New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-17
Nelson w. Aldrich.

In any list of great Congressional lead
ers Nelson w. Aldrich must be ranked
very near the top. There have been other
kinds of leaders in Congress-leaders in
thought, orators, statesmen, moulders OF
popular opinion, whose influence has been
greater outside the Capitol than inside it.
Mr.. Aldrich never cought to be counted
among such. It would be inappropriate to
compare him with Clay, Webster and Cal.
houn, with Seward and Sumner, or with
Blaine, Sherman and Edmunds.
His work was done in the narrower
sphere Of parliamentary management, the
elaboration of laws and the framing Of
legislative policies. He made programmes
and directed the action Of majorities, and
in that field he exercised a power ex-
ceeded only by that of Thaddeus Stevens
when Stevens was a wartime dictator IN
the House of Representatives. Certainly
no other Senate leader ever acquired the
sweeping control which Mr.. Aldrich pos
sessed in the last ten or twelve years of his
service.
The Rhode Island Senator's mastery
was based on intelligence and industry.
He studied the processes Of legislation and
the details Of measures. Realizing from
the day he entered the House of Repre-
sentatives that the tariff was bound to be
the crucial issue in national politics for
many years to come, he determined to be-
come a tariff expert. By the time he was
promoted to the Senate-in 1881-he had
acquired a familiarity with tariff sched-
ules and their effects on industry which
insured him recognition. He did not have
to wait long for an appointment to the
Finance Committee, and in 1888 he was
associated with Mr.. Allison in the prep
aration Of the Senate substitute for the
Mills bill-a measure intended to sum-
Marie the tariff policy Of the Republican
party.
On the Finance Committee in those days
he was outranked by men like Justin S.
Morrill,, John Sherman, John p. Jones and
William B. Allison. Yet he had a larger
part than any of them in rewriting the
Mckinley bill when it arrived in the Sen
ate. The reciprocity amendments to that
bill bore his name. He led the Republican
fight in the Senate against the Wilson
German bill in 1894 and much more than
Mr.. Dingley, was the author Of the Ding
ley bill of 1897. In 1899, after Mr. Nor
rill's death, he became in name what he
had long been in fact-the chairman Of
the Finance Committeeman from 1899
to 1911 he was the undisputed head of the
Republican organization in the Senate.
Mr.. Aldrich was frank in his champion
ship of the interests Of "big business" He
could see only one side of the problems
which so stirred the public after the re-
action against "big business" methods set
in. He fell out Of touch with popular SEN
timent, and in his fight to prevent rea-
sonable reduction Of tariff duties in 1909
he helped to weaken the Republican party
and TO pave the way for its defeat in 1912.
The Western insurgents" within the
party revolted against his leadership
Foreseeing stormy weather ahead, he re
tired from the Senate in March, 1911,
after a service of thirty years.
In all that period he exercised a power
over legislation which it is hard to meas
ure. Like Mr.. Allison, he worked without
a flourish of trumpets, but nothing of i'm
portance was done in Congress in their
time in which they did not have a hand.
Mr. Aldrich did more to shape our tariff
policy between 1898 and 1911 than any
other man in public life.
But the greatest achievement of his
career came to fruition after he left Con-
gress. That was the reorganization Of the
currency system. The Rhode Island Sen
ator really cleared the way for the Re
serve system act Of 1918. He saw that the
time was getting ripe for that long de-
layed reform, and the currency commits
sion which he organized and led educated
the public to the need Of undermining our
financial structure. The Aldrich-Vree-
land act was the forerunner Of the Fed
eral Reserve consolidation, and in coniunc-
ton with the latter it saved the country
from the threat of panic at the outbreak
of the European war. AS a statesman Mr.
Aldrich's highest claim to distinction will
undoubtedly rest on his leadership in the
movement to give the country the solid and
flexible currency system which it long
lacked and now fortunately enjoys.