Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 168, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1912 — LORIMER UNSEATED BY VOTE IN SENATE. [ARTICLE]

LORIMER UNSEATED BY VOTE IN SENATE.

Junior Senator from lllnois Branded Boodler and Briber by Collegues by Vote of 46 to 28. Overturning the majority of its own committee, and reversing its vote of March 1, 1911, the senate Saturday ousted William Lorimer from liis seat as junior senator from Illinois by a vote of 55 to 28. A member of the senate since June 18, 1909, Mr. Lorimer Saturday was declared to have been the recipient of votes secured by “corrupt methods and practices” and his election was held to have been InTechnically, Mr. Lorimei will pass out of the records of the senate as a member of that body, notwithstanding his more than three years’ occupancy of his seat. Facing his associates with the declaration “I am ready,’’ Mr. Lorimer sat in the chamber and heard his fate decreed as the roll call showed the adoption of the resolution of Senator Luke Lea of Tennesee, the senate’s youngest member..: The man who for three days had held the senate to close attention with his remarkable speeeh of defense and attack upon his enemies, rose wearily from his seat and passed back to a cloakroom door. Senators and members of the house gathered about him, grasping his hand and patting him on the back.

Outside the senate door, as Mr. Lorimer stepped into the corridor, friends greeted him. At his office later, when a physician had attended him, he said he would not leave Washington before the first of next week. The outcome of the vote was not surprise; but the leaders of the fight against him had not estimated a greater vote-than 59 to 35. Lorimer gained only one of t the men who voted against him march 1, 1911, Senator Jones, of Washington, while he lost the votes of Senator Cullom, and of Senators Curtis, of Kansas, Briggs of New Jersey, Simeons, of North Carolina, and Watson of West Virginia. Lorimer’s fight for his own official life began in the senate chamber early Thursday afternoon. he concluded his eloquent declaration that .he was not a coward and “would not run in the face of certain defeat,” at 2 o’clock he had held the -floor for twelve hours, with intermissions and recesses to restore his strength. The moving character of Lorimer’s appeal was admitted on every hand, but it apparently swayed no votes. Instead of the pleading defense that had been expected, it was throughout a ringing defiance of those who had opposted him, a declaration of his unfailing belief ih the purity of his election in Illinois, and a promise that he would not give up his fight with his eviction from the senate. . “It has ijeen suggested that I resign,” he said in his closing declaration. “He who is so cowardly as to run because defeat stares him in the face has no right in this body. Though ~yau all vote to turn me out; though every vote has been canvassed and is against me, I will not resign. My exit from this body will not be from fear —lt will not be because lam a cow\m ard. It will be because of the crimp of the senate of the United States.” Whether hq shall re-enter politics and seek a vindication at the hands of the Illinois electorate, Mr. Lorimer has not decided. Some of his former collegues in the senate have suggested that he seek a return to the seat in the house of representatives, which he left when the Illinois legislature of 1909 sent him td the senate. But that, his friends soy, is at least two years away, as would he any effort to be returned to the senate. Mr. Lorimer would have to go before the people of Illinois in a primary and it is now too late to take part in this year’s contest