The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-03-09
WHAT 1T MEANS.

As a result of the vote of forty
six members of the United States
senate William Lorimer remains in
that body, the officially accredited
but publicly discredited representa-
tive of the state of Illinois.
, Against this action were opposed
the votes of forty senators, num-
herring among them men of the
greatest weight both in the senate
and in the nation
The list should be studied. 1t is
significant.
Mr.. Lorimers margin Of safety
vas six votes in jury composed of
ainety-one This does not count
Frazier and Terrell against him, or
Taliaferro, who did not vote, but
Who is understood to have been op-
posed to Lorimer and whose vote
would of offset the vote of Aldrich,
who was absent The vote thus
corrected would have left him a..
This is the mathematical measure
Of his "vindication. The quality
of the votes cast will more than wipe
1t out in the sense of the nation.
II Mr.. Lorimer is proud of the
event he is welcome to his pride.
As he and his supporters are prac
tically men who take to mathemat
les in matters of honor, they may
congratulate themselves upon the
fact that his vote may continue to
be cast in their interest.
But though Mr.. Lorimer remains
in the senate, the issue he repre-
SCENTS is not adjudicated.
On the contrary, the refusal of
majority of the United States senate
10 vote the election of William Lori
ner void presents to the people of
this nation one of the gravest issues
which have arisen in their political
history. One of the greatest law
yers of the country, one who has
established an international fame
for statemanship, conservative of
the conservatives, solemnly warned
The senators that if they would
preserve the honor and integrity
Of the senate, if they would do their
full duty to their country under
their oaths, they were mot at lib
erty to reject the testimony in this
case which shows the seat to be
filled here as the result of corrup-
ton
Yet forty-six senators have re-
jected it, and this decision of the
highest deliberative body in the land
strikes straight at the heart of our
republican government
Without the purity of the ballot
and the honesty of elections this
republic cannot live.
That has been the issue from the
beginning of the Lorimer case, and
in the shadow of such an issue the
personality of Lorimer and the ques-
ton whether such a man sits in the
senate as an accredited representa-
tive of the great commonwealth OF
Illinois, or whether he does not, is
of little Importance One more
predatory politician rewarded with
high office, one more vote which is
east as senator Alldrich casts his
regardless of any other Considera
tion, one more "stalwart' henchmar
of the great powers that rule us
this matters infinitely less than tha
the people should understand.
In the light of the Lorimer case
what the citizens of the United
States must ask themselves is this
WHAT are the forces that have de-
creed that the sale of the highes
legislative Office in the gift of the
people shall go unrebuked and tri
amphant at the bar of the United
States senate?
What are the considerations which
have moved a majority Of this au
gust and supposedly all powerful
body to defy the evidence of the fact
and the common dictates of reason
and the rudimentary principles OF
political morality for the sake of the
service of one man?
How is it that in the chamber
which echoed the voices of our great.
est statesmen the braZen sophistry
and constituencies buncombe Of a
Bailey outweigh the luminous argu-
ments and the solemn warnings OF
enc of the greatest lawyers and
ablest statesmen Of his generation
EIihu Root?
How is it that the pitiful evasions
and self-contradiction the self
stultifying and open partialities of a
Burrows, a Paynter, Gamble can
defeat the searching logic and elo-
suent public spirit of senators like
Beveridge, Burton, LaFollette, Cum
Minis, Borah, Frazier and Crawford
These are the question that Amer
lean people must ask themselves as
William Lorimer settles down in his
unclean seat by the will of ma
jority of the United States senate.
These are the questions that must
be answered, and the fact which is
their answer must be met and de-
stroyed if government of the people
BY the people, for the people shall
not perish from the earth.
The answer is clear. The people
will know how to translate it from
the names of these forty-six sena-
tors who have turned their backs
upon the proofs of corruption and
eompIacently welcomed its benefic-
iary to the counsels of the nation.
~ And the people will no longer
doubt that the capital charge made
Ay patriotic public men against the
senate is the uneXaggerated truth.
They will now understand that in
Of I l0