National Affairs: Imperial Washington

With Scornful Eye and Harpy Tongue, Senator Pettigrew Views With Alarm*

Richard Franklin Pettigrew, of Sioux Falls, was elected to the United States Senate in 1889. He remained there until 1902 when Mark Hanna "raised a vast sum of money to corrupt the voters of South Dakota."

Now he has published his memoirs.* Expressed in simplest terms and in Mr. Pettigrew's own phrase, the volume aims to suggest that "politicians serve the business interests first and the public afterwards." (Mr. Pettigrew is ostensibly Socialist—though he started Republican and in 1896 became Populist-Democrat.)

For...