The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-06

The time Is already more than ripe
for a movement by the American peo-
pie to abolish the United States senate.
For the last decade or two it has been
steadily deteriorating. Within the past
five years its offenses against good pol
ftics and good morals have been so
many and so heinous that it has pass
ed into a common axiom that the sem
ate must be mended or ended For our
part, we believe it is past mending
There is no remedy in the pharma-
copoeia that will deal with a case SO
extreme and so far advanced as this.
No accessiOns of new blood avail to
purify the corruptness Of the main
stream. The man who goes there with
patriotic impulses and plans for the
general betterment yields quickly to
the spirit that seems to infuse the
upper house of the American congress.
That spirit is one OF arrogance. Of
usurpation, Of contempt for public
opinion, Of utter Indifference to the
peoples interests. With great rapid
ity has the descent of the senate gone
on, until we can now count with con-
f1dence, not only upon its support for
any job, however outrageous. in which
one or more Of it's members may be
interested, but we can know in ad-
vance that when such a job has once
been fortified by senatorial courtesy
all other legislation, however impera-
lively demanded by the public inter
est, will be held up at the muzzle of
the revolver until the house and the
senate are coerced. We are thus re-
duced, by the gradual evolution of our
legislative system, to the survival of the
unfittest and to the rule of the worst.
We are the more sure that the evil
is irredeemable because it's growth is
in line with historical precedent
Everywhere the danger to liberty has
come from just such a body as our SEN
ate. 1t was that which wrought the
ruin of ancient Rome. The founders
of our government thought that they
had guarded against danger by remov-
ing life tenure. But when they put the
selection Of senators afar from the
people and bestowed upon this body
certain privileges and prerogatives.
like its share in the treaty-making
power and in the nomination of impor-
tant officials, they sowed the seeds of
disaster. Today no man who watches
the course of political events can doubt
that the senate holds itself apart from
the people; that it is in effect an Amer
lean house of lords; that it has origf-
mated and cultivated into rigid rule
Of action the idea Of exclusiveness and
of dominance that makes it today a
brake upon the wheels Of progress. and
gives it, practically, a veto upon the &C
ton of the house and the will of the
people.
Take the proceedings in congress for
almost any day in the year and study
the journal of the senate. What do you
find there except the record Of an as
semblage of some seventy-fve indi-
viduals who are studiously concerned
about their personal affairs, and whose
views Of public policy are limited by
only two ideas; first, how far they
- themselves are interested privately in
the question at issue; and, second,
whether its decision will add to or SUBJ
tract from the power and prestige Of
the body to which they belong? Look
at the arbitration treaty, the hope and
pride of all the civilized nations of the
world. which they have deliberately
torn to tatters in order that they may
insist upon the sole right of the senate
hereafter. not only to make treaties
but to constitute arbitration tribunals
and to determine the questions brought
before them. Look at the Cuban bust
ness. in which they have not hesitated
to violate every principle of common
decency and to jeopardize property, as
well as political interests. not for the
sake of that humanity which would be
served by active Interference, but for