Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-05-24

IecQtlnS the senate = VIII. Anu IL WdS
because Cannon asserted the leadership
and set his face flintly to its recogni-
ton that he achieved at a bound that
vast popularity with his fellow-con-
gressmen that withstood so many
shocks and has only wavered at
last in the face of the new cOndi-
|tiOnS.
More attention has been given in
the last two or three years than ever
before i'm the senate leadership. That
| is not because it has been more
strongly accented than before. but
because. with the vanishing of the
others, Aldrich has seemed to stand
alone end because one mans boss
ism is more apparent to the eye than
a bosSism shared by five.
Bossism is a hard word and not de-
scriptve. Aldrch never really bossed
the senate. Bossism implies machin-
cry and there is no such machinery
in that body. The speaker, was really
a boss. Cannon did restore the house
to that equal position in the manage
ment of the cOuntry'S affairs, of
which the senate had robbed it in
Henderson's day. but it was a victory
for the house, not for the members
of the house, and the house was
Cannon.
When he had compelled the senate
| leaders to recognize the house as an
equal, all that had been gained was
that they had recognized the Cannon
machine as an equal; and the Cannon
machine was Cannon.
But bossed as the house might be,
the senate could not be- bossed. Can
non could crack the whip and say,
do this" and the house must do it,
But Aldrich had no whip to crack
over the senate.
DalZell, Payne, Grosvenor, Sherman
and Walter Smith were autocrats in
the house and none of them was a
man of overShadOwing ability. They
were autOcratS because they were on
the committee of rules; because they,
with Cannon, were the house machine.
Men of less ability than they would
have been as powerful placed where
they were.
But the five men who ruled legiSla-
ton III the senate were men of great
ability, and they ruled by virtue of
that fact. They are just as able now
as they were then, those of them VINO
remain; but the conditions which
yielded ready acquiescence on the
part of the senate in their leadership
have gone. The old. comfortable sem
ate is no more.
w ilSI HO uttp,
such as the New Idea presence arose
to make leadership difficult the only
question was who are our natural
leaders? Our purposes being in the
main pretty much the same through
out this comfortable club called the
senate, who are the men best fitted
naturally to give those purposes di-
rection?" Aldrich, Allison. Hale
Platt and Spencer answered that
question.
But now a wide division makes
that impossible. The fundamental
purposes of the senator's are irrecon-
cilable. The New Idea in politics,
rising all over the country and max
ing itself manifest in legislatures, i'm
city elections, in state politics-mak-
ing itself manifest in the house, where
it snakes the firmly-seated throne of
as strong man as ever held the
SpeakerShip-muSt make itself mani
fest in the senate; the senate could
not possibly escape.
For several years past new
crowd has been pushing into the
chamber. Election after election
sends to Washington some man who
does not regard the senate as a club.
The new men have no instinct of
clubbineSS i'm them. Nor can party
fealty be used to appeal to them. 1t
is no party cleavage which separates
them from the senators of the old
type, the type which has not varied
much in half a century.
So great are the changes which
now seem imminent that new sena-
tors no longer serve their novitiate
before taking a position in the front
of things; and that is the most revo-
lutionary change that could be con-
rniUp1 hn CO.,
atorS must be seen and not heard
has gone by the board entirely. The
senate atmosphere has become one
of strife. and i'm the midst of it are
men not yet warm in their places
Perhaps the sacrosanct rule Of pro-
motion by seniority may go next
There is no limit to what the revolu-
lion is capable of doing. If that hap
pens the pillars Of the temple will
have fallen.
In the heyday of the quintet they
often differed among themselves
about party policies. But hints of
outside world. In some committee
room-usually in Hale's-they would
meet and threSh out their differences.
Once they agreed their union was
against the world.
When the Philippine question came
up, for instance. Spooner and Hale
disagreed with their three colleagues
in the CaesarShip. They were anti
imperialiSts. The matter was fought
out behind closed doors. When the
doors opened the policy of the quintet
was annexation and Spooner, the an
ti-imperialiSt, was put forward as the
member of il deputed to defend the
policy on the floor. He was its spokcs-
man.
Hale neve.' left anybody in don't
that he was unconverted. He took
no part in the execution of the i'm
perialiStic" policy. But he did moth
ing to embarraSS it.
How, without a machine such as
Cannon had in the house, could these
five men steer the senate this way
and that? Aldrich. its central figure,
had neither patronage nor machinery,
nor the appeal to pay loyalty, for
his followers were as good Republi-
cans as he.
Senator Elkins was asked one day
the secret of Aldrich's power. He
laughed at first and said he didn't
know. Then he fell To considering it,
and finally he said:
We'll, the best answer | can give
is this: suppose there is something
YOU want very much indeed. You go
To Aldrich to get him to agree to
let you have it. He talks to you
about it, and after five minutes you
go out. You have ceased to want
the thing you want and now you
want the thing that Aldrich wants"
Each of these men had his Sheerly
defined place in the quintet. Aldrich
was the political manager, SpOoner
the orator and lawyer. Platt the
constructive legislator. Allison the
pilot. the compromises. the whittier
away of difficulties. Hale was gener-
al advisor aud brake on the others
After SpuOmer'S disappearance Hale
became virtually the floor leader.
Platt and SpoOner were regarded as
the statesmen of the combination.
Platt was Il public man of the old
school. He was not ShOwy. and when
he got i'm the limclight it was without
any intent of his own. His death in
1905 was i'm the height of the quintet'S
rule. The throne had been eStab-
liShcd 50 long that it seemed everlast-
ing and il never was 50 firm as then.
When. within two years, Spooner
announced his intention L. withdraw.
1t was Il clap of thunder to Wash
inc ,,,f, E,.st Il