Tombstone weekly epitaph., 1882-12-09
NEW METHOD OK SELE{TISts
 PRESIDENTS.

It has long been evident to tEe most casual observer of our pol;ucal system that the present Tethod of electing our presidents is open to grave objections. More than that, it is actually fraught with danger, as the threatened perils attending the settlement of the Tiiden-Hayes mud dle proved. To recognize an evil is one thing, but to suggest fair, hon. eat and just remedyis another; and this is case that calls for the serious contemplation and study of our ablest statesmen and profound jurists. Among the many methods projected the latest, by Frank Pixley, in the Argonaut, is not without It's good qualities. It is as follows:
 Our suggestion is this; So amend the constitution of the United States that the only government officials elected by the people shall be members of Congress. Let | the senate of the United States-elected as | now--togethcr with the members of the house of representatives, meet each two years in joint convention and elect an executive officer, without the power of
 veto and without the power of appointing a cabinet. He shall nominate the lead | ing officials as now, to be confirmed | by the houses in joint convention. l There shall not be huhdred thousand officials, throughout the nation, crawling on their bellies in abject terror of this ex- ecutive shape. Subordinate officials shall
 hold office for life or good behavior The chairman of the committee on foreign af-
 fairs, in: the senate shall be secretary of state, because to his body is entrusted the treaty making power. The chairman of the finance committee, in the house of representatives, shall be secretary of the
 treasury, because in its body originates all
 financial bills, and from it comes the
 money-spending and taxing power of the
 government. Secretaries of war, navy and
 interior should be chosen from the con.
 gross with reference 10 their fitness and
 qualifications. The attorney-general
 should be chosen for his learning in the
 law. Vacancies on the supreme bench
 should be filled by executive appointment,
 and when the individual has been once
 president, he should be forever barred from
 the executive office. This is simple. It is
 the way we elect the president of busi-
 ness corporation. The stockholders elect,
 from their body, directors or trustees. The
 trustees choose, from their number pres
 ident. Then, putting their heads together,
 they appoint committees, and assign to
 them the detail of work, to be supervised
 by the directors sitting as committee of
 the whole. The people are the stockholders.
 The members of congress are the chosen
 directors, and they elect one of themselves
 as president,
 It strikes us that the main ob-
 jection to this method is that it does not do away with one of the greatest
 evils attending the selection ot a
 president. The same jobbery, trick cry and fraud, the same undue ex-
 citement disarranging our business interests and retarding the advance ment of leading industries and manufactures, the same black pool of politics would be stirred up Tn the election of legislatures aud congress-
 men that the country now endures at our quarennial elections. Fer the legislatures would elect the senators and the people would elect the con gressmen, who together would select ; I president. And would it be more z economical? Would the machinery
 attending such a selection be as cum
 bersome and expensive as the present method? It is not so mnch a mat ter of dollars and cents with the peo pie, as it is simplicity, absence O. fraud and the occupation of the exec utive chair by man who is the choice of the people. As before stated, this is grave question, ant / it may be bye and bye we, as a na , tion, may become republican il practice as we are in theory, anC elect our senators and presidents al we do other officers by the direct vote of the people.