Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/343

 for their votes for his speakership. This settled the House; they looked to the Senate. The President, Joe Simon, was the man who beat the constitutional convention with a wink. No matter. U'Ren wasn't punishing men. He called on Simon. He knew Simon wanted to go to the United States Senate. Simon didn't say so. No. Simon's conversation suggested that President Corbett of the First National Bank would make a good Senator, but the politicians understood that Corbett was "only Simon's rich sucker." And so it turned out, for when, later, Simon did control a legislature for Corbett, Simon, not Corbett, was elected to the United States Senate. But U'Ren wasn't interested in senatorships. He believed that Simon would go into a strong combine to beat Mitchell. And he was right. Since the terms—U'Ren's "fool" legislation and Bourne's speakership—were satisfactory, Simon delivered the Senate.

Does it begin to appear now how U'Ren got his good laws in the bad state of Oregon? Do you begin to understand why it was that "leading citizens" and "corrupt politicians," the very men who are against reform elsewhere, "passed all these reform measures ascribed to U'Ren?" Most of these men didn't know what they were doing, and they didn't care. They wanted something