The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1896-11-25
To Elect Presidents by Popular
Vote.

The proposition to elect presidents
by the direct vote of the people
comes up after every presidential
canvass, and it is put forward now
by several journals. This plan has
many attractions for persons who do
not go below the surface of things.
1t appears simple; it looks demo-
cratic-although it is decidedly un-
democratic in the partisan sense
and it gives democrats in Vermont
and Massachusetts, and republicans
in South Carolina and Texas chance
to stand up and be counted. More
over, in the recent canvass an election
by popular vote would have put the
result of the election beyond doubt
as early as 10 or IL o'clock on the
night of November 3. All these
reasons for change to the popular
vote plan doubtless suggested them
selves to its advocates.
Several reasons which would con-
denim this proposition naturally pre-
sent themselves to anybody who will
give any intelligent thought to the
subject, Only one need be men
toned, and that one is enough to de-
stroy all this plans chances of ad-
option-the result of the election
would generally be long in doubt.
This time, as we have already said,
McKinley's election under the pop
ular vote plan would have been
known at 10 or IL o'clock on the
night of the voting day. But the
result was known just as early and
just as surely under the existing sys-
TEN. Everybody in the country, ex-
cept Bryan, Jones and few of their
organs, knew Mckinley was elected,
and every newspaper in the country
except a few disreputable sheets
stated this fact the next day.
In every election from 1872 to
1896 save that of 1892 there would
have been uncertainty for many days
under the popular vote plan. Tilden,
the unsuccessful candidate in 1876,
led Hayes about 100000 votes among
the people, but no one knew def
nitely whether he led or not until
two weeks after the ballots were
cast. Garfield had a plurality of
only 5000 in the 100000 votes
cast in 1880; Cleveland has a lead
of $4,000 in the 100000 votes
polled in 1884 and was ahead 95,-
900 in the II 100000 votes deposited
in 1888, when he was beaten in the
electoral college. In 1888 two
weeks would have passed, and i'll
1880 and 1884 four or FIVE weeks, be-
fore the country would have known
with any degree of certainty who
was ahead in the popular ballot.
And, of course, there would be a
powerful temptation to hold the re-
turns back in the South and Rocky
Mountain region, where the count is
necessarily slow, and 'doctor" them
to meet adverse majorities, if there
were any, in the rest of the country.
The destruction to business and the
general popular generalization which
these weeks of narrowing suspense
would cause can be family, very
family, imagined by considering the
orgies which a reckless newspaper
in St. Louis and one each in Kansas
City, indianapolis and a few other
towns melted last week in the few
hours in which their falsehoods pass
ed current. Such scenes, if strung
out for two or three weeks, would
reduce society to condition closely
bordering on barbarism. The pres.
ent system of choosing presidents
appears clumsy, but it lacks this seri-
Gus drawback which inheres in the
proposed plan. Moreover, the cam
didates who has led the electoral col
lege has always led his principal
competitor in the popular vote ex-
cept in 1876 and 1888.