The charge in the _Press_ article that many Senators had speculated in sugar stock, was investigated. Men like Cushman K. Davis, George Gray, George F. Hoar, Roger Q. Mills, John M. Palmer, John Sherman, and John P. Morgan had to suffer along with Quay and Brice, Smith of New Jersey and Murphy of New York, the humiliation of an examination. Senators McPherson and Quay acknowledged that they had been dealing in sugar while the schedule was in the Senate. In no other cases was the fact established, but the suspicion remained in spite of denials that other Senators were equally guilty. This popular belief was more strongly entrenched around Senator Aldrich than any other member of the body. He had been the chief advocate of the refiners in the Senate for a number of years. He was a friend of John O. Searles, and the two had been much together while the schedule of 1894 was making. His fortunes apparently expanded rapidly about this time. The suspicion crystallized in a nickname for his country home which still clings to it,—“the sugar house,”—but there was never a vestige of proof, so far as the author knows, that sugar had anything to do with Senator Aldrich’s fortune. Of course, it would have been impossible for the sugar Senators to have received the favors they did if they had not acquiesced in similar gifts to other interests. They paid for their advantages by consenting to a duty on iron-ore, on silverore containing lead, and on coal, all of which should have been free under Democratic doctrine. They paid by consenting to scores of increased duties on manufactured articles, which in some cases raised rates to the McKinley level. A typical transaction was the duty on collars and cuffs. It had been cut by the House. Senator Murphy of New York wanted it raised to oblige certain constituents. He threatened to vote against the bill if he was denied. He, of course, got what he wanted.