The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-08-02
AGAIN THE BUSINESS
MAN IN THE SENATE


the United States Senate and hav-
ing special reference to the candi-
dacy of Perry Wall, of Tampa, who
is urged for the Senate by his
friends for the particular reason
that he is "a business man" has
drawn the heavy artillery fire of the
Orlando Reporter-Star, the Tampa
Times and the Tampa Tribune in
Mr.. Wallis defense. That gentle
man is fortunate in his champions
and defenders and we rise from the
perusal of the three strong leading
articles written in his behalf by the
papers mentioned with an excellent
opinion of their candidate for the
Senate.
But to get to the eist of the ques-
tion at once. Mr.. Wall has been put
forward by his friends right from
the start as "a business man" and
they have-perhaps sub-consciously
--iterated and reiterated and en-
phasized the idea that his peculiar
claim to the senatorial succession
rested upon that fact. This view of
the case is not a good one for Mr..
Wallis candidacy, for it seems to
convey the impression that his fit
ness for the Senate is chiefly be-
cause he is a representative of a
single large interest of the country
as distinguished from all its other
interests. And that is precisely
what the American people more and
more are seeking to avoid in choos-
ing their candidates for the nation
al legislature.
Mr.. Wall is able and honest and
has unusual personal gifts and
graces, but his friends have stressed
the fact that he is business man
and as business man he is seek
ing the Senate. That admits of but
one construction, which is that he
would go to the Senate as a special
list in business, whereas the only
man we should send there is the
specialist in craftsmanship, for that
is all-embracing and repels the idea
of a single interest. Undoubtedly
Mr.. Wall would grow in knowledge
of his duties with time and expert
ence in the Senate and might in the
course of years be the peer of any
debater in that body; but that does
not avoid the present objection
before he has been elected-that the
chief claim made for him by his
friends is that he is distinguished
exponent of what we all understand
by the term business" That word
is difficult to define, but it certain
ly doesn't mean craftsmanship nor
the class of duties to which the lab
ors of a senator must be limited. The
reference to Senator Aldrich, of
Rhode Island, as business man in
the oeildle Is HUI IeiiCitoue anu uoV'
injustice to Mr.. Wall. Mr.. Aldrich
was indeed a business man and as
such he was the chief obstruction
in the Senate to the reform of the
tariff which had been so Ions de-
manded by the American people
He was the representative of vast
special interests and his knowledge
of craftsmanship being for the most
part confined to the tariff as 1t af-
fected those interests, he blocked
all efforts to relieve the country of
the evils of high protection as long
as he was in the Senate.
The American people want no
more such business men" as Nelson
w. Aldrich in the United States
Senate, and, while we do not for a
moment compare Mr.. Wall to that
distinguished servant of the special
interests, we do think that his
friends are making mistake in
urging him upon the people as
business man" to represent them
in the United States Senate. Bust
ness is business and craftsmanship
is craftsmanship, and the specialist
in the former is not likely to make
specialist in the latter. Mr. Wall
may be an exception. but if he is
his friends would do better to aban-
don their slogan of "A business man
for the senate" and urge his gen.
eral fitness regardless of his expert
knowledge of business, pure and