The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-22
Senators Must Be Elected by the
People.
MACHINERY is DEFECTIVE
The Senate Itself Is the Only Obstacle
in the Way of Reform Democrats
Are Sure of the Next Election
in Delaware.
Washington Bureau of the Standard,
No. 1145 G Street n. w.


legislatures of the states creating them
have met and succeeding in performing
the duty for which the people selected
them. There is among public men ct
both parties in Washington great dis
gust at the legislatures of these three
states. There is nothing very pleasant
about vacancies depriving states of rep
resentation in the senate. The expert
ences of the past, particularly in one
congress, during which Washington.
Montana and Wyoming had each but
one senator. have convinced many
leading senators that the rule adopted
by the senate refusing to recognize SEN
ators appointed by governors to fill Va
cancies caused like those that now eX-
list in Utah and Delaware, by Legislative
failure to act, is incorrect and must be
changed.
The failure of senatorial elections by
state legislatures makes it every year
also more evident that a change must
be made in the methods of electing
senators. The house of Representatives
with only II dissenting votes, declared
itself last year in favor of the direct
election of senators by the people.
OF these IL dissidents, four came from
Connecticut. The Nutmeg state is no.
torious for having a system of repre-
sentation in the legislature certain to
insure republican success. 1t is the
old town system by which each country
township is entitled to as many votes in
the legislature as either of the great
cities of New Haven. Hartford or
Bridgeport. The opposition to senator
ial elections by the people, which re-
vealed itself in the Connecticut con-
sressional delegation, is, therefore, no
evidence whatever of popular opinion
on the subject in that state.
1t is a peculiar fact that California,
which has just been scandalized by a
long senatorial deadlock, has by an
overwhelming majority of her popular
vote, declared for the election of SEN
ators by the people. Many states
through their legislatures have recon-
mended the same course. When it is
fully understood that the only thing
blocking the submission to the people
of constitutional amendment for the
popular election of senators, is the Unit
ed States senate itself. it is believed that
there will be such a pressure on that
body that it will vote for submission.
The occurrences which have marked
the contests in the legislatures of Cali
fornia, Utah. Pennsylvania and Della
ware, have convinced every one who
has observed them at close range that
our constitutional machinery in the
matter of electing senators is sadly de-
fect:ve.
Another feature of these contests that
has displeased honest politicians of all
parties in the national capitol is the
course taken by republican members of
the legislature in voting for Clark in
Montana, of democratic members in
Utah in voting for Cannon George O.
and of democratic members in Delaware
in casting their votes for the notorious
]. Edward Addicks. No one here who
is at all informed about the contest in
any of these states has any doubt as to
the kind of Inducements that are
necessary to make legislator who was
elected by one political party cast his
vote for member of the other party
for the high office Of United States sena-
tor. In little Delaware the democrats
who disgraced themselves by voting for
Addicks have practically been ostra-
cized by their associates in the legisla-
ture, and by formal resolution of party
committees drummed out of the demo-
cratic organization.
There seems little doubt that in the
long run the democratic party will
profit by the failure to elect from Della
ware. The Philadelphia Press, owned
by the postmaster general of the pres
ent administration, says in its current
issue probably in two years more the
legislature of Delaware will again be
democratic and will elect a democrat to
the senate, but better so than that the
republicans should be responsible for
the election of Addicks, who represents
nothing but money and the unscrupul-
Gus use of 1t, and whose election would
bring reproach and discredit to the
party and to the state responsible for
imposing such man on the United
States senate
Delaware republicans agree with the
postmaster generals paper that all the
probabilities are that the democrats will
carry the next legislature and secure a
member of their own party for sena-
tor. Addicks' friends say that he will
certainly make good his threat and see
to 1T that for some years republican
chances of success will be dim and dia-
phanous In Delaware. There is not much
affection among republican leaders here
for Addicks but whatever the objections
to him personally members of the re-
publican national committee admit that
his money has been very potential in
carrying the state for the republicans
the three times they have succeeded 1t
is also claimed that Addicks was a
prodigal giver to Hanna's campaign |
fund in 1896. Notwithstanding the rude |
illdHneF III WnlCn lie was thrown out OF |
the st, Louis convention which nomi- |
mated Mr.. Mckinley
The republican managers are greatly |
at the failure to elect a |
in Delaware. They really de-
sired to have a republican elected, and |
cared very little whether it was Addicks |
or some one of the regulars
The Washington Post gives express |
sion to the general sentiment of all per-
sons not violently interested in the |
of republican partisan su-
premacy in the senate in a scorching
on Addicks in which it says:
There are worse things for the state
and the country than a vacant seat in |
the United States senate, and among
the worst Of all the worst things would |
be an Addicks. 1t is doubtful if outside
OF the faction of Delaware republicans
which he controls there can be found an |
honest man anywhere in the United
States who, having watched his public
career for the last four or five years,
would not regard his election to the
senate as a distinct disgrace to Della
ware, an insult to the senate, and a mis-