The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-03-23
STORY OF THE MAN WHO
DARED STAND ALONE IN THE
MiLLiONAIRE'S CLUB AND
BRAVE THE CORRUPT AID
RICH MAJORITY.

If Sen. Robt. Nj. LaFollette
would be less of a senator and
more of a demagog, his enemies
would be better pleased. His enc
mics in the United States senate
relied on LaFollette TO accomplish
his own undoing. In this reliance
they have been greatly disap-
pointed.
Sen. John c. Spooner (now Wall
ST. Lawyer John c. Spooner) mis-
led his colleagues. He filled AID
rich and Elkins with false hopes
that LaFollette was a fool as well
as blatherskite, and that he would
count for nothing in the senate but
a noise. He promised them that
LaFollette would be undignifed,
tactless and Intellectual.
He has been not any of these
things. He has been dignified: he
has conformed to every propriety
and parliamentary rule; he has
avoided personalities; he has not
INDUCED in empty or tiambouyant
speech. He has refused to lose his
temper. He has talked for results,
not effects.
At the same time he has declined
to be "jollied" into ineffectuality.
He has refused to knuckle under to
alleged senatorial courtesies"
when senatorial courtsy meant
"honor among thieves
So, of course. LaFollette is the
most disliked man in the senate
so far as his fellow senators are
concerned.
Also Sen. LaFollette is the most
influential member of the senate
today-excepting only Nelson w.
Aldrich.
The reason Aldrich is influential
is entirely different from the one
which applies to LaFollette. Aid
rich is chief of what might be
called the STANDARD Oil ring in
the senate. In addition to the fact
that he is related by family ties to
John D. Rockefeller, Aldrich is a
tactful and clever organizer. There
fofre he has come to be the recog-
nized head-the brains-of the non
partisan senatorial clique, which
takes its orders from what may
conveniently be called Wall St"
and which embraces Standard
Oil, the railroads and the tarifffos-
tered trusts. There are about 60
votes in this combination, and they
are cast at the beck and call of
Aldrich
Other members of the senate not
directly controlled by Aldrich are
men of too little force to resist the
senate majority. They are content
to look after their little local legis-
lation; to speak once in while for
effect, and to line up somewhere in
the rear of the ranks. They see that
there is butter on their bread, and
that their bread stys butter-side
up and are content
So today La Toilette is really the
senate minority.
He is SO because he has the cOur-
age to stand alone against the SEN
ate Acknowledgements the votes, the
money and the concerted brainy
hate of all that the senate majority
represents; and against all the ca
joleries and all the tribes which are
in the majority's other hand.
In the matter of its rules the sen.
ate is a peculiar body. Legislation
is practically all done by unanl-
nous consent Which is at once the
senate's strength and weakness. II
is its strength for resisting legis-
lation, and its weakness for Great
ing legislation. Always some men,
Der of the combination controlled
by Aldrich can resist a bill not
wanted by the combination. But al
ways LaFollette can resist a bill
wanted by the combination. The
knife is double edged.
LaFollette yields that knife. He
has had the nerve to stand against
the Aldrich combination, and to re-
fuse consent in times when consent
meant everything to the authors or
some bill He has blocked the path
and single handed held this pass OF
unanimous consent, when the forty
thieves were marching through
laden down with plumber.
This is how LaFollette forced the
passage of the employers liability
bill in the fifty-ninth congress; how
he added more amendments to the
rate bill than any single member of
the senate; how he helped the pres
ident save the petroleum and coal
deposits of the new state of Okla
homa; how he did many things
which have been in the peoples in
terest in the short time he has been
a senator from Wisconsin LaFol-
lette had the courage to accept the
enmity of the Aldrich ring and to
refuse its brides He traded for the
people, not himself.
LaFollette is a useful public man.
He is useful to the people, not the
trusts. 1t is not an easy role The
people mean well, but they often
fail to understand. The game is
mixed. Reports do not agree They
hear conflicting stories and all is
so remote that they find it hard to
reach the truth
And that makes it hard to serve
the people. Honest men and won,
en- are led to hate the public man
who is their faithful servant. They
help Ii undermine the confidence he