THE ROLL CALL
IS Government by the System? APRIL 30, 1910, the confession of Representative Charles A. White of the Illinois legislature that he had received a bribe of $1,000 for voting to elect William Lorimer...
...Browne and under the instructions of the court as finally given, I should have acquitted him under the law...
...White's confession described a comprehensive system of corruption as existing in the legislature of Illinois, of "Lorimer money," easy and plentiful, and of general legislation by "jackpot...
...To this question the people of this country demand an answer...
...Although the resolution was introduced after a conference among the Progressive Republican Senators, only one Senator named in the resolution, Senator Works, is identified in the public mind with the Senate Progressives...
...investigation that shall be prosecuted to disclose the truth and the whole truth, not an investigation undertaken to lay a foundation for a "whitewash...
...The responsibility in the first instance is upon the Senate of the United States to prosecute this investigation and by a committee constituted to make an investigation of this kind...
...President, I have not risen in this debate hitherto because of my respect for my honored colleague who was the head of the committee conducting this investigation...
...Without any preliminaries and quite as a matter of course, he said: 'Well, we put Lorimer over down there at Springfield, and it cost us about $100,000 to do it.' He went on to say that they had had to act quickly when the time came, that they had no chance to consult anybody beforehand, and I think his words were these: 'We had to act quickly when the time came, so we put up the money.' "He said: 'Now we are seeing some of our friends so as to get it fixed up.' He gave me to understand that whereas they had advanced the money, they were now seeing different people who they thought would be interested, to get them to reimburse them...
...They demand that this answer shall be the truth, ascertained by thorough investigation...
...This charge, so faT as it involved him, the President promptly denied...
...The committee proposed is believed to be above criticism on any ground of prejudice or unfairness...
...Notwithstanding the evidence, a majority of the sub-committee and a majority of the full committee exonerated Lorimer and declared him entitled to his seat...
...The resolution proposes by name five Senators to act on this committee...
...46 to 40 the Senate voted its Scotch verdict, "We do not find Lorimer guilty...
...APRIL 30, 1910, the confession of Representative Charles A. White of the Illinois legislature that he had received a bribe of $1,000 for voting to elect William Lorimer to the United States Senate was published in the Chicago Tribune...
...On December 12, a report of the Senate sub-committee, exonerating Lorimer from the charges, was announced, and on December 19, Senator Prazier of Tennessee, a Democratic member of the sub-committee filed a dissenting report...
...Who were these "few big people," and did they contribute to "get it fixed up," and how Much, and WHY...
...On May 7, Representative Link of the Illinois legislature made a similar confession...
...New Disclosures Made SINCE THE ADJOURNMENT of the Senate the Helm investigating committee of the Illinois legislature has been taking testimony at Springfield, and important new disclosures have been made...
...I wish I might be able to reach the same conclusion which he has reached, but I have gone through that record from cover to cover...
...But when this charge was made under oath, it revived the recollection of testimony before the Senate committee of certain promises given during the Lorimer fight at Springfield, promises to control the naming of a postmaster in Illinois...
...Only a few days ago a man of large wealth, prominent in financial circles, identified with powerful lumber interests, a man whose name is frequently spoken in connection with politics in Illinois, a man who was conspicuous in the lobbies at Washington during the Lorimer proceedings, testified before the Helm committee that it was the earnest wish of President Taft and Senator Aldrich that Mr...
...They are in the concrete the question: Is government in this country government by the System, and, if so, how and why...
...After a debate, occupying most of the attention of the Senate for the major portion of the session, the Senate, on March 1, by a vote 46 to 40, rejected the Beveridge resolution...
...At the time the vote was taken Senator Smith of Michigan, in most things faithful follower of the Aldrich leadership, colleague in the Senate of the Chairman of the Lorimer investigating committee who made the Lorimer "whitewashing" report and ardently defended Lorimer in the debate, made a brief speech on the floor of the Senate in which he gave expression to the following conclusions: "Mr...
...The confessions of White and Link and Breckemeyer and Holtslaw account for 5,500 of this money...
...During the debate that followed on this resolution one of Lorimer's ardent defenders in the Senate admitted that there were seven corrupt votes for Lorimer—the four members of the Illinois legislature who confessed to receiving bribes, and the three members whom they named as the bribe-givers, and who also voted for Lorimer...
...The integrity of the government is involved...
...On September 20, a picked sub-committee of the Senate committee on Privileges and Elections, with Chairman Burrows at its head, convened in Chicago to take testimony in the Lorimer investigation...
...There is not a line or a syllable in it that I have not read and pondered over...
...Why should a man of wealth, representing powerful business interests, rush $100,000 to Springfield to "put over" the election of a certain other man to the United States Senate...
