National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-06-19
CONaREssI0NAL ELECTIONS

OCudLO1 1ho SO1uCCOCu udIuC
with one poposed reform in our govern
ment which Of itself alone will be sufficient
to give him as fair share Of fame as it or
dinarily comes within the power Of the
That providing for change in the manner
of electing the President and Vice Presi-
dent. There is another reform which is in
q measure germane to it, and which he
might very appropriately father, as the
phrase goes. We allude to the election Of
the House of Representatives. According
to the present system the members of the
House are elected more than year in ad-
vance of their meeting. II, as the founders
of the Government intended, the House Of
Representatives Is to be the direct and i'm
mediate representative Of the people and of
popular sentiment, it is manifest that the
present plan of electing men year in ad-
vance is at once clumsy, iil-digested, and
calculated to defeat the express object for
which it was devised. Fifty or sixty years
ago, before the telegraph, the railway and
the modern newspaper, 1t was q necessity
perhaps, but the altered condition Of affairs
demands an entire revision of the law so
that the representatives shall be brought
closer and nearer to their constituents
Pointing to the fact that we elect one half
Of Congress-the popular branch-and one
third of the Senate every two years, we
have accustomed ourselves to the belief that
we have the most distinctive representative
body in the world. sd
A cursory examination of the representa-
tive branches of countries where limited
monarchies exist, shows how utterly un-
founded are our claims in this respect. In
England, for instance, when q ministry is
defeated in Parliament or vote of want
of confidence in it is passed, the Premier
Immediately resigns, Psrliamentis dissolved
and the rival parties appeal to the country;
in other words, hold an election for mem
bers of Parliament. The successful party
is Immediately directed by the throne to
form ministry, and the new Parliament,
as general rule, assemblies, fresh from the
people, and Instructed upon the leading
questions of the hour Parliament may be
revolutionized and q ministry overthrow
at any moment. Sometimes the ministers
are right and the parliamentary majority
wrong, so far as public sentiment is con-
cerned, in which case the head of the Gov
eminent returns stronger than he was be-
fore, and with party to support and carry
through his measures. We do not mean to
advocate so radical change in our Gov
eminent as a new election whenever a
party is beaten in the House; but the prac-
tice Of electing our members year in ad-
vance is owing to the quicker methods of
modern days, unrepublican and non-repre-
sentative according to all our ideas of
democracy and representation.
Take for instance the Forty third Congress
When the present House of Representa-
tives was elected, the two great questions
which now occupy the attention of the
country were unheard of and unknown.
There was, to be sure, faint rumbling of
the transportation problem; but the panic
of last September had not occurred, and
the Representatives who met in December
had not been elected with any view what
ever to solution of the financial difficulties
into which we were plunged and in which
we have been floundering ever since. The
transportation committee, which was OPP
pointed last summer after Congress had ad-
journed and while the Senate was in Execu-
tive session, did not have single Repre-
sentative upon it, because it was impossible
to have appointed one. As consequence,
practically nothing has been done on that
subject, and the whole matter is, to all in
tents and purposes, remanded to the Forty
fourth Congress, which will not meet until
thirteen months after 1t shall have been
elected. The more the present practice is
considered the more absurd it becomes.
The long session of every Congress is near
ly always wasted in buncombe speeches, in
filling the Congressional Record with
arguments to send of to constituents in the
hope of influencing reelection. The
real, vital interests of the country are sacri-
feed for the same reason. Members are
governed by expediency.: The question is
not whether measure is just or proper,
but What will they say at home about 1T"
A case in point occurs TO US as it will occur
to every member Of the present Congress.
We allude to the Centennial BILL When
the, friends of that measure appealed to
members to vote for il, what was the an
swer? mo, we cannot do it now. Wait
until after the November elections; we
cannot vote away SO many millions out Of
the Treasury. Have patience; wait until
next December, and there will be no diff
Guilty in the way You win tner get all the
money you want" Gentlemen desiring a
reelection were careful of their votes; so
timid and cautious that they were afraid to
move hand or foot lest their reelection
might be endangered. The result il that
the long session of Congress is for the most
part barren one. Appropriations are cut
down whenever the party in power is in