The Colorado Statesman

BUSINESS MEN AS SENATORS
Senator Guggenheim of Colorado.
The National Magazine for April:
From the viewpoint of the practical
West, and sometimes even of the less
practical East, the legislator who best
serves his constituents in the great
legislative forum at Washington, is the
one who obtains for these constituents
the most appropriations, gets them
the largest number of government
jobs, looks the closest after their business
matters in the various departments, and who makes himself in
truth, as well as in theory, the servant
of those who sent him to represent
them at the national capital.
This is particularly true in its application
to legislators from the West,
and is mainly due to the fact that the
West needs much assistance from the
national government. The West is in
a state of transition, and to grow and
develop must have national aid for the
development of its industries aid no
longer needed by the older settled
parts of the country, the East and
Middle West.
The West must have appropriations
to reclaim its barren wastes: its cities
and towns must have federal buildings:
there is a constant demand for
changes in legislation affecting the disposition
of western public lands: new
laws are required to adjust the disposal
of Indian lands. and countless
questions are constantly arising in
congress and the departments in regard
to Western conditions, long since
settled for other sections.
The legislator, senator or representative.
who accomplishes these things
is the one whom his constituency usually
re-elects. He may be of that class
of eloquent statesmen who get into the
Record and the public prints but. unless.
in addition to his oratory. he can
obtain appropriations for public buildings.
secure funds for irrigation enterprises.
military posts. and resurveys of
public lands. his oratory will count
for little when election
day comes
around. And to accomplish these
things it is essential that he be constantly
on the job. He must typify
industry and persistence. for without
either or both he will fail.
Among the senators in congress
who have notable reputations as hard
workers is the senior senator from
Colorado. Simon Guggenheim. One of
his constituents recently wrote of him:
"He is the hardest worker and the most
successful senator the state has had
for some time." and Senator Guggenheim
lives up to this reputation.
Colorado has an area which is greater
than the combined areas of the
states of New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. Of course, a people of
a state when the national administration
is Republican, naturally look to
their Republican representatives in
Congress to assist them, and, as Senator
Guggenheim is the sole member of
the Republican party in Congress from
Colorado, practically all of the needs
and demands of that state fall to his
lot. Thus in area he has the work
to look after for Colorado that the six
Republican
senators
and
sixty
Republican
representatives
have
for
the
three
states
of
New York. New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
If federal patronage were of any
benefit to a senator. the Colorado senator
would be in great luck, for he is
the sole dispenser of such patronage
for his state. including federal court
officials. land office and treasury officials,
and upwards of 1,000 postmasters.
Senator Guggenheim is an unceasing
worker. He is at his committee room
in the capitol early in the morning,
getting his correspondence with constituents
answered so that he can
later be in attendance upon the proceedings
in the Senate chamber, and
he attends personally to the many hundreds
of requests of constituents requiring
attention in the various departments.
In choosing committee places, Senator
Guggenheim picked out the ones
likely to enable him to be of assistance
to his own state and the West.
He has assignments on agriculture and
forestry, conservation of national resources,
mines and mining, postoffices
and post roads, census, Pacific railroads,
and Philippines, and is chairman
on the committee on the University
of the United States.
Senator Guggenheim comes of a family
which has made industry and honesty
its watchwords. He was born in
Philadelphia in 1867. and has been a citizen
of Colorado for over twenty years,
going there in 1888 to engage in the
smelting and refining business.
Of the seven sons of Meyer Guggenheim.
the founder of the family. Senator
Guggenheim is the only one who has
shown any preference for public life.
In 1894 he was nominated for lieutenant
governor of Colorado. but withdrew
from the ticket because he was
under the age of thirty required by the
state constitution as the minimum age
for the occupant of that office. Two
years later he was nominated for the
position of governor, but declined the
nomination. In 1907, after Colorado
had been in Democratic senatorial
hands for six years, he was elected
without opposition to the Senate to
succeed Thomas M. Patterson.
Mr. Guggenheim's career in the Senate
has been marked by characteristic
unobtrusiveness and by faithful attention
to the very many duties devolving
upon a member of that body. In the
comparatively short time he has been
in the Senate, he has obtained the
close personal friendship of most of
its members and enjoys the confidence
and esteem of the Senate leaders,
Republican and Democratic.