The Washington herald., 1907-12-31
SOLONS ARE ANGRY
Reading-clerk Race Engen-
derS Dissatisfaction.
BENNETT BLAMED, LIKE LOEB
Aspiring Patriots with Beautiful
Voices Have Spent n Lot of Money,
and There's Only One Prize-Cynics
Smile at Suggestion that "PuIIv Is
to Play No Part in Outcome

The great Senatorial reading-clerk
sweepstakes has struck bad going. and il
would not be surprising. as the mud gets
thicker, il somebody got a bad fall be-
fore the winner gallops under the wire.
Senator Allison. they say. is one storm
center; Senator Dolliver is credited with
being another, and it comes pretty
straight that Senator Burkett has his
dander up. Like Loeb, Secretary Bennett
is reported to be to blame.
About seventy-ive aspiring young men
VINO long TO save their country by read
ing Presidential messages, bill titles. and
District school reform resolutions, TO the
unheeding Senators ar an annual re-
muneration of S2.500 have lately come to
Washington They have stood up be-
hind the reading desk and read various
passages from President Roosevelts latest
State paper. They have read high, low.
fast and slow. In voices strong. timor-
Gus, bass, tenor, and falsetto. Meanwhile
monarch of al he surveyed. Secretary
Bennett, enthroned in the historic seat
of Senator JEFF Davis. favorite son Of
the grand old cotton-raising would-be
trust-busting State of Arkansas, has sat
in judgment upon the great American
voice.
Some Must Come Back.
Then the candidates have gone home.
to Maine and Missouri. Washington. Ore
gon. Iowa, and other distant States. Next.
Secretary Bennett has culled nine names
out Of the mass, and notified them to
come back and try all over again. this
time before the august Senate itself
Already. one Senator with a fondness
for statistics calculates the candidates
have collectively spent something like
5000. Now some of them have got 10
spend more, and yet no one OF them
has any assurance Of getting the place
and no reason whatever to expect rein-
bursement for his outlay Some who
have, and many who have not been
selected for the favored list are angry
Each of the candidates was recommended
for the trial by some Senator. and in
many instances the Senator had a good
deal OF interest in the success of his par
ticular candidate. Senators don't recon-
mend for $500 jobs every Tom, Dick. or
Harry who comes along and asks them
to. Ergo. some Senator's are angry. too
very.
You see. Senator Green, of blanche. or
some other distant commonwealth. recon-
mends John Smith John, secure in the
possession of voice and a delivery that
has won all the prizes in the forensic en-
counters of the Squedunk Debating So
ciety, comes down to Washington reads
things for the entertainment and instruc-
ton of the Secretary Of the Senate, and
goes back home All this costs John, say
500. Well, then John, after he gets back
home and has evadec all the questions of
his inquiring neighbors, gets a notice
telling him 10 run back to Washington
after the Christmas recess and try again.
Or may be he doesn't. and the neighbors
become more curious, and perhaps bit
jocular. We do so love to see each other
fail. you know
In either case. John is mad. In the
former, he has got to lay out another
he's going to get anything for his money.
In the latter. he's mad because refiec-
tions are cast upon that superb voice Of
his, and the impertinent queries Of the
neghbors add fuel to the flame.
OF course. each John or Jim, or Tom
or Dick believed before he started that
his fine voice and his aIl-powerful Sen
ator had things all fixed. And there's
where the Senator comes in.
And as to that quill"
Secretary Bennett says there is no
pull" or. to be quite up-to-date. no
drag" in the great reading-clerk sweep
stakes-in other words. no political "dope''t
is 10 be injected into anybody's chances.
The Senators, or some Of them, like the
''villainess" in the novel when the heroine
appeals to her for aid. laugh this to
scorn. They know the game better than
that. or think they do. And with these
solons it is a sort of game of button.
button. who's got the button?" Only
they substitute the word pull" for the
button
why in the name Of common-sense
and expediency. If not of peace said one
yesterday, didn't Bennett just 60 out
and pick mis- man and give him the lob?
This IS the greatest fiasco that has been
practIsed upon the United States Senate
since this grand and glorious republic
was founded. No pull. eh? Well, take a
little salt on that If you want to swallow
IT,"
And the general opinion. among those
who think they know. is that Senator Al
iison's man is going 10 draw the long