Wherever the corrupting influence of money has been permitted to enter politics, it has become more successful than just and salutary announcements, and has been used aggregatingly by the wealthy in amounts sufficient to secure their own interests, regardless of party lines or the welfare of the public. This may appear severe in statement, but it is nevertheless true to the experience of one who has seen nearly four score years of our republican form of government. The writer would gladly soften the roughness with charity, had he ever witnessed a compensating virtue or redeeming excuse for permitting the money power to run the government, make the laws and rule the people. So great is the apparent fear, too, by the money power that the government may pass into the hands of the common people, and those less than multi-millionaires may aspire to political preferment, that organized leagues are spread over the entire Northern states, like political fly-traps, with plenty of the “_sticky stuff_,” in order to hold the ignorant and indifferent to the support of the rich and their party alliances. The organization of wealth for increasing its influence on legislation, or other purposes, under the title of “The National Business Men’s League,” is not looked upon in any very commendable light by the average American, and has been pronounced “unsavory” by many honest men. “The promoters of this league,” says Senator Quay, “invokes a class against the masses and all other classes. No league of business men, based upon wealth, can erect a government class in this country. In the United States Senate we have _millionaires_ and business men _enough_ to serve all legitimate purposes. Senators are needed who have no specialties, _but who will act for the interests of the country in gross_, without special affinities. “The people most deserving of _a representation_, and most in need of _legislative protection_, are the _farmers_, the small _store-keepers_, the _artisans_, and the _day-laborers_, and I stand by _them_, and against this ‘league.’ I go into the barricades with the _bourgeoisie_ and the men in blouses. “There must be less business and more _people_ in our politics, else the republican party and the _country_ will go to wreck. The _business_ issues are making our politics sordid and _corrupt_. _The tremendous sums of money furnished by business men, reluctantly_ in most instances, are _polluting the well-springs of our national being_.”