The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-04-16
DEPEW WINS OUT
HIS AMENDMENT ADDED TO SEN
ATORIAL SCHEME.
WILL PROBABLY KILL MOVE.
WOULD REGULATE ALL CONGRESS
SIGNAL ELECTIONS.

HEONlues Ihat QuaHnCat1OnS OF Cit
liens Entitled to Vote for Senators
and Representatives Shall BE Uni
form i'm All the States, and That
Congress Shall Have Power to En-
force This Article and to Provide
for Registration of Voters, the
Conduct of Elections and the Ger
tificatiOn of the Result.
Washington, D. c., April 15.-The
Senate Committee on Privileges and
Elections delivered death blow to
the proposition for the election of sem
ators by popular vote to-day, when 1t
adopted as an amendment to the House
resolution Senator Depew's proposition
for a Federal election law with force
bill accompaniment. The vote by
which the Depew proposition was
added to the resolution by the House
proposing an amendment to the con-
stitution was practically on party
lines, the only exception being that
Senator Burrows voted with the Dem
ocrats. Senator Depew's amendment
reads as follows:
THE qualifications of citizens enti-
tied to vote for United States senators
and representatives in Congress shall
be uniform in all the states, and Con-
gress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation and
to provide for the registration of citie
zens entitled to vote. the conduct of
such elections, and the certification of
the result"
The committee voted down the Pen
rose amendment providing that sena-
tors shall be apportioned according to
the population of the several states.
The vote on the Penrose amendment
was unanimous. The division on the
Depew amendment was as follows:
Ayes-Hoar, Pritchard, McComas,
Foraker, Depew, Beverage and Dill
ingham-7.
Noes-Burrows, Pettus, Blackburn,
Dubois, Bailey and Foster of LOUISE
ana-6.
Many Change Views of Senator's.
While the action of the committee
may have been taken for the purpose
of defeating the popular election prop
osition it has served also to open the
eyes of Southern senators and Repub-
licans to the dangers involved in the
proposition to change the present
method of electing senators by the
states A number of senator's, who
have been inclined to indorse the cry
for change, have changed their views
in the light of the Depew amendment,
and some of them at least would hes
itate now to vote for the popular cleo
ton proposition, even If the Depew
amendment were eliminated, being sat
isfied that a general election law would
follow as a necessary sequence to any
change from elections by the Legisla-
ture.
Another reason which has contrib
uted to change of mind on the part
of some public leaders is that
elections by the people would
before Congress over seats in the SEN
ate of the same character as there are
now over seats in the House. Con-
tests in which men would be seated
for purely partisan reasons. Such
things are now unknown because the
Senate cannot go back of the action of
the legislatures. The legislators he
ing judge of the qualifications of their
membership, the Senate in passing
upon claims of senators cannot ques-
ton the legality of the legislation. If
the elections were by the people. the
Senate would, of course, have the pow
err to pass upon the merits of the cleo
ton and there would be Republican
senators from the South seated upon
just as fiimsy claims as some of the
Republican representatives have been
seated. The indications are, in view
of these developments, that a number
of Southern senators who have been
inclined to favor changing the consti-
tuition will vote against the PROPOSE
ton if it comes up to be acted upon.
A vote will probably be reached upon
the resolution as amended at the next
regular Meeting of the committee,
which will be held next Tuesday.