a prominent personage in the same concern. Their lieutenants were also members of the company in one capacity or another. Large sums of money were alleged to have been circulated. There was a rumour that Oliver Payne said the election cost him $100,000. It was claimed that it could be proved that a check for $65,000 had been cashed in Cleveland by one of the men most prominent in the Payne boom, and that the whole sum had been spent in Columbus.
A perfect uproar of indignation followed the announcement of Mr. Payne's choice. All over the state the Standard Oil Company was charged with the election. The Democratic press was particularly bitter:
Said the Butler County Democrat: "It was simply a question whether Pendleton, Ward, Thurman, Converse, Follett, Geddes, or any other capable and honest Democrat, should receive the compliments of a seat in the Senate, or that the Standard Oil Company should buy the place for Henry B. Payne. It was an honest and divided Democracy against a hydra-headed dictatorship of rich men on whose banner was inscribed 'Money Talks.'"
The Carroll County Chronicle in commenting on the election said: "It is a great mistake to suppose Standard Oil has captured the Democratic party of Ohio. It may have captured a score or two of men elected to the Legislature, but they are not the Democracy of Ohio by a long shot. When the British got General Benedict Arnold they imagined they had captured the United States army, but it was a mistake."
"The monopoly of the Standard Oil Company must be destroyed," declared the Columbus Times. "Its intrusion into political circles must be prevented. There must be no later acceptance of this outrage. Political purity and perpetuity permit no complacency. These pernicious foreign elements must be eradicated, and until they are no Democrat will enter the capitol of Ohio or of the nation. The rottenness that uncovered itself last night has not its confines in Ohio."
The comments were not confined to papers of the state. The New York Sun, under the head "Was Payne's Election Bought?" said:
"The subjoined communication from a source which we always respect is worthy of more attention than is usually bestowed upon the animated expressions of those whose preferences have not been realised:
"'It is now believed, and I believe, that the Standard Oil Company recently bought[ 114 ]
