THE PASSING OF LORIMER
The Passing of Lorimer ON MARCH 1, 1911, the United States Senate, sole judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members, decided by the close vote of 46 to 40 that William Lorimer of...
...President, I take the time of the Senate now to cast a little backward glance...
...Depew of New York and Dick of Ohio fell by the wayside...
...BUT SOMETHING HAPPENED between March 1, 1911, and July 13, 1912...
...What was it...
...In three years the consolidation of great corporations outran anything known before in the experience of this or any other country, and from that time to this it has continued...
...For seventy-five or eighty years after the adoption of the Constitution, this Government was truly representative...
...The decision about to be recorded will disappoint public confidence, and create a revulsion of feeling beyond our comprehension...
...THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE is quickened...
...Never Again...
...Now, I do not mean that there were not instances of corruption, for there were...
...28—count them—28 WEAKENED in numbers and in strength, the Old Guard— what remains of it—clings desperately to its own...
...They began to go to the Assemblies and to the Senates in the different states, seeking franchises, seeking special privileges, and special immunities...
...It passed from the period when business was first transacted by individuals and partnership into the period when it was transacted by corporations, and when those corporations were honestly in competition with each other...
...We need not delude ourselves that the great public does not understand this...
...On July 13, 1912, the United States Senate, sole judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members, decided by the overwhelming vote of 55 to 28 that William Lorimer of Illinois was elected by corrupt methods and practices...
...It is found in that new force that is making itself felt in public affairs, in that old, but just recently awakening, power which is beginning to transform all our institutions of government from instruments of private aggrandizement to instruments of public service...
...The public gagged at the shameful spectacle of the System majority in the Senate holding fast to one of its own, upon whose election by sordid special interests the spotlight of public attention had been thrown by chance...
...Repudiated in nation-wide primaries, rebuked from public platform, press and pulpit, it still clings blindly and stubbornly to its acceptance of William Lorimer as equally entitled with itself to vote on a nation's laws...
...It was simply the opportunity for American voters to express their judgment on several occasions at the polls...
...Aldrich himself has gone—quitting rather than to sit in his seat shorn of his power to dominate the Senate...
...It measures the power of public opinion, that new factor in government that is destined shortly to assert its rulership...
...The venerable Senator Cullom of Illinois was overwhelmingly defeated in the primaries because of his vote for Lorimer, a vote which fortunately he was given an opportunity to change before closing a long and honored career in the Senate...
...The "Lorimer case" stands out as one of the blackest pages in our national history...
...Was it because the arguments of Senators in the debate upon the charges and the evidence were any more logical, any more complete, any more eloquent during the last few weeks than they were a year ago...
...it reached to the integrity of our representative democracy in every state and hamlet throughout the land...
...Then it was, I say, that corruption began to undermine representative government...
...H. Paynter, Kentucky J. W. Smith, Maryland John R. Thornton, Louisiana B. R. Tillman, S. Carolina Total, 28 PAIRED—AGAINST LORIMER W. E. Chilton, W. Virginia C. A. Culberson, Texas Jeff Davis, Arkansas R. L. Owen, Oklahoma Total, 4 PAIRED—FAVORING LORIMER J. H. Bankhead, Alabama W. B. Heyburn, Idaho H. A. du Pont, Delaware F. E. Warren, Wyoming Total, 4 William Lorimer, Illinois.......................Did Not Vote Now For "Lorimerism" THE LORIMER CASE is ended...
...It was necessary to bring into life and being a new institution to conduct business and develop the country—the modern corporation...
...J. McCumber, N. Dakota Thos...
...Undoubtedly it marks the culmination of the old order...
...We did not have to build on the old ruins of other and obsolete forms of government...
...It put upon us responsibilities which it was destined in the course of civilization we should bear...
...Because business had not been made a part of government...
...The people know all about it...
...I believe that here in this New World there is to be worked out ultimately in its perfection the problem of self-government...
...They understand perfectly well that when the corporations had to go to their State legislatures to get franchises, and to Congress to get special privileges and land grants, the scandals, the great organized scandals, appeared...
...Senator Gamble of South Dakota is already beaten...
...About that period of time the agents of business interests appeared as an organized lobby at the Capital of the Nation...
...It could not summon opposition sufficient to prevent the passage of a resolution providing for the direct election of United States Senators...
...The revulsion of feeling did come...
...Examine these twenty-eight United States Senators who stand loyally by Lorimer to the end...
...T. Oliver, Pennsylvania Clarence D. Clark, Wyoming Boies Penrose, Pennsylvania W. Murray Crane, Mass...
...public opinion reverses senate LET US SEE...
...You will find, in studying this subject, that systematic corruption in Government made its first appearance at that period of our life when the corporations began to take charge of the development of the country...
...I believe, sir, that here was the best chance for it that the whole history of the human race had afforded...
...Hale of Maine bowed to the inevitable and quit...
