The political power of the House, however, cannot be calculated
without admitting to the equation the Senate, the third official
unit, and, indeed, the most powerful factor in the national
hierarchy. The Senate shares equally with the House the
responsibility of lawmaking, and shares with the President the
responsibility of appointments and of treaty-making. It has been
the scene of many memorable contests with the President for
political control. The senators are elder statesmen, who have
passed through the refining fires of experience, either in law,
business, or politics. A senator is elected for six years; so
that he has a period of rest between elections, in which he may
forget his constituents in the ardor of his duties.

Within the last few decades a great change has come over the
Senate, over its membership, its attitude towards public
questions, and its relation to the electorate. This has been
brought about through disclosures tending to show the relations
on the part of some senators towards "big business." As early as
the Granger revelations of railway machinations in politics, in
the seventies, a popular distrust of the Senate became
pronounced. No suggestion of corruption was implied, but certain
senators were known as "railway senators," and were believed to
use their partizan influence in their friends' behalf. This
feeling increased from year to year, until what was long
suspected came suddenly to light, through an entirely unexpected
agency. William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper owner who had in
vain attempted to secure a nomination for President by the
Democrats and to get himself elected Governor of New York, had
organized and financed a party of his own, the Independence