The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-03-05
GEORGE r. EDMuNDs

have grown I'D during the past 20
years do not realize the high stand
Ing, ability and craftsmanship OF
George F. Edmunds, senator from
Vermont who died last week at his
home in California where he has
lived most of the time since he volun-
tarily retired from the senate in 1891.
Mr.. Edmunds went to tire senate in
1866 at the age of 3S and soon de-
yeloped into one of the great men of
that body. In fact during at least
the latter half OF his % years there
he was generally considered the CHEZ
statesman OF the senate of the
United States. The New York Times
on the day after Senator Edmunds
death printed o most appreciativc
editorial oneMr, Edmunds' service il
the Senate as follows:
IL would be hard to enumerate, so
many and SO various were they, the
services OF George F. Edmunds to his
country. A great lawyer, endowed
with crystalline intellect, known to
be absolutely honest and unselfish in
his views, whether they were APPROX
ed or not by public sentiment, he ac-
duired in his twenty-five years In the
Senate an intellectual and a moral
reputation, dignity, and authority
such as no Senator of today poss-
esses. He did not believe in the
popular election of Senators. He be-
gan his career in the Senate chamber
among such men as Sumner, Fessen-
den, Trumbull. A generation ago II
was impossible to think OF him with
out thinking of his inseparable crony
and Democratic compeer, Allen G.
Thurman. One remembers the Sena
tor from Ohio waving the signal ban
danna at the Senator from Vermont
sitting in state as presiding officer OF
the Senate. There is Il CLEAN from
the gold spectacles. Some harmless
unnecessary Senator is called to the
chair. The two elder statesmen, the
best brains of each party in the Sen
ate. march forth, and, i'll the Senate
restaurant, grayely consult th'
, oracle. Unhallowed days before th'
Flood How did Mr.. Edmunds man
age to live more than ninety years
taking leen interest in affairs t
the las? $3.50
Mr.. Edmunds, from the time III
entered the Senate, fought intelli
gently, steadily, and constantly 70
the resumption of specie payment
With Mr.. Conkling he drove the Re
publican Senators in caucus to SUI
portithe Resumption act, which be
came law in 1876. He framed an
introduced the bill establishing tn
Electoral Cdmmission, and thong
he became a member OF that body
his character stood so high that h
was probably less Objectionable t
the Democrats than any other Repul
llcan member. With the aid OF MI
Thurman he forced the Pacific Raj
road Funding act, drawn by himself
through the Senate. The act for tn
suppression of polygamy in Utah
commonly associated with his nam'
and 1t Is too often forgotten that tn
so.called Sherman antitrust law
almost wholly his work. He wa
then chairman of the Judiciary Con
mlttee. In an article in The Mort
American Review In 1911 he e,
planned that II was the intention {
the makers of the statute that TIL
courts should construe it, as the 81
preme Court has construed it, not fC
the purpose of destroying but Of he'll
ing honest business. The Judiciar
Committee agreed that at was quit
dnpmcticable to include by specif
descriptions all the acts whsch shoul
come within the meaning and pu
poses of the words trade and con
merce' or. trust. or the woyt
Restraint or monopolize by precis
and all4nclusive definitions. and this
these were truly matters for judlci;
consideration. The Judiciary Con
mittee believed that the familis
principles which guide courts in n