Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1901-08-15

would encourage corruption and
dcadlOcks; indeed conditions might
be such that one member could
defeat an election by the lcgislat-
urc and throw the appointment to
| the Governor, and, safe or not. in
particular eases, we do NOT want
senators coming from such Il
source: and the Senate has said it
will not give its encouragement to
such practices by admitting to
membership in its body those who
receive their authority from such
Il source and in such Il manner.
| Here then in our present system
we see where IL contingency may
arise, aud, in fact, often does IL
rise, where there may be a vacan-
cy and no authority granted by
our Constitution or laws to fill it.
The Constitution says that each
State shall have two senators but
fails to provide way by which
she may always have them. Two
ways only are known by which
/ senators may be chosen: choice by
the Legislature and appointment
| by the governor. y vacancy 10y
failure of the legislature to make II
choice cannot be filled by the gov
crnor. 1t remains Il vacancy and
Il defect in existing laws. Here is
II missing link in the present meth
cd which can be judiciously sup
piled only by referring the matter
back to the people for amendment
to the Constitution.
In place Of this complicated, in
direct and imperfect method we
would vest the authority in the
people themselves and thus have
our senators come forth as repre-
Scntatives direct from the SOW
crcign power of our government.
We would ask no body of men,
however high in the esteem and
confidence of their country, to be-
come the interpreters of the will
of the people in matters of this
nature, but would have them speak
for themselves. We would abolish
Il system SO rcpletc with POSSIBLE
ties of abuse as we'll as POSSIBLE.
ties of entire failure to elect. We
would take from him who depends
upon his money rather than his
brains to carry him to the Senate
the advantage he has in dealing
with Il handful of men compared
with the body of the people, This
we would accomplish by having
the people in the same simple but
effective way in which they elect
their different State officers choose
our Senators, and in case of va
cancies, require the Governor to
appoint or call special election,
as is now the law relative to va
cancies in the House. One third
would then be chosen every two
years at our general elections.
The people would vote for him
whose general reputation turnout
the State was based upon merit.
They would accomplish in Il day
what the legislatures often fail to
accomplish in two months, and
they would do it with less grounds
for effective corruption and no
probability of deadlock. By choos-
ing them at the general election
TINS extra political commOtlon, or
ten drawn out thru an entire SEES
sion of the legislature, would be
avoided. What is the use of all
this! Where is the sense Of it! Is
the political excitement incident to
an election so desirable for the en-
tcrtainment of man or so conduc-
i've to business tranquility as that
we should take our election in
broken doses! Or is it because
our senators are so Superabund-
antIy faStidious that they would
not accept the honor if presented
in such ii democratic and undig
nifcd way!
(CONCaUDED NEXT WEEK.
One Way of Measuring Distance.