Imperial Valley press., 1922-04-29
Confessions
| of a
III. Senator
By LAWRENCE MARTIN
UNITED Press Staff Correspondent
Copyright, 1922, by United Press)

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CHAPTER III.
WASHINGTON, April %" Propa-
ganda has gone mad and it is driving
other senators and me mad.
In these words, the senator, contin-
uing his story of the inside workings
of the senate lays bare the new form
of "bribery" which has sprung up IN
the senate.
~ have. never been offered one dol
lar in way of bribery since ! entered
the senate,' the senator said, but
many, many attempts have been made
to buy me and sell me.
81 must confess that at least one of
these attempts succeeded.
''This very day they are trying it
again-those good people back home,
who elect senators because they are
supposed to be men above bribery or
corruption of any kind And then those
same good people weedle and cajole
and tempt and bribe their senators into
voting the way they want them to
vote They do it with their little votes.
"Today, they are trying to bribe me
by promising me support when / come
up for reelection, some time hence, if
| will support certain bill. In groups,
by organizations and as individuals,
the highly moral folk of my state are
trying to bribe me, with their votes to
vote for that measure or against it,
just as their point of view dictates.
"They figure / am ambitious to stick
in the senate. A soft life in Washing
ton at $500 4 year, plus mileage, is my
price, they feel. They would be
iastounded if they knew / regarded
their letters and kilograms as just so
many attempts at bribery. But stop a
minute and consider.
"'I was sent down here to represent
the sovereign will of the peOple--of my
own state in part and of the whole ma
ton. / cannot know that will, in many
cases, unless the people express it to
me somehow. Hence it is perfectly
legitimate for them to write me letters
favoring or opposing certain legisla-
tion and urging me to vote for it or
against it.
"But suppose one oi them came to
me and said: "Senator, l Hant you to
vote for this particular Lii, and if you
do, I viii give you $1,000. If you don t.,
/ will foreclose the mortgage | hold on
your 1arm.
"And suppose I should say in reply:
All right, 1 will do as you wish Sup
pose that should be found out, what
would happen9 That citizen and
would 60 to Jail, in disgrace, and every
body would condemn us.
"But the citizen thinks it s all right
to write me that if l don IT vote for the
bill he and friends will foreclose on
my political career, while if | do vote
for it, they will keep on voting for me
The whole evil lies in the citizen S at
tempt to coerce me.
"That happens steadily. / am sick to
death of it. l do not know how to
combat it. No matter how / vote on
an important measure, L appear to be
yielding to the bribery of one side or
the other. They say these are the days
of propaganda. Propaganda has gone
mad, and it is driving me and other
senators mad. 1t is going to drive some
of us out of public life. That may be
small loss, but l just want to suggest
to the good people who, innocently
enough, threaten and cajole their sen
ators that way, to consider that they
are inevitably laying the foundation
for worse sorts of bribery.
''They are putting the price of a sen
ator too low. One of these days, il
will get down to the point where it can
be reckoned in actual money, and then
look ont Liberty -