ormerly the spectacle of a Senator
rising to make a speech before the close of his second year in the
Senate was regarded as unusual, it recently has come to be remarked
upon if a new man remains in his seat for two months before
undertaking to enlighten the Senate as to its duties towards itself
and the world.

I am not undertaking here to pronounce against these innovations,
but merely to record facts. I have shown my advocacy of proper
railroad legislation and of other progressive legislation which
commended itself to my judgment. However, I am classed as a Regular
and desire to be. My votes have been with the party organization.
I have made it a rule throughout my political career to stand for
the general principles of the party as enunciated by its authorized
bodies; but while that is my course, I do not pretend to say that
that organization always represents all that is good and best for
the country or that in many cases the Progressives and Insurgents
may not be nearer right than the Regulars. In the main, however,
I have found that the best results are obtained through following
the course indicated by the united wisdom of the party. My plan
has been to exert my influence in the direction of careful and
conservative progression within established party lines, and in
such a course do I believe that the Republican party can best insure
its perpetuity.

Senator Spooner's resignation from the Senate was followed by the
refusal of Senators Hale and Aldrich to stand for re-election in
1911. The retirement of those three distinguished leaders constitutes
the best index of the tendency of the times. Men of experience,
dignity, and conservatism, they voluntarily gave way before the
press of public exigency. True, they consulted their own inclinations,
but I always have thought that if the old conditions had continued
in the Senate they would have elected to remain there. Their seats
are filled by good and true men, but by men of very different
characteristics, unless an exception may be made in Senator Aldrich's
case, whose successor, Henry F. Lippitt, appears to be a man much
like his predecessor. Whether the change will be beneficial or
otherwise remains to be seen, but my optimism is so great I do not
believe that anything but good can come permanently to this great
country of ours. I confess to a liking for the old methods.

This general change of public sentiment has brought into the Senate
not only