Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1893-12-06
OEBAT TE BY STUDENTS
Shall Senators Be EIeC-
ted byPOpular Vote?
HARVARD FAVURS IT.
Yale Says, the Present Constitution
Should Not Be Changed.

NfNfohI, ~. i, Dec. h-l Inc JOINT NC
Safe between the Yale union Of Yale col
lege and the Wendell Phillips club Of Har-
ward university was held here last night
under the au. p oes II the Unity club. The
subject Of debate was:
Res, lved, Tat United States senators
should be eltctel by popular vote.
Harvard took the sffirmaiiv Her rep
resentatives as ori .inally chosen were AL.
bert ;. Apsey and G.. =. Parsons. the
later is i'll, and in his place I. II. Wait
appeared, who has represented Harvard in
previous debates. Yale's reIr sentaiives
were Lemuel A. Weles and William Il.
Thoms. This debate was the first ever
held by two large colleges under the aus
pices of a society not connected with either
college.
tor n Change.
Mr.. Wait took the lace of Mr.. PRS ons
who was unable To partioipa e because Of
Illness. He opened the d, bate, apollo
gizing for the short space OF time given
for prepar tion. The question, he said,
WAS one that should appeal to all who
take an intei est IN p puler gov, rnment.
When lhe co situt,on WIS framed the
makers thought they had II led all the re-
Quirements, but one defect tnat Z ey failed
to see was that by It's prJvis ons the pc pie
were no' allow, d TO elect senators directly.
Toe problem has BEEN satisfactorily solved
that the p pulsr IL c'ion Is the right way
t. choose seuators, who compose a body OF
ordinary morlals
The first fault of the present system In
that the senatr IS not made up OF men Of
ability. He cited Murphy, HI aid On y
as Instances to prove tbs assertion, call
ing tn, IN polIti a wire pullers and claim
ing that they were not elected by popular
vote. Another Objectionable class was
that Of moneyed men. wlo,e only excu, e
for election was their weNtl. Freaks, he
claimed, hal no right IN the ate 10 lea
the c'unselS Uf tue Gu Try. The M II
ment oned have shown hat they Ar. u.
able 10 guide the peoDle, aud the Senst of
today il the weakes this C u try ht-
ever seen. The only rene l. 10 le the
people nomi"afe their men IN an open
caucus aud then let tnem c,ms be- ore the
people for cnoice. He contenled tnst the
only claim Murphy had tn election Was
that he was a strong Tammany man.
The Negative.
Thoms II Yale rcpl ID first for the neg
alive. He said the s,f.st way WAS not To
be ready TO depart from old pri cip rs ~
I'll sure we are ri iIht in new ideas L G
8 nate does not ref II public op mon, nj
will not until public uplnion has been
thorou1 ly crystallized; however corrupt
IL Is claimed T., be, the senate is composed
of the most Intelligent Of men. He said
that the constitutions OF states cou d
be changed much easier than that Of the
Unit d sta es, and only few states cling
to the system. just think what h. sen
ate has been. It's walls have echoed TO
some of the grandest state-men. Were
these men subject to wire puling'
We should not allow this change until
we are sure something Is to be gained
Public sentiment runs high against the
senate, but II we take up such syst, m
who shall point out the stopping place In
closing, he said there was a time when
men Of greatest ability sought for ofiic-,
but for the last 20 or 80 wars there HIS
been a change, bringing about q decay Of
politics, and IL we tolerate tie adoption Of
such a system, Just so long will the s, nate
be filed with any but good men aud hon
orabe statesmen.
The Suggestion Not Now.
Mr.. Apsey OF Harvard congratulated his
predecessor upon the success Of his re-
marks. He declHred his rhetoric beauti.
ful, his oratory fine. but thought IL "A pit y
that he did uot have q sounder basis, and
was surprised at his lack OF facts He
called the electo, al College a machine TO
carry out the will Of the people, aud that
900 out of 1000 Legislators have acted as
machines. Legislat ures are composed of
merely human beings, containing but few
gods. The proposition TO change the sys-
TEN 10 not new. but, although introduced
into co gress, IL has never been passed.
Senators have been elected by state legis-
latures that would have stood no show IL
they had went before TIE people. Judge
Maynard would have been elected II leg
islature had the decision, but now he must
retire from public life.
He said that tue men recently elected
did not know now they were elected and
did not want to know. He took "a an IL
lustration he famous CAM pa gn OF Lincoln
and Douglass. lie maintained that the
senate Is, has always been aud always will
be the popular body, and It's members
should b. elected by the people Those in
Its body otherwise eieoi cd have Away
been corrupt. He claimed that the only
reason why the system has not been car
ried out is because 1t isl change, and a
change OF the constitution, winch some
ptoDlt NDluh ulflUP, u boIltIb
But the chang will come for the cause Of
good and pure government.
The Sinal Argument.
The closing remarks were made by Mr.
Wells OF Yale. He said that the senate
was to put check on the house. Public
opinion il often wrong. He said the ar
gument that ABSOLUTE Democracy 70 "A sue.
cess impl wide ID AS Have we arrived
theret No! Alexander Hamilton says
that ou COVE y meut IL more In danger Of
abuses Of liberty an sbus 8 OF power. As
the house Often represent, fick e sentiment,
% the Sc e does the wise pub ic views Of
the ne pie. lie called attention to the
poor gu, ernm nj Of the sta1es wno ca ~
on e, ciuus under the proposed popular
vote yste- throwing open all Offices to
tbe vo,- of the pe jple.
The ch ract,r of the senate T. he grand
est of "a, sucn body in the world. lie he
leved thsl tie Affirmative coDsidrr red
Murphy, Hill and Quay In the wrong
light, each having been elected by the
people tn Office IN their states. The
speaker chAll. ged any c"uutry to place
b. ter n,en In the halls Of leg station han
many now tberr In closiag, ue ssid IL
would b. exceedingly dangerous 10 do
viole ice to tue constitution which has
gwen u the best of government The
ids,l government shall always reject toe