The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1895-02-14
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY Il, 1895
1T SHOULD PASS.

Senator Mitchell's bill to amend the
constitution SO as to provide for the cleo
tion of United States senators by pop
ular vote, ought to pass. There is no
reason why the election of the senators
whould be delegated to the legislatures,
and there are many reasons why they
should not be. The present deadlock IN
Salem is case in point. Here at our
own capital we have the spectacle of a
party being placed in power by an over
whelming majority OF the votes of the
people, and in an overwhelming majority
as regards Legislative votes, frittering
away time thatis costing the people 5000
an hour, and that should be devoted to
law making, in an apparently hopeless
quarrel. That quarrel is based upon
dispute as to what the people want.
Each side claims to represent the people,
and there seems to be no way of settling
the matter. Had it been left to the
people themselves instead of being dele
gated to the peoples representatives, the
matter would have been settled the way
the people wanted it. Another reason
is that under the present system the
senate is composed largely of men of
great wealth or else men who represent
not the people but the great corpora
tions. This condition of affairs is be-
coming menace to our institutions and
a rock upon which the good ship OF state
will wreck if the rock is not removed.
There is question before this people
now that is forging to the front as the
vital one. More important than the
tariff; more important than the fnan-
cial question, and that is the establish
ing of the respective rights of labor and
it's creature-capital. We are not
cranky as concerns corporations. We
recognize their importance and their
necessity. We know that individual
wealth cannot carry out the great busi-
ness of the country, and that corpora
tions by which vast sums can be gath
cred and controlled are a feature of
modern civilization that cannot be dis
pensed with. They are necessities, the
creature of the laws and must not be
allowed to become the creators of them.
It is for our legislative bodies and for
congress principally, (because the larger
corporations are national in their rami-
fications) to say how far the right of the
corporations to levy tax upon the public
shall extend. It is for them to limit the
powers of these aggregations of capital,
and to hedge about and protect the rights
of the citizen and the laborer. It will
not do for this task to be placed in the
hands of corporation attorneys, or cor
poration officers. The representatives
of the whole people, and they alone,
should be allowed to undertake this diff
cult task.
This country has prospered under a
protective tariff system, and it has
moved along under free trade. 1t pros
pered when silver was at premium, it
will prosper with silver at a discount
when some settled financial and revenue
policy shall be established, but the con-
hict between capital and labor is ire
pressible and must be fought to a finish.
Neither can exist without the other and
each know this, but as long as greed ex-
lists (and than corporate greed nothing is
greater) the matter cannot be left to the
parties to settle, because the stronger
would per force settle it, and settle it
wrong. It Is for congress, congress
elected by all the people, to grapple with
the question and settlei it in the interests
of all, and therefore right.