St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-23
MEND 1T OR END 1T.

The senate of the United States
simply ignores the bill sent to 1t by
the house of representatives, pro-
viding for the submission Of a con-
stitutional amendment making the
senators elective by the people at
general elections instead Of by legIs-
Iative bodies. State conventions
have demanded it, state legislatures
have asked it; the house OF repre-
sentatives, coming directly from the
peOple. have passed it by a very
large majority, and still the senate
ignores it as coolly as if it were
piece of sheer impertinence. The
experience of the country With this
congress has brought to a cuimlna-
ton that growing distrust OF tho
senate which has been gathering to
a head for years.
The recent action of that body
but accelerates the growth of this
feeling by giving it greater cause.
The determination of the people to
either mend the senate or end it,
will not be modified by this attitude
Of the senate. 1t long since lost its
power to command respect. From
being the conservative body, inter-
posing it's check upon the rash i'm
petuosity of the representatives of
the ignorant rabble, it has become
the hotbed of jobbery and of
vicious legislation. The great cor
porate interests of the country long
+Ioo ctr tac cio Inc IF
the senate, and have assiduouSly
worked to secure its control. Their
representatives and attorneys, NOM
inally representatives of the state,
now dominate that body. Their first
consideration is not what is the in
terest of the people, but what are
the interests of the corporations that
they represent.
The great West is feeling, in the re-
duced price of its meat products, the
effect of the domination of the sugar
trust which demanded and secured
a discriminating duty against sugar
exporting countries. Senator AID
rich, tied to the sugar trust by
financial obligations, says that the
bill which passed the house and was
reported favorahly from the senate
committee, abolishipg this differen-
tial tax, shall not be passed at this
session, and his Republican col
leagues stand behind him. The pack
ing interests, hurt by this decrease
of markets, sent their representa-
dives to aid in the repeal, and are
told by the senatorial attorneys of
the sugar trust that if the sugar tax
is passed, they will pass the railway
pooling bill, which will take from the
packers the profits they have en-
joyed in the discrimination of rail-
way rates in their favor.
Wellman,in his letter to the Chicago
Herald, quotes a prominent, but I'M
named, representative, who says
that he has had a varied experience
with city councils and state legisla-
lures, bit that the senate of the
United States is the most corrupt
body he ever had to do with.
Those to whom the description so
epigrammatically expressed by Prof.
| Brice applieS-'thOse who are rich
because they are senators, and those
who are senators because they are
rich" - are an ever increasing
number, boding no good to the future
of the republic. Even among those
who are admittedly honest and in
corruptible there is, by reason of this
removal from the people, by reason
| of these associations that daily sur
| round them, an Indifference to the
welfare of the people and a DISPOSE
| ton to regard tenderly the great in
terests whose powerful influence
they see and feel. Between these two
influences there comes a condition of
, mind similar to that which moved
Vanderbilt to exclaim petulantly,
when it was suggested that the pub
lie interest might be injured by
some proposed action: 'The public
be damned" Unexpressed as this
sentiment is by the senate in words,
it speaks in the actions of that BODY
as plainly and as bluntly as Wander
bilt expressed it. The American peo-
pie are long-suffering one, but cor
ruptionists everywhere have found
that they are capable of reaching a
elimination, and turning and smit-
ing with a destroying hand. Some
day when this senate becomes unen-
durable they will find some way to
mend it or end it.