THE LORIMER CASE
O'Laughlin, John Callan
The Lorimer Case By JOHN CALLAN O'LAUGHLIN WILLIAM LORIMER, of Illinois, has become a vital issue in the political morals of the the American nation. The question of whether or not he shall...
...Link, did you count the amount of money...
...Senator Burrows and Senator Paynter also admitted the existence of the "jack-pot...
...Senator Beveridge, of Indiana, in an extremely forceful and able report, asserted that ten votes at least had been corruptly cast...
...A. That is what I understood, yes, sir...
...A. Yes, sir...
...Q. Were you surprised when you got it...
...Its report, or rather the report of the majority, is not in consonance with the instruction under which it conducted the investigation, since it failed to state therein "whether or not corrupt methods or practices were used or employed in the election of William Lorimer...
...Bathroom Bob" Wilson gave Link the same amount...
...Who would expect a man charged with having bribed a legislator to admit he had done so...
...It is pivotal in the history of the upper House of Congress...
...Indeed, there was evidence showing a much lar-ger number and some Senators, notably Mr...
...Q. And you understood it was because of your vote for Mr...
...What the Legislators Confessed IT IS INTERESTING to glance at the testimony of the four legislators who confessed: White: "I asked Mr...
...Q. What did he say when he handed you the money...
...Borah and Mr...
...Lorimer, how much I was to get, and he replied by saying: 'You are not afraid to trust that to me, are you, old boy?' I told him that I was not afraid to trust it to him, but I would like to know...
...Senator Gamble vigorously denounced the system of corruption which existed at Springfield, though he asserted it had no connection with Lorimer's election...
...Under this doctrine, a president of a bank may remain in good standing if he steals a few thousands and does not ruin the institution...
...Root, Mr...
...It is: Shall corruption be recognized as a proper instrumentality in the election of United States Senators...
...He said: 'There is $2,500 for you.' " Evidence Conclusive to Able Lawyers THE money was paid, corroborating evidence was presented to that effect, and a hundred and one other circumstances all tended to prove the existence of corruption, according to such able lawyers as Senators Beveridge, Crawford, Burton, Cummins, Borah, Root, Browne, Jones and others...
...Q. What did he tell you it was...
...Senator Frazier, of Tennessee, expressed the conviction that seven votes had been corruptly cast and that consequently Mr...
...Louis, from "Bathroom Bob" Wilson, another legislator, who represented Browne, the latter being too ill to make the trip to the Missouri city...
...and all ground for it must be removed else, to quote the forceful words of Senator Root: "That (an election result produced by corruption) cannot stand...
...The Committee sat in Chicago and Washington...
...The question of whether or not he shall continue to sit in the Senate of the United States has been swallowed up in a greater and more portentous one, which strikes at the very existence of the Senate itself, and consequently at the very existence of the Federal government as at present constituted...
...and that State Senator D. W. Holstlaw, who confessed he had been paid $2,500 by State Senator John Brod-erick, told a "highly improbable" story...
...A. Yes, sir...
...It even denied the existence of the so-called "jack-pot," which was the slang name given the corruption fund raised to influence legislation in the Illinois Legislature...
...or if it does stand the Senate cannot stand...
...Such conclusions two members of the Committee could not accept...
...Beckemeyer testified: Q. You were going with your gang wherever it went...
...If it discharges that duty it will demonstrate it does not propose to open its chamber to corruption...
...Browne handed me some money...
...The question may or may not be answered in the affirmative by the Senate itself...
...In a word, Senators advocating Lorimer's continuance in the Senate are willing to hold that even if seven or even eleven votes were bribed, his election was valid...
...In the second place, the kettle was full of holes...
...The relations of Lee O'Neil Browne with Lorimer, their daily and hourly conferences were established...
...Link's testimony is as follows: Q. Wha: took place when you got into Mr...
...A. No, sir...
...or if the Senate does stand with its members holding their places by such a tenure, the Government of the United States cannot stand...
...Lorimer, the accusation was positively denied by the person accused of committing the alleged act of bribery...
...But the American people, as a whole,—the common people whom Abraham Lincoln loved,—have given unmistakable evidence of their purpose to be represented in the Upper House of Congress by men who have been purely elected and who will deal by them honestly and cleanly...
...He says, You will get one thousand dollars, and it is ready cash, too.' Then I asked him how much we were to get from the other source (the jackpot), and he says, You will get about that much, or a little more.'" White testified he received $100 in Springfield, $50, and subsequently $850 in Chicago, and finally $900 in St...
