Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/348

 that. For when the next Legislature voted full salaries and mileage to its predecessor, U'Ren and one other member, George Ogle, sent back their warrants. So he never did get any money for that time and, to exist, he had to borrow from Bourne. But the $80 was a loan, not a bribe; he has long since paid it back and, since he suggested the whole deal, the money did not affect his conduct. His committee exonerated U'Ren, but the transaction hurt him, and so did some letters of his which, published later, showed how he traded with the powers of evil; as he did — and as he went on doing—deliberately, in cold blood, as George Ogle knows.

George Ogle, farmer and Populist, is notoriously honest. He was U'Ren's best friend, and when in the fall of 1898 Ogle's mother died, he asked U'Ren to deliver the funeral address. The next day Ogle mounted his horse and rode back to town with U'Ren. It was a cold ride in the rain through slush, but they had a warm talk, those two. U'Ren had run for the Senate that summer against George C. Brownell, the Senator from Clackamas who, as chairman on the committee on railroads, had represented for years the corrupt system of Oregon in the Senate. He beat U Ren, who turned right around and made a deal with him. U'Ren promised to help elect Brownell