The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-09-18

unequal size or dividing it by lines
drawn to give party advantage.
The bill to modernize the choice of
Senators by transferring it from the
State Legislatures to the people Of each
State has twice passed the lower house
OF Congress by the required two thirds
vote and been sent up to the Senate
Thirteen States of the Union have de-
clared for it: Oregon, California, Idaho,
Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas, Ken
lucky, New York, Louisiana, South
Carolina, West Virginia and Illinois;
and there may be others In many of
these the reform is already practically
In force by the nominee for Senator
being named by the party convention.
Each member of the Legislature votes
for his party's nominee for Senator,
upon the same principle that electors
for President have always voted for
the nominee of their party, although
under no legal obligation to do so. To
the credit of American manhood there
has never in the history of the Repub,
lie been an instance of Presidential
elector evading this purely moral obi
cation resting upon him.
Another objection to the Senate as
now elected is thai while one-third of
the body is renewed every two years,
this affects only two thirds of the
States. In each of the States there is
always four years in which a change
or an advance in public sentiment has
no chance to make itself felt. Tkis
should be remedied by reducing the
Senatorial term to four years, so that
one Senator in each State shall be
elected every two years. There can be
no reason why a Senator should be
elected for six years and the President
for four. The six years term was an
experiment. 1t has proven too long.
1t is too long to trust the average man
where temptation to err is so great.
He thinks that in elk years his offence
will be forgotten. He knows many
other events will happen in that time.
He knows that his reelection depends
not upon the people but upon members
of Legislature, and that the power,
full interests in whose favor his sins
were committed will aid him to man
ipulate and secure the election of suf
ficient number of the body which is tc
sit in judgment upon his conduct by
rejection. There are States in which
this cannot be done. But who will say
that there are not States in which it is
habitually done9 In the United States
Senate there are some of the wisest
best and purest men of the Republic
But in it, too, are many to whom those
epithets would appear singularly inap
plicable. If a Senator deserves public
confidence, he can receive endorsement
by reelection at the end of four years
If he is untrue to his trust, four years
is long enough to abide him. 1t is Ger
tain that a Senate election by popular
vote for terms of four years, anG
stripped of the illegal exercise of pat
ronage which the Constitution never
intended to confer upon it, would be 6
very different body from the one which
is now as unsatisfactory to this nation
as the House of Lords is to the people
of Great Britain.
The bill for an amandment to the
Constitution providing for the election
Of Senators by the people, having passed
the lower House of the last Congress
without division, was allowed to sleeI
the sleep of death in the committee o
the Senate. A similar bill has passed
the House of representatives of to-
present Congress, but will doubtless
suffer the same fate as the former bill
when it reaches the Senate. The scan
dals attending the election Of so mapy
Senators, and the habi5ual disregard
of popular wishes and popular interest
by the majority Of the Senators, ever
by those honestly elected, have beer
! such that the choice Of the y. S. Sen
ators by the people is, no doubt, tn
wish of the majority of the people il
each and every one of our forty fiv
States. But the passage of sucha bill b!
the Senate will be impossible till eacl
Senator before his election is pledges
to give the people this much needed re
form. Anybody who needs reforming
is for that very reason opposed to III
reform It's consent, when necessary
can only be had by pressure from with
out.
Contested Senatorial elections vii
bemuch less frequent on popular vot
than when the election is by the legisla
ture. And when there is a contest Uh