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Show I WHEN SENATOR SMOOT I WAS EMBARRASSED. nature, and the result so clore. that It Is not within reanon to expect that Senator Foraker can feel very kindly toward Smoot. and now It's up to the latter to make his peace. Senator Smoot had another moment of discomfiture during the Statehood fight-several fight-several such moments. In fact for he had to listen to Senator Burrows argue against Statehood for either New Mexico or Arizona on the grounds that he had evidence evi-dence In his possession, received evidently evident-ly In the Smoot investigation, that showed that polygamous practices prevail to an astonlxhing extent in the two Territories, and that the problem of correcting the evil was so grave that the Territories should not be permitted to pass from the direct control of the Federal Government. Then, later, Senator Dubois, one of the Democ ratio members of the investigation committee, had something to say in regard re-gard to polygamy and Mormonfsm that could carry nothing but foreboding to Senator Smoot. All In all. It was a bad day for Smoot. and the worst of It In that he will not know for some time Just how serious a mistake he made when he enrolled himself In the ranks led to defeat by Senator Beverldge. If ever a man stood between the devil and the deep, deep sea, a proverbially unenviable and trying position, that man was Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, when he was called upon to vote on the Statehood bill this week, says a Washington letter in the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune. The fact that Smoot Is fighting for his seat In the Senate has led many people Into the error of concluding that he is en-Joying en-Joying the privileges and responsibilities of a. member of that body pending the decision of the committee sitting In trial on his rights, but In fact he discharges the duties of a Senator Just as If he possessed pos-sessed a title In fee simple to his seat. Tuesday last he would have given much to be relieved of his Senatorial prerogatives. preroga-tives. He would have liked to "duck" when the Statehood bill camo up, and have avoided placing himself on record one way or the other. But he didn't dare do It. He had to stay and face the music and take the chance of mortally offending some of the leading members of his tribunal. tri-bunal. As his luck would have It the leading members of the special committee that is i trying his case were divided on the State-! State-! hood question. Oh the one side was Senator Sen-ator Foraker, leader of the opposition to Joint Statehood for New Mexico and Arl-sona; Arl-sona; on the other Senator Beverldge, who had charge of the bill aa It came from the Committee on Territories, and 8enator Burrows. The latter te the chairman chair-man of the Smoot Investigating committee. commit-tee. With Senator Foraker, too, were all the Democratic members jof the Investigating Investi-gating committee. The Statehood fight was one where a single vote might and actually did determine de-termine the result. Naturally Smoot's vote was In demand by both sides. Naturally, too, Smoot wanted to stand In with and please both sides. As a matter of fact, he tried to do this. Both sides believed they would have his vote and counted on It when they counted noses lust before the climax of the fight. But the Mormon Senator could not carry water on both shoulders clear through the fight. When the roll was first called on the Bard amendment giving single Statehood to New Mexico, he had to ally himself with one side or the other. He had reached the parting of the ways, and he cast his lot with the Beverldge forces, which included Senator Burrows' the chairman of his committee and the man who will have much to do with his case. Doubtless he believed he waa aligning himself with the winners, but subsequent developments proved his mistake. He would better have flipped a copper In the air' and left his decision to heads and tails he might have been lucky, even If hla Judgment was poor. Senator Foraker and his forces triumphed tri-umphed In the Statehood contest, and they did so without Smoot's vote, which they had been led to believe they would &ave. The fight waa oX euan aa Intense |