Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/347



Governor (now U. S. Senator) Chamberlain of Oregon made an affidavit for Francis J. Heney to send to President Roosevelt, deposing and swearing that when Smith was under consideration for appointment to the penitentiary, Fulton protested on the ground, not that Smith had taken Mitchell's money, but that, having taken it, he had not stayed bought! Charles W. Fulton is fundamentally corrupt.

"No," says U'Ren. "That was in war time, and we mustn't judge men in the heat of battle by the standards of cold blood." But U'Ren is excusing the bribery of 1897; the Senator's protest to Governor Chamberlain was in 1903 — in cold blood. But never mind Fulton. How about U'Ren? That deadlock, which he helped to manage, lasted to the end. Nothing was accomplished; no Senator was elected, no legislation passed, and everybody concerned was under suspicion. U'Ren himself had charges to answer. He was accused of taking money from Bourne, and calling together the Pop committee, he admitted that he had borrowed $80. He had to, he pleaded. He had opened a law office in Oregon City, but a "country lawyer" in politics earns very little, and since there was no appropriation bill, he got no pay as an assemblyman. He earned none, he admitted, and he abided by