Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1911 — LORIMER FIGHT NOW ON IN THE SENATE [ARTICLE]

LORIMER FIGHT NOW ON IN THE SENATE

Beveridge and Owen Seek to Oust Illinois Kan Charging that ten of the votes that elected William Lorimer to the senate were bought with bribes, Senator Robert L. Owen, of Oklahoma, introduced in the senate a resolution asking that the Chicagoan’s seat be declared vacant.

Immediately afterward Senator Albert J. Beveridge, of Indiana, presented a minority report of the committee on privileges and elections which made the same charges and contended that Senator Lorimer was holding his seat illegally. After Mr. Owen presented his resolution there was a clash as to whether he should be allowed to make a speech In support of it. Mr. Beveridge insisted that under the rules the resolution must lie over for one day and that the senate should hear his minority report, filed prior to the introduction of the Owen resolution. Vice President Sherman ruled with Mr. Owen, but the senate overruled him and Mr. Beveridge presented his report. Afterward Mr. Owen was permitted to speak to his resolution. In his address he named the ten Illinois .legislators whose votes in the election of Senator Lorimer, he said, were tainted, viz.:

D. W. Hoistlaw, John Broderick, H. J. C. Beckemeyer, Michael S. Link, Charles A. White, Lee O’Neil Browne, Robert E. Wilson, Charles S. Luke, Joseph B. Clark and Henry A. Shephard. Before the report was filed Senator Lorimer made a brief speech, declaring his innocence of bribery and the Innocence of his friends of any participation in corrupt practices in connection with his election He announced his intention to be present during the discussion of his case. Senator Lorimer said:

"I know I am not guilty and no person was guilty of corrupt practices in my election to the senate. My obligation to my state and to myself require that I should be present in this body and hear what it said. I hope no senator will be embarrassed by my presence here. At a future day I expect to have something to say myself on this subject.” . Mr, Lorimer prefaced these remarks by recalling that he himself had asked the investigation of his election conducted by the senate and said that there was now before the senate a majority report exonerating him and giving him his seat in the senate. The parliamentary tangle in the senate as to who should open the attack On Senator Lorimer was not settled until after an appeal had been taken from a ruling by Vice President Sherman and he had been reversed.

The Beveridge minority report reviews the testimony bearing on the alleged acceptance of bribes by four members of the Illinois legislature and the testimony of these men that the bribes had been paid by three other members. The document declares that “it is an undisputed fact of conclusive force, although the majority ignores it,” that the confessed bribetakers were shown to have had in their possession, in bills of large denominations, unusually large sums of money sOon after the dates when they swore to having received the alleged bribes

This statement is made in reply to the contention of the majority that the men who confessed to having received bribes were not to be believed. Senator Beveridge devotes attention to the claim of the majority that at least three of those who confessed to receiving bribes had been “compelled” or “driven” to make these confessions because of treatment received from officers of Cook and Sangamon conn ties, Illinois. Senator Beveridge discusses the statutes on the subject of election frauds and says they uphold his contention that Mr. Lorimer must have received 102 “untainted” votes in order, to be elected. As his total vote was 108, the seven votes,, w hich many agree were tainted, were sufficient. Senator Beveridge holds, to invalidate the election

“We can not Consider the personal fortunes or even the feelings of a candidate, he adds. “The candidate is not on trial. The election is on trial The candidate is nothing, except as the representative of the people ” Even if the corruption fund came from sources “higher up” Mr. Lorimer, in law, must be held, Senator Beveridge holds, to have knowledge of these transactions in his behalf. The report concludes with a resolution declaring Lorimer’s election Invalid. Senator Coe Crawford of South Dakota denounced the alleged methods employed by agents of Senator Lorimer in the legislature of Illinois, and declared it his conviction that Mr. Lorimer was not entitled, to retain his teat in the upper branch of congress. The senator carefully analyzed the evidence of the alleged bribery, which, he said, proved to his satisfaction that money .was used in the garnering of votes for Mr. Lorimer. Shurtleff and Browne were the active agents in the campaign of corruption, contended the senator, and he charged that Mr.,Lorimer knew of what was transpiring. Mr. Crawford by announcing that he stood ready to vote for a resolution to unseat Mr. Lorimer. f