The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-19
THE SENATE LEADERSHIP
By SAyOYARD

When the Sixty-second Congress shall be fully organized, who will lead the ma- iority side of the United States Senate Will he be from the east or from the west? Will he be a standpatter or an in surgent? Or will the majority be organ ized into two camps more or less hos tile, a condition the Senate has been con fronted with more than once in its his- tory? Aldrich, the most successful of all American parliamentary leaders, is re- tired from the public stage, as Is Eugene Hale, his right arm. Years ago John c. Spooner quit the forum for the bar, and Allison is dead. Who will replace these men in the most select political de- Lucrative council in the world?
 In a parliamentary body leader is as necessary as he is in military establish ment. Talent, coolness courage and even audacity are as essential to obtain suc- cess in the cabinet as they are to gain victory on the field. The timid must be supported, the recalcitrant intimidated; ay, the interested cajoled, to run repub- llcan form of government. The imperious will and infexible courage of Thaddeus Stevens in Congress did as much to beat the south in our great war as the military genirs of Ulysses S. Grant in battle.
 The republican party has produced many great senators. In it's infancy were Fessenden, Sumner. Chase, Seward, Trum- bull, Hamlin, Wade, Wilson and Colla- mer. Later came Conklng. Sherman, Edmunds, Morton, the Morrills. the Chandlers, the Lanes, Howard, Schurz. Ingalls,, Carpenter, Blaine, the Platts, Logan and others too numerous to men ton. Of all the senators of the republican faith 1t is scarce too much to say that Fessenden was the greatest. take him all in all. The late Thomas B. Reed held that he was superior in intellect to the famous George Evans, of whom 1t may be said that he might have been the rival of Webster had he not chosen to be the follower of that great man.
 Until Nelson W. Aldrich became the leader, power was divided on the repub- lican side of the Senate. Seward might have been called the leader of the Ti- tanic battles of the free-soilers against Douglas when the Kansas-Nebraska bill was considered, but Fessenden, Sumner, Chase, Wade, Trumbull and even the southern whig, John Bell of Tennessee. more down with equal intrepidity and bore down with equal intrepidty and popular sovereignty" into an act of Con- gress. .sEven during the war there was dlvid republican leadership in the Sem ate flson was chairman of military affaifs nd reported and took charge of all legislation looking 10 the increase of the forces in the field and the promotion of the efficiency of the army. Fessenden and Sherman saw to matters of revenue and taxation, also the currency, though Fessenden strenuously opposed the crea- tion of the greenback. Trumbull looked after the law, and he was the author of all three of the constitutional amend ments legislated by the war. As for Sum- ner, he was the agitator. It was his task to keep the heart of the north af1re, and 10 make no peace until the shackles were stricken from every slave in the repub- lc He also looked after foreign affairs But it was different in the House of Rep- resentatives whore Thaddeus Stevens was "every man himself,' though he was neither speaker nor chairman of ways and means.
 After the impeachment proceedings failed, and Grant became President, if the Senate had leader, it was Conk- ling. and a powerful man he was. He drove Carl Schurz, Lyman Trumbull and Charles Summer out of the repub- lican party, and proved himself a match for all of them in debate. Early in his career Sumner had supported the democratic party, and Trumbull was a democrat until Douglas drove him into the republican party in 1855; and Is years later Conkling sent him back into the party of his youth and early manhood. It Is curious fact that this man, who was the author of the South ern reconstruction measures of the re- publican party, became the political tutor of William Jennings Bryan, thrice leader of the democratic party and idol of the south.
 But for nearly 10 years we may say that Conkling was the leader of the Senate. Carpenter was his ablest lieu