it, no matter how humiliating it might be, chiefly because we did not know how to get out of it without doing something At any rate go through with it we did.

worse.

COLUMBUS OUTING.

At Columbus they had a similar occasion except that it was for me at least only an afternoon performance and the candidates were not megaphoned to the platform as at Cleveland. It was Saturday and I was anxious to get away from there in time to get home for Sunday. I was consequently very happy to learn when I got through with my remarks that I had time enough to catch the late afternoon train for Cincinnati.

I excused myself and started toward an automobile that was in waiting to take me to the railway station. I was making haste rapidly but just as I was nearing the automobile I was rudely interrupted by two mock policemen, who, dressed up as police officials, with clubs in their hands, informed me that I was under arrest.

It was evident that it was a mock performance and that some kind of good natured indignity was intended. I explained that I was in haste to make the train and begged to be excused, but in an assumed rough manner and with rough tones I was told that "them kind of excuses would not go,” and was pushed into a patrol wagon, and with a gong ringing furiously was driven rapidly through the crowds to another part of the park, where I was pulled out of the wagon, and in true police court fashion hustled into the presence of a mock police judge, and there arraigned on a charge of having been guilty of an altercation with my opponents calculated to cause a breach of the peace. Thinking I would expedite matters I plead guilty. Thereupon the Judge fined me $2.50. I remarked that I would not only pay it willingly, but that to get away from there as soon as possible I would regard it as a great favor if they would be prompt in accepting my money. Thereupon the Judge announced that for using such language to the Court I was guilty of contempt and that he would raise my fine from $2.50 to $3.85. I paid this amount,

went back to the patrol, was rushed to my automobile, and reached the station just in time.

I do not mention these matters to complain of them, but only to illustrate how the great moral uplift that has submerged the whole country has reformed political methods. It is a pity that Salmon P. Chase, John Sherman, Allen G. Thurman, and George H. Pendleton should have missed all this; and what delightful reading an account of such an experience by the "Old Roman" would make!

If I had not been defeated I would tell a great many other things of like nature that came within my personal experience and under my personal observation in connection with that primary campaign.

If I were to tell all I know I fear it would be thought I am prejudiced against the primary system only because I was defeated.

The best defense I can make against that charge, if it should be made, is that in several speeches I made during that primary campaign I pointed out the undignified, ridiculous and irresponsible character of such performances. That is probably one reason I was defeated, but even if so I shall never regret it. The satisfaction of denouncing them was worth all it cost, no matter how much that may have been.

Such a way of nominating Governors, and Senators and Presidents and other important officials to carry on the public affairs of this great Nation and these great States and great municipalities is little short of a crime; and that crime is intensified by the fact that in such primaries not more than twentyfive per cent. of the electors participate; seldom that many, and most of those who do participate are from classes the least fit to determine such questions.

Without dwelling upon the matter further, I dismiss it with a sense of satisfaction that my public career was practically ended before such methods were known.

Anyone, except a blatant demagogue, equally familiar with the two systems, the old and the new, the Convention and the Primary, would unhesitatingly prefer the Convention even with the old time bosses on the front seats; although for doing

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.

MA

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 3, 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