Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-12-16
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
1HE sENArE's POWER.

attention to a subject which has been
earlier treated in the Herald, the grow
ing power of the United States senate.
Our national government, in its legisla-
tive branch, was fixed in the constitu
ton to consist of two houses-the one,
the house of representatives, being elected
often by the people, assumed to come di-
rectly from them, and to speak promptly
and effectively the popular will; the
other the senate, chosen much more in
frequently, not elected directly by the
people, and supposed to have restrain
ing power in legislation, rather than to
take the lead there. Indeed, on what
was conceived to be an important feature
of legislation, the organization of revenue
bills, it was expressly provided in the
constitution that the senate should not
be permitted to take the lead. that func-
ton being jealousy reserved to the
house, as more close to the people.
In the early and later speculations of
theorists as regards the government,
among whom the question arose as to
whether 1t would not be more in accord
ance with the spirit of popular institu-
lions that there should be one house of
iections raised were not so much to the
senate as an aggressive force in the gov
ernment; it was hardly thought at that
time that it would attempt to be this;
the feeling was, rather, that it might
carry its restraining power too far, and
thus become obstructive to the popular
will. The argument against this was
conclusive, in showing that this restraint
had been of healthy character, as was
that of the veto in the president, though
at one time one of the great parties of
the nation took the ground that this lat
ter power was mistake in the cOnstitu
ton, and should be rarely used, if not
abolished. The stage had not been
reached then when there was fear that
the senate might absorb the chief legis-
lative action of the government, nor was
it anticipated that such would ever be
the case. The senate was revered for
the generally conservative character of
its members. Men of eminent talents
and eminent gravity, advanced in years
above those of the house, and wise In
judgment, were thought appropriate to
its membership, and their agency, in
review of what had been done with, per-
haps, more haste, in the house. was
thought to be valuable, as it manifestly
was.
The senate was in its appropriate
sphere then, and certainly in that which
it had been contemplated it would oc
cupy. 1t may still hold it in theory, and
it always has members who Justify the
character thus accorded it. But of late
years the senate has gone considerably
beyond this in the work of legislation.
1t takes the initiative as well as reviews
and confirms; indeed, it has become the
body to which the people look as the
potent legislative branch of the nation.
The positions of the two houses of con-
gress have come to be in a great measure
reversed in this respect. If law is de-
sired to be enacted there is comparative
ly little attention paid to its fate in the
house. True, the house has left it the
obstructive power that used to be at
trbuted to the senate, but it has not
much more. In the desire for legisla-
ton, all eyes are turned to the senate.
1t is the legislative body of the land.
Legislation Is, comparatively speaking,
no more than form in the house. If
the people should so change their gov
eminent as to have but one house of
legislation, that house would be the sem
ate, if body experienced in the work of
legislation were retained. The house, in
this aspect, would be an experiment.
Even that function which the constitu
ton DEGREES shall belong to the house,
the origination of tariff bills, is left there
IL. tI,o In
creates new bill by its amendments; it
has come to be expected to do so. The
strength of the senate here is largely
because it is debating body, which the
house is not. The house is allowed to
make certain set speeches, very much
limited in their number, on important
occasions; then 1t is compelled to vote
like a machine; even the right to propose
amendments to a bill has been denied to
its members on well-remembered oc
casions.
Thus the people of the United States,
instead of looking to the representatives
of their several congressional districts
for the work of legislation, in the sense
that legislation is regarded elsewhere in
the world, have been brought to depend
upon the ninety men who constitute the
senate for this purpose. NOminally,
their representation is large and close to
them really it is small and considerably
removed from them. It may not OF
necessity follow that the transferring
their government from what it was in
tended to be has made it a worse govern
ment. AS speaker Reed and others
seem TO hold the house of representatives
is too large body to do the work of
legislation effectively, and it must be
made machine, instead of what it was
originally, and what it was expected to
continue to be. We are only treating of
of the facts in the case in this argument.
The senate having become practically