The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-08-08
E1ecting Congressman.

vOcate comes forward with a new
plan of electing congressman. Prac-
tically, it is to let every man cast a
vote for congressman as now. But
let him cast it for any candidate in
any district or state he chooses, and
as congressman the elected would
vote the ballots cast for him on the
principle that ''good men" will al
ways be able to be reelected and
cast proxy votes. How about bad
men, too? Mr.. Seth Bottomley
writes of this scheme as follows:
EDITOR GREAT WEST:
There is nothing that shows the
alarming condition of Uncle Sans
political health, so clearly, as the
number of wildcat remedies that are
proposed as cure-alls. The father of
this scheme, Mr.. Charles Friedrich
Adams, does not seem to see that he
has swung clear around the circle,
and that if his plan was carried out
it would virtually be the establish
ment of government by a cabal of
the public favorites of the day, or,
for that matter, an election might re-
suit in Dictator, for there is moth
ing in the scheme that l can see, pre-
venting every voter voting for one
man, and consequently that man
would have the whole law making
power in his own hands. But it
would not need, even, that he should
have all the votes in order to control
legislation, for if the law compelled
the election of 800 members as sug-
gested in the scheme, if one of the
number received more votes than the
other 900, he would have the legis-
lation in his own hands. The whole
scheme is ridiculous on the face of it,
and would never have been thought
of, but for the tangle everything con-
nected with our government has got
into. 1t is not the method of elect
ing our law makers that is at fault.
but the kind of men we elect, and no
system that can be devised will ever
give us good and fair representa-
ton except the people have the sense
to elect honest and capable men to
represent us. Then again there
would be greater chance under this
system for a rich man to bride his
way into power then there is under
our present system, for now except
man can buy the majority of
voters, his money is thrown away,
but under Mr.. Adams scheme every
vote bought gives additional power.
Another objection to the measure
would be that although a Mills or
Butterworth, or other men with a
national reputation may be wiser or
honester than most public men, yet
it is impossible for them to know the
local needs of but small fraction OF
our extensive country. The old say
ing that two heads is better than one
applies in this case, what is wanted
IL uOU b lew SIo"O on' OuU d rep
resentation of good honest sensible
men from all over the country. When
we have intelligence to elect such
men all our political troubles will
disappear, and not before. Daniel
Webster has SAID, and Washington
said before him, that a government
could never be better than the gen.
eral moral and Intellectual character
of the people. Our system of gov
eminent is all right, or at least what
little changes that are needed could,
and would, soon be made if We had
honest and intelligent legislators.
There is no need OF us going wrong il
we would study the writing of the
men who formed our government.