...Flint of California saw the coming storm and crept into a political cyclone cellar, where he is still in retirement...
...William Lorimer passes from public life...
...what happened...
...when they began to tunnel mountains, to bridge great rivers, to build great lines of roads, to start great industrial enterprises such as the world never had seen before...
...B. Catron, New Mexico Geo...
...Was it because the evidence of corruption was not specific or convincing at the time of the first vote, and was specile and convincing at the time of the second vote...
...Of the Democrats, Senators Foster of Louisiana, Paynter of Kentucky and Thornton of Louisiana were recently defeated for re-election and Senator Bailey of Texas, sensing the revolt, has voluntarily withdrawn...
...We had a clean foundation, primitive conditions...
...Why this remarkable change...
...It marks the period when the people began in deadly earnest to take over to themselves their own government that had been subtly and sordidly drawn '-mder the control of private monopoly...
...That is now the important matter...
...There have always been sporadic cases where individuals have betrayed public trust...
...President, I say to you that an investigation proves the Lorimer case to be one of the manifestations of that great power working itself out to install here in this body, whose traditions ought to make it secure from such contamination, a man who comes not with the high sanction of the people of his State to represent the public interest, but who comes here commissioned to serve special interests...
...And remember that by their vote on the Lorimer case ye may know them...
...From that hour to this its virus has been spreading into every fiber of our political system...
...Every citizen knows that the Senate is the judge—the absolute judge—of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members...
...Ten members of Aldrich's Old Guard left the Senate, for good and all, within a few days after they cast the votes that kept the "blonde boss" of Illinois in his seat...
...and then, for the first time, business was brought into the most intimate relationship with the Government...
...The principal facts are as clear in the public mind as they are clear in the minds of Senators here, and no distinction of technicalities as to how many tainted votes are needful to corrupt an election will affect their judgment...
...Then, too, for the first time, temptation came into the life of the representative, and it was a question whether he would yield to the importunities of the public-service and other corporations or stand for public interest...
...But Lorimerism is not yet crushed, either in the United States Senate or in the nation...
...The Old Guard—what remains of it now—can not muster strength enough to force the election of one of its own number as president pro tempore of the Senate...
...Voter, and when election time comes around again, look it over and see if one of the twenty-eight is asking you for your vote...
...Here is the vote...
...The "Lorimer case" probably marks the end of the era of government by privileged business...
...I believe that we will be able to meet those responsibilities, sir...
...With the modern corporation came the necessity of bringing business and government into close contact...
...Senators who were conspicuous in their "defense" of Lorimer were retired by angry constituents...
...The answer is public opinion...
...Just before the gavel fell in the United States Senate on March 1, 1911, announcing that the time had come for the vote on the legality of Lorimer's election, Senator La Follette made a brief speech in which he said: "The precedent to be established will not only react on the future of the Senate, it will stand as a fearful example to our state legislatures...
...Something besides the taking of the testimony which followed the trail of corruption and bribery a little closer to "the man higher up...
...Paste this roll call in your hat, Mr...
...But we were given the richest country in all the world, and this very richness made it impossible that business could always be conducted as it was during the first seventy-five or eighty years of the life of this Republic—on an individual or on a partnership basis...
...It will stand for all time, as the gruesome gibbets stood along the coasts of old England, as a warning to the brigands of special privilege...
...There came a time in 1897, when conditions were favorable to a still further development of this business organization which had already begun to destroy the representative character of our Government...
...Carter of Montana was defeated...
...Our business development has its successive stages...
...Observe how the bi-partisan character of special privilege is here again revealed...
...He said: "Mr...
...C. Perkins, California W. P. Dillingham, Vermont H. A. Richardson, Delaware J. H. Gallivger, New HampshireReed Smoot, Utah R. J. Gamble, S. Dakota Isaac Stephenson, Wisconsin Simon Guggenheim, Colorado G. P. Wetmore, Rhode Island democrats Joseph W. Bailey, Texas D. U. Fletcher, Florida M. J. Foster, Louisiana J. F. Johnston, Alabama Thos...
...During the first seventy-five or eighty years of the life of this Republic there was no such thing as corruption in public life...
...Of those forty-six Senators who voted for Lorimer on March 1, 1911, Bulkeley of Connecticut is gone...
...The Old Guard led by Aldrich is not as powerful in this Congress as it was in the preceding Congress...
...And so we are to-day confronted by conditions altogether different from any that have ever before been known in the history of this Republic...
...Never again will it be safe or easy for any great industry, be it meat packing, lumber, oil or railroad, to "put across" the election of a member of Congress...
...a changed, and chastened, senate IT WAS, therefore, a changed Senate that voted the second time on the Lorimer case...
...The answer lies elsewhere...
...Six more of the Old Guard who voted for Lorimtr will not seek re-election...
...It does more than that...
