Public opinion is ripe
tor this change. On the Pacific slope
they are beginning to put United States
senators in prison, and in the state of
New York they are loudly calling for the
resignation OF the unworthy representa-.
tives OF that state.
Before the scandal OF the House OF
Dollars goes further, let us put stop to
ii by insisting upon our right to elect
senators by general ballot. Washington
must be saved from Wall Street, and the
popular election of senators would be a
most important step in that direction.