Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1902-11-12
Election of U. s. Senators.

SASNthpu VA Ss SChutoASs
The inhabitants of the United States
are at the beginning of great war on
special privileges, monopolies and lille
gal combinations of such magnitude
and power that they have practically
thwarted every effort of the people to
protect themselves against them. OF
these massed and predatory interests
the United States Senate is the great
est bulwGrk. Time and time again
when the popular branch of the Nation
al Congress has responded to demand
of the people the Senate has nullitied
the action. To win the fight against
the unlawful trusts the people need the
United States Senate, and the only
way In which this can be accomplished
Is to make the members of this body
responsible to the people. 1t is easier
to buy legislature than State, as the
incessant scandals of such legislatures
as those of Pennsylvania and Delaware
and other States that have been repeat
cdly deprived of their constitutional
representation by deadlocks between
the bribed and the unbribed members,
80 wildly illustrate.
The election of United States Sena-
tors by the vote of the people Is not
partisan measure as far as the people
are concerned; for Republican and
Democrat alike the object is to get into
the upper house of Congress the men
they desire to represent them. instead
of men that may be willing to pay the
price or WELD the influence required by
State Legislature to elect them. The
partisan phase of the question comes
from the circumstance that the Repub-
lican party is the party of the trusts;
that the leaders of that party are bound
by their interests of the great railroad
and industrial combines, and these are
fully alive to the value of the Senate to
the trusts. The whole scheme of this
government is that the people should
name the men they wish to conduct
their affairs for them, and the legisla-
tive system of choosing Senators balks
the plan.
The people of the United States have
testified that they want the change
The Legislatures of thirty of the States.
disguised at the recurrent scandals.
have declared in favor of making the
elections popular and the House of
Representatives has repeatedly, and the
last time unanimously. pronounced for
compliance with the peoples will. 1t
is only the Senate itself that has so far
prevented this reform from being made
a part of the Constitution.
Sooner or later the people Will have
their way in this, and when they do the
era of the Quays and the Addicks and
their fellow corruptlonists and attor-
neys for the Food Trust. the Coal
Trust. the railroad combines and the
rest of the tyrannical aggregations that
prey upon the population Of the United
States will be over.
The way to accomplish 1t Ia for the
voters of the various States to choose
no legislators that do not pledge them
selves to elect no man to the United
States Senate that will not heed the
| peoples will on this question. The
House of Representative may be de-
pended upon, and there Is already in
the Senate itself fair minority of men
that are In favor of the reform. The
people of the United States must them
| selves elect their Senators before this
Is truly government by the people,
Chicago American.