The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-23
MAY Be NO VOTE.
Validity of LOrimer's Election
May Remain Unsettled.
Senator Beveridge Replies to
Speech of the Defendant.

- the election of Senator Lorlmer OF
illinois. will not come to vote IN
4be senate today and propaply not IoR
''.a'.araI DAVIS yet=if at all at this ses-
80, Of congress. That was made evil
Int in an interchange which preced-
- the long anti-Lorimer speech de-
Iirered today by Senator Beveridge.
Mr. I,orimer did not listen to the
Indiana senator's speech he sat
+t,rough most of the other attacks on
his election out ne oiu NV 4 -
Senator Beveridge addressed him
IF at the outset of his remarks to
+be speech delivered yesterday by Sen
ator Lorimer in his own defense Mr.:
T}everidge recalled the attention OF
the senate from the eloquence of Mr..
Toriner to "the record of sworn tes-
+irnony before the people of the Unit
Cd States-testimony given under oath
and searched as by fire with fierce
cross examination" and he added, Il
shall nothing extenuate nor aught
eytenuate' because I ought not; nor
shall I 'aught set down in malice
because I have no malice.
Indeed" he continued, in my
examination of the evidence If mis-
state any testimony or fail to give II
fairly and fully, 1 will take 1t as
Dersonal favor if any senator better
saw to the senate that had far rather
be shown to be in error than to be
permitted to make any nlisstatement
Of the facts.
Gravity of the Issue.
Il go further and say that 1 would
far rather find that the testimony es-
tablishes the validity of this election
than that the testimony vitiates the
election. The validity of the election
is the issue and the only issue; and as
I said the other day it is the gravest
issue that can arise under free 1nstl-
tutions because our government de-
ponds absolutely on the purity of the
elections"
Mr.. Beveridge said he had listened
with peculiar personal sympathy to
Senator Lorimer's story of his rise
from humble estate to this high place.
There were many senators, he SAID.
who from even earlier youth had
borne heavier burdens.
But while 1 was affected as man
by that appeal" said the speaker. Il
was curious as a judge that the sit
ting member did not recite these things
before the senate's committee if he or
his attorneys thought them material or
relevant.
His newsboy experience and the de-
voted friendship between himself AMI
'Hinky Dink' resulting therefrom is
engaging, but it is not material as to
the corruption of Holstlaw, White,
Beckmeyer, Link and others. 'Hinky
Dink,' according to Mr.. Lorimer, de-
livered Griffin's vote, but Griffin swore
he had not been asked by any one to
vote for Mr. LOrimer; and Henry Ttr-
ren swore that Griffin suggested that
he vote for Lorimer and said there
was $1,000 in 1t anyway. Yet in recit-
ing this phase of his life the Illinois
sitting member, without knowing it,
has thrown light upon one portion of
the testimony"
Senator Beveridge went on to take
up various incidents recited yesterday
by Mr.. Lorimer illustrative of his acts
of kindness to constituents and others.
Actions Not Peculiar.
yet praiseworthy as it is such con-
duct is not peculiar to the sitting mem
ber,'' he declared, for there are sena-
tors here and thousands of private citi-
zens everywhere who have done much
the same thing. The sitting members
approve is not pertinent to the case for
no one doubts his benevOlence. While
my sympathy and approval as a man
were aroused by his picturesque and
praiseworthy incidents, my judgment
as a member of this court was not af-
fected, for my judgment was not APP
pealed to. The issue we must de-
termine is that of the validity of the
election challenged here on the ground
of bribery. On that grave charge no
light was thrown.
THE sitting member (Mr. Beveridge
constantly called him that says every
Republican from his district voted for
Hopkins, that he urged the election of
Shurtleff, that he tried to get Cover
nor Deneen to run; that all this took
place before he himself became a can
didate. All this is important politi-
-sa-fr Il. -
to do with the alleged bribery we now
are considering?"
Mr.. Beveridge went on to remind
the senate that the record of the in
vestigation showed why it was desired
to elect Governor Deneen senator.
Browne tells u.s." said he that they
would have been willing to elect Deneen
in order to get rid of him. Why did
they want to eliminate Governor
Deneen2 AS to Hopkins and ShurtIeff.
while it is Of no possible consequences
it may be suggested that a wise DO
liticaI manager would throw votes to
Hopkins when they could not elect him
because that would modify the real
Hopkins votes for any future MANS.
The support OF Shurtleff when he could
not be elected would have flattered
him"
As to the ''3eIl Wether.?
ct make no complaint of this view
of that transaction, for it was permits
sible strategy in that kind of political
manipulation which appears to be be-
coming so usual in the election of
United States senator's"
The speaker referred to the general
amusement occasioned yesterday by
Lorimer's allusion to the ''beil
wether," but he added the sitting
member made one mistake in attrib-
uting the invention of the term s'beu
wether" to the senator from New
York. The person who first called
NANNY Abrahams the bell wether of
the Browne faction was Browne him.
self. as the record shows
ION a purely party vote, when a
senator comes in from work in com
mittee, it is the loose practice to vote
as his party associates are voting. But
this does not mean the surrender to
another's keeping of the vote which
we are sent here to cast
II never understood that my oath
and duty as a senator was that 1 am
to cast my vote on every question &C
cording to the vote of any bell wether