Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1907-02-21
BUYING A SENATORIAL SEAT.

Tho action of the New Jersey legis-
lature in cutting off b senatorial head
eff Dryden, and that of the Colorado
legislature in making Simon Guggen-
helm a member of b "millionaire's
club in Washington, rave given the
newspaper photographers quite a field in
which to frolic. And some of the serio-
comic observations were more than
dashes of humor or dabs of satire; they
contained a lot of truth as unfortunate
as it is genuine. We have in mind the
protest of a correspondent of a Virginia
contemporary against what the writer
seems to think was an injustice to Gug-
genheim by a paragraph in that paper,
which was as follows:
"Mr. Guggenheim's election to the
United States senate has now been
formally certified by the Colorado leg
i~slature. The event, however, had
never been in doubt among those IA
miliar with the size of the Guggenheim
ROLL"
The correspondent referred to took
exception to this, which, he says, "edi-
torially charges that S~enator-elect
Guggenheim had purchased his seat"
But look at the facts. The contem-
porary referred to is not alone in he
expression of the view that Senator
elect Guggenheim got his seat through
''the size of his roll" Practically the
same thing has been charged in the
III 1x,1. +ln oouyfru ond
while Mr.. Guggenheim has written a
letter saying that the alleged statement
is false, he has admitted frankly that
he adopted certain methods which look
very much like bribery to those who
have a reasonable standard of ethics.
For example,, the Literary Digest,
which is not a partisan in politics, says
OF Mr.. Guggenheim's case:
"With charming frankness he (Mr.
.Guggenhim) tells just how it was don
Without a blush. he admits contribu-
ting to the campaign fund of the re-
publican members of the legislature SO
substantially that personal expenditures
by them was unnecessary. Although
this was done without agreement for
compensation, Mr.. G~uggenheim re-
tive OF Ridgeway's that naturally the
men he has thus assisted feel under
obligation to vote for him.. He adds
that there is nothing wrong about it. It
is done all over the United States to-
day. I do not consider that it is wrong,
j. r 4IsoI l. Tim : 4 oo Y, in a ~ W
sense be called bribery"
That a man should move from the
East to the West with a huge roll OF
money and get himself elected to he
United States Senate to represent the
smelter trust by financially assisting
candidates for the legislature to such an
extent as to make them "feel under
obligations to vote for him." and then
openly claim that it is not wrong-we1l.
there are views and views about what
constitutes bribery. 1t may be true. as
Mr.. G~uggenheim says, that lit is done
all over the United States" That
doesn't excuse it. For that matter so
is murder and burglary "done all over
the United States,'' but Mr.. Guggen-
helm would find it hard to convince the
respectable element of the American
people that there is nothing wrong
about them. Bribery isn't necessarily
limited to a direct cash transaction.
There are various ways to bride and be
bribed without even a verbal agree
ment between those concerned, and
morally speaking Mr.. Guggenheim's
case should come under the silent un-
derstanding'' method.