...What the La Follette Resolution Proposes THE RESOLUTION introduced in the Senate on April 6 by Senator La Follette of Wisconsin proposes such an investigation and such a committee...
...102 were necessary for a choice...
...The hearings continued intermittently for a period of two weeks and closed on October 8. Senator Lorimer was not a witness in his own behalf...
...On June 7, Senator Cullom of Illinois in the Senate of the United States presented formal charges by the Legislative Voters' League of the State of Illinois, calling these disclosures to the attention of the Senate and asking that the Senate of the United States make an investigation of the charges...
...On May 5, Representative H. J. C. Breckemeyer of the Illinois legislature made a similar confession...
...They demand it in the concrete in the Lorimer case...
...They are questions that go to the fundamentals of government in this country...
...But, sir, no man can read this testimony without coming to the conclusion that the members of the committee did not go as far as they ought to have gone...
...The searchlight of truth has begun to penetrate the darkness, has begun to disclose in dim outline some of the "men higher up...
...I have read the charges of the judge in that case, and I am bound to say in this presence that if I had been a juror in the trial of Mr...
...The majority reportof the sub-committee was adopted by the Committee on Privileges and Elections, with the exception of Senator Fra-zier and Senator Beveridge, Progressive Republican Senator from Indiana, who refused to sign the report...
...What was there in it for them...
...On May 28, State Senator D. W. Holtslaw of the Illinois legislature confessed to the Sangamon grand jury that he received $2,500 for voting for William Lorimer for United States Senator, and $700 of "jackpot" money...
...The resolution names Senators to make the investigation because it would be farcical to have the committee named by a System-serving Vice-President at the dictation of the old System machine of the Senate...
...On the 5th of April, the manager of the International Harvester Company testified before the Helm committee of a meeting between himself and this lumber baron at the Union League Club in Chicago, in which he declares under oath he was addressed as follows: "He said that I was just the fellow he had been looking for or trying to see and he said he wanted to talk to me a minute...
...They did not summon the witnesses they should have summoned...
...In the debate that followed in the Senate one of the Senators who signed this report admitted that he had signed it without even reading the testimony...
...investigation that shall be aggressive and searching, not perfunctory and lop-sided...
...Lorimer be elected to the Senate of the United States...
...Why should he assume that his agency in this matter would be ratified by other men representing big business interests and that "a few big people" would contribute $10,000 apiece "so as to get it fixed up...
...We had some discussion back and forth and finally I asked him how much he was getting from his different friends and he said: 'Well, of course, we can only go to a few big people, and if about ten of us will put up $10,000 apiece that will clean it up.' " $100,000—Who got It...
...We went away and sat down on one of the leather couches at the side of the room...
...How many votes were bought with the remaining $94,500...
...In the election Lorimer received 108 votes...
...January 9, 1911, Senator Beveridge proposed in the Senate a resolution to the effect that by reason of corrupt practices affecting his election, William Lorimer was not entitled to a seat in the Senate...
...They are: Senator John D. Works, of California, Senator Charles E. Townsend, of Michigan, Senator George P. McLean, of Connecticut, Senator John W. Kern, of Indiana, Senator Atlee Pomerene, of Ohio...
...The important events have followed in rapid succession...
...As to his wishes in the matter of Lorimer's election, Senator Aldrich is silent...
...They did not in the conduct of that investigation meet the expectations of this Senate or of the country...
...On June 18, the Senate ordered an investigation of Lorimer's election...
...WHO GOT IT...
...I have gone through the trial of Lee O'Neill Browne...
...By high personal integrity and by exceptional ability, the Senators named are especially commended for the important work which the adoption of the La Follette resolution would devolve upon them...
...The Senators named in the resolution are all of them new Senators, who have not heretofore gone on record or been called upon to vote upon the Lorimer case...
...What were their interests in legislation in Congress and what compensating benefits might they expect by reason of having a certain man "put over down there at Springfield" and given a voice and vote in the proceedings of the Senate of the United States with a tariff revision and other important legislation pending...
...These are momentous questions...
...The 46 to 40 "Vindication" ALTHOUGH the investigation by the Senate committee was not pressed with noticeable vigor, although it was obvious at the time that much that might have been done in aid of a thorough investigation was neglected or done only in a perfunctory manner, although there was no attempt to reach any of the 'men higher up," the evidence disclosed was sufficient to con-fince the fair and unbiased public and convince non-System Senators, and even System Senators who would not allow their System affiliations to close their eyes against coarse, common corruption, that the claim of William Lorimer to a seat in the United States Senate was invalidated by taint of corrupt practices...
Vol. 3 • April 1911 • No. 15
