The Colorado statesman., 1909-08-07
Is LOSING ITS RANK
UNITED STATES SENATE NO
LONGER RICH MANS CLUB.
OF Twelve New Members Sworn In
Last March Nine Are Without
the Customary Heavy Ac-
count at the Bank.


aires Club" for the United States SEN
ate is a misnomer. The chief quail
fcation for admittance to that body
| is no longer a bank account running
into seven or eight figures. 1t is get
ting to be poor mans club For
several years it has been the custom
to refer to the senate in satirical
terms as an exclusive retreat reserved
for millionaires.
How much money has he?" was
the first question Washingtonians
asked each other when a new man
came in with senatorial credentials in
his hand. He was expected to build
or rent palace in the fashionable
Northwest, stock a stable with blood
ed animals, entertain like a prince at
costly dinners and other entertain
ments and drop into the senate occa-
sionally.
If these Croesuses were little shy
on craftsmanship, knew nothing about
our foreign relations and the theory
of finance, no fault was found with
them. So long as they had made
their pile and were willing to let some
of 1t go, they were deemed to have
qualified for membership in the mil
lionaires' club, and the folks were
willing to let it go at that.
Those were the days of such multi
millionaires as Clark of Montana. who
was supposed to be worth $25,0O0,0O0
was supposed to be worth $25,0OO,O00
900; Mcmillan of Michigan, with an
other $10,OO0,OO0; Dryden of New Jer-
sey, with $5,0OO,OO0 or so; Brice of
Ohio, s5,OOO,OOO, and Proctor of Ver-
mont, $3,O0O,OOO.
Then there were Is or 20 others
who had been so unfortunate in life
as to be able to accumulate a bare
million or so. This lot included Cam
eron of Pennsylvania, Jones of Neva-
da, Stewart of Nevada, Wolcott of
Colorado and Hanna of Ohio.
In those days the dominant feature
of the senate was the dollar mark,
and the roll call sounded like a Roose-
welt list of rich malefactors. A SEN
ator would think nothing of gobbling
up a railroad system or two before 60
ing to work at the big building on
the hill, and before night his stock
operations might create a panic in
Wall street.
Now, all this is changed. A poor
man is no longer lonely in the United
States senate. He has plenty of COM
pany. OF the IL men who were sworn
in on March 4 nine are poor. Two
are rich and another has been able,
by leading a life of celibacy and fru-
| gality, to accumulate about 100000.
Two other senators who were sworn
in few months previously are also
| classified among the impoverished.
| BY a liberal estimate there are 10
millionaires in the United States SEN
ate. If the exact truth about the
state of the finances of these men
were known, it is likely that several
of them would be dropped from this
list of modern Midases. It's not an
easy thing to ascertain correctly the
worldly possessions of people these
| days. However, the following sena-
tors are generally looked upon in
Washington as being millionaires,
some of them multi-millionaires:
Nelson B. Aldrich of Rhode Island,
Morgan G. Bulkeley of Connecticut,
| w. SIdue Vi
Chauncey NJ. Depew of New York
Henry A. DUPONT of Delaware, Steph-
en- B. Elkins of West Virginia, Simon
Guggenheim of Colorado, Francis G.
Newlands of Nevada, George s. Nixon
of Nevada, George T. oliver of Penn
sylvania, Nathan B. Scott of West
Virginia, Isaac Stephenson of Wiscon-
sin, Francis e. Warren of Wyoming,
John Kean of New Jersey and George
| p. Wetmore of Rhode Island.
There are several other men who
might be termed near millionaires."
| They include Jonathan Bourne of Ore
gon. George C. Perkins of California,
Elihu Root of New York and Charles
j. Hughes, Jr., of Colorado
Against this select group of 19 men
is the great array of senators who
are well fixed. comfortably well off
and poor The last classification is
the most numerous, and takes in the
men who have nothing but their sal
aries. Especially in the western states
is the tendency growing to send poor
men to the senate. Formerly the
mining kings had large monopoly
of the senatorial business.