...We must hasten the day when United States Senators shall be elected directly by the people in every state of the union...
...Everywhere the people got a chance to express an opinion upon the action of the Senate Oligarchy in keeping Lorimer in his besmirched seat, they repudiated that action...
...E. Borah, Idaho Asle J. Gronna, North Dakota Jonathan Bourne Jr., Oregon W. S. Kenyon, Iowa Frank O. Briggs, New Jersey R. M. La Follette, Wisconsin Joseph L. Bristow, Kansas Henry Cabot Lodge, Mass...
...Kean of New Jersey, Piles of Washington and Scott of West Virginia all terminated their connection with the United States Senate on March 4, 1911...
...They are Briggs of New Jersey, Burnham of New Hampshire, Crane of Massachusetts, Guggenheim of Colorado, Oliver of Pennsylvania and Wet-more of Rhode Island...
...And the American people are waiting with even tenser feeling than this audience the result of the roll call upon this question...
...We can have no assurance that the special interests somewhere, some time, may not send another Lorimer to the United States Senate to represent them unless the system under which Lorimerism operates is pulled up, root and branch...
...We must limit the influence and activities of the special interests by stringent corrupt practices acts, by recall and by direct legislation, to hold representatives in line with public needs and public demands and to override them if they become heedless of either...
...The Passing of Lorimer ON MARCH 1, 1911, the United States Senate, sole judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members, decided by the close vote of 46 to 40 that William Lorimer of Illinois was honestly and legally elected...
...Norris Brown, Nebraska Knute Nelson, Minnesota Theodore E. Burton, Ohio Carroll S. Page, Vermont Moses E. Clapp, Minnesota Miles Poindexter, Washington Albert B. Cummins, Iowa Elihu Root, New York Charles Curtis, Kansas Newell Sanders, Tennessee Shelby M. Cullom, Illinois William A. Smith, Michigan Coe I. Crawford, S. Dakota George Sutherland, Utah Joseph M. Dixon, Montana Charles E. Townsend, Michigan Albert B. Fall, New Mexico John D. Works, California democrats Henry F. Ashurst, Arizona Augustus O. Bacon, Georgia N. P. Bryan, Florida G. E. Chamberlain, Oregon James P. Clarke, Arkansas Obadiah Gardner, Maine Thomas P. Gore, Oklahoma G. M. Hitchcock, Nebraska C. F. Johnson, Maine John W. Kern, Indiana Luke Lea, Tennessee Thomas S. Martin, Virginia James E. Martine, New Jersey Henry L, Myers, Montana Francis G. Newlands, Nevada James A. O'Gorman, New York Lee S. Overman, N. Carolina Atlee Pomerene, Ohio Isidor Rayner, Maryland James A. Reed, Missouri B. F. Shively, Indiana F. M. Simmons, N. Carolina Marcus A. Smith, Arizona Hoke Smith, Georgia E. D. Smith, S. Carolina William J. Stone, Missouri Claude A. Swanson, Virginia C. W. Watson, W. Virginia John S. Williams, Mississippi Total 55 FOR LORIMER republicans William O. Bradley, Kentucky Wesley L. Jones, Washington F. B. Brandegee, Connecticut H. F. Lippitt, Rhode Island H. E. Burnham, New HampshireP...
...Commissioned by the Interests" SPEAKING in the United States Senate in support of his resolution to re-open the Lorimer case to re-investigate the charges and to vote again upon this stain upon the honor and integrity of the Senate, Senator La Follette last summer reminded the Senators that this case was bigger than Lorimer, was bigger than the state of Illinois...
...Burroughs of Michigan is out...
...Mr...
...Something besides the introduction of additional—and important—evidence in the case...
...Penrose of Pennsylvania had his dictation of state politics overwhelmingly repudiated by the voters when they were given an opportunity to vote against his sordid control...
...The evidence that convinced forty United States Senators a year ago that William Lorimer was elected corruptly was not a whit less conclusive and unanswerable than the evidence upon which fifty-five United States Senators (enough to oust Lorimer from his ill-gotten seat) voted that this election was tainted by "corrupt methods and practices...
...I do not mean to say that nothing like systematic organized corruption was known then...
...Now we are in the period when those combinations have been consolidated and combined to subjugate all the commercial, industrial, and financial institutions of the American people...
...how the System's Democratic "reserves"—all of them who dared—joined with the System Republicans in the last futile attempt to save the seat of a special interest Senator...
...Congress—that part of Congress known as "regular,"—suffered from The Blight of Lorimerism...
...It was likewise a chastened Senate...
...And then came a change, a change that I do not hold individuals accountable for, a change that I think was inevitable...
...which of itself is aflame with illumination of the low estate into which the once all powerful and arrogant System oligarchy has fallen...
...Then came the period when those corporations made combinations to destroy competition...
...against lorimer republicans Wm...
Vol. 4 • July 1912 • No. 30
