so he would probably incur the displeasure of the professional reformers who would tear down and destroy all things old and substitute therefor the impractical idealisms of so called progressiveism.

Such experiences as I have given enabled me to feel truly thankful when the end came that it was all over; even though I was defeated.

MAN

CHAPTER L.

CONCLUSION.

ANY people have an idea that Senators and Representatives in Congress have an easy time discharging the duties of their office. Perhaps some Senators and Representatives do have, but that is not true of those who are capable, and willing; for every such Senator or Representative there is more work to be done than any man should be required to do. If a Senator be content to simply vote on general propositions, or to express the general trend of sentiment with respect to a question under discussion, he may be able to pick up enough in the cloak room or from the newspapers to enable him to stand muster; but if he should desire to participate in the debates in a helpful way he must thoroughly master his subject before undertaking to address such a body, so that he may express himself not only intelligently but accurately, and be able to answer any kind of interruptions; and to do this he will find it necessary to labor, as I did during the whole of my service in the Senate, almost without cessation from morning until night, and usually far into the night.

The reward one has for such labor is not in the distinction that may come to him; certainly not in the salary he receives; but in so far as there is any real reward at all it is in the satisfaction that whatever distinction he may acquire has been honestly and deservedly won, and that the record he leaves behind him is one for which he will never have to make apology.

It is a great satisfaction to me as I now look back over those rather tempestuous debates to find that I never undertook to discuss any subject that I had not made myself sufficiently familiar with to enable me to present it intelligently to my colleagues, and to answer without embarrassment any question they might see fit to propound.

SENATORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

When to such labors as these is added a Senator's correspondence it becomes a wonder to the well informed how

there is left any time at all for the consideration and discussion of great national and international questions.

During my twelve years in the Senate I received on an average something like one hundred and fifty letters per day; probably fully fifty thousand letters annually, or six hundred thousand letters for the entire period. All these were read and answered, most of them by clerical help; but all of them were reported to me; and in every day's mail we found from twenty to thirty, or, perhaps, forty letters to which it was necessary I should myself dictate answers.

It is almost impossible to exaggerate the drudgery of this work, especially when, on account of absence or for some other reason, the mail might accumulate for a period of even a week. It seemed at such times well nigh impossible to ever again get caught up. I did all I could to minimize my correspondence but it seemed impossible to restrict it very much. There was always something pending on account of which my constituents, and many who were not constituents, saw fit to write me. It was not unusual to receive as many as three hundred letters in one day.

For a long time after I left the Senate my correspondence continued large and burdensome. At last it has been reduced to comfortable proportions, and in that fact I find cause for great thankfulness.

KIND EXPRESSIONS.

But I am more thankful still that notwithstanding the disagreeable circumstances attending my retirement I find my files literally burdened with cotemporaneous expressions of the esteem and good-will of men whose names were known all over the country.

As a sample I insert only one of hundreds, all equally cordial and complimentary. It is from Governor Black of New York, and reads as follows:

HON. JOSEPH B. FORAKER,

The Senate,

Washington, D. C.

NEW YORK, March 8, 1909.

My Dear Senator Foraker:-Tomorrow your services in the Senate come to an end for the time being. If you were to continue I should

say nothing about it. I had rather speak well of a good man going than of any other kind coming. That is why I intrude myself, a comparative stranger, to express both my approval of your career and my regret at its close. I regard your service as most able, brave and honorable. In my judgment it will rank among the most valuable which the country has received in very many years. I believe that view is entertained by thousands of your countrymen, most of whom will omit, for one reason or another, to express their opinion of you. Contrary to my habit which I have seldom varied, I am indicating my feeling to you in the hope that it may be at least an infinitesimal comfort.

I hope and believe that your public service is only interrupted but not over.

I am, with great respect,

Sincerely yours,

FRANK S. BLACK.

Governor Black truthfully said in his letter that he was personally a "comparative stranger." We had met a few times, but practically he knew me only by my public record.

I quote now from another who knew me personally as well as publicly and had an intimate knowledge of me in both relations. I refer to Senator Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois. No one knew me better than he. He was an old Senator when I entered that Body. For twelve years I served with him as his colleague in the Senate and as his fellow member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, of which, during most of that period, he was the Chairman.

I have known more brilliant and more scholarly men, but I have never known one better endowed with good, hard, sound, common sense; or one who was more absolutely honest in speech, deportment, and all the relations of life, both public and private, or one who was more thoroughly devoted and loyal to his duty as a public official.

He had a personal acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln, and was frequently likened to him because of his simplicity of life, speech, character and bearing. He was never robust or vigorous physically, but he was always at his post. His efficient and judicious and faithful manner commended him to his colleagues as a Senator who could be always relied upon as a just and wise counsellor. He won the esteem of his associates and always exercised great influence with them as to measures he had in charge.

His public career extended over fifty years. This half century embraced the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the Reconstruction period, the rehabilitation of our finances, the acquisition of our insular possessions and the establishment for them of civil government. With respect to all the great questions of his period he did his full measure of work, and did it always creditably, both to himself and to his country, but he will be longest honored and remembered as the author of the Interstate Commerce Law.

He is now gone to his reward having died January 29th, 1914.

One of the last things he did was to write some "Personal Recollections." They were published in 1912. I quote from them the following:

Of the many Senators with whom I have been associated in the Committee on Foreign Relations, and especially since I became its Chairman, there are two, both now retired to private life, in whom I had the greatest confidence and for whom I entertained great affection, as they both did for me-these Senators were the Honorable J. B. Foraker of Ohio, and the Honorable John C. Spooner of Wisconsin.

Senator Foraker preceded Senator Spooner as a member of this committee by some four years. I do not know how it first came about, but I became very intimate with Senator Foraker almost immediately after he entered the Senate, and at once grew to admire him exceedingly. He is a very brilliant man and has had a notable career. He enlisted in the Union Army as a private when sixteen years old, and retired at the close of the war a Captain. He then completed his education, and entered upon the practice of the law. He was elected Judge of the Superior Court at Cincinnati, and later became a candidate for Governor. The occupant of many civil positions of importance in his State, a prominent figure in National convention after National convention, nominating Senator Sherman for the Presidency in 1884 and 1888, and placing in nomination Mr. McKinley in 1896, Senator Foraker had established a record in public life, and had gathered a wealth of experience, sufficient to satisfy the ambitions of most men, before his great public career really commenced as a Member of the United States Senate in 1897. He also nominated McKinley in 1900.

Senator Foraker was one of the most independent men with whom I ever served in the Senate. He was a man of such ability and unquestioned courage that he did not hesitate to take any position which he himself deemed to be right, regardless of the view of others. It would inure to the advantage of the country if there was a more general disposition among public men to adhere to their own convictions, regardless of what current opinion might be. Senator Foraker always made up his mind on public questions and clung to his own opinion in the