Show I 0 I Guarding the Senates Senate's Doors I IBy Io o By ARTHUR CAPPER Senator From Kansas Is a man qualified to be a a. member of the senate who ns as a candidate and at atthe the same time chairman of a utilities commission accepted contributions of nearly to his campaign fund from utility corporations upon whose rates he had passed and was J passing assing judgment I 1 believe he is hot and I voted to deny Colonel rank prank L L. L Smith admission until the committee on privileges and elections has passed on these charges A special senate after atter giving Mr Smith every opportunity to state his case reported the facts to the senate and the senate was not informed as to Mr 11 Smiths Smith's campaign contributions their source and the shameful implication involved Believing as I do that the revelations as to the methods employed in Mr Smiths Smith's primary campaign show him unfit to be a senator and realizing as I do that his designation b by tho governor of Illinois was the tho directS direct result of the general election which followed followed fol- fol lowed the shameful primary election results I believe that Air 11 Smith in the thc senate would be a menace to good government I 1 voted against Mr 11 Newberry being seated on tIle the same fundamental grounds and the conscience pf the country is back of that action If the the senate would be right right in expelling him because of these primary election revelations it can have done no wrong to him or to the state of Illinois or to the he people of the United States In refusing to admit him To admit him would indicate to many that the senate condones such practices And it was easier casler to keep him out now than it would be to put him o out t later It does not establish a new precedent to bar him until after his credentials and qualifications have been examined jy by the committee on privileges s and elections The rhe debate brought out numerous instances In- In stances stanc's chere this has been done including the case of 01 Senator ye two years ago The sovereign state of North Dakota was just as much denied representation representation while the committee was investigating his case a as is the sovereign state of oC Illinois while the case of Mr 11 Smith is being inquired into Admitting that the present question is one of proCedure and that this procedure had been followed before in the Nye and some sixteen other cases it follows that we have followed precedent in letting Mr Smith wait outside while the senate exercises its constitutional right to pass on his credentials and The senate did not vote to deny the sovereign state of Illinois representation in that body It demanded demanded de- de as it has demanded in the past that the representative from that state be fit and qualified to sit in the senate of the United States If the senate does not guard is own doors and protect its own integrity there is no power outside the senate to guard those doors and protect that integrity The debate only added to my previous conviction that we have that power It only added to my my previous conviction that it is our solemn duty to exercise that power fairly deliberately r with justice justice jus- jus tice to all concerned and that includes the people of these United States More than a large part of which was contributed by the big corporations was spent in the primary I am opposed to the slush fund method of getting into the senate I voted to exercise exercise the power reposed in the senate to advertise to all allmen allmen men and all states that the man who seeks admission to the senate must come to the entrance with clean hands If this fact is brought home to the conscience of oC the entire country It will be a long step forward forward in keeping our senatorial elections to a greater extent extent ex- ex tent pure It will vill make it that much more difficult for wealth eaith to attempt to purchase seats of honor and power and responsibility in the senate of the United States Copyright 1927 Cosmos Newspaper Syndicate Inc |