The Worthington advance., 1907-08-23

senatorial influence. The time ha
come when it will be regarded as
sinister and menacing situation i
the next national convention shal
be controlled by the clique, whicl
is all powerful in the United State
senate. Though a year must elaps'
before party representatives assem-
BILE to choose the next president, tn
time is ncne too long in which t.
thoroughly place before the people
what threatens to be q positive
and practical menace and to in
augurate q campaign of, at once
prevention and restitution. It is {
calamitous situation, full of IL
omens to the republic, when tht
confidence the people should fee
in the upper-the conservative
branch Of congress is displaced By
a sentiment of the deepest distrust
and dissatisfaction; but it would
be worse than idle to deny thai
the country is swept from end tc
end by the conviction that the
United States senate, or the com.
pact and handleable clique which
controls it, is in diametric antag-
onism to the interests of the mass
es; that it represents, not the peo-
pie, but the special interests, and
thet it stands like adamant between
the people and those measures now
universally considered necessary to
the material welfare. Party lines
have been practically obliterated
and tho new senator, fresh from the
people and with a strong impulse to
voice their necessities and desires,
is crushed between the uper mill
stone of senatorial courtesy and the
neither milestone of the clique that
can be moved only by the most de-
cided pronouncement Of an awaken
ed public sentiment.
It is the United States senate that
stands like rock in the path of a
revision OF the tariff by it's frin ds,
opposing demand that if not met
at the next session by a sincere and
satisfying initiative will precipitate
a political revolution at the polls in
1908.
It is the United States senate that
has thwarted, to the limit of it's
power, the reform program that has
made President Roosevelt the popu-
lar idol of the nation, permitting
the exercise of the successive steps
of that program only when it dare
not Withstand the pressure OF pub
lie opinion.
1t is the United States senate that
is to be found, If anywhere one ex-
lists, the organized and powerful
antl-adminlstration machine, devot-
ed to the defeat and overthrow of
every measure that bears the stamp
of Rooseveltism and the seal of pop
ular approval.
It is the Unitd States senate that
expresses that arrogant disregard
of what the people desire and need
that becomes almost menace to
our form of government.
And now it is the same United
States senate, or its cnotrolling in
terest, that is preparing, as in the
past, to invade the next national re-
publican convention and dictate not
only the candidates but the platform
and policies; and as in the past it
will do so, unless deferred by an
awakening of sentiment that will
relegate the special interest senator
to his proper place in the galleries.
It is not necessary to recall how, in
1900, the senatorial cabal forced the
vice presidential nomination upon
Theodore Roosevelt with the sole
motive of shelving apower which it's
prophetic soul foretold would one
day rise against it's own. Equally
unnecessary is it to emphasize the
fact that four years later it yielded
to a force OF sentiment with which
it could not cope, when Roosevelt
was the unopposed choice OF the
people, but it is significant that it
thau se1acta6 for second ntaca a