...Lorimer was not entitled to his seat...
...Q. How much was it...
...The majority report fully justifies the application of the term "white-wash" which generally has been given it...
...In the first place,' her defense ran, 'I did not borrow the kettle...
...If there were votes bribed for Mr...
...This is such an outrageous doctrine it is hard to believe there are men willing to advocate it...
...And in each case in which it was claimed that some member of the Illinois General Assembly had been bribed to vote for Mr...
...State Senator Holstlaw's testimony is as follows: "The night before the vote for Lorimer was taken, Broderick said to me, 'We are going to elect Lorimer tomorrow, aren't we?' I said: 'Yes, I thought we were' and I intended to vote for him...
...As was stated by the Committee on Privileges and Elections in the celebrated Clark case "bribery can never be proved by the testimony of the bribor nor of the person bribed, and it is almost always necessary to obtain the required information from go-betweens or persons who have explored the field and made reports backward and forward as to the probability of obtaining results by bribery...
...It heard quite a large number of witnesses...
...A. $1000...
...A Texas paper thus commented upon the Lorimer case, and it describes the situation accurately: "Once there was a woman who had been sued for the value of a kettle, which it was alleged she had borrowed and failed to return...
...Burton asserted the entire Browne faction, comprising thirty votes, should be thrown out as illegal...
...Moreover, Lee O'Neil Browne testified he had an understanding with the "Blonde Boss" that none of his thirty votes should be cast for Lorimer until his election was assured with them...
...Senator Heyburn of Idaho not only charged "much scandal" in the methods of Lee O'Neill Browne, but he said seven votes undoubtedly had been bribed...
...It rests upon the testimony taken by the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the Senate, which, by the terms of a resolution adopted by the Senate, was directed to report "whether or not corrupt methods or practices were used or employed in the election of William Lorimer...
...Its verdict was Scotch in nature as to whether or not corrupt methods or practices had entered into Mr...
...Lee O'Neil Browne's presence in his room in the Southern Hotel in the month of June...
...A. He says 'Here is some money.' Q. Mr...
...Lorimer, he was certainly the beneficiary of them...
...Hair-splitting" THERE has been a great deal of discussion in the Senate as to the so-called "Mathematical rule...
...that legislators Michael S. Link and H. J. C. Beckemeyer, who also confessed to receiving money, were the victims of the "third degree...
...Lorimer was published in The Chicago Tribune, is a corrupt and vicious character, whose word is not to be believed...
...So naive is this statement that it cannot but provoke a smile...
...A Pivotal Case IT IS NOT going too far to say no case which has been before the Senate has so vividly brought home to the country the situation of its Federal Senate as that of William Lorimer...
...A. Nine hundred dollars...
...It applied to their examination the strictest rules of evidence...
...A part of its members, by their votes, may express their opinion that it is not necessary for a colleague to be "sans peur et sans reproche...
...In the third place, I returned the kettle.' " . A Grave Duty THE SENATE of the United States has a grave and distasteful duty to perform...
...The report thus sums up the view taken by ten members of the Committee: "The circumstances before referred to and many others which might be instanced, tended to render the testimony of each and all the witnesses who have been named, of doubtful value...
...Members of the Committee who signed the report found it necessary to shift their grounds of defense...
...It states that Legislator Charles A. White, whose original confession that he had been bribed to vote for Mr...
...A. He said 'Here is a package for you.' Q. How much was it...
...A. Yes...
...A. Mr...
...Browne (leader of 30 members of the Democratic minority) what I was to receive for voting for Mr...
...There is not the slightest question that the agitation which has been in progress throughout the land for years, looking to the election of Senators by direct vote of the people, has been inspired by the feeling in the hearts of the populace that seats in the Senate were being bought and sold and that the beneficiaries of the bribery necessarily were forced to do the bidding of those who arranged for their service in the National Capital...
...Q. As a result of that you took this $1,000...
...It is this feeling toward the Senate which has aroused popular misgiving as to the stability of the Federal Government...
...if it fail to do so the country may be relied upon to point out unmistakably that honesty and cleanliness and decency must prevail in its government and that" it will not tolerate a chamber or representatives willing to wink and even connive at gross political immorality...
...He further enunciated a doctrine that will appeal to the country: ONE BRIBED VOTE MAKES A WHOLE ELECTION FOUL...
...Lorimer's election, and it stated specifically as to the "jack-pot" that "after considering all the evidence on that subject, the Committee are not prepared to find that the fact is established...
Vol. 3 • February 1911 • No. 8
