Maine Senator Gould’s Counsel Asks Senate Panel to Drop Bribery Inquiry

Counsel for Senator Arthur Gould, a Maine Republican, told a Senate elections subcommittee on Tuesday that the Senate has no authority to investigate a charge that he paid a Canadian official in connection with a railroad contract 14 years ago, according to the Herald’s wire dispatch.

Frederick W. Hinckley, who argued for Gould, argued that the Constitution already covers the field of qualifications by requiring a senator to be 30 years old, nine years a citizen and an inhabitant of his state. The Evening Star said the Senate cannot expel a member for an act committed before he joined it, as Gould’s side contends, and that the allegation had been widely discussed during the campaign that elected him.

Senator King, a Utah Democrat on the committee, objected to dropping the matter, saying the Senate had already ordered an investigation and the subcommittee should finish and report. The Herald noted the issue could bear on coming contests over the seating of Senators-elect Smith of Illinois and Vare of Pennsylvania, who face charges of excessive campaign spending.