The Political Auction of Senator Foster's Seat
Railroad lobbyists are allegedly moving to replace Senator Foster with a hand-picked stevedore, sparking a fierce debate over corporate influence in Washington politics.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Senator Foster, after four years of faithful service to the railroad lobby, finds himself discarded and deserted by his supposed friends, who are now shouting for Ed Hamilton, a Tacoma stevedore, as Foster's successor. Hamilton has no qualifications for the United States Senate except his servility to the railroad corporations, but men of real ability are not wanted to do the bidding of the trusts that now control the upper house of congress. Emissaries of the railroads are already traveling over the state getting pledges of support for Hamilton from hold-over senators and laying wires for the nomination of members of the legislature who will agree to vote for Hamilton as the successor of Foster and to kill any railroad commission measure that may be introduced.
“Hamilton has no qualifications for the United States senate except his servility to the railroad corporations, but men of real ability are not wanted.”
This 1903 account of railroad lobbyists hand-picking a candidate for the U.S. Senate highlights a recurring American anxiety: the 'capture' of public institutions by private, moneyed interests. The political fight to regulate rail rates in Washington was the Gilded Age equivalent of today's struggles over utility monopolies and campaign finance reform.
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