Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-01-16
THE SENATE.

Senator John Sharp Williams de- clares that he does not know what Is the matter with the senate. "l haven't sense enough to diagnose its case" he says. Williams sees the sen kate at too close range, says the New York Times. It does not take om- niscience to tell what is the matter with it. An ex-prcsident of the United States, meeting an old Wash ington friend few years ago, asked. Haven't you noticed a deteriora- ton in the senate from what it was when I began my term?" The de- the man who said the words never Hooked forward to such a complete land well-roundcd exhibition of in- competcnce to do the simplest thing ; as the senate of today has furnished A In other words, the deterioration Shas been progressive. Possibly one ;would have to bark back to the last kdays of the Roman senate's govern ment when it became necessary to aaainvent sacred holidays in order to esstave off public business, to find q sparallel.
 pt There are those who will tell you Ssthat it all comes from the popular -elcction of senators, but pretty poor stuff got into the senate when the legislatures attended to that matter 1t is true that the average has un- questionably sunk since popular selections came in. not because the Speoplc were naturally given to mak ing worse choices than the iegisia- lures did, but because the cost of running in primary and then run aing for election became .prohibitive to all who did not have either much Knoney of their own or much other money behind them. The Ford Newbcrry case will occur to every ,ody as an example. But this alone MI0es not account for the fallen state .SSf the senate today.
 There never were, except by acci- Nlent ,any "good old days" in which The senate was glorious as a whole. Nearly always it consisted of few Nhining lights and great majority those whom the French conven- lon of 1794 expressively styled FrUgs of the Marsh" Blaine in his Twenty Years of Congress- is able b marshal brilliant names enough D fill nearly page in describing ne fortuitous .concatenation of lenators ,early in the fifties. Such
 illuminate names as that of Mang- In. was then have been forgotten sow, but Webster was at the head. sut if Mir. Blaine had had to make lps the same list for every senate rom Washington's time to the war secession, he would have been ard put to it.
 Nevertheless the senate was glo- sous. The Frogs of the Marsh did \ bt croak often, but the eminenccs Jlboke often, the silent workers on shom the burden fell worked hard, te4d the senate stood before the 1antry not only as a check on the x lshness of the house, but as so- III body which accomplished things. it's great men were limit Ito half a dozen, or even half
 t number, but it never fell to its Sesent state; it never presented the yectaclc of a machine with all its
 rs and levers turning in wild con Ision one against the other. and
 fable either to move or be still.
 The reason was that, however com bnplacc the general membership Tint often be, there were always
 men who saw clearly what was \ ded to be done and worked uncr-
 rIv toward that end. Nearly al- " it was an end that was in ac-
 1ance with what the people really z [<ted. because. these few men had
 vision to see what underlsy the ( 2h and foam above that want.
 .n 1t was not precisely what the E wanted, it was at least some-
 the people could accustom
 7selves to, something not in flat
 SSition to the pocketbook and x as As for the Frogs of the
 zSh. they fell in line, however ' .tSntly. behind the men they
 aixed as leaders < Ror Ire we speaking alone of the sss . Savs between the war of |ss sxion aud the rise of radicaiism'
 3ia which the problems before
 9Sh. te were not of the greatest
 Iast great war was carried on
 V esngress in which there was ~a6h 2 senate. It is fact whicn
 be refutcd by mentioning sr. Collamer, fessen9en'